Latkes

[cimorene]

The first night of Hanukka used to be my favorite holiday as a kid, mostly because of the feast. My mom made latkes every year and most years she ALSO made challah, and she got me to set the table in the dining room with my grandmother's fancy table cloths and silver candles and then we'd have a huge delicious feast and get one present of significant size, usually equivalent to a birthday present or the main xmas present. The other seven nights of presents were usually pretty small, and I'm sure the whole thing wasn't really necessary since we also celebrated xmas, but otoh maybe dividing the presents is the best way to raise children with both in a background-xtian society, given that children are so present-motivated. But now that I'm an adult, it's the feasts that I remember, just like as an adult it's the xmas family meals that I look forward to.

Anyway, latkes were my favorite, but because they used a combination of very sharp knives, food processors, and deep frying in oil, I didn't really help with them much, so I didn't end up learning to make them (didn't have the foresight to learn to make them, more like)... Wax and I have tried to make them from my mother's recipe and from more detailed ones we found online or with videos more than once. We're not really comfortable with deep frying at all, or even shallow frying, and so we haven't ever had an unqualified success and we haven't tried it more than... I think three times, or four? In the last 17 years.

We've decided to try again this year. The first night is Sunday and we're free. Also we've been more interested in cooking together recently. The last time we tried it was probably 10 years ago though.

Comments

[buddleia]

I used to be super nervous about deep frying until I tried it in a wok style pan, mostly because the chance of a fire is much lower and that’s my personal bugbear about deep frying. I think I saw too many warnings about pans catching fire - deep frying fires along with unexpected quicksand have been much less of a factor in my life than childhood impressions would have me believe.

(Having said that I have been at home when someone else’s pan suddenly caught fire. We slid a plate across the top, turned off the heat and watched it warily until it cooled down)

[buddleia]

Oh, and happy Hanukkah!

[cimorene]

When I was about 14 the pan caught fire when my parents were trying a recipe for Seminole (?) fry bread. It got dropped on the floor and burned a hole through the linoleum and the floor had to be replaced and both my parents got splashed with burning oil and had to go to the emergency room, and neither one of them could drive for a few weeks. After that they bought a deep fryer. We don't have one though.

I do cook with a wok, but I've never made anything in one with enough oil that I would characterize as deep frying.

[torachan]

Good luck!

Latkes are the best. I don't mind the frying (I'm pretty decent at it) but the shredding kills me. (The box mix ones are not the same, though.)

[laurenthemself]

Wishing you every success with this iteration of latkes!