Grandma Fran's Chanukah Latkes

Jake Yeston (@JakeYeston)

Yield: 8-10 latkes (see SI-1)

Materials

Idaho potatoes (4)

Medium-size yellow onion (1)

Egg white (1)

Salt (2 tsp)

Oil for frying (peanut or canola recommended)

Equipment

Peeler

Box grater

Bowl

Large *fine-mesh* strainer/colander

Whisk

Spoon

Spatula

Nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet

Draining rack (optional)

Procedure

1. Grate the onion first. (Important order, see SI-2)

2. Grate the potatoes using the small holes on the box grater. If you use the large holes to make strips instead, you aren’t making Grandma Fran’s Jersey City latkes; you’re making Reiberdatshi or pancake-shaped hash browns or somebody else’s latkes (see SI-3).

3. Drain the grated onion and potatoes in the fine mesh strainer. The key is to keep shaking the mixture back and forth until it forms a smooth, coherent mass that almost looks like a ball of dough (but in fact remains much looser to the touch).

4. Lightly beat the egg white (no need to get remotely close to meringue), and then fold the potato mixture back into it and add salt. (for a vegan alternative, see SI-4)

5. Heat enough oil in the pan that the latkes will be mostly covered, but just peak up out of it. You aren’t deep-frying them, but you want more oil than you’d use to sauté (see SI-5)

6. Spoon them into the pan and then very gently flatten them with the back of the spoon so they’re 3 to 4 inches in diameter (Grandma Fran didn’t use metric units).

7. Flip them over when the edges are brown. If you flipped too early, just flip again (see SI-6)

8. Drain briefly on a rack if you’d like, then serve with sour cream, apple sauce, or both!

Figure 1. View of finished recipes. Note: The little one in the middle is for the chef to gobble before anyone notices.

Supplemental Information

1. Depending on the size of the potatoes, this will make 8 to 10 latkes. It’s best to cook one batch and then repeat the recipe to make more (rather than grating 8 or 12 potatoes at once), as otherwise, the batter will start to oxidize.

2. Antioxidants in the onion will prevent the grated potato from subsequently turning pink and then brown. Prof. Matthew Hartings convincingly suggested on Twitter in 2013 that the reductant is allyl propyl disulfide.

3. This last point is controversial and a full exposition lies outside the scope of the present communication

4. To make the recipe vegan, you could probably leave this step out, but in that case, it would be prudent to add a little flour or matzo meal instead and I’m uncertain how much to tell you to add, so I would recommend experimenting and then submitting a follow-up communication.

5. Wear an apron or a shirt you don't mind getting oily because the oil sometimes spatters.

6. The flipping multiple times technique works considerably better than it does if you flip ordinary pancakes too early because latkes don’t tend to dry out

Source

Family recipe (Grandma Fran)