Make Ahead
Potato Leek Latkes
- Serves many/some
Author Notes
I love these latkes, the Yukon gold symbolizes the gold in the gelt the cheese, which is a traditional Chunkah food, adds nuttiness and a further connection to the story of Chanukah, Here's the story in brief: Judith a beautiful Jewish widow, enchants the King of Syria arriving at his tent an d luring him with cheese and wine...when he passes out from over indulgence, she cuts off his head! Ah Judith, what a lady. Back on the subject, I grew up eating latkes, and while I enjoy eating latkes tremendously I do have to say that I find them to be a bit of a drag to cook, they take such a long time, they are messy, there's frying involved, you have to work quickly,, or your white potatoes turn brown on you, Oy vey gott in himmel what a big tsimmes it is to make latkes. Which is why I make them, once a year for the people I love and cherish, and the rest of the time, when I want a latke, I go to a deli. These are nice and lacy form the leeks, they're no big megillah as far as the recipe, it's not so fancy, it's all in your technique. Its seems like my grandmother or the soul of many bubbies has entered my keyboard and will be helping me write this recipe —Aliwaks
Ingredients
-
2 cups
Shredded Yukon Gold Potatoes
-
1
Cup julienned leeks (white & light green part only -@ 2" long)
-
1/2
grated asiago, or any other fancy dry cheese you may have
-
4
large eggs
-
1 cup
Matzoh meal
-
.5 cups
AP Flour (sub 1/4 cup potato starch if passover)
-
1
pinch grated nutmeg
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Salt & Pepper, not too much not too little
Directions
- Hints: you can assemble the egg, matzoh meal etc mixture before you grate the potatoes if you are worried about them turning on you
- Make sure you really squeeze all the water out, a good way to to this is to put the potatoes in a clean tea towel and wring it out, I've heard that some people use a salad spinner, I don't have a salad spinner so who knows maybe it works, maybe it doesn't
- Line a cookie sheet with paper towels and set a cooling rack on top.
- Combine Matzoh meal, cheese, flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg & eggs then fold in grated potato & leeks, get in with your hands and make sure its really well mixed
- Heat 2 -3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wide skillet or sauté pan until it shimmers, Raise heat to high
- Drop rounded tablespoons of latke mix in to oil and flatten with back of spoon Do not crowd the pan darling, they need room, we don't want they should steam.
- Cook until edges get crispy and latkes come up easily from the pan, give pan a shake if they move they're close to ready, or maybe they're ready, only you know Flip and cook and addition 2-3 minutes Place cooked latkes on rack to drain off excess oil
- When you need to add more oil, drain the pan, and heat new oil to shimmering before frying a new batch, this will keep the latkes from absorbing too much oil If using immediately you can hold drained latkes on an additional cookie sheet set in a warm (250) oven until ready to serve
- f using immediately you can hold drained latkes on an addition cookie sheet set in a warm (250) oven until ready to serve To Freeze: Layer latkes between sheets of wax paper and wrap tightly in plastic wrap Reheat by re-frying briefly or in 350-degree oven.
- this is really nice with a nice jammy apple/onion compote and some sour cream lightened with a bit of lemon juice
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