Lavish Latkes

Add a modern twist to potato pancakes this Chanukah – and leave the applesauce in the cupboard

Story by Kristen Mott
Photography by Michael C. Butz

With Chanukah comes the majesty of menorahs, the childlike diversion of dreidels and, of course, festive fried foods. Chief among the latter is the latke, the making of which has been bringing families together in the kitchen for generations.

Just ask Scott Kuhn.

“I used to make latkes with my grandmother,” says Kuhn, founder and managing partner of The Driftwood Group. “My grandmother was a great cook and she was always in the kitchen. All of our greatest memories were around a table where we were spending time with each other with food.”

While making latkes with bubbe leaves behind cherished memories, it doesn’t mean you have to settle for using bubbe’s old recipe year after year.

Breathe life into this treasured tradition by adding a modern twist to your recipe. Get it right, and you might just have family and friends “miraculously” showing up at your dining room table for eight straight days.

“It’s all about changing the recipe,” says chef Chris Hodgson, Kuhn’s business partner at Driftwood, which operates more than a dozen restaurants throughout Northeast Ohio. “The nice thing is that a latke is a potato. It’s a very neutral flavor, so the latke becomes the vessel for whatever you decide to top it with.”

Chris Hodgson, left, and Scott Kuhn display their completed Jstyle Latkes Benedict.

One way families can modernize latkes is by creating a special version of eggs Benedict. Hodgson suggests swapping out the English muffins, which are traditionally used as the base for eggs Benedict, with latkes seasoned with fresh chives. The latkes can then be topped with smoked salmon, a poached egg and a béarnaise or hollandaise sauce. For an even greater flourish, it also can be topped with caviar.

“It’s a nontraditional, modern take on eggs Benedict, and it’s something fun you can do at home,” Hodgson says. “You don’t have to put the caviar on or use a béarnaise sauce if you don’t want. Just the play on smoked salmon and eggs with latkes makes it a more contemporary way of doing a Benedict.”

Kuhn says families also can experiment with fried chicken and waffles. Rather than using waffles, crispy latkes can be substituted in the recipe. The dish can then be finished off with pieces of spicy chicken and drizzled with Geauga County maple syrup, he says.

For those craving something sweet, Hodgson recommends adding brown sugar and a little cinnamon to the latke batter. Once fried, the latkes can be topped with blueberry compote or a meringue, he says.

If the idea of modernizing latkes and moving away from the traditional recipe worries some cooks, Kuhn suggests creating bite-sized latkes that can be served with an assortment of toppings, creating a diverse selection of flavors for guests.

Jstyle Latkes Benedict recipe

Latkes:

1 lb. potato

½ cup onion

1 beaten egg

2 oz. chives

1 tsp. salt

½ cup olive oil

1. Peel potatoes and coarsely grate with cheese grater. Transfer to a bowl with ice-cold water.
2. Soak potatoes for 5 minutes, drain well and transfer potatoes and onions to a kitchen towel.
3. Roll towel up and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Transfer mix to bowl.
4. Stir in egg, chives and salt.
5. Heat a pan with olive oil, spoon potato mix into hot oil. Cook on one side until brown, flip and cook other side until brown. Transfer to paper towel or resting rack.

Hollandaise Sauce:

6 egg yolks

18 oz. clear melted butter

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 oz. warm milk/water from butter

1. Beat the egg yolks with a whisk in a stainless steel bowl over moderate heat    (water bath or grill) until the eggs are ribboned thick and pale yellow.
2. Initially, the clear butter must be added extremely slowly, whisking in a circular motion until a stable emulsion is formed. Then the butter may be added more rapidly.
3. Adjust the thickness with the warm milk from the whole butter and the lemon juice.

NOTE: The sauce must be held warm at all times or it will break.

Latkes Benedict:

2 latkes each

2 poached eggs each

4 oz. smoked salmon

2 oz. chives

1 oz. hollandaise sauce

1. Place hot latkes on a plate.
2. Shingle 2 oz. of smokes salmon on top of each latke.
3. Spoon a warm poached egg on top of each.
4. Spoon hollandaise sauce over top of each egg and around the plate.
5. Sprinkle chives around the plate.