Grandma's Latkes

In honor of Hanukkah, I present here the very delicious, but totally simple recipe for my grandma's latkes - once you know the tricks.  After 20 years, I think I've finally mastered it - I'll let you know the technique so it won't take you as long!

Ingredients:
3 medium, starchy potatoes - Russets work nicely.
1/2 medium onion
1 egg
1/4 Cup matzoh meal
salt
pepper
olive oil (lots.)
apple sauce or sour cream.  Or both.

1. Prepare an oven-safe plate by laying a couple paper towels on it.

2. Peel and grate potatoes and onion.  A hand-grater gets you the best texture, but you can get away with using the grater on a food processor.  If you do use the food processor, be sure to process them a second time, pulsing them with the blade to make smaller potato gratings.  Otherwise, it won't stick together and you'll wind up with really crunchy hash browns.

If you hand-grate the potatoes, don't be maniacal about shredding every little last potato piece - it's O.K. to throw out the last sliver to save your knuckles.  Remember, blood in food is literally not kosher.

3. Use your hands to squeeze out the water from the potato and onion gratings into a small bowl. Put the squeezed gratings into a large bowl.  DON'T SKIP THIS STEP!  I used to skip it. As a result, the oil spattered when I started to cook my latkes - I have scars to prove it.  The spatter gets all over the oven, which makes certain Significant Others cranky.  And the latkes end up soggy. 

4. Beat the egg and add it to the potato/onion mixture.  Pour the water off the starch that settled in the bottom of your squeezing bowl, then add the starch to the potato/onion mixture.

5. Add the matzoh meal and salt and pepper to taste to the potato/onion mixture, which is now officially promoted to latke batter.

6. Pour olive oil, enough to halfway submerge your latkes (about a quarter-inch deep) into a pan which you've been heating on the stove at slightly hotter than medium.  Let the oil heat up.

7. Test the temperature of the oil by putting in a teeny, tiny chunk of latke batter into it.  When it immediately starts bubbling, the oil is hot enough.  Put in the latkes. Each is about 1 heaping tablespoon, which you flatten with your spoon until they're a thickness that makes you happy (about 1/2 inch thick.) About five will fit in a good-sized pan.

8. When the edges appear golden and crisp, flip the latke over using a spatula.  Here's where there's another trick - it's easier if you tilt the pan so the oil drains away from the latke you're flipping.  Then it doesn't splash as you flip your latke. Once the latke is flipped, lay the pan flat again so the oil surrounds it and starts merrily bubbling again.

You can entertain yourself while the latkes are cooking by using your spatula to fish out any little bits of latke that broke off the main pieces.  If you can get them out before they burn, you won't set off the smoke alarms, plus your  subsequent latkes, cooked in the same oil, will taste better.

9. When the bottom is golden and crisp, take out the latke, tilting it to drain the oil off the top. Put it on the paper-towel covered plate - the towel will help blot more of the oil so the latke isn't greasy.  But if the oil is hot enough, the pancakes really won't pick up that much oil. If you aren't serving them immediately or if you're making a lot of latkes, you can put the plate in the oven at about 210 degrees to keep 'em warm.

10. Serve with apple sauce or sour cream on top. (They're better with apple sauce.)

The reason we make latkes at Hanukkah, of course, is because they use a lot of oil.

The holiday celebrates the victory of the totally outnumberd Jewish rebels who, under the leadership of Judas Maccabee and his brothers, defeated the Greek army. The Greeks were ruled then by King Antiochus, who was setting himself up as a god. While the Greeks occupied Judea, they also defiled the Jewish temple. Among other things, they destroyed all of the oil casks that fueled the menorahs.

Only one jar of oil, enough for one day, was left by the time the Jewish rebels took back the synagogue. But by a miracle, that oil lasted eight days, until a new supply could be brought. So Jews light candles each of eight nights to commemorate the event and eat a lot of things cooked in oil.

As my dad says, this follows the theme of most Jewish holidays: They tried to destroy us. They failed. Let's eat!