We light the first candle on our menorah for Chanukah tonight. My kids are so excited. Dreidels and chocolate gelt have already begun to make an appearance in our house. The kids are curious what we have in store for the holiday. Chanukah is always a fun time in our home. As a kid, I patiently waited for Chanukah to start so we could light candles and open some presents. The light of the menorah against the dark night is always beautiful.
Chanukah is also one of my favorite foodie holidays. To commemorate the miracle of the oil in the ancient temple, there’s the tradition to eat fried foods during the holiday. Who doesn’t love fried foods? That Chanukah happens to fall at the same time as Thanksgiving in the US – extra foodie fun!
I try to come up with new latke ideas each year. Some years I’ve focused on a different root veggies, other years I’ve added some herbs. This latke idea came to me just the other day as I was making dinner. Mushrooms are one of my favorite veggies. Why not try and add them to latkes? I had a bag of dried wild mushrooms that I thought would complement the latkes very well. I paired the wild mushrooms with some sage and roasted garlic. Latke perfection! I’m so glad I made these right away!
I roasted a head of garlic and then I soaked the mushrooms in boiling water.
I shredded the potatoes, mushrooms and onions in my Cuisinart food processor. I then mixed everything together and added some eggs, potatoes and sage.
I fried up the latkes and then drained them on a wire rack lined with paper towels.
These latkes were a huge hit! I highly recommend serving them with sour cream. Enjoy and Have a Happy Chanukah!
- 1 head of garlic, roasted
- 5 Idaho Russet Potatoes
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 cups of dried wild mushrooms
- 5 oz. cremini mushooms
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
- ½ cup flour
- 3 large eggs
- oil for frying
- additional salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat the oven to 400. Cut off the top quarter-inch of the head of garlic to expose the cloves. Drizzle some olive oil over the garlic and wrap in foil. Place in oven for 30 minutes and roast. Then allow to cool.
- Rinse the dried mushrooms and soak them in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Peel and quarter the onions and potatoes.
- Rinse and quarter the Cremini mushrooms.
- With a shredding disc, process the potatoes, onion and mushrooms in the food processor.
- Transfer to a colander and squeeze as much liquid out of the potatoes as possible. I sometimes like to place them in a tea towel and squeeze more water from there like I did with this latke recipe.
- Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Squeeze out the roasted garlic cloves in to the bowl.
- Add in the chopped sage leaves.
- Stir in the eggs, flour, salt and pepper.
- Heat up the oil in a deep fry pan.
- From potato mixture in to patties and fry. Flip the latke over when you see the edges begin to brown.
- Transfer the finished latke to a rack positioned over paper towels to drain and cool.
- These latkes are great with sour cream.
- Enjoy!
