Cabbage and Potato Latkes
I made this batch a bit earlier than intended, since Chanukah doesn’t start until Friday and I wanted to squeak this out just in the nick of time! Massive thanks to my friend and mentor Heide, for knowing me well enough to know that I forgot the holiday was coming up and sening candles, as well as gelt and ring for Child Tester!
Most latkes are going to be potato, but you can make them with other veggies, too! For this, I wanted to incorporate cabbage into our meal without having to make two separate batches, and also because I just like cabbage latkes, so it seemed most reasonable to make them as a blend! Latkes, for those of you who don’t know, are usually potato pancakes. These typically are served with applesauce and/or sour cream. I eat mine plain because I don’t care for applesauce or sour cream. Child Tester made a sandwich out of one of hers, and she added a tiny bit of mustard and some garlic powder to that. That also was good, and I’m glad she let me taste it!
Here’s the thing I wish you didn’t need to know, but which you now do: I had a nasty fall recently and sprained both of my knees, which taught me that middle aged is not just a number! For those of you who don’t understand why I’m saying this about middle age not being a number: when you hit middle age, you’re going to find out that all those “old” people you thought were whiners about their minor injuries weren’t. The injuries hurt differently and they also heal much more slowly. So just know that. I thought they were whiners, too. We’re not whiners; we’re just ageing in ways we didn’t believe were going to happen to us.
Anyway, the reason I’m telling y’all about the newest injury (I swear, I need someone to lead me safely around so I can stop doing these things to myself! is because what I wanted to make for y’all is not what I actually made. So you’re getting two recipes here - one for just cabbage, and one for the cabbage and potatoes. I didn’t have enough left in my knees to grate those potatoes in order to have it all prepped for Ross to cook when he got home from work. Well, y’all already know I’m a massive potato pusher, so you also know I wouldn’t have left them out because I wanted to. Both kinds of latkes are good, but I actually made these ones with just cabbage.
Because I had put two eggs in my bowl under the assumption I’d be adding the potatoes, there was a lot of egg that couldn’t be fully mixed in. Ross used that with the last bits of cabbage in the bowl to make an omelet. It was delicious, and reminded me of a non-spicy kimchi pancake! So 3 recipes in one, I guess? My main take-away was that I’m going to be requesting cabbage omelets from him on the reg!
Here’s what you’ll need
3 cups shredded cabbage (this is about 4-5 leaves, if you’re peeling them off rather than cutting the cabbage while whole*): you should shred this, but can also cut it up like I did (this will change the texture of the finished product)
3 cups shredded/grated peeled potatoes
2 eggs (drop it down to 1 egg, if you’re not trying to get the omelet and are leaving out either the cabbage or the potatoes in this
1/4 cup of flour (can be GF flour, so you GF peeps aren’t excluded here, either! But use your C4C blend or go with a more neutral tasting flour like potato starch, soy flour, or similar)
1/4-1/2 cup of oil: I used veg this time. Sometimes I use olive. Use what you have and feel like tasting
optional add-ins that are delicious but which I did not use due to the knees: shredded/matchstick carrots (about a cup), green onions (about a cup), other onions, garlic or garlic powder
*y’all, peel the leaves off if you’re not going to use the whole head within a couple of days of cutting it. Cabbages can last whole in your fridge for a couple of months, but once you cut them it’s curtains.
Here’s what you’ll do
Mix everything but the oil up. Seriously, that’s the main step. I use a spoon for this because I don’t like the feel of raw eggs in my hands, but you can do this with your hands if you prefer. It’s all personal choices here.
Heat your oil in a pan, then drop spoonfuls of your mixture into the pan. I use my spoon to sort of flatten them out once they’re in the pan and to make sure they’re one clump instead of with straggler bits all over the pan. These will fry for 3-4 minutes per side.
You should get 6-8 latkes from this (plus an omelet?), which is enough for a side, not for a meal. In most families, you would need to scale this up (as I will do on the actual holiday) because there will be people standing next to you while you’re cooking so they can burn their hands and mouths on them right as they’re coming out of the pan!
In a perfect world, you’ll cut your cabbage properly. This larger cut still works fine if you also aren’t going to shred.
If you did only cabbage or potato but did not reduce the egg:
When you’ve made your latkes and you’ve still got bits of veg bathing in the remainder of the egg, pour it all into your pan. As the egg mixture cooks, you’ll fold it around the cabbage for that first couple of minutes, then flip. When you flip, you’ll need to fold the edges of the egg back over the cabbage. As you are folding and flipping, this will basically create an egg crust around the veg that ultimately encases it like a sandwich (veg in the middle, mainly, egg on the outside).
If you wind up making the omelet portion, please try to share. It’s not kind to hoard all that tasty to yourself!
Top of omelet.
Ross said y’all need to see the bottom, and he is right.
Even if you don’t celebrate Chanukah, you can and should still eat latkes! For those of you who do?
