I have great memories of potato pancakes that my Dad would make when we were kids. Most of the time, my Mom did the cooking but there were a few items that were my Dad's specialty. Western omelettes, breakfast pancakes and potato pancakes quickly jump to mind. I had been meaning to make latkes before Christmas but just didn't get to it. We still had all the ingredients, including sour cream and homemade applesauce, so we went for it.
We followed a Mark Bittman recipe which started by grating about 2 lbs. of starchy potatoes and one medium onion. We usually hand grate them, as my Dad did, but that's pretty hard work and we were not so inclined, so we grated them in the food processor. It sure goes fast but I think you end up with a better texture if you do it by hand. Next, Tyler squeezed as much water as he could out of the grated vegetables. It's surprising how much comes out. Then we combined the veggies with 2 beaten eggs, salt, pepper and enough bread crumbs to bind the batter. We cooked them in Tyler's heirloom cast iron skillet, in a small amount of hot corn oil. It took about 15 minutes per side and we cooked up the entire batch, keeping them warm under the heat lamp, drying on paper towel.
We followed a Mark Bittman recipe which started by grating about 2 lbs. of starchy potatoes and one medium onion. We usually hand grate them, as my Dad did, but that's pretty hard work and we were not so inclined, so we grated them in the food processor. It sure goes fast but I think you end up with a better texture if you do it by hand. Next, Tyler squeezed as much water as he could out of the grated vegetables. It's surprising how much comes out. Then we combined the veggies with 2 beaten eggs, salt, pepper and enough bread crumbs to bind the batter. We cooked them in Tyler's heirloom cast iron skillet, in a small amount of hot corn oil. It took about 15 minutes per side and we cooked up the entire batch, keeping them warm under the heat lamp, drying on paper towel.
This is not really health food but it sure was tasty! We served them with light sour cream and applesauce on the side. When we heated up some leftovers the next day for lunch, we also added a dollop of Patak's Hot Mango Chutney for some zing. Really good.
We very rarely cook anything in oil and the house smelled a bit like a greasy spoon - it was great coming back into the house after being outside!
We very rarely cook anything in oil and the house smelled a bit like a greasy spoon - it was great coming back into the house after being outside!
These were wonderful - especially with the hot mango chutney. They are pretty fun to make too - we sweat whether they would hold together and learned not to worry: the heat and the eggs do the trick.
I'm also completely psyched to learn that we have at least one heirloom pan in the house!
Buvez: Sadly the last of the case of Big-A IPA we purchased a while ago at the Co-Op. A great fit as always.
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