Cheesy Spicy Latkes

I've finally convinced myself to cook this Hanukkah, although in a completely diet-mood. However, once I ordered my first sufganyot from Benedict Berlin, I instantly switched to the holidays mood and succeeded to create even a new latkes recipe that I am happy to share it now. Although the holidays are long over, you can eat those latkes on other occasions too, as it makes it a good companion to regular meals all round the year. 

Ingredients
18 small potatoes peeled
2 small onions shredded
3 medium-size eggs beaten
1 cup matzo flour
1 cup shredded Emmentaler or yellow Cheddar shredded cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Ras El Hanout, from Spice Kitchen UK, received as their Brand Ambassador
1 big cup of oil for frying
1 small carrot to keep it in the frying pan in order to avoid the sticky burning of latkes (it is a traditional tip among Jewish food bloggers and it works)
5 tablespoons of plain yogurt for serving

Directions

Mix the potatoes with the spices, eggs, cheese and matzo flour until you have a compact mixture. Warm the oil in the pan at least 10 minutes before starting the cooking. Make by hand a small ball of latkes and add it to the frying pan. Turn it on both sides until perfectly cooked.
Put each latkes on both sides on a napkin in order to absorb the extra oil.
Serve it warm, accompanied with a fresh cold plain yogurt topping.

Preparation time
15 minutes

Cooking time
45-50 minutes

Serves: 15 small latkes

Bon Appétit!

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.

Latkes ideas, all round the year

Hanukkah ended up almost one month ago, and as for everyone in the house it was quite a complicated time of the year for various reasons, I did not have too much time to browse recipes or to think which menu to prepare. I insisted to have a basic traditional menu that needed to be prepared in less than 5 hours. Under such circumstances, the easiest solution was to try a heimishe recipe and did not be too creative, but the ingredients in the closet were inspiring me somehow to divert my thoughts from the daily problems to the creation of some original recipes.

Some were unexpected successful - the apple latkes were so good that I couldn't have enough of more and more - some were disgusting. Note to self: Never use mushrooms in fried combinations, not only the smell was very unattractive 24 hours after the preparation, but also the taste was very close to that of the liver, which is enough for me to never ever try such cooking creations ever again. Only thinking about it right now, I feel again the disgusting taste in my mouth. 

Anyway, we live to learn and my failure wasn't completely for nothing.

I listed right now the successful recipes:

Carrot and potatoes latkes

15 portions

preparation time: 1 hour

6 big potatoes - grated; don't forget to drain the water out of it

2 big carrots - grated

5 tablespoon flour

garlic finely chopped, on taste

1/4 tablespoon Cayenne pepper

2 beaten eggs

Sweet apple latkes

17-18 big portions

preparation time: 1 hour

7 South Tirol apples - grated; don't forget to drain the water out of it

3 beaten eggs

6 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 tablespoon cinnamon

1 saffron backing powder

In both cases, keep some extra oil for the frying. 

I am not a big fan of mixing up recipes out season - I never want to hamentashen when it's not Purim etc. - but probably the next year I will do a bit of rehearsal a couple of weeks before Hanukkah to be sure that I will do the right thing. This goes especially for sufganiyot that are a long - not always successful story. 

For those who are tempted to try latkes soon

Bon Appétit!