Delightful Potato Latkes

So I recently found myself with an abundance of potatoes that were making their best effort to grow roots in my cabinet. I’m fairly slow at eating potatoes, but am also unable to resist the allure of a 10lb bag of spuds that costs less then a buck. Thus, it became time to add more potatoes to my diet. I have begun this process by making latkes.

I got my recipe from whats4eats.com which, incidentally, is my new favorite website for finding interesting things to make. I’ll repost the latke recipe I used here, which I slightly altered due to lack of desire to measure things, etc.

-2 lbs of potatoes, peeled (I ended up using two big potatoes and one small potato, no clue now much they actually weighed, I just guesstimated)
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup flour
-oil, salt, pepper

The potatoes were supposed to be grated, and I got about halfway through grating a large potato before the unthinkable happened: I grated myself. This is one of my worst fears, and generally causes me to fear graters. I was brave, up until the point where i suddenly felt pain on my thumb where there wasn’t pain before. I brushed off the potato bits only to realize that the potato bit that wouldn’t come off was actually skin. A few seconds later, the blood started. It was rather minor, as these things go, but I still yelped in pain and ran for the bathroom. After some refreshing peroxide was applied (few things are more satisfying then the sting of peroxide on a wound) and I located a band-aid, I then coerced Drew to continue grating for me. He did so, until the pain of his carpal tunnel kicked in. At that point, I decided I was best off just hacking up the rest of the potatoes into teeny bits with a knife.

So the potatoes soaked in cold water for 15-20 minutes. Then I emptied the water out, and added the flour, eggs, and some salt + pepper, all of which I mixed thoroughly with a spoon. Here is a dynamic photo of latke ingredients in action!

Next, I poured a heap of vegetable oil into a pan, so it was about 1/4″ thick, and cranked up the heat. I plopped globs of mix in by the spoonful, and patted them flattish with the spoon. They sat for a few minutes, whereupon I flipped them, let them sit a few more minutes, then removed them with a spatula and let them drain on a paper towel. Repeat until batter is gone.

They were so incredibly good. Traditionally, you’re supposed to eat them with sour cream or applesauce. We didn’t have any sour cream, but I had several with applesauce and it tasted really good. Being a good American, I also ate some with ketchup.

The latkes tasted very similar to hash browns, except that these latkes were better. I think adding the egg & flour gives them a nice soft inside which, in contrast to the greasy crisp outside, is really excellent. I look forward to soon making a serious amount of latke batter and freezing it, for insta-latkes in the future. It’s a bit of labor to chop up all those potatoes (me being deprived and lacking a food processer, it’s quite tragic. Hmm, wonder if a blender would work?), so might as well get it all done in one fell swoop. And, it’ll be a great way to kill off all those potatoes before they take over my cabinet with their magical growing roots.