Help with Potato Latkes

As I think I’ve mentioned before, my Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer last July, so I’ve been cooking different comfort foods for her to make meals easier for her. One thing I know she really likes are potato latkies (one of her neighbors makes them, but only once a year) so I was thinking about making them. I’ve never made them before, so I thought I’d ask about making them here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I plan on making them and then using my food saver to seal them up so she can reheat them later. I've found and read several different recipes but what I'd like is real experience with making them so any advice would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

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10-12 Latkes

3 cups of raw potatoes, shredded and drained
1/2 onion, diced (to taste-- personally, I would use a whole small onion)
1 tsp salt
2 T flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Drain the potatoes after shredding, in a fine mesh colander, and or by squeezing in a towel.
If the onion is watery, pat it dry.
Mix the flour, salt and baking powder, and toss the onions and potatoes with the flour mix.
Beat the eggs a little, and then mix them with the potatoes.

Drop spoonfuls into enough hot oil to cover about halfway, and flatten with a spatula (the oil to cover halfway means, cover halfway after they are flattened)

Fry fairly hot so they brown reasonably fast (not so fast they burn or are raw in the middle, of course).

Flip when the first side is nicely browned.

Place on papertowels to drain; may keep them hot in a warm oven if cooking a lot of them.

Serve with salt, pepper, sour cream and/or applesauce.

Drying the potatoes is key; twisting them in a dishtowel works well, though it is hard on the towel (discoloring). You can adjust the amount of onion-- we like a fair amount. You can add pepper before frying, though we never do, dunno why. Obviously use oil that takes heat well and does not add flavor-- peanut oil or whatever. Frying fairly hot yields nicely browned latkes, which is what we like, though you might ask your mom what her idea of a perfect latke is, and adjust. I see no reason these won't freeze well (and maybe reheat in the toaster oven); we gobble them up too fast for this ever to occur in our house, however.

(Peeling the potatoes is optional, depending on personal preference, but watch out about putting the peels down your garbage disposal; I have had to pay a plumber twice because potato peels really clog disposals. Maybe next year my husband will agree to make them without peeling, which is how I like them.)

I don't have a great recipe, but have you thought about noodle kugel, seems like good food for someone who is not feeling well.

Best wishes to your mother.

A salad spinner is a nice tool for removing liquid from the potatoes. You may wish to line it with cheesecloth -- most salad spinners have pretty big grates.

First, I wish the best of luck and healing to your Mom. And bless you for the time to help her.

Take your favorite recipe, but only fry to a light golden brown, place on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Once frozen, vac in the FS. Enclose a note to defrost, and reheat on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes, then check them. Since they are nicely loaded with fat, they will continue to "fry" on the re-heat. If she has trouble bending for the oven, she can re-heat them in a skillet with minimal grease/oil.

One note though, if she is on chemo, the higher fat content may upset her stomach.

Best wishes to Mom!

Thanks for the tips and kind words. I had been eyeing my salad spinner to dry out the potatoes as I’ve done with frozen/ freshly washed spinach. My Mom isn’t on chemo. At 72 she decided that the cure would be worse than the disease, and I have to agree. It’s a tough decision, but I’d rather have her be able to get up and move around then be stuck in a hospital bed on chemo.
She’s taking a drug called Tarceva, which isn’t a cure, but it keeps the cancer under control. I think her standard of life is much better on the Tarceva then it would be on chemo.