Latkes, Draniki, Deruny, Kartoffelpuffer, Bramborák etc.

It is Hanukkah time again and that means fried food. The holiday that celebrates the miracle of oil lasting for eight days even though there was only enough for one. So, oil is celebrated and it is the key element in the kitchen this time of the year, and the preferred food for frying is latkes. Latkas are not uniquely Jewish, in fact they seem to have been adopted. According to Wikipedia

Potato pancakes are commonly associated with traditional cuisines of Luxembourg (gromperekichelcher), Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Belarus (as draniki), Germany (f. ex. as Kartoffelpuffer), Poland (as placki ziemniaczane), Ukraine (as deruny), Ashkenazi Jewry (as latkes or latkas (Yiddish: לאַטקעס, Hebrew: לביבה levivah, plural לביבות levivot)), Hungary, Slovakia, Persia and the Czech lands (as bramborák or cmunda), although other cuisines (including those of India and Korea) have similar dishes, such as Gamjajeon. It is also the national dish of Belarus. In Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian cuisines, potato pancakes are commonly known as deruny (Ukrainian: деруни) or draniki (Russian: драники, Belarusian: дранікі). Throughout Germany, potato pancakes are also very common under the names Reibekuchen or Kartoffelpuffer, and they are eaten either salty (as a side dish) or sweet with apple sauce, sugar and cinnamon; they are a very common menu item during outdoor markets and festivals in colder seasons; a traditional favorite in southern Indiana during holiday festivities.

Note that more traditional latka is much thicker.

I think that this dish is more like hash browns then pancakes. The exception is my mom's recipe.
Most recipes I come across have all the liquid squeezed out of them, with adds to the crisp and crunch of  the final latkas. My mom's recipe is different. It still has the crunch but the texture and thickness is different. These come out very thin and soft in the middle with lacy and crispy edges and take very little flour. As a kid I remember, it was a long process of grating the potatoes by hand on fine grate and inevitably your hands would be scraped. The Russian name of latkas is draniki, roughly describes what happens to your hands in the process of preparing it. My grandma said if your hands are not scraped you did not make latkas, because it was not possible to came away undamaged.  It would also take some time to go through all of the potatoes, so by the last potato is done, the grated potatoes would have oxidized and turned purplish gray. I thought that was the right color.

These days my food processor gets the job done in no time. Before Hanukkah I get those huge baking potatoes at Costco and with that supply I get though latkes week just fine. For this recipe I use fine blade. Labeled A. 

1 very large potato
1 egg
1 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients after the potato is grated and cook in hot oil. You may need more salt and pepper after they are done. Once the edges turn golden brown I flip them and in about another minute they are ready. I place cooked pancakes on the paper towel, to drain excess oil.  
Latkas #1
Other more traditional latkas are done in much similar manner except that the potato is drained after being grated on blade A
3 large potatoes
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.
Additional salt may be needed after cooking. I use large metal mesh colander to drain potatoes before mixing in eggs and flour in the batter. When they are fried they are thick and sometimes I try to level out the latkes on the frying pan so they are not so thick and high.  Drain cooked draniki on the paper towel. They are best  hot of the pan with a dollop of sour cream. Yes, it has become tradition in US to eat them with apple sauce, but growing up I never heard of such thing. It is blasphemy to me, this dish is best with sour cream!

Latkas #2

Another traditional latkas are done with exactly same recipe but shredded on a different blade and the potato again is drained after being grated on Blade C. That gives these latkes different texture and bigger crisp. This is much closer to hash browns then to pancake.
3 large potatoes
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.
The process of cooking is much the same as in the previous recipe.

Latkas #3
Yet another classic recipe calls for addition of an onion to the mix. But the rest of the recipe is almost the same.
3 large potatoes
1 large onion
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.

I first use the Blade B or C to shred the potato, then transfer it to drain. While that is draining, I switch the blade to regular double edge blade and blend together the onion and the rest of the ingredients. Once the batter is ready I transfer it to the bowl and add the drained potatoes then mix well. The rest of the cooking process is the same as in other recipes.
Eating same thing for a week will get boring even if you love potatoes and anything fried. So, to keep things interesting I think up different ways a recipes that I will add in the next post.