Last Holiday Post

Ok all, it is officially the new year and time for the holiday season to end. That's right, no more merry lights and candies, no more presents, just the slow endless crawl of winter and horrible slush for months and months on end.

However, I have one more holiday food post to do, and I'm-a gonna do it. So there.

Latkes!

Everybody loves latkes. If they say that they don't, then they are lying. Who doesn't love fried crispy potato pancakes? Nobody, that's who. They're a bit of a pain to make, especially at my mother's house, because she doesn't have a food processor like I do. So there's a lot of peeling. And grating. And more peeling. And more grating. Here's my sister Allison, peeling away.


She's a good peeler. Plus, she has awesome orange fingernails.


Once you've peeled and grated however many potatoes will feed your family (we used about 2.5 pounds or half of a 5 pound bag), you soak the potatoes in cold water (at least, according to this recipe from Gourmet that I used).


Then you drain them and add some chopped onion (I picked this recipe so that I wouldn't have to grate any onions - I hate that). Then comes the crazy part that I forgot to take a picture of.

"Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up jelly-roll style. Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible." This would not have been possible at my home in Astoria, as I have no clean kitchen towels. My mom has plenty though, so it worked out fine.

Then you mix it in a bowl with a few eggs and some salt. I think I used two eggs? Maybe three. I can't remember.


Then you just heat up some oil in a frying pan (not expensive imported olive oil that your dad orders special from Italy, just regular heart healthy canola oil will do). Put a spoonful of mixture in the pan and flatten it out with a fork (or your hand). Don't put too many latkes in the pan at once or they won't fry properly. Here are mine, frying away until they turn golden brown on one side.


Then you flip them and wait another few minutes or so....don't poke at them in the pan, just let them be.


Drain them on paper towels....


And keep them warm in the oven while you fry the rest.


This will take a long time. You'll add more oil as you go. Your dad will complain that he's hungry. You will tell him to go away and let you cook as he is vibing you and you don't like that. Finally you will eat latkes for Christmas/Hannukah dinner and feel very Jew-y because you are eating latkes on Christmas. Or you could just add more oil and forget about the rest of the paragraph. That may be specific to my family. When you're all done, eat them with sour cream and applesauce. If you're with my sister, she'll refuse to let you make homemade applesauce and insist on the jarred kind. You may as well agree because your family makes you tired and it's easier just to go with the flow.

More exciting blogging to come!