Posted by Adam Kuban, March 18, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's recipe from this week's featured cookbook, Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking, is for Potato Latkes. You basically couldn't write a book by that title or blog about it without highlighting these little fried potato pancakes. Here, Schwartz recommends using matzo meal instead of flour for a crisper surface. Another trick he recommends is stirring the mixture with a tarnished silver spoon, leaving it in between stirrings—it helps prevent the potatoes from turning gray. Latkes are typically served at hanukkah, but we couldn't resist bringing you this recipe several months in advance—it's not like you can't make them any ol' time.
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Posted by Mario Batali, December 6, 2007 at 3:45 PM
Editor's note: Mario Batali had never participated in any Hanukkah rituals until he came to New York and met his wife, who loves making a big deal about Hanukkah for their kids. But just because he was a Hanukkah neophyte doesn't mean he didn't have a strong point of view about latkes and apple sauce, as you can tell from this. —Ed
We love to celebrate all holidays—especially the ones that have a specific food item. In the case of the first night of Hanukkah in our house, we make latkes and apple sauce. We celebrate alone with no guests and keep it very simple. We peel spuds and apples like devils and then make the stuff. Then we light the candles and say the prayers in our limited ability and then eat happily. It's a tradition.
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Posted by Ed Levine, December 6, 2007 at 1:15 PM
I've never entered a latke-making contest, I've never even tried to come up with one on my own. That doesn't mean I'm not one of the great latke eaters of our time. When my grandmother was alive she would sometimes make a hundred latkes at chanukah. I'm sure she never used a recipe, and if she did, it was never passed on to us. So about ten years ago, when we started hosting my family's Chanukah party I searched high and low for a latke recipe that could withstand the intense scrutiny the Levine family would subject the recipe to. That's where Lydie Marshal's Passion for Potatoes
comes in. It's a terrific all-potato-all-the-time cookbook, and it has the most delicious, foolproof latke recipe I have ever come across. In fact Marshall adapted the recipe from Raymond Sokolov and Susan Friedland's book, The Jewish-American Kitchen
. How good is this recipe? The loud and loquacious Levine family is sometimes silent as they chow down on these latkes.
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