Recipe: Sweet potato latkes, served with applesauce and sour cream
Pair sweet potato latkes with the traditional applesauce and sour cream. Debbie Arrington
Happy Hanukkah! My favorite food of this holiday season: Latkes.
Fried in oil, latkes are an edible nod to Hanukkah’s origin story. In Jerusalem’s Holy Temple, lamp oil that was not supposed to last more than one night miraculously stretched to eight nights.
The purest olive oil was used for the temple’s lamp. For my sweet potato latkes, I prefer vegetable oil. This twist on traditional potato latkes uses bright orange sweet potatoes for more color (and antioxidants – these fried potatoes are good for you). I serve them with my homegrown applesauce and sour cream.
Sweet potato latkes also make a savory appetizer. Instead of applesauce, top with sour cream or crème fraiche and a little caviar.
Sweet potato latkes
Makes about 12
Ingredients:
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled
½ yellow onion
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 eggs
Vegetable oil for frying
Applesauce (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with paper towels or parchment paper. Set aside.
Grate sweet potatoes, either by hand or with a food processor. Soak grated sweet potatoes in a large bowl of salted water (about 1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 quart water) while assembling the other ingredients.
Grate onion. Wrap in a paper towel and press much as water as possible out of the grated onion. Put grated onion in a large bowl.
Drain grated sweet potatoes in a sieve, pressing out the water. Add sweet potatoes to onion in the bowl; toss to combine.
In a small bowl or cup, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Add to sweet potato mixture.
Lightly beat eggs and add to the sweet potato mixture.
In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat. It should cover the bottom of the pan about ¼ inch deep.
Using two wooden spoons, scoop about ¼ cup of sweet potato mixture and drop into hot oil. With the back of the spoon, gently flatten the scoops into patties. Repeat as room allows in the pan without overcrowding.
Fry each patty until golden brown on each side and crispy on the edges, turning once; about 5 to 7 minutes total per patty. As the latkes finish cooking, remove them from the pan and set on the prepared baking sheet. Keep the latkes warm in the oven until all of them are fried.
Serve immediately with applesauce and sour cream, if desired.
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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 9
Be careful walking or working in wet soil; it compacts easily.
* Keep the irrigation turned off; the ground is plenty wet with more rain on the way.
* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.
* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.
* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).
* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.
* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.
* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.
* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.
* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.
* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.
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