The festive holiday spirit is present around the globe even before Christmas. In the Philippines, it starts out as soon as we entered the -ber months. In America, it begins with Thanksgiving. For the Jews, Hannukah or the Festival of Lights greatly sparks the joyous vibe. According to history, Hannukah was first celebrated after the Jews defeated Seleucid army and regained the Second Temple.
The symbol of Hannukah is usually the seven-branched candelabrum known as menorah, which the Jews lit to commemorate their victory. During the first Hannukah, the Jews only had oil enough for one day. In some miraculous happening, the oil lasted for eight days. For this reason, Hannukah celebrates it by indulging in fried dishes including latke.
Although its name may put you off, it’s easy to make latkes. In fact, it’s as easy as one tweet.
For Hannukah 2017, Elan Kiderman of news organization Quartz created Twitter account @everylatke. From Dec. 12 to 20, the account is set to tweet random latke recipes culled from Liz Neumark of New York’s annual Latke Festival. Yes, it’s so easy and versatile that we don’t even need a cookbook to make one.
If you want to hack latke on your own though, Kiderman gives the basic principles of latke. The first thing you need is your base vegetable. While the traditional base is grated potato, you can always experiment with other vegetables like the low-carb zucchini and cauliflower. For vegetables with higher water content, always make sure to put salt and squeeze out excess water.
Then, you need eggs to bind the vegetables. It’s ideal to use one to three eggs for a pound and a half of the vegetable base, but more eggs will result to a cakey latke. After mixing in the eggs, add just enough flour or any starch of your choice to give the fritters that much-needed crisp. Kiderman advises the addition of ¼ cup of flour for starters.
Finally, you’ll need oil for frying. As Kiderman points out, olive oil is the traditional choice, yet its low smoking point will result in a lighter crust. That’s not really a bad thing, but any oil with a high smoking point like peanut oil will give you that crisp. As a final note, Kiderman suggests that you must not scrimp on extra ingredients like herbs, cheese, and whatever you want for a tastier latke or fritter.
Now, you’re ready to serve a Jewish appetizer for Noche Buena.
P.S. You might also want to consider our zucchini fritter recipe, too.
Header image courtesy of Pixabay
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