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The eight days of Hanukkah are upon us and in preparation, we've asked Janna Gur, author of "The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey," to share her tips for producing the best potato latke. Eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner -- Janna's Potato Latke recipe will be the highlight of your holiday.
1. Be Creative Enhance your basic potato-onion mixture with sweet potatoes and carrots for color and flavor. Cheese it up with grated mozzarella, Gruyere or Parmesan; don't forget the herbs: dill, thyme or rosemary combine beautifully with potatoes.
2. Use a Food Processor for Grating the Vegetables It will make life much easier. After grating, make sure to squeeze out all the liquids.
More tips and recipes after the jump.
3. Don't Grate the Onion Chopped onion adds a nice juicy bite to the mixture, plus it won't release moisture like the grated one.
4. Frying: counter-intuitive though it may sound, foods fried in deep oil absorb less oil than those fried in shallow oil. For latkes oil has to be at least 1 inch high. Use a non-stick pan and heat the oil thoroughly (it should sizzle on contact with the latkes).
5. Don't Overcrowd the Pan It will bring the temperature down, resulting in greasier latkes. Flip latkes only once to prevent absorbing extra oil.
6. If Frying a Large Amount in Multiple Batches ... Filter the oil by straining it through a fine sieve before re-using to avoid burnt bits sticking to your latkes.
7. Timing Unfortunately making latkes ahead is not an option. For perfect crunchy texture, latkes must be fried shortly after grating the potatoes, and served right away. Which brings me to the last tip.
8. Enlist a Friend A neighbor or a spouse. Grating, mixing and frying together is less tedious and much more fun.
For more of Janna's recipes and information about her books, visit her Web site.
Janna Gur was born and raised in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel in 1974. She is the founder and chief editor of the leading Israeli food and wine magazine. She lives in Tel Aviv, on Israel's Mediterranean coast.
Get More Hanukkah Recipes and Tips from KitchenDaily:
Latke Recipes for Hanukkah
How to Make Latkes Video
A Festive Hanukkah Menu
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12-13-2009 @12:45AM Mitzimi said... Thanks from the helpful tips from a respected cook! Another popular Hannukah treat in Israel is doughnuts - here's a baked doughnut recipe that tastes just like those you buy in Israeli corner stores: http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/doughnut-recipe.html. Visit the Jerusalem Insider's Guide (http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/index.html) for more typically Israeli foods and recipes at http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/israeli-food.html.
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12-15-2009 @11:02AM CharlieD said...
The main mistake people make when grating potato for latkes is using grater with big holes. Big no-no. A little bit of a history. Latkes come to us from Ukraine, where half of the Jews of the world lived some 100 years ago, just like many others foods that Jews make today come from the region they used to live in. Now, if you are in Ukraine and would go to store and ask for a greater it is very likely that a sales person would ask you which kind do you want, the potato or beet? When you look at both you’ll see that the one with small holes is called potato grater and the one with big ones called the beet grater, that is what you’d use to great the beets for the borscht, but that is completely different post.
Any way here in the states we’d probably call it a cheese greater and so that is what you should use. It is not that hard to great 2-3 potatoes. 2-3 potatoes will be enough to feed the whole family.
Am I going to hold it against you if you do go ahead and great potatoes using big holes? Of course not. Important thing is to eat something fried in oil for Chanukah. Growing up in Soviet Union we never even made latkes for Chanukah, my grand father would always make buckwheat pancakes instead. So enjoy them any way you want as long as you remember why we are eating them.
The onion in latkes is to keep the mixture from getting dark, however most people do not know that and think that onion is there for flavor. Nothing wrong with that, if you like onion, if you do not, like me, grated it on the cheese grater so nobody will see it, or if you are allergic to it, like a friend I have, well just skip it all together.
The last but not least, I though I use too much oil, but 1 inch? Might as well use deep fryer. I think it is way too much; a ¼ of an inch will be plenty, just fry on both sides.
Yes serve them right after they were fried, but you could great the potatoes even couple days ahead, just keep them tightly covered in the refrigerator.
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