Latkes – potato pancakes – are traditional fare during the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which this year ends on Dec. 6. Fried foods are symbolic of the small amount of oil that miraculously kept the ancient menorah burning for eight days instead of just one, more than 2,000 years ago.
Each family has its own recipe and think they do it best. Some insist on grating the potatoes by hand while others are content to shred the spuds unceremoniously in a food processor; binding options include egg along with all-purpose flour, potato starch or matzo meal. But all would agree that a latke should be crispy on the outside, with feathery edges, but still soft and full of flavor on the inside.
The key to successful latke making is to fry the pancakes in a neutral oil with a high smoke point, such as vegetable, canola or peanut, and to get the oil pretty hot – between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Otherwise, they’ll soak up the oil instead of simply being fried to a golden brown crunch in it.
You also need to squeeze every last bit of moisture out of the potatoes before adding them to the pan. A clean dish towel or piece of cheesecloth does the trick.
While simple potato latkes are a holiday favorite, it’s also nice to spice up the dish with different flavors. Mexican chef and cookbook author Pati Jinich, who is Jewish (her paternal grandparents immigrated to Mexico from Poland in the early 1900s, and her mother’s Austrian-Czech parents fled the Holocaust), created this recipe in 2013, to celebrate the rare occurrence of Thanksgiving falling on the the first day of Hanukkah. A blend of cultures and cuisines, it features a mix of russet and sweet potatoes, with a little grated apple mixed in for a sweet, acidic note. There’s also a dash of ancho chile powder and cinnamon for the tiniest kiss of heat.