Sadie’s Latkes

If you have a magic frying pan in your house, making latkes is easy, just say the magic words, “Latkes, latkes good to eat. Cook me up a Chanukah treat!” 

But watch out! You need to know the words to stop your frying pan, too. Say, “A great miracle happened here!” And the frying pan will stop cooking, just…like…that!  

You don’t have a magic frying pan at home? Neither do I. This is how you can make latkes. It’s easy, too.

This recipe makes about a dozen 3 ½" pancakes. You can double the recipe and have twice as many delicious latkes to eat. Be sure to have an adult help you.  

3 large baking potatoes (about a pound)
2 eggs
¼ cup finely chopped onion
1 T. finely chopped parsley
½ t. salt
¼ t. pepper
3 T. flour
Vegetable oil

  1. Peel the potatoes and rinse them under cold water. Grate very fine. Place the potatoes in a colander and run cold water over them. (This will keep them from turning dark.) Using your hands, squeeze out all the water.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and flour. Stir. Add the grated potato and mix well.

  3. Heat a small amount of oil to sizzling in a large frying pan. Scoop up a soupspoon full of pancake mixture and drop it into the oil and flatten slightly. Make 5 or 6 pancakes but do not crowd the pan. Cook the pancakes until they are brown on one side then turn them over and cook on the other side until browned.

  4. To keep your latkes warm, set your oven to 300. Place the pancakes on a cookie sheet in the oven.

  5. Eat while tender but crisp! Latkes are traditionally served with applesauce and/or sour cream. Yum!

Gramma’s Applesauce

Applesauce is so yummy. Did you know it is easy to make at home? I’ll tell you how to do it. Then you can have delicious applesauce with your latkes or just by itself. This recipe can be doubled. Be sure to have an adult help you.  

This makes about 2 cups of applesauce, depending on how big your apples are and how many apples you use.  

4 to 6 apples, it is nice to have a mixture of apples that are sweet and some that are tart
1/3 c. water or apple juice
Juice of ½ lemon 
Sugar or honey (optional) 
Cinnamon (optional) 

  1. Peel and core the apples and cut them into ½" chunks or slices. Place in a heavy saucepan with the water or apple juice and lemon juice.

  2. Cover and cook over low heat stirring pretty often. The apples will be cooked in about 20 minutes. When the apples start to get soft, mash them up. Keep cooking until the applesauce can be easily mashed up. I like to use a potato masher for this. It will probably take around 30 minutes to be all cooked. You can mash the sauce a little and have a chunky sauce. Or you can mash it a lot and have a smoother sauce. I like to use an immersion blender to get a nice smooth sauce.

  3. Allow the apples to cool a little and taste the sauce. Is it sweet enough? Yes? Then you are done. No? You can make it sweeter. Add a tablespoon of sugar or honey and stir. Do you like cinnamon? Add a ½ t. now, stir, and taste the sauce. Add a little more if you like.

  4. That was easy, wasn’t it? Your applesauce can be kept in the refrigerator for 4 or 5 days.