Cafe Liz

Latke bonanza, part 2

This Hanukkah, we wound up making more than 7 kilos of latkes. Indeed, the holiday isn't even over yet, but I think I've had enough fried food for oh, say, the next year. Anyway, in the course of these 7+ kilos, we quite refined our latke-making technique, and came out with some pretty good results. I've edited the recipes in the last post to reflect our fine-tuning, and I'm adding a few more here: Sweet potato latkes with Chinese spices, and Carrot cilantro latkes.

As I am only now adding to the first post, we got good results by scooping a heaping spoonful of batter onto a tablespoon, squeezing out the extra liquids by pressing the batter into the spoon by hand, and then sliding the lump into oil. Also, the latkes should be put on paper towels to drain the extra oil -- this holiday may be about fried foods, but there's a limit to how much oil a sane person wants to consume.

SWEET POTATO LATKES WITH CHINESE SPICES

600 grams sweet potato
1/2 t Chinese five-spice powder
handful chopped chives
1 egg
1/2 c flour
salt

Grate the sweet potato in a food processor. We didn't actually peel our sweet potatoes, we just scrubbed them well with a dish sponge, which got most of the hard bits of peel off, anyway. Let any liquids drain. Chop and add the chives, along with the other ingredients. Mix well and fry as detailed in the first post.

Note: Chinese five-spice powder is, as the name implies a spice mix. Ours contains cinnamon, star anise, allspice, bay leaves and coriander. You can substitute cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or cloves if you don't have the ready-made spice mix.

CARROT CILANTRO LATKES

500 grams carrot
250 grams potato
5 garlic cloves
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 c flour
1 egg
1/4 t cumin
1 1/2 t salt

Grate the carrots and potato in a food processor. Drain off any liquids drain from the potatoes. Chop or crush the garlic, and chop the cilantro. Add along with the other ingredients, mix well and fry.

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