I make latkes the wrong way, as you’ll see, but latkes always feel right as people crowd into the kitchen and surreptitiously select one from the growing pile, volunteering to grate potatoes for the next batch. This is an excellent reason to keep potatoes on hand and just the thing for happy hours in lazy late winter afternoons with visiting friends.

Recipe: (for 2 as a side, multiply as necessary) Peel one large russet potato, grate with microplane into bowl. Pour off juice. Finely dice 1/2 small onion, add to bowl. Stir in one tablespoon of flour, one egg. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil until shimmering in pan over med-high heat. Add batter and spread thinly; brown each side (~3 min/side). Rest very briefly on paper towels, then plate, sprinkle with salt, top with sour cream or applesauce. These are best made in batches for friends that have become family in a boisterous kitchen.

reading recommendation: Organic Furniture Cellar, Jessica Smith

listening recommendation: “The Chanukah Song” series, Adam Sandler

latke wallpaper on Flickr

drink pairing: raw mlik or a plummy red wine

salt recommendation: Hawaiian red

Latkes? Raggmunk? How do you like your potato pancakes?

1. John Jackson:
   December 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

   I know you said not to (and since we’re already doing things the wrong way =) but I’ve been looking for ways to reuse bacon grease. We manage to fry bacon at least once a week around here. I’ll give it a try and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the recipe!

2. Kristen:
   December 18th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

   You know I’ll support that, John! Let us know–hard to imagine it will be anything but an excellent habit :) Hope your holidays are wonderful—

3. David Sasaki:
   December 18th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   LOL@ the listening recommendation. :)

4. Kristen:
   December 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

   D, I need an Oso music recommendation for latkes. (My first thought was the “Taxi” theme.) I did recommend the Postmarks for the last episode—

5. Laura:
   December 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

   even my mom and my grandma disagree re: how to make latkes, so no worries!
   music rec: my new fav israeli singer, Idain Raichel
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idan_Raichel
   he is hott.

6. Kristen:
   December 19th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

   very good to hear that, Laura!

   And mmm, what a delicious music rec, thank you–

7. Phil:
   December 20th, 2008 at 9:19 pm

   You had me at “bugie kitchen tooll”, I love those! Clicked through from flickr while I was trying to figure out ways to promote my latest blog post. Shout-out to John Jackson up there saving his bacon fat! Keep saving, and think ‘confit’ my friend!

8. Kristen:
   December 20th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

   Phil, glad you found this post, and John is quite the cook. I’m with you on the confit :) and your recent FGTBLT is great—

9. David Sasaki:
   December 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   My recommendation would be Festival of Lights by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

10. Kristen:
    December 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 am

    Inspired, David. Nicely done.

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Posted Thursday, December 18th, 2008, 7:59 am * Filed in Entertaining, Food, Video. * Tags: cooking, cooks, Food, holiday, kitchen, kristen, kthread, latke, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.