Okay, since it's officially latkes season, I will share my mom's recipe. Mom developed this before she was married, as a way to produce enough latkes in a reasonable amount of time for herself, her parents, and her 13 assorted siblings. Four burners going at once was a given. (The purists will scoff, as there are no scraped knuckles included. There is, naturally, the obligatory oil splattering of the entire kitchen, however.)
Peel and quarter an onion, and place in (gasp!) a blender container. Add in one largish egg. Peel three or four potatoes (whatever you've got, depending on size), and quarter or eighth them. Put a handful of potatoes into blender and blend on "grate" briefly, just until no big chunks are visible.
Pour half the blender contents into a very large bowl, replace blender on base and add another handful or two of potatoes, grate as above, stir half into the bowl, and repeat over and over using the same proportions (more or less) until you've gone through 5 to 10 pounds of potatoes (depending on how many are home for dinner).
It helps to cover the bowl in between batches to keep the potatoes from blackening. Stir it all together, add enough flour to make a batter that is still pretty sloppy, and salt and pepper to taste.
Heat up as many cast iron pans as you can handle with a 1/4" layer of vegetable oil in the bottom of each (I use canola, mom usually used Wesson). Fry up pancakes over medium high heat and keep
dishing them up till everyone is too full to move. (If, when the batter hits the pan, it spatters into a thousand droplets, either your batter's too thin or your oil's too hot. Try again.)
Serve with applesauce and sour cream, plenty of salt, and you're set.
Debbie
who remembers peeling five pounds of potatoes and keeping them submerged in a bucket of water for latkes nights growing up (we only had 7 kids)
(12/10/01)
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