A Deep-Fried Holiday

I, among many, am celebrating Chanukkah this week. It’s a good holiday: candles, chocolate coins, and deep fried foods, especially latkes.

Mmmm, fried.
Mmmm, fried.
Most people know latkes as potato pancakes, slathered in apple sauce or sour cream, and they are both plentiful and delicious. But they’re not the only kind of latkes! Jews from around the Mediteranean have a tradition of spinach latkes, which are one of my favorites this time of year. I’ve had beet latkes and sweet potato latkes, and a friend has been telling me about apple latkes. If you can grate it or shred it, form it into a patty, and fry it in oil, it can be a latke.

Epicurious has a recipe for those spinach latkes I love so much. What are your favorite kinds of latkes? What other foods do you fry? Last year I made donuts, because it’s the frying that’s important. In three years, Thanksgiving is going to fall during Chanukkah, and I know people who are already planning their deep-fried turkey. Now that’s a way to combine holiday traditions.

Not hungry enough yet? Try some books as an appetizer:
George Crum and the Saratoga chip
Hiromi’s Hands
Sweet Potato Pie
The Have a Good Day Cafe
Where on Earth Is My Bagel?
Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sproutings

4 thoughts on “A Deep-Fried Holiday”

  1. My favorite deep-fried yummy is the sopapilla. There’s a recipe on allrecipes.com. Eat it with honey drizzled on top. Have tissue handy, because you’ll be crying afterward…sopapillas are that good.

  2. They look great, Anita! I wasn’t even thinking about things in the fried dough/fried bread paradigm, but it’s a delicious paradigm.

  3. Anita,
    I used to buy sopapillas off the street when I lived down in Chile. They’d pull them right out of the oil and hand them to you – SO delicious!

  4. Hannah: They make a mess of the kitchen (grease splattering…or maybe that’s just me and my sloppy cooking), but they are easy to make and so worth the mess.

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