One potato, two potato,
three potato, eight.

15 December 2002—There are two camps when it comes to making latkes. There are those who make their latkes sort of like pulled-together hash browns, thick-netted cakes of shredded potato. In the other camp are the people who grind their russets into pulp, forming patties that don’t look altogether different than a certain fast-food chain’s version of previously mentioned golden starches, albeit not so uniform and oblong, and usually a bit darker.

I’ve always been in the shred camp. When Sarah and I were in Maryland for Thanksgiving and the beginning of Hanukkah, I was enlisted to make the latkes, and that’s the way I made them.

They were OK, not great. Even though they had taken a long time to fry up, the potatoes hadn’t cooked all the way. They were just inside that region wherein one could call them al dente, if that were a term normally applied to potatoes. The undercooking was the result of a couple of problems: the way they were shredded and the way I was frying them. I thought I could get away with simply sauteeing them in a little bit of oil apiece, and it just wasn’t doing the job in a reasonable amount of time. I got a little impatient; even using two griddles, I could only make about seven at a time, and each batch was taking about 10-15 minutes. Shoulda listened to my mother, I know. There’s pretty much no way around it — you have to deep-fry them.

The shredding was the other problem. When I was growing up, we always shredded them by hand. This always produced limp little strips of potato, perfect for frying. I also usually ended up with a bloody knuckle or two, as shredding potatoes makes them wet and slippery, which was one of the reasons I decided to put the Cuisinart to good use. Except, as I found out, the food processor makes pretty thick shreds, more like matchsticks, which adds to the cooking time.

Luckily, a week after we got home we had a little post-Hanukkah Hanukkah party, and I got to make them again, applying what I’d learned. I came to learn that I’ve joined a third camp I didn’t even know existed, which consists of renegades from both of the other camps. Half-shred, half-pulp: good consistency from the pulp camp, plus dimension and texture from the shred camp. The best of both worlds.

So I adjusted the recipe, and everyone was happy with the results. Bear in mind that these are all approximate amounts; adjust to your preferences.

Cafe Zoe Potato Latkes

2 lbs potatoes (russets are traditional; I actually prefer yukon golds)
1 large yellow onion, minced
1 carrot, minced (you can leave it out if you like, but hey, that’s how Momma taught me)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
sufficient oil or shortening for deep-frying (see note on deep-frying)

Serves about four people.

Shred the potatoes (I prefer leaving the skins on) using a food processor or grating by hand. Have two large bowls and one small bowl handy. Put the shredded potatoes into one of the large bowls. Take a paper towel and a handful of the shredded potatoes, wrap the potatoes in the paper towel and squeeze out the liquid into the small bowl, then put the dried potatoes into the other large bowl. Repeat until all the potatoes have been squeezed fairly dry. When the first big bowl is empty, pour whatever liquid is left into the small bowl. Put the small bowl aside for the moment.

If you grated the potatoes by hand, you can move on to the next step. If you grated them in a food processor, you might think about putting the main blade back into the food processor and mince about half the shredded potatoes, then return the minced potatoes to the bowl and mix everything together.

Add the onion and carrot to the potatoes and mix thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. I know you’re tasting raw potatoes. It’s for the greater good.

Back to the small bowl. Gently pour out the reddish-brown liquid, and you’ll be left with a sort of chalky off-white residue at the bottom of the bowl. This is potato starch. Add it and the flour to the potatoes, carrot, and onion, and mix thoroughly. (Note: most people here would add a beaten egg or two as a binding agent. There’s really no need, if you ask me, but then, my stomach can’t take fried egg very well.)

Heat the oven to about 250 degrees F.

Heat about half an inch of oil in a deep skillet, preferably cast iron, preferably two skillets if possible, as hot as you can without letting the oil smoke. Form the potatoes into pancakes about spatula size and about a half-inch thick. If the oil is hot enough, the latkes should take about three minutes on each side.

Drain them on paper towels, then place them on aluminum foil on cookie sheets in the oven to keep them warm. When they’re all done, serve with sour cream and apple sauce.

Note about deep-frying: I used canola oil this time around, but I’m wondering whether it would have been better to use shortening. Canola is one of the less-harmful of the bad fats, but it’s difficult to get it to a sufficient temperature to cook efficiently without smoking. Shortening is a saturated, and therefore worse, type of fat, but it cooks very well at high temperatures. If fried at a good temperature like 370 degrees F, what you’re cooking shouldn’t take on that much oil. So what’s better (or less worse): using oil that’s not as bad for you, but more might be absorbed, or using oil that’s worse for you, but less might be absorbed?