Blog de Puree

Randye and I cooked potato latkes from scratch tonight in preparation for Hanukkah, which starts this Friday evening. It was also the first opportunity we had to cook together in the layout of the new kitchen–one of the major factors in the design we chose. As we had hoped, things went quite smoothly. We weren’t bumping into one another, we each had our own work area, and it was a very pleasant experience.

I was the sous chef, naturally, and my first task was to peel the potatoes. Then I cut the onions. Then I cleaned. Randye, as the head chef, prepped the spices and scallions, worked the blender and massaged the entire bowl of raw latke goodness. When that was all complete, we cooked the latkes in hot vegetable oil, in two Circulon stir-fry skillets.

The recipe we used is from Grandma Doralee Patinkin’s Jewish Family Cookbook and is a big hit with our family. For anyone unfamiliar, Grandma Doralee is the grandmother of Mandy Patinkin, of Broadway and The Princess Bride fame (“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”).

I’ve found a link to the actual recipe on foodnetwork.com in case anyone is interested in giving these a try.

Together, the prepping process of all the ingredients took no longer than 20 minutes. The cooking part takes a quite a bit longer, depending on how many pans and range burners you have. And make sure your kitchen is well ventilated with a good fan or open windows or your home will smell like fried latkes for a few days when you’re finished cooking.

And make sure there’s someone with a strong back available to clean the range top when the cooking is finished.

Oh, and Bouche wasn’t sure of what to make of the whole latke mishegas, but he hung out anyhow.