My mum used to make piles of potato latkes for me, my sisters and brother when we were little. She could never make enough as we loved them so much and ate them as fast as possible to make sure we got the most (that is the constant dinner time problem when you are one of four).
Potato latkes are so more-ish that it’s worth doubling up the quantities in my recipe so you have some left over for breakfast to be topped with a fried egg!
Miraculous ingredient: Maris Piper potatoes
Potato latkes
Ingredients
1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and grated (or any other variety of floury starchy potato)
1 brown onion, grated
1 egg
Sea salt and ground black pepper to season
Olive oil for frying
Method
Grate the raw peeled potatoes and onion and place in a colander. Squeeze out as much liquid out as you possibly can. Transfer to a large bowl and mix through with a beaten egg, salt and pepper for seasoning. If you’re making this dish for your weaning baby as well then leave out the salt as their little kidneys cannot process added salt.
Heat the biggest frying pan you have (you can use two frying pans at the same time) on a high heat. After a few minutes add the olive oil so it’s a couple of centimetres deep. Leave for a couple of minutes for the olive oil to get hot.
Put a little piece of grated potato into the pan to check that the oil is hot enough – it should sizzle immediately and start to become golden. Use your hands to scope up a handful of the grated potato and onion mixture, squeeze out the moisture, and gently place it in the hot oil. Do not over crowd the pan as the cold potato makes the temperature of the oil drop and everything starts to boil instead of fry and become crisp. Once you’ve added all the potato latkes to the pan, press them down gently with a spatula and the leave them alone for at least 5 minutes.
Gently push the spatula underneath one of the latkes and lift it slightly to see if they have browned enough. They should be a fairly dark brown and then you’ll know that the potato has cooked. Turn the latkes over (I use two spatulas so they don’t fall apart) and brown the other side.
When they are done, lift them carefully out of the pan onto a plate covered in kitchen paper.
Preparation time 10 minutes, cooking 20 minutes, 2 adult portions, 2 children portions