Latkes are shallow fried potato pancakes traditionally eaten by Jews during the Hanukkah festival. I have wanted to make this recipe for a long time, but I wanted to make it egg less. When researching for this week’s theme to make festival recipes across the globe, I wanted to make more savory dishes than sweet. Desserts or sweets have somehow become synonymous with festival (at least in my family) and I wanted to get out of that shell and make something savory. That is how I landed on this page where they had mentioned that potato latkes can be made without using eggs for binding.
I tried the recipe and loved using the idea of wheat flour for binding. Also cooking one potato instead of grating everything helped a lot with binding the pancake. The flavors were very simple and we totally enjoyed the latkes for breakfast.
Hanukkah is far away but I really wanted to make this special dish when I was making different festival dishes from around the world. So after yesterday Sheer Khurma, today I have Potato Latkes for Hanukkah.
Preparation time – 15 minutes
Cooking time – 45 minutes
Difficulty level – easy
Recipe adapted from – Chicago Tribune
Ingredients to make Latkes – Makes 12 small latkes
- Russet Potato – 4 large
- Onion – 1 small (finely chopped)
- Whole wheat flour – 3 to 4 tbsps
- Salt – as needed
- Oil – 1 tbsp plus more for pan frying the latkes
- Black pepper – to taste
Procedure –
- Clean and peel the potatoes. Cook one of the potatoes until it is soft and mushy. Mash it well and keep it aside.
- Grate the remaining 3 potatoes and place them in a colander. Add about a teaspoon of salt to the grated potatoes and mix it well using your hands. Place the colander in the skin as it will leave water. The potatoes will change color but it does not harm the recipe.
- In the meantime, heat a small pan with about 1 tbsp of oil and cook the chopped potatoes until it softens and becomes translucent. Add a pinch of salt to the onions when cooking.
- Place the onions in a large bowl along with the mashed potatoes.
- Using your hands squeeze out as much as water as possible from the grated potatoes and place them in the same bowl as the rest.
- Add pepper and salt to taste (check before you add) to the bowl. Also add about 3 tbsp of whole wheat flour and mix well. The mixture should not be too dry or too wet. If it is still a little wet add a little more wheat flour.
- Heat a large skillet and add about 1 tbsp of oil. Scoop the potatoes with a 1/3 cup measuring cup and place it on the hot skillet. Flatten the potatoes with the back of the spatula. You can place about 3 or 4 pancake based on the size of the skillet. Cook on one side until golden brown and then flip it to the other side. Cook the other side as well until golden brown and then remove on a tray. Repeat the same with the remaining potato mixture.
- Place the tray in the oven until ready to serve to keep the latkes warm. The latkes are served typically with sour cream or apple sauce. We ate it with sour cream.
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