Latkes – The Food Of Hanukkah

Yes, our house smells like oil for days, but it’s totally worth it. Sorry neighbours 😉

As this is probably one of the foods I look most forward to all year, I wanted to share our recipe with you. We tend to keep our latkes fairly traditional as to not anger anyone in the family, but they’re delicious nonetheless.

Seriously, nothing beats nice crispy latkes with some sour cream and apple sauce. If you’ve never had the pleasure, I feel for you. But, they’re super simple to make, just be prepared to cook these with your windows and doors open. Unless you live in a condo, then keep your front door closed. And immediately throw your clothes in the laundry. Trust me.

Why are latkes traditional for Hanukkah?

The premise of Hanukkah is that the oil they had should have only lasted one night, but instead lasted eight. All Jewish holidays begin at sundown, hence the “eight nights of Hanukkah” you constantly hear.

Because of the oil miracle, oil is the centre of this holiday food which I much prefer to Passovers matzoh 🙂

Perfect Hanukkah Latkes – Bubbe’s Kitchen Cookbook

Jason’s family bought me this cookbook years ago, to help perfect my Jewish housewife skills. However, the person in charge of making the latkes is typically my husband.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 cups grated potatoes, drained well
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 small onion, grated
• Lots of vegetable oil 
• Chives 
• Lemon juice

Directions:

We use a food processor to make these latkes, so I’m going to list out this methodology. However, if you’re not using a food processor, grate the onion and potatoes and mix them together with all the ingredients. Easy peasy!

Peel 4 medium potatoes and cut each 4. Push through a grater and remove from processor; drain and squeeze over a little lemon juice to keep the potatoes from browning. With the steel blade, chop a small onion and add grated potatoes, eggs, baking powder, salt, flour and half the chives. Process until all mixed together. You may need to do this in batches; we do.

Heat oil in a large frying pan, about 1/4″ deep. Drop mixture from a spoon into hot oil and fry until crisp on both sides, turning only once. Drain on a paper towel to remove the excess oil.

You can either serve them right away or keep them in the fridge and quickly reheat them once ready for dinner. However, these also freeze well if you’re wanting to make them in advance. To reheat, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your frozen latkes on a wire rack sitting on a cookie sheet. Pop into the oven until crisp, which is approximately 10 minutes.

Serve with sour cream and/or apple sauce. Perfection!

This recipe makes 24 latkes, but we tend to double for our usual immediate family Hanukkah dinner. We triple it if we’re doing a bigger family dinner.

Wrap Up

These don’t last long, and never will you find leftovers at a family dinner. Never. We keep some aside so we can have latkes with dinner the following evening with whatever leftovers we take home. I mean, honestly, I would just sit there and eat latkes all day long.

These latkes don’t take long to make at all, and it’s a fairly straightforward recipe. The pain is the smell of the oil which lasts much longer than the latkes do.

But trust me on the smell of oil for days. It’s worth keeping your windows open the day you make these. In some parts, that may not be possible – I’m looking at you midwest and prairies – but if you can, it’ll help you cut down on the smell. Again, still worth it IMO.

Actually, on that note, maybe my mother-in-law should make latkes again since she has an air fryer. Hanukkah dinner conversation for sure!