Roll It and Make It Flat Flat Flat*

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Dec 5, 2007 5:38PM

Today is the first day/second night of Hanukkah, the festival of lights (or as we like to call it, Jewish Christmas). In addition to lighting the menorah/hanukkiah, playing dreidel and getting presents, Hanukkah is about oil. And while there are all types of oil, our preference is for the hot bubbly kind in the pan. We cooked up two kinds of latkes last night. The first kind we made was from Fine Cooking magazine, a great resource for both novice and advanced home chefs. These guys were delicious, but not as delicious as Chicagoist's secret family recipe, which we'll share here. These latkes were so good, in fact, that we ate them all, and then realized we'd forgotten to take a photo. So instead, enjoy this Mel Gibson menorah instead.

Extra Delicious Latkes

2.5 lbs potatoes
1 medium zucchini (this is the secret ingredient, shhhhh)
1 medium yellow onion
1 egg
3 Tbs flour
1 Tbs salt
fresh pepper
a shit-ton of corn oil

Peel the potatoes and then grate them, or, if you have one on hand, send them through the Cuisinart on the grating function. Mix the potatoes with a couple teaspoons of salt and then set in a colander and let it sit for 10 minutes (the goal is to get as much water out of the potatoes as possible). Grate the zucchini. Dice the onion. Mix all the remaining ingredients (besides the oil) together. Heat 1/8 of an inch of oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Put about a third of a cup of mixture in the pan (you may want to squeeze out extra "juice"). Flip the latke when it is golden brown on one side. Add more oil when the level gets low; you want the oil to be bubbling up around the sides of the latke, but not covering it. Keep them warm in the oven until ready to eat. Serve with apple sauce and sour cream.

* It's from this awesome song.

Fantastic Mel Menorah from mjkmjk.