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Lots o' Latkes
My mom has a Hanukkah party nearly every year. It usually coincides with our visit home for the holidays so she can wrangle Dave, my sister and me into helping fry up hundreds of potato pancakes, which is no small feat. She sends out invitations for "Latkes and Libations" to what seems like thousands of people but is probably only 40 or 50.
A couple of years ago, Dave, my sister and I, tired of the name "Latkes and Libations," tried to come up with a new name. Our favorites were:
Latkes, Latkes, Latkes!
Latkes & Election Returns (in 2000)
Latkes to Your Likeness (just for you, Sara)
Land of 10,000 Latkes
We Reheat 'Em, You Eat 'Em
Spuds and Suds
20,000 Latkes Under the Sea
Last Year's Latkes (This was after we found a bag of pancakes from the previous year's event in the basement freezer. We did not thaw and serve them to guests. At least I don't think we did.)
This year my mom and I peeled and shredded about 40 potatoes and cooked somewhere around 140 pancakes. (This is on the low side for us -- I believe one year we made 300.) We used nearly an entire bottle of canola oil. After frying shredded potatoes for two hours, you have to wash everything you're wearing and scrub down the entire kitchen, which gets a thorough coating of potato starch and spattered oil. Ech. I'm glad it's not my kitchen.
There's nothing like the smell of potatoes frying in hot oil. Click for more photos!
January 5, 2006 2:33 PM
On behalf of Bardin (who wouldn't even begin to understand what this website is), I thank you for your consideration.
I presume you don't use the "As Seen on TV" Rotato, but actually have heard that it does a good job with such things. That's a lot of potato peeling you guys do every year. I think my mom has a Rotato in her basement thanks to my brother's stint at Lechter's.
Rotato. Hee hee. I actually peeled all of the potatoes myself. But the shredding was easy thanks to the wonders of the food processor shredding disc.
Yes, where would we be without Cuisinarts? I think, though, that one of my aunts actually does love the Rotato, but I'm not sure. Frankly, with good potato peelers I just don't think it's that tough, though I'm young and spry...
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm