Also, there are probably sephardic Jews in my husband’s family.
Huh. I could see taking something that was originally made with parsnips, and changing the recipe to potato, and calling it a variant of the same dish. I have a much harder time seeing someone replacing cheese with potato and calling it the same dish. They’re two completely different things (that admittedly go well together).
I came across this Reddit thread about latkes that some here might find interesting:
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/kafw7b/for_making_latkes_most_of_my_recipes_call_for/
They discuss keeping the sediment. Turns out, it helps recover some of the rinsed starch.
The starch helps latkes get crispy though, so there is a tradeoff. Some people add potato starch to their latkes to make them crispier, but if you soak yours in water to prevent browning you can save the starch that settles at the bottom of the bowl and add it back in.
We do just potato, onion, eggs, matzoh meal, seasoning. I have had them with zucchini which is really good. Anyway, it’s too much bother to make them for one person this year. My mother keeps trying to get us to go with the frozen ones, which are horrible. However, I will share my secret go to this year-IHOP. Yes, I was wondering about the difference between their hash browns and their potato pancakes and I found that unlike most restaurant potato pancakes (which are more pancake than potato) these are pretty good. They will even give you some sour cream with it.
Anyway, I anticipate getting 2-3 orders this weekend.
Pictures are copywrited but a link may work.
I actually like them to be somewhat pancakey-- or I’d just make hashbrowns. Actually, I kinda wish knishes were the traditional Chanukah food, because I by far prefer them.
I like hash brown style. Truth be told, I don’t love potatoes. I’ve had a potato knish, and thought, “I guess if i were really hungry is appreciate this.”
I rarely liked my father’s Ashkenazi cooking, and far preferred when he cooked Chinese or French or Spanish.
Anyway, to me, the best part of a latke is the crisp fried part.
My wife makes them with breadcrumbs rather than flour or matzah meal. She makes them small and plump, frying their outsides crispy in the pan and then placing them in the oven until the insides are cooked. They’re delicious.
She also makes leek latkes and sweet potato latkes, but those are completely different beasts, and not Hanukkah food.
When I’m making them mostly for other people, I add some potato starch from a bag, and use less oil at a hotter temperature, and about half as much baking soda. This makes them very crispy on the outside, while still pancakey on the inside. The fact that I fine-grate, instead of coarse-grate the potatoes makes them softer inside, too.
You should try my knishes, though. I have had many people tell me they never liked them until they tried mine. I season them. A lot of people don’t; they just add salt.
I’ve never heard of adding baking soda. What’s the goal in using it?
(I eat pancakes, but I don’t love pancakes, either. You should assume I’m a lost cause.)
I meant baking powder. I did type soda above, but I checked-- when I gave the recipe, I said powder.
It makes them lighter. I mean, you don’t want them to rise like a real pancake, but because the potato is fine-grated, they can be pretty dense without a pinch of leavening.
Trust me, they have a great texture. I get people asking me for the recipe all the time, and when I have more than a couple of people over, I can’t make enough of them.
my mother’s side is russian/ukranian and the other type of orthodox, we eat latke all year long. when i make them i sift lipton onion soup for just the onion powder and put that in with the potato, egg, flour. i don’t like onion pieces. then i get another packet of onion soup sift it and mix it with sour cream to eat them with. sadly, i don’t have anyone to give the dried onion bits, so they get thrown out with the egg shell(s).
due to the vegan food rules during lenten times some russian orthodox won’t eat latkes then, because of the egg. they really don’t hold together well without the egg. some have found a vegan solution to it, i don’t know what it is, and will use applesause instead of sour cream.
You know, you can buy a jar of just onion powder in the spice area of the “baking goods” section of a grocery store.
i did try that once, didn’t work out well. the powder from lipton is a better quality, and measured out.
Are you near a Trader Joe’s? There are a few around Detroit, one in A2, and one in Kazoo.
They have latkes.
So what’s the difference (if any) between latke and boxty?
The CBC local news this morning included an interview with a local rabbi who was celebrating a Zoom candle-lighting ceremony, I think tomorrow night, to be followed by a debate on the best toppings for latkes.
We just had them topped by apple sauce and sour cream.
I dunno, what’s boxty?
My husband made latkes for supper tonight. His were shredded, not ground, and nicely crispy. He used some duck fat mixed with the peanut oil, and that was nice.
That article keeps on teasing that it’s going to be a compare-and-contrast between the different sorts of potato pancakes, but it really just ends up being a list of clickbait recipe links with some food-porn pictures. But it looks like the difference might be that boxty (the Irish version of potato pancakes) mashes some of the potato, while latke doesn’t?