I made two batches of latkes to freeze for Chanukah this month, starting with my go-to recipe, Norene Gilletz’s Easy Potato Latkes.
For the second batch, I wanted to make a gluten-free version. I also wanted to use what I had in the house – two red potatoes, two organic yellow-fleshed potatoes, and a red onion.
For inspiration, I referred to my falling-apart copy of Norene’s classic yellow-covered book The Pleasures of your Processor, specifically the Rich Man’s Potato Latkes recipe – a mix of potatoes, onion, eggs, salt, pepper and nothing else.
I hand-grated the potatoes because I like the texture… but there’s a limit to the number of potatoes I’m willing to grate by hand. I thought about adding some zucchini too, but decided not to.
I used my processor to chop the red onion, and mixed the combined vegetables with salt, pepper and five eggs. Four probably would have worked as well.
Halfway through cooking, I decided to add 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining batter. It was getting hard to work with, and some of the latkes weren’t holding together well. I set aside the gluten-free latkes – to ensure they remained gluten-free – before I started cooking the ones with flour.
On Wednesday, the first night of Chanukah, I snuck a few latkes from the freezer and heated them in the microwave. The rest are safely tucked away in the freezer for this weekend.
Latkes, gluten-free (or not)
4 potatoes
1 sweet potato
1/2 large red onion
4 or 5 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. flour (optional)
canola oil for frying
1. Grate potatoes and sweet potatoes. Place in a strainer, and rinse with cold water in a strainer. Drain well.
2. Process red onion until finely chopped.
3. Combine in mixing bowl and add eggs, salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until bottom and edges are brown, then flip to brown other side. If you like, add 1/4 c. flour to mix before frying last half of batter.
5. Drain on paper towel.
Serve with sour cream or Greek yogourt.
Enjoy!