Easy latkes recipe

To latkes or not to latkes...this was my question Saturday evening on the first day of Hanukkah - Jewish holidays start in the evening -, when I knew that for the next days all the food stores are closed and thus, most probably I cannot prepare a great deal of food for the next days. Relying on the welcoming invitations from friends is a great solution too, but I am stubborn enough to not accept that my Hanukkah will be latkes-less. Thus, yesterday morning, the cooking fever finally returned into my life and I decided that, among other recipes that I did - more updates in my next posts - I should also prepare for the lunch with baby D. and me some latkes. I made a short tour of my pantry and realized that, in fact, I had enough ingredients for a fresh portion of latkes. Because the baby D. is still quite sensitive to spices, I eliminated garlic or onions from the recipe, and had the following combination of ingredients:

7 small and medium potatoes, peeled and finelly grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of za'atar
2 small eggs beaten - one was enough also
15 gr. baking powder - it make the composition fluffy but it might leave a taste so you can easily forget about it
1 tablespoon margarine for a milky creamy taste and appearance
Mix well everything. Try to pour the extra water out by using a strainer.
Meanwhile, pour generously oil in the pan and wait to get warmer at around 250C. I used peanut oil because I tried to see how the final result comes out in terms of taste but it was not a big deal.

I preferred to fry in batches of three, leaving more space in the pan. The warm is easier distributed when there are not too many items frying. It resulted 9 small latkes, that I left to rest and get the oil out of it on a parchment paper. 

The entire preparation and frying process lasted around 45 minutes and although baby D. wasn't too keen to taste it - and it seems is his problem with latkes in general - I enjoyed my portion and the spirit of the holidays. 

Now, I wonder if I am brave enough to try some sufganiyot too. Why not? Given my passion for home made cook, a final - positive - decision may be only a matter of days, or rather hours.

Successful latkes

Hanukkah is far away and I am missing a lot the warm atmosphere and the togetherness. This year, I was the fairy who surprised the guests and the family with various wonderful and tasty combinations. I was so proud of myself, but too busy to make pictures of my accomplishments. 

The role of the queen was, by far, represented by the latkes. 

I used some traditional recipes, as my newly experiences senses and tastes. 

The ingredients, for 17 latkes:

4-5 potatoes peeled and grated after

1 big onion - grated

3/4 cup - canola oil

3 scrambled eggs

salt, on taste

Mix the potatoes, onion, eggs and salt together. The size of your pist, make a little boulette and throw in the pan. Heat the oil in the pan at 250.  

You have to be careful for not burning them and to take them from the pan before turning into black holes - and prompting the fire alarm to cry (as it was in our case). 

The life span of this first experiment: maybe three full hours.

Related articles

• Recipe of the Day - Latkes (friendseat.com)
• Latkes can be made with sweet potatoes, too: Take Five (cleveland.com)
• Make Latkes (stacyknows.blogspot.com)