How to Make Unbelievably Crispy Latkes - Recipe & Technique (Hanukkah Potato Pancakes)

Hi , I'm Melissa from little Kosher lunch .

Thank you for joining us .

And as you can see today , we are making Latkes .

Hanukkah is very fast approaching .

Um Although I would say that these lakes are so good , crisp and delicious that you may make them at other times of year as well .

My typical ratio is three very large and long russet potatoes , one onion , one egg .

Um and then I fry in grape seed oil , but you can use another um clean flavorless oil and then I salt mine at the end .

The reason you use a rest of potato is you're gonna get a very consistent potato starch level that works well and gives a crisp black .

You want a really long big potato because my first rule of an excellent Latke is a long strand .

So I have peeled three russet potatoes already .

I have grated one onion already .

I'm gonna set these aside .

I have an egg here .

I have another egg at the ready just in case I feel like I need another egg .

My onion has already been grated .

This is one grated onion on an old fashioned box grater .

I've peeled my potatoes .

I've shredded two of them , but I have one that's hiding in this bowl of cold water and I'm gonna pull it out and I wanna share with you how I like to grade a potato for best results .

When you're forming your little Latke , this is gonna help your Latkes hold together .

Well , and it's a long shred technique .

So you're gonna go this way .

This is the reason I don't use a food processor , which usually cuts the potato the short way .

I'm gonna start grading .

I move my bowl over .

We're gonna stop there because I think I have enough potatoes ready for you .

So I grab my strands as you can see .

They're nice .

They're long , they're not a really short strand .

They're already kind of tangled amongst themselves .

They're really wet .

I'm gonna put them back in the cold water .

So this is at this point , just a bowl of cold water with three peeled and hand shredded potatoes done on the box grater .

So I just tickle them out of my box grater .

Put the rest in .

There's some discoloration as you see , but it doesn't bother me .

I'm gonna set this aside .

OK .

And the next step is um because I don't add any fillers to my Latke .

That's the next um tip for a perfect latke is add as little filler as possible .

Perfect Latke to me is a very pure , pure experience of a crispy , crispy , delicious potato with the flavoring of your onion and the saltiness and crunch when you add your salt that's on the outside .

So , what I do now is we are going to remove the potato strands and I'm gonna leave in this bowl of water , the starch that's left behind and we're gonna let the starch settle as I'm carefully lifting out , squeezing the water , I'm letting the starch , you can see cloudiness .

I'm letting the starch return to the bowl and I'm just gonna put my strands off to the side in this colander .

They're gonna maybe drip and um dry out a little more .

OK ?

So I'm just squeezing it out with my , with my little fist and I'm gonna run my fingers through .

I already feel a little layer of starch forming at the bottom .

It'll probably take 3 to 5 minutes .

Maybe you can give it even longer for the starch to really settle and you'll see a layer of white at the bottom of your bowl .

So I'm gonna just press , press a little bit in my calendar , dust off my hands .

I'm gonna let my oil come up to temperature , which is in a cast iron skillet .

It's gonna slowly keep the skillet .

Ok ?

It's still a little bit cloudy .

Um But because I want to get on with these , I think it's good enough that I can see about a quarter to a half an inch of the white starch that has formed at the bottom are you able to see that ?

All right .

So now I take my bowl over the sink and I'm gonna very gently and slowly pour out the water running over the edge .

Not too quickly but really slowly so that the starch at the bottom isn't disturbed .

All right .

Put my potatoes back in .

Now , they're really nice and dry .

Even though our water turned pink , our potatoes are still white and nice looking .

This is pretty nice and dry .

Once I add my onion , it has some juice , I'm just gonna add the whole thing and we're going to squeeze these lakes again .

Ok .

So we have one shredded onion , three shredded long strand , shred potatoes , one egg .

And I'm just gonna mix them and incorporate the potato starch from the bottom .

The potato starch is that binder instead of flour , like many people add to their lakes .

So I'm gonna just use my final technique that I'm gonna show you today , uh , which is a tangle and squeeze technique to form my little lake .

And this is gonna remind you of a hair ball that you find in your drain in the shower .

Um The reason we made these long strands is that they're gonna tangle really , really well , like a little tingle of hair .

And when I put them in the palm of my hand , which is the size of Latke that I like , you're then gonna tangle them so that they hold together really nicely press them to squeeze out additional moisture .

And this is your perfect Latke that you throw into your pan of shimmery hot oil .

You will need to add oil , um , over the course of making a full bowl of Latkes .

Um , so I keep my oil handy and I have a cookie sheet ready that's lined with paper towels to receive the cooked Latkes .

Ok .

All right .

So testing with a piece of potato , it looks great .

I'm gonna form a show you how it goes .

So we have this little guy we've tangled .

I pressed any additional liquid out just back in the bowl , no matter what , you know , just tangle it up , squeeze that extra bit of moisture out and call , this is pretty nice and golden .

It could go even a little bit further .

Another way that you can tell that your Latke has um given off a lot of its moisture and the potato is very cooked is when you see fewer bubbles happening .

So I kind of watch and I see vigorous bubbling here .

That means that the , there's a lot of moisture cooking out and sort of boiling out of your Latke and your potato .

And then as that settles down and is a little bit less enthusiastic bubbling .

Then you know that your Latke is getting more cooked and is really just turning golden .

You don't want it to go too far .

So this one is quieted down .

These are getting ready to be turned still lots of , lots of liquid in those potatoes to cook again .

I said these refrigerate .

Really ?

Well , you can also just leave them out if you're doing them late night or early morning before an event .

And , um , you can freeze them if you're doing them even further in advance and then warm them in a 200 to 250 degree oven .

I'm gonna flip and then I'm gonna take some of these out and let them cool on a towel .

You can look at them better after they've drained and cooled .

Ok .

So now our lakes are here and they're gonna be draining .

I like to give them a little hit of salt while they're cooling and having the , um , oil absorbed by the paper towel here .

They need to cool a little bit and look how golden they are .

These are the most fantastic crispy Latkes .

They are creamy in the center crisp and shaggy on the outsides .

Lakes are very *** food for Hanukkah .

They're also a very egotistical and important food for a mother to make for her family or whoever is cooking in your family .

These are the lakes that everyone is going to talk about at the party .

I'm Melissa from little kosher lunch .

Thank you so much for your time and you're learning with me today and Happy Hanukkah .