Potato Pancakes (Latkes)

A bonus day-off from school usually means that I will be spending the majority of my time watching the Food Network.  However, I'm not a huge fan of every show so I had to settle for channel surfing.  Lucky for me, I stumbled upon a PBS special of Julia Child's cooking show.  It was my first time watching her show, and I was excited to see that she was making an array of potato dishes!  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm obsessed with potatoes; they are my favorite. :)  I only caught the tail-end of the episode, but she was teaching us how to make potato pancakes.  I love latkes, and I was inspired by her techniques.  If I didn't witness her squeezing the water from her potato gratings, I would have had disastrous pancakes.  The following recipe may be enjoyed with any meat dish, and latkes are tasty with sour cream or apple sauce.

Potato Pancakes (Latkes)
makes 7-8 latkes

Ingredients

• 4-5 medium-sized potatoes
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• vegetable oil

Directions

1. Peel and wash the potatoes.  Keep them in a bowl filled with cold water.  Using a box grater, grate the potatoes and keep the shavings in a separate bowl.  Don't worry about the ends of the potatoes as you're grating...just throw them out because it's not worth scratching up your knuckles and hands on your box grater!  Once all the potatoes are grated, use a cheese cloth or paper towels to wrap around handfuls of potatoes (one at a time) and squeeze the water out.  Keep these dried shavings in a mixing bowl.  Continue until all the shavings have been squeezed.
2. Add the onion powder, eggs, flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the mixing bowl.  Toss the mixture together with a fork until all ingredients seem combined.  It should almost look like coleslaw.
3. Using a frying pan at medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan.  When the oil is heated, add ladles/spoonfuls of the potato mixture to the pan.  Flatten the latkes out a bit because they will cook in the shape you drop them in!  Cook the pancakes on each side for 3-4 minutes.  Add more oil when necessary.