Melinda Strauss, a kosher food blogger based in New York, loves latkes. Her website features a latke page with more than 15 recipes, including green bean casserole latkes, BBQ chicken latkes and purple cabbage latke waffles. She even has a s’mores latke featuring graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate that she serves as a dessert.
Latke variations have become popular in recent years, with unexpected ingredients, cooking methods and serving suggestions lighting up Instagram and family Hanukkah tables. But at what point is a latke no longer a latke? How much can you alter a recipe before it’s something else entirely?
“Everywhere in the world, Jews have different traditions for what latkes, or even fried potatoes, look like,” Strauss says. “So why can’t we keep pushing the boundaries? Food has no rules.”
In fact, latkes were originally not the potato pancakes we know today. Latkes, or levivot in Hebrew, were most likely fried cheese pancakes, a tradition that originated in 13th-century southern Italy, says Joel Haber, a writer, researcher and lecturer on Jewish food history. The dish supposedly relates to the story of Judith, a widow who lived in the Judean town of Bethulia.
She eliminated the invading Assyrian general Holofernes by feeding him salty cheese, which caused him to have an insatiable thirst. Attempting to quench it with wine, Holofernes became intoxicated and lost consciousness, along with his head, which Judith lopped off using Holofernes’s own sword. The story of Judith became associated with Hanukkah, Haber says, and, combined with the Talmud’s anecdote about the miracle of the oil, led to the holiday’s emphasis on dairy and fried foods.
Photo credit: Sivan Kobi
According to Haber, the transition from cheese to potato latkes was due to the availability of resources at the time. In the northern stretches of Europe, olive oil wasn’t easily accessible, so Jews started cooking with rendered poultry fat, and because the rules of kashrut required that meat and dairy be separated, cheese could not be used. The classic potato latke recipe gained popularity after German Jews began using potatoes for pancakes in the 18th century.
Photo credit: Bill Milne
But alternatives always existed. In her upcoming cookbook A Sweet Year: Jewish Celebrations and Festive Recipes for Kids and Their Families, Jewish food doyenne Joan Nathan includes a recipe for apple latkes that she heard about from her daughter, who found it through a relative of a Chilean friend. Funnily enough, it’s actually a Polish recipe. “A latke is a latke in the eyes of the cook,” Nathan says, and can be made with anything.
Photo credit: Gabriela Herman
In fact, latkes may be more related to the emotions they evoke than to their components. Paula Shoyer, a cookbook author known as “The Kosher Baker,” has experimented with making latkes using ingredients such as carrots, beets and zucchini.
She even has a recipe for baked potato and scallion latkes with pickled applesauce. But no matter the type of latke, every time she cooks them, she recalls the time when she was in college and her boyfriend suggested that they make latkes. She had no idea how to make them and he didn’t have a recipe. He just told her to throw some potatoes and onions in a food processor, and somehow the magic happened. “Everyone has a special latke memory, and when you eat a latke, you remember all that came before,” Shoyer says.
Of course all these recipes involve frying. But if you take out the oil, is it still a latke? Recipe developer and content creator Sivan Kobi, also known as “Sivan’s Kitchen,” thinks so and has created a recipe for latke pie—a large potato pancake cooked in a single baking dish. She compares it to a potato kugel. Kobi chose to bake it because she grew up in a family that owned bakeries, but also to offer a healthy alternative. “The biggest concern for people is the oil: How much oil do I use? I don’t want to fry—everything [for] Hanukkah is fried,” Kobi says.
Nevertheless, Kobi prefers traditional oily latkes over more healthful or trendy alternatives. Her favorite way to eat them is by sprinkling sugar on top because she enjoys the resulting sweet and savory flavor. Joan Nathan also opts for tradition and says that for her and her family “latke potato pancakes mean Hanukkah.”
New recipes, however, can open the door to a broader conversation about how culinary traditions evolve. “When people make changes to latkes, be it with ingredients or toppings, they shouldn’t be hesitant,” says Jewish food writer Haber.
“There’s no religious significance to a latke. What we do with a lot of holiday foods in Judaism is we take foods that don’t have significance in themselves and we imbue them with significance.”
Agreeing, Strauss says, it’s the updating of traditions that “keeps the Jewish people a people.” What better way to honor traditions than by adding your own interpretation?
Photo credit: Fathur Rachman/Noun Project
S’mores Latkes
by Melinda Strauss
INGREDIENTS
1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled (2-3 potatoes)
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers (4-5 crackers)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Peel and grate sweet potatoes. Place the shredded sweet potatoes in a cheesecloth or dish towel and squeeze out any excess liquid.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, graham crackers, brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon and salt together in a mixing bowl and stir until all of the sweet potatoes are covered.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and top with a metal cooling rack. Check that the oil is hot enough by dropping a bit of latke batter into the pan. If bubbles form around the edges of the potatoes, the oil is ready. Tip: fry one latke first to make sure your oil is the correct temperature; it’s good practice so you don’t burn your latkes.
4. Scoop the latke batter using a 1/4-cup measuring cup and squeeze out any liquid in the batter to get a crunchy latke. Carefully drop the latkes into the hot oil and fry for 1-2 minutes per side for a golden crust.
5. Place the cooked latkes on the cooling rack, and let the oil drip down onto the paper towels below. When all of the latkes are cooked, preheat the oven to broil and remove the paper towels from the baking sheet. Don’t forget this step or it will catch on fire in the oven! Place 4-5 mini marshmallows on top of each latke, then broil the latkes for 1 minute to toast the marshmallows.
6. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for 1 minute, stir until smooth and drizzle the chocolate over the latkes. Top with any extra crushed graham crackers and eat!
Opening picture: Photo credit: Melinda Strauss
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