Latkes: Jewish Potato Fritters

The “holiday season” is officially in full swing. A whole slew of holidays – both religious-based and not – are being or have been celebrated.

One of the more prominent holidays celebrated here in the US during this time is Hanukkah, a celebration of eight days and nights for Jewish families. And in terms of food, that almost certainly means that there will be latkes aplenty.

The Story of Latkes and Hanukkah

In order to really understand why latkes are made for Hanukkah, it’s important to understand the roots of the Hanukkah celebration itself.

The story begins in the land of Judea (roughly modern day Israel). At this point in history, Judea had been conquered as part of the Egyptian empire, but King Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire (modern day Syria) wins Judea in battle against the Egyptian Ptolemaic empire. Antiochus himself was very benevolent and tolerant to the practice of Judaism within Judea, but things changed when his son, Antiochus IV, assumed power.

Under Antiochus IV, Judaism was outlawed throughout all of Judea, and sacred Jewish temples were converted into areas of worship for other gods. A revolt led by Mattityahu and his five sons, one of whom was Judah, successfully drove out this anti-Jewish influence from Seleucid rule.

In reclaiming the Second Temple in the heart of Jerusalem, there was only enough kosher olive oil left to burn the temple’s menorah for one remaining night. This oil, however, lasted through eight days and eight nights, which was enough time to produce a fresh supply of kosher oil to continue the lighting of this menorah. It’s from this long-lasting oil that the miracle of Hanukkah – the “Festival of Lights” – came about.

In terms of food, it’s therefore common to eat foods fried or baked in olive oil like latkes as a commemoration to this Hanukkah miracle.

(NOTE: Want to save this recipe for later? You can take home a downloadable PDF version of this recipe by clicking here.)

What Are Latkes?

If you’re familiar with latkes as they are today, chances are that you might describe them as “potato pancakes.” And yes, you’d be partially correct.

It turns out, however, that the origin of the latke as Hanukkah food was far different as we know it today. According to Jewish food blogger Tori Avey, the notion of the latke – or pancake – only goes back as far as the 14th century… in Italy. It was an Italian Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus who made one of the first recorded associations of pancake type food to Hanukkah.

Potatoes themselves weren’t key ingredients in latkes until as late as the 19th century either! The original latkes from Kalonymus’s time appear to have been made with a base of ricotta cheese, not potatoes. It wasn’t until the 19th century when potatoes were so readily available across Europe that the idea of a potato latke came en vogue.

There is no real statute, however, that latkes have to be made with potato. If you’d like, shredded vegetables and cheese latkes can be just as grand… provided you fry them in olive oil.

How to Make Latkes

Yes, latkes can be incredibly easy to make, but the quality of your end result latkes depends on how well the batter can stay together while frying.

The batter itself is made with your shredded main latke base, egg, matzo meal (kosher bread crumbs), and some additional seasoning as desired. To make the batter stick perfectly while frying, the key is to wring out as much excess water from your base ingredient as possible.

 

From there, you mold the batter into small silver-dollar sized pancakes, and you fry them until golden brown for several minutes on each side. It’s as simple as can be, but there are certain added “tricks” to help make the latkes consistently extraordinary.

When making potato latkes, for example, your latkes will benefit greatly if you keep the water that you wring out of the grated potatoes. Why is this? After only a few minutes, starch will separate from the water and sink to the bottom of your bowl. You pour out the water, and this separated starch can be added back to your latke batter as a fantastic binding agent!

And apparently (though we ourselves learned this trick after only our recipe tests), it’s possible to prevent your freshly grated potatoes from discoloring and turning brown by immediately soaking them in cold water. After a few minutes (up to 10), you can remove the potatoes from the water and continue along making lightly golden crispy latkes.

Our Take on the Recipe

We hope we don’t offend latke purists out there with this substitution, but we opted to use panko breadcrumbs in place of matzo meal. Normally, latkes should be made with matzo meal, a certified kosher form of breadcrumbs, but we personally enjoyed using panko instead and the lighter and less oil-dense flavor to the latke.

There are other recipes out there for latkes that offer up a lighter suggestion by baking the latkes instead of frying in olive oil. In a rare break from our own Arousing Appetites “health first” mantra, however, we opted to intentionally not take the healthier route on this one. Not only did we find the fried latkes to be tastier, but the frying in oil is such an integral part of what makes latkes a perfect Hannukah food that it seemed inappropriate to remove a key component of the recipe.

Finally, latkes are generally served with both sour cream and applesauce. For the sour cream, we substituted in Greek yogurt with added fresh herbs like dill. For the applesauce, we made an incredibly simple homemade spiced applesauce recipe that you will see in the recipe itself. These accompaniments were as wonderful as the latkes themselves!

Do you celebrate Hanukkah? How do you make your latkes? Comment below!

(NOTE: Want to save this recipe for later? You can take home a downloadable PDF version of this recipe by clicking here.)