In the Kitchen - Sweet Potato Latke Pie

Several years ago, my sister and I made latkes the traditional way and, after an hour of frying batch after batch of potato mixture, we ended up with about three dozen latkes and a kitchen covered in a fine film of canola oil. They were tasty, but a bit more than what we bargained for.

I like this recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow because it makes a perfect, delicious potato pancake that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and is pretty low effort on the latke-making spectrum. You do have to do a little bit of grating and chopping, but the end result totally worth it. And, because this recipe is for one (sharable) latke, you won’t spend your whole morning flipping pancakes in hot oil and, incidentally, won’t have to eat latkes for the next ten straight meals. Win-win.

Sweet Potato Latke Pie

Adapted from GOOP

Ingredients:

·      1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes (about 1 ¼ pound), grated

·      ½ large yellow onion, diced

·      1 teaspoon kosher salt

·      2 tablespoons flour

·      ½ teaspoon baking powder

·      1 egg

·      Extra virgin olive oil

·      Crème fraîche, caviar, or smoked salmon, for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash and peel the potato. Grate using the largest holes on a box grater and place in a large bowl. Cover with cold water.

Dice the onion and place in another large bowl.

Drain water from the potatoes and use your hands (or a dish towel) to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Add potatoes to the bowl with the onion.

Combine salt, flour, and baking powder in a small bowl.

Add the egg to the potato and onion mixture, and stir with a spatula to mix evenly. Add dry ingredients to the bowl and mix to combine.

Heat a 10-inch pan (GP recommends nonstick but I had better luck with a conventional All-Clad skillet; I think a cast iron pan would be ideal) over medium heat and coat with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the potato mixture and spread evenly in the pan. Don’t press the mixture down too much—you want to make sure the top is textured so that it will get brown and crispy. Drizzle another 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the pancake.

Cook latke over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, drizzle another 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over the top and transfer the pan to the preheated oven. Cook for 15 minutes.

Turn on the broiler and broil the top of the latke for 5 to 10 minutes, until the top is golden brown. (Or if you're me, until the edges are slightly charred!) 

Remove pan from the oven and transfer the pancake to a cooling rack. Cut into wedges and serve immediately, or at room temperature.

Crème fraiche, caviar, and smoked salmon would be delicious savory accompaniments and applesauce or maple syrup could be delicious toppings if you’re craving something sweet.