Latkes
Welcome to Kosher Eatin’. My name is Alex, a veteran New York Upper West Sider and expert in good food. I want to bring you the knowledge of kosher gourmet quality through cyberspace to your home.
Don’t you just hate when you watch a trailer for an upcoming film and it spoils the entire movie? Take this (god-awful looking) movie “Love and Other Drugs” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Mr. G plays a pharma rep (and quite the womanizer) who meets Ms. Hathaway on a sales call. From the trailer you can easily deduce that they meet, he likes her, but she… not as much.
Anyways, they end up falling madly in love, but for some un-earthly reason end up splitting up. Why? Who knows! He then chases her down (maybe she is on a bus, maybe at an airport, maybe something original) and gets her back. The end.
Predictability is no fun.
Which makes me wonder: Why do we celebrate Chanukah, one of the most unpredictable and exciting Jewish story, in the most predictable way?
With Chanukah upon us, and this movie trailer in the theaters, it got me thinking. Chanukah is a celebration of the extraordinary. There are many miracles, large and small, that occurs in the Chanukah story. These miracles include the small Jewish army overcoming the big Greek army, in a battle so fierce and one sided, it looked like the Macabees would never prevail, to finding a small amount of pure oil, in a completely ransacked temple that not only is enough for one night, but lasts for eight full days, yet, every year we have the same latkes and jelly doughnuts that we’ve had for our whole lives, lets mix it up a bit, be unpredictable, and get in the kitchen and win that battle in our own homes.
Well, good sirs and madams, I have the trick for you. Below are departures from the usual way these symbols representing Chanukah are made. Three delicious ways to spice up the same old latkes.
Sweet Potato Latkes
Serving Size: 4
Ingredients
1 sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves (can substitute nutmeg)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup vegetable oil for frying
Directions
Place sweet potato in a strainer. Squeeze potato with a cloth to release as much liquid as possible. Combine sweet potato, egg, brown sugar, flour, cloves and cinnamon; mix well in big bowl. Heat oil in large heavy skillet to 375º F (190º C).
Form mixture into pancake size cakes, and fry in hot oil. Flip cakes over after 2 to 3 minutes (when bottom is browned) and brown other side. Drain on paper towels, and serve.
Serve With: Apple Apricot Sauce, Butter, Syrup, or even Whipped Cream!
Source: AllRecipes.com, with some tweaking
Mock-Crab Cake Latkes
Serving Size: 4
Ingredients
1 Orange Sweet Pepper
Lemon Zest
1 Scallion
1 teaspoon Thyme
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/8 teaspoon Salt
Touch of Sugar
2-3 Coriander leafs
1 thick and 1 skinny Celery
1 thick and 1 skinny Onion
5 shots of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1/2 Lime
1/4 to 1/2 Mayo
1 Egg
Jason Bread Crumbs (1/3 of a cup)
1 package Dyna Sea Mock-Crab Sticks
Directions
Take Dyna Sea Mock-Crab Sticks- peel and mash up all sticks until shredded (do not use shredder). Take orange sweet pepper. Cut slices, then mince. Put in touch of lemon zest. Take scallion- mince it. Roll it up. Take thyme and add to mix. Add black pepper. Add sugar. Add salt. Mince and add Coriander leaf. Take celery, cut thin then mince. Take onion, cut thin then mince. Add Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Add mayo to mix. Add lime juice to mix. Crack egg and beat with fork. Mix in.
Take plain Jason Bread Crumbs. Slowly add to mix. Keep mixing till bottom of dish is clean when mixing. Next take mock-crab and slowly mix it in bowl. Form mixture into pancake size mock-crab cakes. Place on plate. Put plate in fridge to harden.
Take a frying pan with ¼” thick oil and put on high. Then move to medium once ready (test it by putting a piece of parsley on it and it crackles). Flip cakes after 2 to 3 minutes (when bottom is browned) and brown other side. Drain on paper towels.
Serve With: Paprika Mayo Sauce (1 cup of Mayo, ¼-T-spoons Mashed Garlic, 1-2 T-spoons of Paprika, 3-4 shots of Franks Red Hot Sauce, 1/2 Lime, 1/2 T-spoon of Sugar. Mix.)
Source: The famous, master chef, Norman Letow
Spinach Latkes
Serving Size: 4
Ingredients
3 potatoes that equal 1lb peeled in total
1 cup chopped fresh wilted spinach (or thawed frozen spinach)
1 small onion, grated
3 tablespoons matzo meal or all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Vegetable oil
Directions
Grate the potatoes into a bowl. Squeeze the potatoes to drain off excess moisture. Squeeze out the moisture from the spinach. Drain the onion. Mix all the vegetables together and stir in the matzo meal or flour, some seasoning, and the eggs.
Pour enough oil into a skillet to coat the bottom and heat over medium heat. Put three spoonfuls of the mixture in the pan, spaced well apart, and press out to make cakes about 4 inches in diameter. Cook until golden brown, about 3–4 minutes on each side. Keep the latkes warm in a low oven while cooking the remainder.
Serve With: Yogurt Sauce, Mushroom-Cheese Sauce
Source: The Food Channel, with some tweaking