You cannot have the Hanukkah without some lovely fried potato pancakes, or as the chosen people call them — latkes. Even though my own Protestant mother used to make potato pancakes with leftover mashed potatoes (ohemgee, yummm), I’m determined to make these ‘cakes the way my husband usually does: Jewish style.
Now, I’ve fried many a food item in my day, but I took one look at this latke recipe that is naturally gluten-free and I totally do not get how you can make something fry in a patty without flour. Even hash browns at Denny’s come from some kind of super pressing machine, right? Or something?
Yet I do love a recipe with very few ingredients, and this is all you need: potatoes, onion, salt, water, egg and oil. Oh, and this awesome menorah my two-year-old made in pre-school:
Yes, he does have a gift.
You know who else does? My daughter, who did all the squeezing of the ‘taters in a kitchen towel, like so.
And this kid HATES potatoes! But that’s how you do it, people. No, I don’t know why we keep the menorah in the kitchen.
But I do know how amazing these latkes are. Which is, so amazing. In fact, my husband and I ate all but two of them while my toddler was napping. Sadly, he woke up and ate the last two and then he cried for more. Of course there were no more, because we couldn’t help but stuff ourselves while he was completely unaware of the deliciousness going on in his own home.
Great latkes, bad parents.
Gluten-Free Latkes
adapted from Epicurious
Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes each batch
1-2 pounds potatoes
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 250°F.
2. Peel potatoes and coarsely grate by hand, transferring to a large bowl of cold water as grated. Soak potatoes 1 to 2 minutes after last batch is added to water, then drain well in a colander.
3. Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up jelly-roll style. Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer potato mixture to a bowl and stir in egg and salt.
4. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 4 latkes, spoon 2 tablespoons potato mixture per latke into skillet, spreading into 3-inch rounds with a fork. Reduce heat to moderate and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes. Turn latkes over and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt. Add more oil to skillet as needed. Keep latkes warm on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan in oven.
5. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.
Makes: 15 latkes
Gluten is my Bitch 
Takes me back a few years…to when my brother, Richard, used to make these as a snack…when we were kids!!! Amazing to think that they are gluten free!
He sure did have a knack for fried food.
Perfect! Just what I’ve been looking for. My grandmother used matzoh meal in her latkes but I’ve been on a trial gluten-free diet for the last six days and yours is the only flourless recipe I’ve found. I’m going to modify it slightly with some leek as well. Happy holidays!
ooh, leeks! Let me know how that turns out. Sounds awesome.
This is the first time I ever considered they might hold together without the bread crumbs to bind them – they were perfect! They were a bit fragile in the pan until they started to become golden on one side, but MAN, am I ever glad to have these back as part of our holiday culinary repertoire – husband’s gluten-free issues have been wreaking havoc in our food lives for too long, and I love that we can have these again! I serve mini ones with smoked salmon, sour cream, and caviar – mouthgasm. Awesome with champagne…
Smoked salmon, caviar, sour cream???? You’ve totally just changed the way I’m serving latkes.
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can these be frozen?
I’ve never frozen them, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t do this. Put something between the layers like foil, and you could just pop them in the oven.
Reblogged this on Glutened and commented:
On facebook i follow a few people some of them post recipes and a recipe for Latke caught my eye but it had an ingredient that i didn’t know what it was so looked I up and I discovered what matzo meal was and that it is a ‘crumbled up wheat cracker’ so not possible for me to uses. so i good for a substitue and couldn’t find much about it, so the next thing was to google ‘gluten free latke’ why didn’t i do that in the frist place ! , Well here is was i found 🙂
😉 Yes, just wait until the Passover meals start. Matzo in EVERYTHING.
Not being Jewish or American i didn’t know what Matzo was , but am pretty sure my mum used to make something very similar to your recipe, it may have been the ‘used up leftovers’ method my mum/grandmother loved to uses :). Mix everything up and chuck in an egg and fry it lol
wonderful recipe can hardly wait to make it THANKS
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