Here's the thing about celeriac. Everyone and their mother has said how much nuttier and earthier it is compared to its stalky brethren. But seriously. When you peel it for the first time, you'll catch a whiff and you'll understand. Your first bite - the same understanding.
I've never made latkes before, and the experience of grating an onion is both odd and tear-inducing.
Meez:
You'll need a pound and a half of peeled celeriac (I had about a pound when it was all said and done), a pound and a half of russets, lemon juice, pound of onions, 2/3 C AP flour, 4 large eggs, salt, pepper, celery seed, and veg. oil.Procedure:
Grate your celeriac. Grate your potatoes into a large bowl. Toss w/lemon juice. Grate your onions into the same bowl. Drain off the liquid, dump the mess into the middle of a kitchen towel, and twist it up to squeeze out as much moisture as possible (you'll be surprised how much you get out). Put this back in the big bowl and stir in your 4 beaten eggs, your flour, the salt, pepper, and celery seed.
The mix
Put about 1/3 inch oil in a 10 in. pan and bring it up to heat but not smoking. Spooon out about a 1/4 cup of mix into the pan and flatten into a disc.
On the heat
When the edges look brown (you can lift it up to check the bottom), flip it over. The top should be a nice golden brown color. When the bottom looks similar, take it out and set on a wire rack to drain. You can put the rack on a pan and rest in a 250 degree oven to keep it warm or just eat them as they go. I had a roomate help me with a few. You can top with sour cream or applesauce.
I opted for sour cream.
So, how was it?
Right out of the pan, they're really good. Warm, they're ok.
What did you learn?
Grating onions isn't as hard as it sounds, just really weird.
Recommend it?
Yeah, it'd be good as part of a breakfast or accompanying some meat.
In regards to grating onions: WOW! I can't believe I've done something before that you haven't!
ReplyDeleteAs a Jew, I grew up grating onions making latkes every winter for Chanukah. It's kind of like grating cucumbers for tzatziki sauce in the whole weirdness factor. The absolute best way to fry them is in a combination of chicken fat and vegetable oil. I've never used celeriac in them (old school traditional Jew thing) but now I'm intrigued.
And yeah, you have to eat them as you go or we found out keeping them in the oven at a super low temp in a single layer also helped... but really they just get devoured as you go.