A Classic Potato Pancake Recipe
We’re excited to share yet another lovely recipe from Natalie’s family today—her grandma's potato latkes recipe! She was Polish, and called them simply potato pancakes or sometimes “poletskis”. We call them delicious! Pan-fried to a perfect golden-brown, with just the right hit of onion, they’re a simple treat to make again and again. Serving them with applesauce and sour cream is the most classic choice, but Grandma Blanche served them with cottage cheese, and so we always include it in our potato pancake garnish spread, too. If you’re in a potato mood, but want something more dinner-time friendly, try our Pierogi!
What Are Latkes?
Latke is the Yiddish word for potato pancakes, and many Jewish people enjoy them during Hanukkah, but it seems that tradition may be relatively recent. They’re popular in our homes pretty much year round! They’re a bit different from hash browns in that hash browns don’t usually have onion (or at least as much onion), and they’re usually pan fried in just a bit of oil while potato pancakes are essentially almost deep-fried in quite a bit more oil (or sometimes chicken fat).
How To Make Potato Pancakes
Potato pancakes are not an exact science—this is grandma food at its finest, so some of the technique is really about feel and preference. As you make these over the years—and if you make them once, you’ll make them again and again because they’re just that good—you’ll find what feels right to you. You’ll see in the recipe that we tell you to add a little flour if the potato pancake mixture seems a little looser than it should be and how to test the oil to see if it’s ready to fry the pancakes. All of this “by feel” stuff has a bit of a learning curve, but it is also fundamentally very simple. Here’s a quick step-by-step breakdown of how to make our potato pancake recipe:
Grate the potato and onion. The grating attachment of your food processor will make short work of this. You can grate the onion and potato together—supposedly the onion will help to keep the potato from browning quite so quickly.
Wring out the grated onions and potatoes. Get as much liquid out as you can! You can use a kitchen towel for this in a pinch, but a jelly bag, cheesecloth or a nut bag is best.
Put the onions and potatoes in a bowl with eggs, flour, salt and pepper and stir it all together to make a potato pancake batter of sorts.
Fry the potato pancakes! You'll use a small spoonful of the batter to test the oil to see if it's ready. Carefully drop the batter into the oil when you think it might be hot enough—-if it immediately sizzles, the oil is ready. If the oil starts to smoke, or the pancakes are burning, turn the heat down slightly and wait a few minutes, then test it again. Fry them for about 3 minutes per side, but watch for crispness and color (you want them to be beautifully golden brown).
Serve!
What To Serve With the Best Ever Potato Pancakes
You can eat these just as they are, but it’s nice to offer at least one (ideally more!) thing along with them. We usually opt for traditional accompaniments, like:
Sour cream
Applesauce
Cottage cheese (a tradition in our home, at least!)
Tools You’ll Need
Kitchen towel or a nut bag
Box grater or grating attachment for a food processor
More Potato Recipes To Try
We Love These A Lat(ke)
And we hope you do too! Every recipe we share is special, but none more so than beloved family recipes and this one truly means a lot to us. Make it, love it, make it yours. And when you do, share a photo and tell us all about it, OK? Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
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