How do you make a Hanukkah tradition stick? For Jewish mother and seasoned entertainer Billie Maas, the answer is easy: save the potato starch.
The improv actress and local pharmaceutical rep has tried a “thousand” recipes for her potato latkes over the years. During the week of {span}Hanukkah{/span}, she welcomes around 30 hungry family members into her home for celebrations. But a few years ago, she centered on the perfect recipe for the fried potato pancakes that are a staple of the holiday.
The technique, which she adapted from the book “The Jewish-American Kitchen” by Raymond Sokolov, solves the timeless dilemma of how to keep the latkes from falling apart without drenching them in flour and eggs. After she grates the potatoes in her food processor, she drains them for a very long time in a colander, fixing a bowl underneath to catch the excess starchy liquid. After the liquid separates from the starch, she pours it off and adds the starch back into the potato mixture.
The starch proves to be the perfect binding agent, giving you soft, flavorful potatoes on the inside, and an incredible crispy crust.
But that’s not to say the ingredients don’t play a role. These days, you’re probably more likely to see latke recipes made from shredded radish and organic rutabaga, with toppings ranging from pesto or Spanish aioli to Indian curry lime yogurt. But Maas keeps it simple. She uses regular old Idaho potatoes, with one secret ingredient: a ton of salt.
“You can’t let anybody see you put it in there,” she says. “If anybody sees you put in the salt, they’re gonna freak out and not want to eat them.”
And it may seem obvious, but it’s very important that once you’re done frying the potatoes in the vegetable oil (to accommodate an allergic niece, she never uses peanut) you serve them right away.
When you’re hosting though, this can be a challenge. Nobody wants to spend their entire party frying latkes, the smoke seeping into your clothing and skin until you smell like onions and sweat. Here again, she has the perfect solution:
“Get your boyfriend or husband to do the frying, it’s like grilling and very manly,” she says. “Then you can sit and eat.”
