For over 50 years, Elayne Lever has been making latkes for her family.
At 84 years old, she uses a recipe that was passed down from her mother and has cooked them each Hanukkah for her 4 Daughters, then 3 son-in-laws, which led to 9 grandchildren, 3 in-law grandchildren and now 2 great-grandchildren.
Pronounced ‘latkeys’ or ‘latkahs,’ these Jewish potato pancakes can be made various ways– from thick and soft to thin and crispy. Elayne prefers hers on the thinner side; crispy at the edges with a softer center.
For those of you who have never experienced a latke, it’s as if a hashbrown and shoestring potatoes had a flat, clumpy lovechild that was fried. While this description may not sound appealing, trust me, Elayne’s are delicious. The outside has a bit of a crunch until 2 bites in when you get to the dense center.
Even though it’s not Hanukkah, Elayne made latkes for me because my little sister Julie requested them. She wants to learn the recipe, plus she just really loves Elayne’s latkes. Married to Elayne’s grandson, Michael, Julie and Elayne share a love of reading, Jewish food, and also follow a similar somewhat-restricted diet (more on that below). I’ve spent time with Elayne at our annual Thanksgiving get-together, but this is my first time visiting her house and definitely my first time eating her latkes.
Elayne started by peeling the potatoes and cutting out the blemishes. She recommends using hard potatoes so they are not too watery when you grate them. Russets, Idahos are good. Avoid the yellow yukon golds or ones like that. “You want solid, hard potatoes,” she said. In general, she loves the skin of potatoes, but doesn’t include it in this recipe. She has always, always peeled the potatoes and has never eaten a latke made with unpeeled potatoes. After peeling each one, she keeps it in cold water so it doesn’t turn brown.
Called ‘Gram Elayne’ by her grandkids, the first thing you notice about her kitchen is that it is filled with pictures of her family. Almost every possible inch of space on her refrigerator door has pictures of babies, weddings, vacations and family get-togethers. What space is left is filled with drawings from her great-grandkids.
Over her sink hangs another set of family photos. A third set in frames can be found on her kitchen counters. More than anything else, Elayne values family and traditions. She thinks that nowadays, these are things that have disappeared in some people and they don’t realize what they are missing.
“I love our modern life,” she says. “We have advantages that definitely our parents never had but there are things that are somehow being missed along the way.” On a small shelf by her kitchen table sits photos of President Obama and Vice-President Biden. Elayne’s feelings about the Obamas tie into how much she values her family.
“I apprecicate our new administration. They are so obvious that they are a down to earth, loving family and good parents and I think we’ve missed that completely,” said Elayne. “The personal touch with [the Obama family] is so good that it makes you feel good. Even when I watch them together it makes me feel good.
Hopefully that’s a turnaround for our society and a lot of young people will see that and say ‘hey it’s not so bad to be that way’ because kids think it’s not cool. When I hear them say that I think, ‘what’s not cool about loving your family?”
While discussing her feelings about the current administration, Elayne begins to chop the potatoes up into more manageable chunks. If one of her son-in-laws was here to help, then the potatoes would be grated by hand. If not, then she relies on a food processor. It’s easier to feed the potatoes into the processor if they are in chunks, hence the chopping.
The processor turns the potatoes into thin slices the size of matchsticks. “It’s okay if the potatoes turn brown at this point, don’t worry,” said Elayne, “they’re going to get brown when you fry them up.”
Elayne eats really healthy. She hasn’t eaten red meat in over 30 years and has also cut down on wheat and dairy. She credits this diet for helping her through some arthritis pain. She doesn’t eat pork, lamb or shellfish either. She has cut down on her sugar intake and also doesn’t use salt & pepper because of her health but wanted me to add to the recipe that you can put in a pinch of salt and pepper if you like. She uses garlic, onion and onion powder instead.
After chopping a yellow onion into quarters, she then grated it directly into the shredded potatoes. “You don’t want to overpower it with the onion, it just adds a bit of flavor,” Elayne recommends. She doesn’t really measure the amount of onion added to the recipe. “Use as little or as much as you like, according to your taste preferences.”
2-3 cloves of chopped garlic were added after the onion. Then, she mixed in one egg and one tablespoon of garlic powder. Whole wheat pastry flour was pulled out of the refrigerator and 1-2 tablespoons were mixed in. This helps mold the potatoes together without making it heavy. Add the flour in a little at a time while stirring. You don’t want to add too much. If the mixture stills seems a bit wet, add a little more flour.
Learning to cook first from her mother and later her mother-in law, Elayne grew up in the Bronx and attended high school in Manhattan. During her senior year of high school, she learned how to create punchcards for computers. This proved to be fortuitous because when World War II broke out she went to work full time for the war department in downtown NYC. Working out of an office on Wall Street, she made $170-$180/month with the war department making punchcards until the war was over.
Elayne married in ’46. She and her husband lived on the same block growing up and he was friends with her older brother. When they got married they moved to Long Island. Her husband was originally a diamond cutter, but then became a salesman of photo equipment.
He took a job doing sales in Pittsburgh, then they moved him back to Long Island, then to Bowie, MD. Elayne thought it was wonderful in Bowie. She loved it. “In those days, Annapolis was a sleepy town,” she said. Unfortunately, her husband passed away after only 31 years of marriage. Elayne took over his business and became a traveling photo-equipment saleswoman. She did this for 6-7 years before quitting to manage the bookkeeping for her son-in-law Gary’s flight school. This job lasted for 17 years at which point Gary closed the school and Elayne retired.
Her idea of retired means helping out with the bookkeeping for Gary’s newest venture, a fantastic landscaping and stonescaping company (http://www.landscapingbydesign.com).
Going to the garage to get an electric frying pan, Elayne explains that she uses it because it more evenly disperses the heat. She adds enough canola oil to fill the frying pan–only about 1/4 inch up from the bottom. She turned the pan on high to heat up the oil and then lowered the heat to medium to start frying. The oil shouldn’t be too hot or the latkes will get burnt. If the latkes are starting to burn around the edges, turn down the heat on the oil.
She lined a plate with paper-towels and told me that I’ll know the latkes are done when they start to get crispy, but before they get burned.
Testing the oil with a little bit of potato, it sizzled gently, smelling like french fries. Then, she scooped a tablespoon of the latke mixture and put it into the hot oil. Elayne said it doesn’t need to be formed into patties. The latke will spread out a bit when it gets into the oil.
Each latke cooked for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes per side until it turned golden brown. Elayne recommends only putting a few latkes in to fry at once. If you put too many in at the same time, it will cool the oil down.
She tastes the first latke or two to make sure it was well seasoned. One key is that if you are going to add more seasoning at this point, add more of a dry ingredient like garlic powder. Then your latkes won’t be too wet for frying. When the latke is done cooking, she put it on the paper-towel-lined plate. Note: If you are making a large batch for a party, you can keep them warm in the oven while you finish frying the rest.
It should also be noted that Elayne is indefatigable. I asked her several times if she wanted to sit down and take a break. She only agreed once (out of my 4 requests). By the time we were finished, I was exhausted and Elayne seemed to be getting her second wind. This second wind is important because Elayne suffers from atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. The entire time we cooked, Elayne wore an oxygen tube in her nose that snaked down to the floor, out the kitchen door and around the corner where you could hear the constant hum of a portable oxygen machine.
Preferring to innovate rather than use a recipe, Elayne cooked this entire dish from memory, moving seamlessly from ingredient to ingredient. What measurements you see in the ingredient list below are from my observations of her cooking. Gram Elayne is one smart cookie. Her hobbies include reading (mostly mysteries and generic fiction), solving puzzles (sudoku, crosswords, etc), and playing around on the computer. For her 84th birthday, her family all chipped in and got her a Kindle. She’s a member of the Brandeis book club and has recently acquired a fondness for female authors.
As we waited for Michael and Gary to join us for a late lunch, Julie, Elayne and I sat down to enjoy some latkes. We ate ours with a side of sugar-free applesauce. Elayne explained that latkes are commonly served with either applesauce or sour cream. Whichever one you choose is up to your taste preference and/or your level of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws). For Jewish people who keep kosher, mixing milk and meat in the same meal is not allowed. Therefore, if you are serving brisket at Hanukkah, you would serve the laktes with applesauce so you don’t mix the meat with a dairy like the sour cream. Julie recommends using applesauce in general just because it’s sweeter.
The latkes are excellent. Cooked perfectly, the borders were crunchy and the inside was the perfect mixture of cooked potatoes with applesauce on top. Always generous and thinking of others, Elayne suggested that I save some for my husband Kevin who would be driving down to join us later that evening. These latkes were too good to save. I told her I’d make the recipe for him some other time and happily ate his share as well.
Lessons learned:
-Don’t put potato skins in the garbage disposal because it ruins the disposal
-Also don’t put the leftover oil in the garbage disposal because that ruins it too
-Elayne said, ‘don’t be afraid to use your hands when you cook. You get the feel of everything’
-Be careful not to over-fry or the latkes will get dried out
-This is a great one-bowl recipe–not too many dishes
-It’s difficult to get close to shoot something frying without getting little drops of oil on my lens. Luckily I had a filter on so it was just a matter of cleaning that
-Flip the latkes away from yourself so the oil doesn’t spatter in your direction
-I can eat 10 latkes in one sitting
Ingredients:
(yields approx 30 latkes)
-4 potatoes
-1 yellow onion
-2-3 cloves of garlic
-1-2 tablespoons of flour
-1 egg
-1 tablespoon garlic powder
-2-3 cups of Canola oil
-1 jar of applesauce (to be served with the latkes)
Recipe:
The main recipe is in the story above. Here’s the bulleted version:
-First step is to peel the potatoes and then cut the blemishes out.
-Need hard potatoes so they are not too watery when you grate them. Russets, Idahos are good. Not the yellow yukon golds or ones like that. You want solid, hard potatoes.
-Have always peeled the potatoes–never have eaten a latke that had unpeeled potatoes. She loves the skin of potatoes, but doesn’t include it in this recipe.
-Keep the peeled potatoes in cold water so they don’t turn brown.
-Two ways to grate potatoes, old fashioned grater or food processor. If using a processor, chop the potatoes up into large chunks to fit into the machine.
-Process the potatoes into thin slices the size of matchsticks.
-It’s okay if the potatoes turn brown at this point, but don’t worry, they’re going to get brown when you fry them up.
-You can put in a pinch of salt and pepper if you like. Or, you can do what Gram Elayne does and use 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1 grated yellow onion and approx 1 tablespoon onion powder instead.
-Mix in one egg.
-Mixes in 1-2 tablespoons of flour, adding it in a little at a time while mixing. You don’t want to add too much. If the potatoes look too wet, add a little more flour.
-Use an electric frying pan because it better controls the heat.
-Add enough canola oil to fill the frying pan only about 1/4 inch from the bottom.
-Put the pan on high to heat up the oil and then lower the heat to medium when you are going to start frying. The oil shouldn’t be too hot or the latkes will get burnt. If the latkes are starting to burn around the edges, turn down the heat on the oil.
-Line a plate with papertowels. As the latkes are ready, put them on the lined plate. You’ll know the latkes are done when they start to get crispy, but before they get burned.
-Test the oil with a little bit of potato. It should sizzle and fry gently.
-Scoop a tablespoon of the latke mixture and put it into the hot oil. It doesn’t need to be formed into patties. The latke will spread out a bit when it gets into the oil.
-Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes per side until it turns golden brown.
-Don’t put too many in to the oil at once or it will cool the oil down.
These are served with either applesauce or sour cream. Elayne says you could also use the same mixture to make a potato kugel. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray, fill it with the potato mixture. Bake it until the top gets brown and crisp.
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