For our joint Passover and Easter brunch, Carli asked me to make latkes. I was surprised how much Dave enjoyed them. And as I hadn’t photographed them I made a second batch to enjoy with aubergine caviar.

Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Latkes ♥
After our paperwork went in to the City of Cape Town for our solar installation I received a call telling me we needed a new electricity meter. We have prepaid electricity and I thought the call was a scam. I asked the lady to please email me the details as usually scammers don’t follow through with an email. Of course, I was not just going to trust the email and sent it to Dave to verify with our solar installer. A few days later the City of Cape Town sent the same information which I also passed on to Dave. He called the company and the arrangement with them was that they would call when they could do the installation as they were very busy. Her initial contact with me was at the end of March, and the call logging the installation was made on the 23rd of April.
Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Latkes ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X
On the 25th of May our morning started with load shedding. We had run out of battery power so our electricity was off. And it was raining so we were not generating more power. But when load shedding ended our power did not come back on. I contacted the electricity department and it turns out we were disconnected. The people contracted to change our meter had come out the day before, without an appointment and could not gain access to the property. They had left a letter on our driveway which I did not see. The details of which said we would be disconnected in 14 days if we did not make alternate arrangements. But clearly the labourers thought is would be expedient to cut us off at the same time, rather than come back in two weeks to do so! Dave got them to come back and reconnect us.
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Latkes
Ingredients
- 400 g potatoes, grated and excess liquid squeezed out
- 60 mls polenta or matza meal
- 1 small leek, thinly sliced
- 1 egg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- canola oil for frying
Method
- Place the potatoes, polenta, leeks and egg into a mixing bowl
- Use a wooden spoon or spatula and mix to combine
- Season generously to taste
- Place enough canola oil into a large frying pan so that it is 2cm in depth
- Heat over a medium to high temperature
- Using a large serving spoon, scoop up about 60mls of the potato mix and place into the oil
- Do 3 latkes at a time to not overcrowd the pan
- Fry for 4 minutes each side then remove from the oil and place on paper towel to drain
- Do this until all the mixture has been used up
- If you are not eating them straight away you can keep them warm in an oven set at 90° Celsius
View the previous posts on July 4:
- 2022: Pomegranate Popsicles
- 2021: The Burning Girls
- 2018: June 2018 Showcasing In My Kitchen
- 2016: Citrus Salad
- 2013: Blackcurrant And Vodka Sorbet
- 2012: Yuppiechef
- 2011: Wasabi Taste Test
I am not a potato eater – too many on my plate during the meat-and-potatoes childhood diett . . . . but had a lot of Jewish friends both in my high school and university days and love latkes ! Cannot wait to try your recipe ’cause it differs from the ones I have – thank you 😉 ! Oh, we have had a continuous supply of electricity in my part of the state – BUT, the costs have just gone up another 25% 1 July – people are literally having to choose between food and heating !
Ours also went up this month by a lot! It is scary how expensive daily living has become.
Thanks for your ‘reminder’ recipe, Tandy…(we also used onions). We used to make latkes a lot when our three lads were growing up as they were favoured in our house. I loved ’em…(Very disappointed there was no ‘pàrcel!’ Hey ho – we’ll have to make our own …) x
They are so easy to make, and I can understand why your boys enjoyed them so much 🙂
I love latkes. I remember Dad grating potatoes in a small manual grater; you turned the handle and the potato bits came out. Not that we called them latkes. Oh dear, utilities are always a pain. We were visited by the gas people one day who said we needed a new meter. They took one look and said they would come back. Well, 18 months later …
That is slow service haha! And I like the sound of that grater 🙂
I love various potato fritters / pancakes, but I’ve actually never made Latkes. They look delicious!
Thank you Ben 🙂
We always ate latkes on Hanukah but lately, I just haven’t wanted to eat fried food. I am intrigued with the use of polenta in the recipe. A great tip for me being gluten-free.
I did not feel like buying matzo meal which would end up going to waste again!