Levivot

Ingredients

Batter

• 1 kgfloury potatoes
• 1onion
• 2eggs
• 3 tbspmatzo meal or plain flour
• 1 tspsalt
• ½ tspblack pepper

To fry

• oil, for shallow frying

To serve

• sour cream
• apple sauce

Directions

1. Grate the potatoes and the onion together on the coarse side of a grater.
2. Grate the onion in with the potato from the start. Its acid slows the browning, and potato grated alone turns grey within minutes.
3. Tip the gratings into a cloth and wring them out hard over a bowl.
4. Wring them genuinely dry. Water left in the mixture steams in the pan and gives pale floppy pancakes instead of crisp ones.
5. Let the squeezed liquid stand for a few minutes, then pour off the water and keep the white starch settled at the bottom.
6. Scrape that starch back into the potato. It binds the mixture, which means less flour and a cleaner potato flavour.
7. Mix in the eggs, matzo meal, salt and pepper, and use it immediately.
8. Heat a generous depth of oil in a heavy pan.
9. The oil is the point of the dish, not an incidental. Levivot are eaten at Hanukkah precisely because they are fried in oil, commemorating the oil that burned for eight days.
10. Drop spoonfuls into the hot oil and flatten each into a thin round with the back of the spoon.
11. Keep them thin, no more than about 5 mm. A thick latke stays raw and gluey in the middle while the outside burns.
12. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes a side, until deep golden brown and crisp at the edges.
13. Do not crowd the pan, which drops the oil temperature and gives greasy pancakes.
14. Drain them on a rack rather than on paper, which traps steam and softens the undersides.
15. Serve immediately with sour cream or apple sauce.
16. Sour cream or apple sauce is a genuine and long-running argument in Jewish households, and the answer is usually both on the same plate.
17. They are eaten through the eight nights of Hanukkah, alongside sufganiyot, which are fried for the same reason.
18. The German Kartoffelpuffer and the Ashkenazi latke are the same pancake by different routes, and levivot is simply the Hebrew name.

Technique

• Matzo meal rather than flour is used during Passover-conscious households and is the traditional binder.
• They do not keep and are made in relays with people eating as they come out of the pan.
• The batter oxidises fast, which is why it must be fried as soon as it is mixed.

Substitutions

• Plain flour or potato starch in place of matzo meal.
• A food processor grating disc, which is quicker and slightly wetter.

Variations

• With grated courgette or carrot through the potato.
• Kartoffelpuffer, the German version, often served sweet.
• Made small, as a canapé base.

History

Eaten at Hanukkah, when foods fried in oil recall the temple oil that burned for eight days.

Frequently asked questions

What is Levivot?

Levivot is a snack from Israel: fried grated potato pancakes eaten with sour cream or apple sauce. Eaten at Hanukkah, when foods fried in oil recall the temple oil that burned for eight days.

How long does Levivot take to make?

Levivot takes 20 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 16. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Levivot?

Yes, within limits. Plain flour or potato starch in place of matzo meal. A food processor grating disc, which is quicker and slightly wetter.

What is the most important thing to get right in Levivot?

Wring them genuinely dry. Water left in the mixture steams in the pan and gives pale floppy pancakes instead of crisp ones.