Another example of a recipe that can be found in a thousand variations, and this is just the way we like to make them. These are an at-home date night treat for us, we like them served with smoked salmon, sour cream and chives, and some dressed greens on the side.
- 2 pounds of russet potatoes, unpeeled
- 2 good sized cooking onions, about 400 grams
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour or more
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
This is absolutely worth breaking out the food processor. Use your large grate blade. Don’t peel the potatoes, just scrub them and cut them into wedges the size of your food processor intake. Alternate potatoes with onions, the onions keep the potatoes from turning brown.
At the same time, break two eggs into a large bowl and beat lightly. Turn the grated vegetables into the eggs, mixed well – this is best done with your hands. Add the salt to the flour, and then add both to the bowl and again mix well, again your hands do this best and you’re going to use them as you cook so get into it!
Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan, we have a stainless steel dutch oven that’s about 5-6 inches deep and 12 inches in diameter, it’s perfect for this. Fill it to two-three inches with canola oil (our choice because of it’s high smoking point). Over medium heat, bring the oil up to 350 degrees Farenheit. You’ll want to keep checking the temperature as you go along. Also, whenever you’re deep frying on the stovetop in a pot, keep the lid of the pot close by in case things get out of hand – the lid is the best way to put out a fire in a pot (for the record, I do NOT know this from experience, thankfully, deep frying is safe if you’re careful).
Once the oil reaches 350 F, take a palmful of latke mix and squeeze it in your hand to squeeze out the liquid. (Note: many recipes have you wring the grated potato/onion in a tea towel before you mix in the egg and the flour, I find it easier to squeeze it out by hand at this step and the latkes still turn out fine). Once you’ve squeezed out as much as you can, flatten the latke slightly in your hand and drop it gently into the oil. You should be able to do about four at at time, depending on the size of your pot.
Keep an eye on your oil temperature, and let the latkes fry on one side, and then flip. You can flip a few times until golden. Remove them with a slotted spoon or spider so the oil drains off. Set them on a rack on a cookie sheet in a warm oven to hold until you’re finished frying.
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