Latkes. Please help me not be a cultural idiot.

[pax]

My Unitarian Society put an ex-Catholic in charge of latke making this year for the kids about the miracle of the oil and light.

My Irish grandmother served them with apple sauce and sour cream, but I am thinking this is not right for Sunday's purposes. Isn't there something called haroset? Chopped apples, raisins, walnuts? I am under the impression one doesn't serve latkes with sour cream at Hanukkah, is this correct? Or do they just not share the same dish? See? I'm a dope.

Also, there are few kids who are vegan. Any suggestion for a binder other than egg for one small batch? (I know, I know.)

Thank you in advance for your help. And I'm just cooking, not teaching. The teachers will be better prepared than I am for educating the children, I just make good latkes, if I do say so myself. ;~D

PS.. We are not trying to keep it kosher, obviously. The kitchens are not set up for it. I'm just trying to do a fair approximation.

[weinoo]

Sour cream and applesauce - you're on the right track. If there's meat being served and you want to keep it kosher, eschew the sour cream.

Haroset is just wrong with latkes.

You can make potato pancakes without eggs. When I do pancakes that way, I shred the potatoes (always russets), squeeze them and save the potato starch which is added back to the mixture.

[pax]

Thank you. Potato starch. Brilliant.

I actually stepped up for this because in the past couple of years they've been doing the boxed version, and that's just so so so very wrong.

Am pleased to go with apple sauce and sour cream. Yay!

Cheers!

[jsmeeker]

Don't forget to check out the really awesome topic on Latkes in the Cooking subforum.

[Will]

I use the same method as above -- wring the potatoes out over a bowl, let it sit for a bit; then pour off the liquid. The (surprisingly) dense white layer on the bottom of the bowl is potato starch. Scrape this off, and add it in with the batter. I'm veganish, so I usually make my latkes without egg, and this works pretty well.

I'm partial to this recipe (the eggs can be omitted if you use the potato starch).

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10812-potato-latkes

I'd been making latkes since I was a little kid using a very similar recipe, but I never got the memo about squeezing the potatoes (my family's not Jewish) or using matzoh meal instead of flour. I think those two little changes have really improved my latke game. Applesauce and sour cream are definitely good accompaniments; if you want a vegan option for the sour cream (not sure if the kids will even like it), you could get some "Vegan Gourmet" brand sour cream (or the Tofutti sour cream if that's not available). Just don't serve ketchup and you'll be Ok!

Haroset is mostly associated with Passover.

[mgaretz]

If you want to make less work for yourself, you start with pre-shredded potatoes - aka frozen hash browns. You can take all or part of them and process in a food processor (with the onions) to get the consistency you're after. Personally I do about 1/3 of the potatoes this way and them mix back with the rest.

Be sure to use a lot of onion. The most common newbie mistake is to not use enough onion.

[Panosmex]

Latkes siding pot roast and light gravy, or even sauerbraten is the ideal, IMO. But I realize that that's not feasible in the OP's setting.

I prefer my latkes made with shredded, not grated potatoes, and fried fairly crisp.