Ginger Scallion Latkes

A new year's resolution: eat more fried potatoes.  Yum.

In working with this recipe from Bittersweet, I made a few changes.  I made a smaller batch, and (lacking a kitchen scale) I totally guessed on the amount of potatoes needed.  I think this may have meant that there was a greater amount of other things in ratio to potatoes than in the original recipe.  But I thought it was great the way it turned out.  I also used all-purpose flour instead of chickpea flour, because I have never in my life had chickpea flour on hand.  Someday...

Hannah's original recipe calls for these latkes to be baked, but I wasn't down with that.  However, frying these babies was DANGEROUS!  They splattered sooo much.  I have a lid for my frying pan, but even still this was messy, what with the flipping halfway and all.  Still, it's very delicious.  I love this East Asian spin on the potato pancake, which is such a versatile food anyway.  The slightly-raw ginger is very similar in texture to the potato, and both the ginger and the scallions go great with the potatoes.  And really?  Fried potatoes are going to be great no matter what, I think.

Ginger-Scallion Latkes

(adapted from Bittersweet)

Ingredients

3 potatoes

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

3 scallions, minced

2 TB fresh parsley, minced

1 1/2 TB ginger, minced

scant 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 TB ground flax seeds

OIL--

(canola or similar; do NOT, under any circumstances, use olive oil)

Instructions

1. Peel and grate the potatoes, placing them in a colander in the sink or set over a large bowl. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and salt, to prevent browning and extract some of the water, and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes.
2. Squeeze the potato shreds with your hands to extract the excess water. Don’t be shy, really wring those spuds out, because too much water now will mean less crispy latkes later. Transfer the significantly drier potatoes into a [dry] large bowl.
3. Add the scallions, ginger, flour, ground flax, and toss to combine.
4. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of potato mixture for each latke, and use your hands to really press it all together.
5. Fry them!  Then drain on paper towels.
Makes about 6-8 pancakes.