These are so good that once my friend Tilly ate ten latkes. Ten. My dad says they’re the best he’s had since the Bronx, circa 1939. These are not fancy, but they’re the real deal.
Grapeseed oil for frying – hot, hot, hot.
6 large Russet potatoes, grated
1 large white onion, grated
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. Salt
1/4 cup flour or matzo meal
Sour Cream
and/or
Apple Sauce
Grate the potatoes and onion and squeeze all the juice out by wrapping in a cloth napkin and squishing hard over the sink. Add salt on top of potatoes and onion. Add flour or matzo meal. Mix in the beaten eggs. Create the latkes by smashing handful of the mixtures together and putting them into hot oil, keeping the edges deckled, not too neat, so they can get crispy like good hash browns. Fry them in oil until crisp and browned.
Some eat them with applesauce (that’s the German influence). Some eat them with sour cream (that’s the Russian influence). I eat them with both.