Chanukkah: Latkes

Ain't no party like a Chanukkah party, cause a Chanukkah party don't stop.

Or something like that. In any case, the roommates and I are having a Chanukkah party, so we are trying to test-drive latke recipes. To do so I've been scouring the internet (and the recipe boxes of friends' mothers) to find a good one. If you have a suggestion, please send it my way.

Anyway, on to the blogging. Firstly, according to C. Buddha of Hasty Musings "the first-ever Hanukkah latke recipe featured turnips, rhubarb and kale. These proved so unpopular that many different vegetables were substituted until the current potato version prevailed." While that may not be true, there seems to be a movement towards alternative latkes. For instance Vegetarian Holidays highlights a sweet potato latke recipe. Which sounds too much like a dessert for my taste. EBT Blue has a recipe on his/her blog for sweet potato latkes that seem a bit less fussy, but still too sweet. Also I dislike cooked fruit. And last of the sweet potato contenders, amalia of clipmarks has a recipe that seems like normal latkes, just with sweet potatoes substituted in.

NYC Nosh has a recipe that is so good that they claim Bubbes* use it instead of their own. I take leave to doubt that, but it does look tasty.Melissa Barton of The Love of Spice has a recipe that looks frighteningly easy. Glenny's, a health food maker has posted a recipe for cheese latkes complete with nutritional information. Really, I didn't want to know. I don't know where in the world to find brown rice flour, but if I did, I could make Anne-Marie Nichols' (of This Mama Cooks) latke recipe.

If you want something sort of like latkes Steven of Renegade Kosher Cooking has a recipe for a latke casserole. I would say that Jessica of Suburban Kvetch, who makes latkes from a mix also falls into the "something sort of like latkes category." Sorry! I just don't trust reconstituted vegetable matter.

And last, but not least, the "classic" latke recipes. Allergic Girl of Please Don't Pass the Nuts links to the NYTimes recipe. Foodie of The Cookbook claims that this is THE classic latke recipe, which having read many, I feel free to dispute, as it does not contain matzo meal. Apparently matzo meal is integral to many latke recipes. Who knew? Sarah Reznor of Sector-9 might disagree, she has a recipe which strips down the latke to the bare basics: potato, egg, onion. And last, but not least, if those latkes in the photo are actually from Debbie of Words to Eat By's recipe, then we may have a winner.

*Bubbe is Yiddish for grandmother