{"id":5499,"date":"2009-12-14T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=5499"},"modified":"2016-04-22T17:25:17","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T21:25:17","slug":"latkes-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=5499","title":{"rendered":"Latkes and Beyond!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Samosa

A Samosa Latke<\/p><\/div>\n

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Once a year or so (usually at Hanukkah, of course!) my family loves latkes. We don\u2019t fry a lot of food, but when a holiday is all about oil one has to indulge in a little frying.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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We usually make the traditional latkes I chronicled in a post last year at this time<\/a>. This year I thought we\u2019d try something a little different. We actually made TWO new kinds of latkes.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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One version, which I\u2019ll detail in a future post (making and eating latkes can really wear a girl out), was made with sweet potatoes. We called these Yam-e-kes.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I got the idea for the second version from Chef Jamie Geller of Kosher.com. I had been toying with the idea of making samosas, my favorite potato-based Indian turnovers, for some time. Jamie came up with the idea of putting samosa spices into a latke.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Since “Sam-e-kes” sounds a little awkward I\u2019m just using Jamie\u2019s terminology and calling these Samosa Latkes. They represent a wonderful pairing of two cuisines I adore.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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If you\u2019d like to see Jamie\u2019s version of these latkes, please visit Kosher.com\u2019s recipes for Hanukkah<\/a> (she offers other great ideas as well!). You\u2019ll note that she has produced a relatively low-fat latke. Since we only make them once a year we kept the fat.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I should warn you that my nephew Michael doesn\u2019t believe that EITHER of our experiments actually qualifies as a latke. Whatever they are, they\u2019re pretty tasty.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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One note: these are not particularly spicy Sam-e-kes, only flavorful ones. If you’d like more spice, feel free to add more to taste.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Happy Hanukkah!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Samosa Latkes<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Ingredients:<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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2 large baking potatoes
\n1 large onion, more or less finely chopped
\n2 eggs, beaten
\n6 tablespoons flour or matzo meal (plus a little more if you need it)
\n2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger root
\n2\u00a0teaspoons Kosher salt
\n<\/span><\/span>1\u00a0teaspoon cumin seeds
\n1\/2 teaspoon turmeric
\n<\/span><\/span>1 teaspoon garam masala
\n1\/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
\n1 teaspoon hot curry powder
\n2\u00a0cups peas, barely cooked<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
extra-virgin olive oil as needed for frying
\n2\u00a0tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Instructions:<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Wash the potatoes well and peel them if you want to (the skins are nutritious so you don\u2019t have to). Grate them. This takes a really long time with a box grater so I prefer to use the grater attachment of\u00a0a food processor.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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(Do not use the main blade of\u00a0a food processor as it will make the potato pieces small and wet.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Wrap the potato shreds in a clean dishtowel. Carry it to the sink, and wring out as much liquid as you can. Leave the wrapped shreds in the sink to drain while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (and maybe have a cocktail or two).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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In a medium bowl, combine the potato pieces, onion, eggs, flour, ginger, salt, and spices. Stir in the peas. In a large frying pan, heat a few tablespoons of oil until the oil begins to shimmer.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Scoop some of the potato mixture out of the bowl with a soup spoon, and flatten it with your hand. Pop the flattened potato into the hot oil. It should hiss and bubble a bit; if not, wait before you put more pancakes into the oil.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s just fine if your latkes are a little ragged around the edges. If they don\u2019t hold together and are hard to turn, however, you may want to add a little more flour to your batter.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Fry the potato cakes a few at a time, turning each when the first side becomes golden. Drain the cooked latkes on paper towels; then pop them into a 250-degree oven to stay warm until their cousins are finished cooking.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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When you run out of batter (or feel you have enough for your family!), sprinkle the chopped cilantro over your latkes, light the menorah, and eat. Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"Michael

Michael loves to light the Hanukkah candles.<\/p><\/div>\n

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If you enjoyed this post, please consider taking out an email subscription to my blog. Just click on the link below!<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Subscribe to In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens by Email<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

P.S. from much later…. Here I am making these on TV!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Once a year or so (usually at Hanukkah, of course!) my family loves latkes. We don\u2019t fry a lot of food, but when a holiday is all about oil one has to indulge in a little frying. \u00a0 We usually make the traditional latkes I chronicled in a post last year at this time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,17,42],"tags":[927,926,931,767,245,925,322,924,932],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5499"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11415,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499\/revisions\/11415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}