Latkies - the Stagger Family way [Pics]

When my parents split when I was 6 there were a few decisions that had to be made that were not easy for all involved. Who would get the kid, me of course (I heard they argued for days over this and my father finally won out... I lived with my Mom for the next 8 years ), who would get the dog, the house, and, most importantly, the latkie graters. You see my family did not use your standard box grater to shred our potatoes and onions. We had, we thought at the time, 2 prized graters that made a prefect chunky mash of said spuds and onion. One to my Mom and one to my Dad. Upon coming of age I lobbied each side for a grater of my own.... to no avail...

Well as it turned out when my father moved into his current house a few years ago he found, Ta-Da!, a 3rd latkie grater! Finally! My own [insert evil laugh here]. It is difficult to describe what this device looks like so here are a few pictures to help.

Latkie grater shot 1:



Latkie grater shot 2:



As you can see, the metal strips interlock in a corrugated manner that really breaks down the structure of the potato and onion somewhere between box grater slices and less than a blender. The largest benefit is that it allows the resulting mixture to retain body and texture (as opposed to simply mush) but allows you to get nearly every drop of water out.

Grating potatoes and onion






With the potatoes and onions grated and the water removed, a couple of beaten eggs, a half tsp of baking powder, S&P, and a few tbl spoons of flour are added and the mixture is fried off in peanut oil in a cast iron skillet till golden brown.



Finally, the only thing left to do is pack these lovely, crispy nuggets of Jewish comfort food love and bring them to a house load of my closest goyim friends and try to explain how these could possibly be better than "hash browns". Being truly egalitarian I supplied both sour cream (yay!) and apple sauce (boo!)



Seriously, I have never been able to duplicate the latkies that this particular type pf grater can make. It is a true taste of my youth. If anyone ever sees the type of grater shown in the pictures above make sure to not only get once for your self post haste, but also grab a second or 4 and drop me a PM.... you know... just in case I ever have kids!

Stagger wrote:If anyone ever sees the type of grater shown in the pictures above make sure to not only get once for your self post haste, but also grab a second or 4 and drop me a PM.... you know... just in case I ever have kids!

Here you go: Kuchenprofi Potato Grater.

Rene G wrote:

Stagger wrote:If anyone ever sees the type of grater shown in the pictures above make sure to not only get once for your self post haste, but also grab a second or 4 and drop me a PM.... you know... just in case I ever have kids!

Here you go: Kuchenprofi Potato Grater.

LOL...well, that only took about 45 minutes! You gotta love LTH.

Rene G wrote:

Stagger wrote:If anyone ever sees the type of grater shown in the pictures above make sure to not only get once for your self post haste, but also grab a second or 4 and drop me a PM.... you know... just in case I ever have kids!

Here you go: Kuchenprofi Potato Grater.

Thanks Rene G! I've been looking for one of these since my Bubbe died and hers went to a cousin.

You can get one here, too. Vermont Country Store And it's cheaper.

Found one right off the bat on ebay too The Original Acme Safety Grater. Love the name!

You can buy the whole catalog (unfortunately not including the grater!) here

Or, for more fun, The ORIGINAL Illustrated Catalog of ACME Products

The overriding question in my mind is whether or not this medieval-looking device removes more ( or less ) knuckle skin than a traditional box grater.

chgoeditor wrote:LOL...well, that only took about 45 minutes! You gotta love LTH.

Though I come from a long line of box grater latke makers, thanks to Staggers praise, and great looking latkes, I have my Kuchenprofi Potato Grater on the way.

Stagger wrote:Latkie grater shot 1:

I may be an atheist, but I think the proper spelling is "latke"
Jamie

Jamieson22 wrote:

Stagger wrote:Latkie grater shot 1:

I may be an atheist, but I think the proper spelling is "latke"
Jamie

Jamie, you little meshuggena! Google produces references to shallow fried potato based pancakes with either "latke" or Latkie". Nevertheless, I do always look forward to getting my posts back with the little red X's and circles on them!

Diannie wrote:You can get one here, too. Vermont Country Store And it's cheaper.

This one looks to be of high quality. If anyone is interested in putting an order in, drop me a PM so that, if there are enough we can cut down on shipping costs. Also I'd be happy to have another fumigating of my house with peanut oil, potato, and onion when they come in!

I bought my latke grater at Freehling Pot and Pan Company on 53rd St. in Hyde Park. Call ahead; I got mine a few years ago.

My grater from Vermont Country Stores arrived yesterday, so I made latkes today. Good news, bad news:

Good news: although this grater required more elbow grease than a box grater, the texture of the resulting latkes was the best I've ever made. Even without the obligatory bleeding of the knuckles ritual, I was most pleased.

Bad news: the pressure I had to apply to get the potatoes to grate exceeded the strength of the grater's welds; the grater started to come apart during the first use. I guess this new toy is going back to Vermont Country Stores. What a pain! Maybe a case of "you get what you pay for"?

Bill/SFNM

This year's latkes I actually listened to my own advice:
1) Grate a batch in food processor
2) Place in strainer, squeeze
3) Grate again in food processor, resulting in pieces about 1/4" long max
4) Strain again
Added less egg, a little more flour than usual -- they came out perfect.

5lbs spuds, 3 eggs, about 1/4C flour, salt pepper, 3tsp baking powder, 2/3 lb Crisco

I was so impressed with the latke pictures I ordered the grater from the Vermont place. It came and I looked forward to some great potato pancakes.

I grabbed the potato, rubbed it vigorously and - very slowly - produced a small amount of sort of potato sawdust. I rubbed it along the length, on the other side of the thing, and then sideways. Got a little more potato sawdust.

I tried the onion - more watery shreds. Looked like it would take two hours to use up the onion.

What am I doing wrong? I'm not Jewish. Could this be the problem?

The advantage over these graters over the box style is that it allows you to get the majority of the water out (water = the enemy of crispy, of course). We made another batch down here at my mothers so I have some more pics. Basically when you are done grating the potato and onion you need to strain out the liquid. Typically we use a fine colander first then a cheesecloth. After that you add egg, Matzo Meal, baking powder, and seasoning.

Purifying the elements:



The grating:



One oil to rule them all:



In progress:



Why you came:

Stagger,
Those latkes are gorgeous.
I think the rule you should use when judging if you're doing them right is shape: If they resemble geometrical figures, you've got them too finely minced. If they resemble hash browns they're too coarse.

If they resemble Antarctica or Australia (other continents acceptable), they're just right.

This is exactly what my Polish grandmother used to make potato pancakes. Not wanting to go through the work or grated knuckles myself, I have found that you can use a food processor to achieve the same "mushy" potato texture that makes these unique. You grate the potatoes with the grater attachment, then put the grated potatoes in the bowl with the other chopping attachment- pretty much the same as I remember. I also use yukon gold potatoes that never seem to brown or discolor. An egg, some flour, a small pinch of baking powder and they are done- we do not strain the liquid out for these potato pancakes. I prefer mine with sugar, like my grandmother ate them, with apple sauce and sour cream too....or savory with salt and sour cream.

You can then take that mixture a step further to make potato kluski- add loads more flour until it is dough like (still wet though), drop in spoonfuls in boiling water. Take them out when they float, and saute in a load of fried onions and butter.........delish!

There is a major difference in quality between the grater sold by Vermont Country Store and the Kuchenprofi one. The one from Vermont is flimsy and started to come apart during my very first use. I sent it back and ordered the Kuchenprofi which just arrived. The weight difference is telling:

Vermont: 120g
Kuchenprofi: 172g

Bill/SFNM

this all looks so tantalizing! i'm going to make them a wine club party my friend is having. can i get your recipes pretty please?

Check the recipe index under "pancakes" for a number of latke recipes.

LTH,

Its one of my favorite times of year, Latke Time!

Couldn't find the grater Stagger generously gifted me so went with a standard box grater. Onion, garlic, russet potato, matzo meal, egg, pinch of baking powder, salt/pepper and, just because it was on the counter, carrot. Turned out very well, but I am of the opinion it is hard to screw up latkes unless you either under cook or burn them.

Latkes



I am happy to eat latkes just about any way you can think of, went traditional today with a twist, apples sauce on one, sour cream, capers and lox on the others. Not just any ol' lox, but lox Ronnie_Suburban made, and the man knows his way around a salmon.

Latkes two ways



Enjoy,
Gary

Made a batch of latkes to ring in the new year. I'm a latke minimalist: tiny amount of of grated onion, unpeeled russets run through the coarse side of the box grater, ring out in a kitchen towel like a madman, salt, pepper, sprinkle with a bit of flour and a touch of egg, then haphazardly dropped into hot peanut oil and flattened with a spatula.


Latkes, Kennyz style:


These crispy guys got topped with creme fraiche and caviar. Not bad at all.

We topped our goykies the same way, what a way to do it! (Alternate name for the dish: "cholesterol: three ways.") I found that Marketplace on Oakton is selling a house-brand of creme fraiche, but it's labeled "Russian Sour Cream."

Kennyz wrote:Made a batch of latkes to ring in the new year. I'm a latke minimalist: tiny amount of of grated onion, unpeeled russets run through the coarse side of the box grater, ring out in a kitchen towel like a madman, salt, pepper, sprinkle with a bit of flour and a touch of egg, then haphazardly dropped into hot peanut oil and flattened with a spatula.

I do it very similarly except no flour; I squeeze the potatoes over a bowl, pour off the water, and then scrape out the potato starch from the bottom of the bowl and add it to the mixture in lieu of flour. But I do the grate-then-slightly-chop thing in the food processor.

Mhays wrote:We topped our goykies the same way, what a way to do it! (Alternate name for the dish: "cholesterol: three ways.") I found that Marketplace on Oakton is selling a house-brand of creme fraiche, but it's labeled "Russian Sour Cream."

I've been curious what the difference between "Russian Sour Cream" and good ol' Amurrican sour cream is. Thanks, Michele! It's way cheaper than the fancy creme fraiche.

LTH,

Was browsing through an old Saveur, September '06, and tucked away in an article about Milwaukee fish frys is a potato pancake tip I just had to try, add sour cream to the mix. Saveur labels these German style, from Turner Hall in Milwaukee, I label them delicious. Moist, hint of sour cream tang, slightly soupy batter, they fried up beautifully in med-hot oil. Recipe was as outlined above, sans carrot, plus sour cream.

Latkes





Latkes and Eggs



Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:LTH,

Was browsing through an old Saveur, September '06, and tucked away in an article about Milwaukee fish frys is a potato pancake tip I just had to try, add sour cream to the mix. Saveur labels these German style, from Turner Hall in Milwaukee, I label them delicious. Moist, hint of sour cream tang, slightly soupy batter, they fried up beautifully in med-hot oil. Recipe was as outlined above, sans carrot, plus sour cream.

They look just perfect, and the sour cream addition is one I've never heard of before . . . can't wait to try this one out.

Thanks for all the advice, in the latke-hummentash debate I come down squarely on the side of the latkes. Now where's my peanut oil?

I came in a little late to this thread and missed out on the Kuchenprofi grater, Amazon is not very encouraging:

Kuchenprofi Potato Grater/Shredder
Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

Searching on Google found it here in the UK:
http://uk.shopping.com/-kuchenprofi+potato+grater

So I got one coming:
PRODUCT QTY PRICE (ex-VAT) VATRATE EXPDISPDATE

Potato Grater, Stainless Steel - 32cm x 13cm 1 £8.38 0% 20 April 2010
DELIVERY: 1 £7.39 0%

SUBTOTAL: £15.77
VAT: £0.00
TOTAL: £15.77

Such a deal!

Being the season, a friend sent me a link to an amusing video . . . (warning: strong language)



=R=