Happy Chanukah all! Whether you observe it or not, you’ve got to admit that a holiday that celebrates with fried food is appealing. My favorite Chanukah food is the fried pancake called a latke. Of course, I never eat just one, so really I’m talking about latkes, piles and piles of latkes.
If the Master of the SEO Universe is reading this, I do mean every transliteration of the Hebrew word for this holiday: Chanuka; Chanukah; Channukkah; Channukah; Hanukah; Hannukah; Hanukkah; Hanuka; Hanukka; Hanaka; Haneka; Hanika; and even Khanukkah.
Anyway, back to latkes – I like mine thin and crispy – and up until now, big enough to sink a fork into. But it turns out that latkes are also perfect finger food. Shifting from the “big as my fist” to “silver dollar latkes” – or as my husband calls them “silver shekel latkes,” transformed latkes from peasant food to elegant morsels.
These bite-sized fried potato pancakes go down easy. Topped with a drop of sour cream, cranberry sauce, applesauce, or anything else you fancy, they are perfect party appetizers or snack food.
These are made with a slight variation on my classic latke recipe, I sautéed the chopped onion in order to tone down the bite of the onion taste. And with this double batch, you’ll have enough to serve a horde of happy Chanukah revelers.
Note – Frying latkes does give your kitchen that fried food smell. Using flavorless oil to fry them (not olive oil) does help. Ventilating the kitchen is also key to keeping the smell from overwhelming you, either with an exhaust fan or an open window, or both. But my favorite strategy is to make these ahead of time, freeze, and reheat them in the oven. (See directions below.) They taste just as good as straight-from-the-pan and your guests won’t be any the wiser.
This recipe makes anywhere from 48 to 60 bit-sized latkes.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 45 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 6 cups shredded potatoes (While some folks swear by one or the other I've used red skinned, Yukon Gold, russet/baking and even white. A combination works fine for me, too.)
- 4 eggs
- 0.5 cups finely diced onion
- 0.25 cups flour or matzo meal 4 tablespoons
- 0.25 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Ground black or white pepper
- Canola oil or other high heat flavorless oil – how much depends on what pans you use (see below.) Do not use olive oil (too low a smoke point) or a flavored oil like coconut.
Ingredients
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- If you are serving the latkes as you make them, pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F to keep them hot as they come out of the frying pan.
- Dice the onion. Heat ½ - 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan. (I used a separate small pan to sauté the onion, but you can use the larger pan that you'll use to fry the latkes if you make sure to remove all the onion after cooking it.) Sauté the diced onion in the oil for 3-5 minutes, until transparent but not browned. Set it aside.
- If you like to peel the potatoes, do that just before grating them. Grate using a box grater or the shredding blade of a food processor.
- Rinse the shredded potatoes with cold water and press all the water out. (SeriousEats recommends leaving the starch in, but frankly, that’s a pain and you can do just as well adding in the flour or matzo meal to bind the potatoes.) If the potatoes have discolored, most of the brown will wash off in this process. Don’t be concerned if some remains. Just be sure to get as much moisture as possible out of the potatoes – you can even press a paper towel on top to soak up a bit more once you’re done pressing out most of the water.
- Mix the potatoes, diced onion, eggs, matzo meal or flour, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined. Move the bowl next to the stove with 2 tablespoons nearby.
- Heat 1 or 2 pans. Then add about ¼-inch of oil to the pan(s) and heat the oil until it is quite hot (just below smoking.) It takes practice to use 2 pans because these latkes get done quickly, so if you’re not yet adept at the process, use 1 pan. It will take longer, but you’ll be less likely to burn the latkes and/or make yourself crazy.
- Gently take slightly less than tablespoon-sized portions of the batter and put them into the hot oil to fry. The batter does not stick together like cookie dough and these latkes will not be perfectly formed, round balls. That’s better than fine – it’s perfect. The rough edges get crispy and that’s the best part.
- Leave enough room between each latke that oil can bubble up on all sides. Fry on one side until you can see the underside begin to get brown. Then flip over and cook until the bottom is browned. When removed them from the pan, tilt the pancake flipper so you take the minimum of oil out with the pancake. As each latke finishes cooking, move it onto a paper-towel lined cookie sheet. The paper towel will soak a bit of the remaining oil.
- If you're serving them immediately, put drained latkes on a cookie sheet in the pre-heated oven to stay warm as you cook more batches.
To serve them later, lay the cooled latkes flat in a gallon-size freezer bags, with waxed paper in between the layers, and freeze them. Re-heat (it’s not necessary to defrost them) in a 425 degree oven on an ungreased, unlined cookie sheet until they crisp up, about 8 minutes.
My guests last night ate a bunch of these, but I’ve got more in the freezer. So tonight the miracle of the Chanukah silver shekels will continue. I may not serve them for 8 nights straight, but then again ….
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