I kicked off holiday week with Sweet Potato Latkes this morning.
A little background: fried food is traditionally eaten during Hanukkah to commemorate the oil that miraculously burned for eight days when the Maccabees purified and rededicated the holy Temple in Jerusalem. Latkes are essentially fried potato pancakes and, as you know, I’m all about the pancakes on Sunday mornings. If you want to learn a little more about the history of latkes, check out a neat write up by The Shiksa in the Kitchen.
Typically made with potatoes, onions, spices and matzo meal to bind everything together, latkes can be both sweet and savory. While I tend towards the sweet on Sunday mornings, I thought a runny egg and melted cheese atop a savory latke sounded heavenly, so that’s what I did.
That’s applewood smoked bacon. And, there IS eggnog in my coffee. Because that’s how I’m rollin’ today.
Thanks to free samples at Whole Foods, I am now addicted to this cheese. I can’t get enough. So this is what I used.
Before I continue, I admit that I made two pretty significant detours from the traditional recipe. Of course I did. Nothing is every straightforward in my kitchen.
First, I used sweet potatoes. No reason other than my strong preference for sweet spuds. I heart them so much I’m making two sweet potato dishes this week. Plus, this added just a little bit of sweet to this savory dish, and you know that just made it that much better.
Second, no frying. WHAT? Isn’t that the essence of the latke, you ask? Perhaps but 1) I don’t like to fry things and 2) I do like to keep things light. I found a recipe for baked latkes that looked to deliver the same extra crispy texture sans greasiness, so that’s what I did.
This hearty breakfast took about 45 minutes start to finish this morning. While it seems like a long time to wait around for breakfast, I assure you that you can find something to do while they bake. Go make your bed, take a shower, read the paper and before you know it, your latkes will be done.
Recipe adapted from Organic Gardening
Sweet Potato Latkes
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet potato peeled and grated
- 1 yellow onion grated (about 1 cup)
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 TB sage
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Drop by quarter-cupfuls onto the baking sheets. Flatten with a spatula.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Flip and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
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