Potatoes and sweet potatoes are as
quintessential to Thanksgiving as the actual turkey…at least in my family. My
mother’s family is about as Pennsylvania Dutch as you can get without being
Amish so we always have sweet potato casserole and enough potato filling to
feed the greater area.
What’s potato filling? It’s a mix
between bread stuffing and mashed potatoes. It’s an acquired taste to say the
least. You either love it or hate it. My sister hates it. But it is always at
the table to the point where regular potatoes are not always present beside it.
We forget it sometimes.
The potato is one of the most notable
things Thanksgiving and Hanukkah have in common; at least for American Jews. I
won’t get into the long history of latkes are their significance to the story
of Hanukkah. But basically the potatoes act simply as a vehicle for the most
important part of the story—the oil. Hanukkah is all about the oil lasting for
8 days. Some people are surprisingly unaware of the story of Hanukkah, if so,
here you go. For the rest of us, we know the oil used to fry everything from
potatoes to doughnuts on Hanukkah is the way oil is incorporated into the
holiday through the most tangible way possible—by eating it.
The recipe I’m working from calls for
canola oil for good reason. I chose to mix canola and olive oils because I
wanted the rich flavor of the olive oil, without using so much of it. Not only
is olive oil exponentially more expensive, canola oil fries better and holds up
under high heat unlike olive oil. But since olive oil is a lot easier to come
by these days than historically before, we add a little to the mix for flavor
and tradition.
Just get ready to use your range’s
exhaust fan and maybe open a window or too. And don’t wear a nice shirt while
cooking them just in case.
I knew I wanted to make sweet potato
latkes ever since I came up with the idea for this series. Originally I wanted
to make a sweet version instead of the regular savory, in homage to the sweet
potato casserole I know so well. But after experimenting with a recipe that
included maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc., I found that I like the
savory much better. For some reason, the sweet just tasted flat and didn’t come
through the way I wanted it to balancing out the potatoes. It just tasted
starchy; maybe it was the sugar.
So instead of reinventing the wheel I
decided to give the savory version a go. I discovered a perfectly perfect
recipe from The New Jewish Table by Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray, owners of
D.C.’s Equinox restaurant. The book is organized by season and then Dairy or
Parve classifications. I found a lot that I liked from it and it included
recipes from all over, not just the traditional Jewish Diaspora. Their Yukon
Gold and Sweet Potato latkes are just simply delicious. I barely made any changes
for my own tastes. But my is definitely for the home cook so while I would love
to tap them with crème fraiche, grated horseradish and salmon caviar here in
West Texas, I’m going with some creamy Greek yogurt instead.
Overall, these latkes are delicious.
I would make them year round, not just for Hanukkah or Thanksgivukkah. But hey,
that makes them even better for the holiday(s) in my book.
Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Latkes
(Slightly adapted from The New Jewish
Table
by Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray)
Makes 6 5-inch latkes
Ingredients:
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (brown much nicer than russets and don't turn gray)
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 medium yellow onion
1 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup matzo meal or breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 tbsp. Olive oil
Toppings: 2% Fage Greek yogurt, or
sour cream
chopped fresh green onions or scallions
and/or parsley
Directions:
Grate the potatoes and sweet potatoes
over a box grater or thinly slice then pulse in a food processor working in
batches. Squeeze out any liquid with your hands and transfer potatoes to a
large bowl.
Grate or finely mince onions, and add
to the bowl one with the eggs, matzo meal, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix
together with a wooden spoon until ingredients are well blended. If too wet,
add a little bit more breadcrumbs or matzo meal.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees to keep
latkes warm.
Heat a large nonstick frying pan to
high heat and add enough oil (about ¼ cup canola and 2 tbsp. olive oil) to fill
the bottom and gets very hot.
Working in batches cooking about 2-3
cakes at a time, shape cakes with your hands making them 5-inch around and ½
inch thick. As each cake is formed, add to the pan.
Lower heat to medium, making sure oil
is surrounding each cake. Cook each one for about 4 minutes on each side (try
not to move them). You want each side to be golden brown and sturdy, much like
cooking an egg; you’ll know when to flip it.
Once sturdy and golden brown,
transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Once oil
is drained, transfer latkes to an oven-safe serving plate and keep warm in the
oven.
Repeat with remaining oil until all
latkes are cooked are ready to serve.
Top with Greek yogurt and green onions, sour cream,
applesauce, or hey marshmallows and maple syrup if that’s your style.
Enjoy!
Stay tuned for my very own mashed potato latkes coming next week! A family favorite!
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving
potato recipe?
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