Potato Pancakes--Cook-Off 16

[bloviatrix]

I was drafted into the responsibility of frying up latkes at a friend's house the other night. What I already knew was confirmed - do not use a non-stick skillet. It makes for greasy, non-crispy latkes.

My real batch will be made on sunday when I host an intimate family Chanukah gathering for 6.

[CaliPoutine]

I was drafted into the responsibility of frying up latkes at a friend's house the other night.  What I already knew was confirmed - do not use a non-stick skillet.  It makes for greasy, non-crispy latkes.

My real batch will be made on sunday when I host an intimate family Chanukah gathering for 6.

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I always use a non-stick skillet and mine come out great!!! I do use a fair amount of oil though.

[elion_84]

From our latke party last Monday.

We made several different kinds of latkes:

- Plain potato, some where topped with crem fraiche and caviar

- Plain potato grated very fine

- Sweet potato, topped with wasaby cream, caviar, and arugula micro-greens

- Potato and celery root, topped with marinated beet and cabage slaw and duck confit

- Zucchini and carrot, topped with sour cream, pepper jelly (Austin Slowburn Habanero and Rosemary, really good stuff), and smoked trout

- Cheese latkes, with pear-ginger sauce

We also had the requisite sour cream, apple sauce, as well as, pomegranate mollases spiced apple sauce.

[Chufi]

wow, that's an impressive latke-spread! the potato/celeryroot latkes with beetroot and duck sound especially delicious.

I made something today that maybe does not qualify as a latke, but I think it qualifies as a potatopancake - of sorts.

I had some leftover hutspot, a Dutch dish of potatoes, carrots, onions and (oprional) parsnips boiled and then mashed together. It was actually Grub who came up with the idea to fry up leftovers of this dish (sorry, I can't find the post where he did that) and that's what I did today. I firmed up the puree somewhat with an egg, some breadcrumbs and flour, and added some mustard. Shaped into pancakes and shallowfried. They were delicious!

[monavano]

They look beautiful Chufi. Did you garnish with anything? Sour cream? Apple sauce??

*wishing I had some leftover mashed potatoes right now*

[Chufi]

we had them as a side dish with meatloaf and an eggplant/red pepper/balsamic relish.

Sour cream would have been good, apple sauce would have been too sweet I think since the hutspot is already quite sweet from the carrots and parsnips.

Edited January 1, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

and, as Hanukkah comes to an end, one last batch of these latkes hit the oil ... and they were as good as the first batches ... maybe I ought to make them for no apparent reason .. just to enjoy!

[Chris Amirault]

Mel, that's the only reason we goyim make 'em in the first place!

edited for grammar -- ca

[Malawry]

I made some latkes last night for the NYE party I catered. I forgot to bring eggs and the hosts didn't seem to have any, so I made them with just grated potato and onion, s&p and a little matzo meal to soak up any excess fluids. Shallow-fried small pancakes in EVOO. Topped with chive-spiked quark and smoked salmon. They were in high demand, though my server and I ended up eating a bunch of them in the kitchen before they went out.

[bloviatrix]

We hosted some family this afternoon for a casual Chanukah gathering. Blovie was suspicious when I started to make the latkes about 2 hours before our guests arrived. He thought I should make them a la minute, but frankly, I didn't want to go crazy. So, I made them early and crisped them up in a very hot oven. Perfect. Blovie was pleasantly suprised at how crispy they were. Since we ate a meat meal, I served them with quince applesauce.

[Chris Amirault]

To what temperature did you set the oven?

[bloviatrix]

I was kitchen multi-tasking, and had the oven set to broil. (my oven has a broiler drawer, so while I was broiling the london broil, the latkes were in the oven taking advantage of the high heat. I did this for about 8 minutes)

[Pam R]

Today, the family biz was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press (you probably need to subscribe to actually see the review). 90% of what the reviewer wrote has nothing to do with this thread... but I thought I'd share this little bit:

But possibly the kitchen's greatest glories are those best known of Jewish dishes. Superb latkes, for instance -- my taste runs to the classic made with grated potatoes, but I have to admit they are also delicious when made with cauliflower and corn, or with wild rice and mushrooms ($1 each).

Not bad eh?

Having said that.... I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO potato pancaked out. If you'll recall - a few weeks ago I posted a picture of a piece of paper that I had taped to the wall in the kitchen at work. I was keeping a list of the latkes I made over the holiday season. Here's a picture of the paper at the end of the day today:

That's 806 potato and few mushroom/wild rice. (Add a couple dozen pancakes - each time I made a batch several were snatched up hot out of the oil by anybody walking by me in the kitchen!) Approximately 200 lbs. of potatoes. That's a lot of squeezing!

I need to take a latke break.

[Chufi]

But possibly the kitchen's greatest glories are those best known of Jewish dishes. Superb latkes, for instance -- my taste runs to the classic made with grated potatoes, but I have to admit they are also delicious when made with cauliflower and corn, or with wild rice and mushrooms ($1 each).

Not bad eh?

I need to take a latke break.

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congratulations Pam!

I think you do not only need, but really deserve a latke break right now!

I bought 1 (yes, one) sweet potato today and I'll be making sweet potato latkes for dinner tomorrow...

[Swisskaese]

Mazel Tov Pam! That is a lot of pancakes.

Where is the article? I couldn't find it.

[Pam R]

Thanks Klary and Michelle. It's wonderful to get such a great review - but there is no rest in store for me!

you can try this link to the Free Press Dining Out column. Hopefully it'll work.

I often do a sweet potato/potato latke. Just replace 1/2 of the regular potato with the sweet - it results in a better texture than the straight sweet (which I also make). I find all sweet potato ones tend to want to fall apart.

[bloviatrix]

Very nice, Pam. You guys must be thrilled.

[kiliki]

do not use a non-stick skillet

Was it one of those light, cheap non-stick pans? I use good, heavy ones-All Clad or Le Creuset-and mine come out great. I can see how the lightweight pans, which can't brown anything, would be bad.

[Swisskaese]

do not use a non-stick skillet

Was it one of those light, cheap non-stick pans? I use good, heavy ones-All Clad or Le Creuset-and mine come out great. I can see how the lightweight pans, which can't brown anything, would be bad.

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I use a T-Fal pan and they come out fine. I wouldn't call T-Fal an expensive frying pan.

[Sara Moulton]

Looks great, Wendy. How were they?

I pulled out the new Sara Moulton cookbook (Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals) to make her potato pancakes with smoked salmon and fried eggs today. I didn't have an easy source for smoked salmon, so I went with some smoked mackerel:

That Ducktrap Farms stuff is great. However, it's a more assertive fish, not as creamy as salmon, so I whipped up some cream and added a bit of beet-juice red horseradish, white pepper, lemon juice, and salt for a creamy element. As you'll see, it also added a color contrast that was beneficial.

Grated the russets and didn't do anything else save salt and pepper, per Sara's instructions. Then, I fried four piles in bacon grease (sorry for the goy touch):

Her directions suggested medium high heat, and I'd edge toward even higher; you need to get that base crust on both sides, and that really does require high heat. Here's what one pancake looked like on a small salad plate after cooking:

Good color, texture, and flavor (thank you, bacon grease). You're gotta slide the spatula under the pancakes repeatedly while they're cooking, and I turned them 90 degrees every now and then to insure even cooking (which was a trick).

As for serving, Moulton's proportions seemed a bit off to me: she had two eggs per pancake, which seemed to us to be two too many. So we went with one egg, shallots instead of red onions, capers, and the horseradish cream:

It kind of reminded me of the bibimbap  cook-off, using the fried egg and starch (here, spud, there, rice) to combine a variety of textures, flavors, and so on; even the capers echoed kimchi.

As Moulton promised, the combination of fish, potato, cream, capers, and onion -- with the crunchy, meaty texture of the pancakes -- was excellent. It was a total smash hit. Still and all, I kind of felt that the pancakes (just grated russets, salt, pepper) were more hash browns than potato pancakes. More experimenting to do, clearly!

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Chris,

Smoked fish of any kind is just fine. Good idea. But actually, in terms of heat, medium is better because you need the potato pancake to crisp on the outside while cooking on the inside. The two pancakes and two eggs was because this is supposed to be dinner, breakfast for dinner and it needs to be substantial. Bacon grease is just fine with me by the way but if you want a lighter end product and with all those other good ingredients - crispy potatoes, smoked whatever salmon, makerel etc, fried egg, horseradish cream, I figure you are ok without the extra saturated fat but if you want to guild the lilly go ahead.

[Swisskaese]

Welcome to eGullet Sara!

I am a big fan. I grew up reading Gourmet magazine.

Look forward to seeing more posts.

[Richard Kilgore]

Department of you say pancake and I say hashbrown:

I have been eating smashed potato pancakes this week, made from leftovers and fried in duck fat until crispy, then flipped and crisped again. Delicious, but I love hash browns, as well as eggs for dinner, so I'll have to make Sara's version with smoked salmon soon. Yours look great Chris, but two eggs sound fine to me.

[Chris Amirault]

I made simple potato pancakes (minced onion, two shredded potatoes, baharat, salt) to serve with merguez sausages tonight, and, well, they stuck. Seriously. I think I used way too little fat (lard, as it turns out), but adding extra oil turned just produced sopping pancakes. You have been warned: start with plenty o' fat.

[monavano]

I thought I'd throw my recipe out there. I love potato pancakes and that you can take those leftover spuds, crisp them up and put either a sweet or savory topping on it to elevate the pancake to something bigger than the sum of the parts.

"Patatas Bravas" recipe and pics.

[Peter the eater]

It's hard not to like a potato pancake. It's also hard to bring something new to the table when the eG Society appears to be the leading repository of latke knowledge in the universe.

Here's my contribution - I call it a "fast boxty", but whatever term is used, the only ingredient is potato!

1. Wash a few potatoes, then grate them:

2. Microwave until done, 4 minutes for these 3 potatoes. Form into balls when cool.

Because the shredded potato was not soaked or even rinsed, they get real gooey from the microwave. Thus, no need for binders like eggs and other stuff. These balls are the size of a squash ball. For those of you not living in a Commonwealth country, a squash ball is a bit smaller than a golf ball, like a ping pong ball. I flatten the balls as they go into the oil. When I lift one out that's done, I'll squeeze it lightly between two slotted spatulas.

3. Heat a 1/4 cup of oil in a non-stick pan. Fry until brown, drain.

I used grapeseed oil, and after I did the two batches of 8, I still had 1/3 of the oil left in the pan. That means I used (or spilled) only 2-3 tablespoons of oil for 16 pancakes: