Post of Latke Making
Dec. 11th, 2012 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillI am Inspired. So here is how to make latkes, which are a food eaten on Khannukah. They are not particularly religious or even Jewsih - Panda has been to Germany and reports that it is a general winter-time food there. But in the same way you drink egg-nog at Christmas, Khannukah is for latkes.
The Hardware:
1 large mixing bowl
1 small mixing bowl
1 normal-size soup bowl
1 peeler
1 mandoline of food processor capable of shredding vegetables
1 (or more) large-diameter skillet, at least 1 inch deep (cast iron is preferred)
1 metal-bladed spatula, as plastic might melt
1 pastry rack
1 metal baking tray
The Software:
5-6 large potatoes; it is important to use a stiffer variety, such as ore-Idaho or Yukon gold
1 large onion, yellow or gold
3 eggs
1 to 1.5 cups flour
white pepper
salt to taste
Oil
The Instructions:
1. Fill the skillet with some form of fat to a depth of 1/2 inch. Panda once made these with duck fat he rendered off a duck he cooked. They were delicious. Turn it on, but to a low heat. At this stage we just want to warm the oil.
2. Peel the potatoes. Yes, all of them. Also, peel the onion, then put it in the freezer*.
3. Grate the potatoes into the smaller of the mixing bowls.
4. When the mixing bowl is filled, you are going to squeeze out the potatoes. I can't explain a better way. Just take a handful and press it between your hands to get a good portion of the potato-water into the regular soup bowl. It is not a lot of liquid, in any case. Squeezed potatoes go into the large mixing bowl.
5. Keep grating and squeezing until all potatoes are processed.
6. Grate the onion. Unless you are a fan of sulfuric-acid-in-your-eyes, you grate from the not-root end toward the root end.
7. By now, the potato juice will have done a magic thing and separated. Pour the brown liquid off the top, and scrape the white starch layer out into the large mixing bowl.
8. Break all three eggs into the mixing bowl.
9. Turn the oil up and add a bit of potato so you'll know when it's hot enough to fry.
10. Mix. With your hands. Your goal is to coat the potato-onion mix in egg.
11. Add flour in one-half cup doses, mixing in between. You'll end up with something batterlike all over everything, and your hands. Also add salt and pepper.
12. Make balls out the of the batterstuff, about twice the volume of a donut-hole type donut.
13. Frying time! Do this in batches, they will not all fit in the pan at once. Once the ball is in the frying pan, squish it down with the spatula to get a pancake shape. It takes about 4 minutes per side, but really you flip them when the one side is fried golden-brown.
14. Place the latkes on the pasty rack so they drain into the baking sheet.
15. Keep frying until everything is golden-brown and delicious. Then turn off the heat and leave the pan. It will take about forty minutes to cool down. Note that the used oil has been imbued with essence of onion and can be reused, but only for the preparation of savory dishes.
16. Eat the latkes. It's tradition to add applesauce or sour cream, but not required. Enjoy!
*Because chemistry. For every 10C you lower the temperature, a given chemical reaction will proceed about half as quickly. You are not aiming to freeze the onion, you're aiming to cool it down to ~10C, from a start of ~20C. The reaction that you are slowing down is the one that generates volatile sulfides; sulfides, when they hit your eyes, become sulfuric acid and then you get the onion-burning-eyes-thing. You can use this trick any time you have to work with onions. I just mention it here because this can be quite painful, otherwise.
And now you know latkes, which are like French fries in the same way a restaurant-quality mint cheesecake with vanilla snap crust and dark chocolate ganash topping is like a stale, store-bought mini-cupcake. Just so you know.
So, enjoy the seasonal fare!
The Hardware:
1 large mixing bowl
1 small mixing bowl
1 normal-size soup bowl
1 peeler
1 mandoline of food processor capable of shredding vegetables
1 (or more) large-diameter skillet, at least 1 inch deep (cast iron is preferred)
1 metal-bladed spatula, as plastic might melt
1 pastry rack
1 metal baking tray
The Software:
5-6 large potatoes; it is important to use a stiffer variety, such as ore-Idaho or Yukon gold
1 large onion, yellow or gold
3 eggs
1 to 1.5 cups flour
white pepper
salt to taste
Oil
The Instructions:
1. Fill the skillet with some form of fat to a depth of 1/2 inch. Panda once made these with duck fat he rendered off a duck he cooked. They were delicious. Turn it on, but to a low heat. At this stage we just want to warm the oil.
2. Peel the potatoes. Yes, all of them. Also, peel the onion, then put it in the freezer*.
3. Grate the potatoes into the smaller of the mixing bowls.
4. When the mixing bowl is filled, you are going to squeeze out the potatoes. I can't explain a better way. Just take a handful and press it between your hands to get a good portion of the potato-water into the regular soup bowl. It is not a lot of liquid, in any case. Squeezed potatoes go into the large mixing bowl.
5. Keep grating and squeezing until all potatoes are processed.
6. Grate the onion. Unless you are a fan of sulfuric-acid-in-your-eyes, you grate from the not-root end toward the root end.
7. By now, the potato juice will have done a magic thing and separated. Pour the brown liquid off the top, and scrape the white starch layer out into the large mixing bowl.
8. Break all three eggs into the mixing bowl.
9. Turn the oil up and add a bit of potato so you'll know when it's hot enough to fry.
10. Mix. With your hands. Your goal is to coat the potato-onion mix in egg.
11. Add flour in one-half cup doses, mixing in between. You'll end up with something batterlike all over everything, and your hands. Also add salt and pepper.
12. Make balls out the of the batterstuff, about twice the volume of a donut-hole type donut.
13. Frying time! Do this in batches, they will not all fit in the pan at once. Once the ball is in the frying pan, squish it down with the spatula to get a pancake shape. It takes about 4 minutes per side, but really you flip them when the one side is fried golden-brown.
14. Place the latkes on the pasty rack so they drain into the baking sheet.
15. Keep frying until everything is golden-brown and delicious. Then turn off the heat and leave the pan. It will take about forty minutes to cool down. Note that the used oil has been imbued with essence of onion and can be reused, but only for the preparation of savory dishes.
16. Eat the latkes. It's tradition to add applesauce or sour cream, but not required. Enjoy!
*Because chemistry. For every 10C you lower the temperature, a given chemical reaction will proceed about half as quickly. You are not aiming to freeze the onion, you're aiming to cool it down to ~10C, from a start of ~20C. The reaction that you are slowing down is the one that generates volatile sulfides; sulfides, when they hit your eyes, become sulfuric acid and then you get the onion-burning-eyes-thing. You can use this trick any time you have to work with onions. I just mention it here because this can be quite painful, otherwise.
And now you know latkes, which are like French fries in the same way a restaurant-quality mint cheesecake with vanilla snap crust and dark chocolate ganash topping is like a stale, store-bought mini-cupcake. Just so you know.
So, enjoy the seasonal fare!
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Date: 2012-12-12 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-13 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-13 05:16 am (UTC)