Pancakes: Need Recipe for potatoe pancakes

Subject: Need Recipe for potatoe pancakes
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: eoliver44 at aol.com (Eoliver44)
Date: 11 Nov 1998 13:29:01 GMT
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When my Mom passed away last month she took with her the recipe for the best potatoe pancakes I've ever eaten.
I'd like suggestions on how to make them.
Here is what I think I know about them thus far:

Shred onions
Shred potatoes (boiled?)
mix in flour (how much)
milk (?)

make a batter and cook quickly in a skillet.

That's all I can piece together. Please fill in the gaps or add a new way to make them.

Thanks all.
From: rania at san.rr.com (Rania Merkel)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 20:37:06 GMT
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The LA Times had a feature on latkes once; here's the potato pancakes you requested plus a few "different" latkes.

Perfect Potato Latkes

Recipe By: LA Times
Serving Size: 12
Categories: Vegeterian Entrees

4 baking potatoes peeled
1 large onion grated
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 medium eggs
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
pinch baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper
oil for frying

Grate potatoes using food processor or fine shredder. Immediately transfer to large bowl, and add onion, lemon juice, eggs, flour, baking soda, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Heat 1/8 inch oil in 4-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Ladle batter into hot oil with large spoon, and flatten latkes with back of spoon. Cook on 1 side just until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, then turn and cook other side. Turn once only. Drain well on paper towels, and serve immediately, plain or with topping of choice.
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Thick and creamy Potato latkes

Recipe By: Cook's Illustrated
Serving Size: 14
Categories: Vegeterian Entrees

2 pounds potatoes peeled
1 medium yellow onion peeled and chopped
1 large egg
4 medium scallions minced
3 tablespoons parsley minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
ground black pepper
1 cup vegetable oil

Grate potatoes in a food processor fitted with coarse shredding blade. Place half potatoes in fine mesh sieve over medium bowl and reserve. Fit food processor with steel blade, add onions, and pulse with remaining potatoes until all pieces measure about 1/8 inch and look coarsely chopped, 5 to 6 second pulses. Mix with reserved potato shreds in sieve and press against sieve to drain as much liquid as possible into bowl below. Let potato liquid stand until starch settles to bottom, about 1 minute. Pour off liquid, leaving starch in bowl. Beat egg, then potato mixture and remaining ingredients (except oil) into starch.

Meanwhile, heat 1/4 inch depth of oil in 12 inch skillet until shimmering, but not smoking. Working one at a time, place 1/4 cup potato mixture, squeezed of excess liquid and pressed into 1/2 inch disc, in oil. Press with nonstick spatula; repeat until 5 latkes are in pan.

Maintaining heat so fat bubbles around latke edges, fry until golden brown on bottom and edges, about 3 minutes. Turn with spatula and continue frying until golden brown all over, about 3 minutes more. Drain on a triple thickness of paper towels. Repeat with remaining potato mixture.
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Red Pepper Latkes

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 8
Categories: Vegeterian Entrees

2 bell peppers roasted
1 shallot finely chopped
olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
salt
black pepper
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
3 eggs separated
2 tablespoons chives minced
8 sprigs cilantro leaves only

Chop 1 bell pepper into small dice. Set aside. Cut remaining bell pepper in half. Cut 1 half into very thin strips. Mince other half almost to consistency of puree, and set aside. Saute corn, diced bell pepper, bell pepper strips and shallot in 1 tablespoon olive oil and butter 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in whipping cream. Simmer over medium-low heat 15 minutes. Set aside. Sift flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt into bowl. Stir in milk and egg yolks. Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold into egg yolk mixture. Fold in reserved minced peppers. Lightly brush skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat until drop of water sizzles. Spoon or pour 3-inch latkes into skillet and cook over medium heat, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

To serve, place warm pepper-and-corn sauce on each plate and top with 2 latkes. Garnish with chives and cilantro.
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Ricotta Latkes

Recipe By: LA Times
Serving Size: 30
Categories: Breakfast Vegeterian Entrees

15 ounces part-skim ricotta cheese
4 medium eggs
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
vegetable cooking spray
jam optional
vanilla yogurt optional
sour cream optional

Process ricotta, eggs, flour, butter, sugar and vanilla in food processor or blender, in batches if necessary and scraping down sides of container few times during processing, until batter is smooth and consistency of thick cream. (Batter will be thinner than most pancake batters.) Preheat griddle or large skillet over medium heat, and brush lightly with butter.

Spoon 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons batter for each pancake onto preheated griddle. When few bubbles have risen to surface and bottoms are golden brown (pancakes will not rise), about 2 minutes, turn once and cook briefly on second side just until golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Serve pancakes with jam, applesauce, yogurt, sour cream or other pancake accompaniment of choice.
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Sweet Potato Latkes

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 4
Categories: Vegeterian Entrees

1 3/4 pounds sweet potatoes peeled
1 onion
5 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/3 cup flour
oil
1 1/3 cups applesauce optional

Grate sweet potatoes and onion in food processor with grating disk or through large holes of hand grater. Transfer to large bowl. Beat egg whites lightly with salt and pepper and add to potato mixture. Mix well. Add flour and mix well. Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat in heavy nonstick 10- to 12-inch skillet. Fill 1/4-cup measure with mixture, pressing to compact, and turn out in mound in skillet. Quickly repeat for 3 more latkes. Flatten each with back of spoon to form 2 1/2- to 3-inch cake and press to compact. Cook 1 1/2 minutes per side. Remove to nonstick baking sheet with slotted spatula. Continue with remaining batter, adding a little more oil to pan and stirring batter for each batch.

Bake at 450 degrees until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Turn over and bake 5 more minutes. Serve hot with applesauce if desired.
From: A.Ferszt (a.ferszt at not.ic.ac.uk)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 15:46:48 -0800
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Nearly there. Potatoes used normally raw, but there are variations with cooked ones. Need an egg and some salt.

Mix grated onions and potatoes with egg and salt (nutmeg too in my family). Add enough flour to form thick batter. Try frying a bit to see how the texture goes. If thinning is needed, I use water rather than milk, but I suppose milk's OK (unless you're planning on serving them with a meat dish and you keep kosher).
From: lizard3 at ix.netcom.com (Julie)
Date: 12 Nov 1998 01:11:12 GMT
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First - I think there might be a recipe on the Manischewitz matzoh meal box that is a lot of Moms' recipe.

I don't have a recipe per se, but here's how I make them

Peel 4 medium potatoes, placing the peeled ones in a bowl of cold water to cover to prevent browning.

Grate potatoes into large mixing bowl. Grating the potato correctly is the key. You do NOT want to shred them cause then you end up with hash brown latkes, not real latkes. You want to turn them into mush.

My mom uses her food processer to turn them into mush by cutting them into smallish pieces and mushing them with the steel knife. You can also shred them first, then use the steel knife to mush the potato. The food processor mush is satisfactory.

The absolute best way to grate potatoes for latkes (IMHO) is by using a small grater that is nothing but a rectangular frame strung criss cross fashion with sharp edged wire. Lay this remarkable and hard-to-find grater across a bowl, cut the potatoes into halves or quarters and rub them across this grater. WARNING: this grater is partial to knuckles and finger tips and fingernails. Don't try to grate down to a teeny weeny piece of potato...waste a little and save your knuckles.

The grater method is especially suited for small batches of latkes (a couple of dozen).

Once the potato is grated, tip the bowl and try to drain off any water that has separated out of the taters. Then take an onion and grate a few tablepoons into the potato. I like to mush the onion or use the same grater that I used for the potatoes. Stir well.

Add one beaten egg and mix well. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of matzo meal. Matzo meal is great because it is already cooked, so you don't get a raw taste in the latkes, and it absorbs lots of liquid. Add salt to taste (1/2 teaspoon is good) and a few grinds of pepper.

Place by large spoonfuls in a frying pan with about 1/2 - 3/4 inch hot oil. Do not use canola oil as it smokes at a low temperature (I learned the hard way). Cook a 5 minutes per side, about. Each batch cooks differently.