Your Best Potato Pancakes
Our series of holiday themes continues and this week, we take a cue from Hanukkah. Whether it's your grandmother's latke recipe or a modern reinvention, we want to know what potatoes you use and how you grate them, your chosen accoutrements, and the techniques that ensure a tender center and a crisp, golden shell.
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Variegated Spiced Latkes
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A tableau of ingredients: sweet potato, russet potato, parsnip, ginger, flour, onion, egg and fennel seed.
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When making latkes, the key is to get everything measured and ready before you grate.
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This may look like a lot of flour, but it's just right.
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The parsnip and sweet potato get peeled, but the Russets just get a good scrub.
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Use the coarse side of a box grater, or your food processor's grating attachment.
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Merrill found that parsnips are a bit tougher to grate than potatoes.
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When you grate the onion, make sure to keep your face away from the bowl -- you don't want any stray onion juice in your eye!
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The russets go last, as they are quickest to brown.
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Amanda takes over for a bit.
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In go the fennel, salt, black pepper and fresh ginger (also grated, but on a microplane).
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After a few minutes, the vegetables release a lot of their liquid, and it's time to squeeze! Four hands are better than two for this job.
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First egg, and then flour are folded into the potato mixture.
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Sagegreen calls for peanut oil or another oil with a high smoking point; we used canola.
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A few minutes on each side, and the pancakes should be golden brown.
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Golden Panko Latkes with Sour Cream and Chives
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Sour cream, panko, chives, Yukon Gold potato, pastry flour, white peppercorns, and an egg.
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Grating the peeled potatoes on a good ol' box grater.
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We took it down to the barest nub.
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A whole lot of chives. Sliced neatly by Merrill.
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Squeezing out the grated potato.
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Grated potato, potato water, panko.
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The grated potato mixed with white pepper, chives, salt, eggs and pastry flour.
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Getting the oil ready -- you want to add enough oil to come halfway up the sides of the latkes (about 1/8 inch). This way they cook on the bottom and sides at once.
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Shaping a latke patty. We squeezed the potatoes as we shaped the patties. Then we fluffed the potato strands do the pancake was good and airy.
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A dip in panko! The pancakes are fragile -- it's a good idea to use 2 hands to coat them.
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Fry them as you go!
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First two done, draining on some paper towel.
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The pan gets a bit messy as you go because the panko burns. You may want to stop halfway through to clean out your pan. Otherwise, pick out the charred bits and forge ahead!
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That's sour cream and chives on the right. You know what's on the left.
