I don't love frying things to begin with, but combine that with having to stand over the stove and watch the latkes fry and I am really not happy. But I do it every year and the kids were expecting it and Josh loves latkes and if I didn't do it, guilt, guilt and more guilt would have been on the menu Friday night. Not any actual guilt from anyone, just the ever-present mommy guilt that runneth over the top of my super-big-gulp-sized-cup.
One Big Chanukah Latke:
7 medium potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
1 medium onion
1 tbsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup matzah meal
Grate the potatoes and onion in the food processor, almost to the point of pureeing it. Add the eggs, salt and matzah meal and mix well. Heat three tablespoons of oil in a big frying pan over high heat. Pour the whole mixture into the frying pan. When you see and/or hear the oil sizzling around the edges of the potato mixture, lower the heat to a medium-low flame. Don't cover the pan. Let the latke cook for a good 30-minutes, until it's pretty brown and crunchy on the bottom. Then flip it over, add more oil to the pan and let the second side cook for another 30-minutes or until crunchy.
Here's the thing, flipping that latke is not as simple as just tossing a latke in the air and saying aaieoo. It's a whole operation. I didn't have a plate big enough to flip the latke onto so I covered a cookie sheet with foil, sprayed it with pam and, with oven mitts, covered the frying pan with the cookie sheet and flipped the whole thing over. Then I kind of slid the latke back into pan by pushing it with a spoon. It more or less fit back in with a just a little maneuvering needed.