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These latkes put a colorful twist on holiday favorite

Recipe: Sweet potato latkes, served with applesauce and sour cream

Pair sweet potato latkes with the traditional applesauce and sour cream.

Pair sweet potato latkes with the traditional applesauce and sour cream. Debbie Arrington

Happy Hanukkah! My favorite food of this holiday season: Latkes.

Fried in oil, latkes are an edible nod to Hanukkah’s origin story. In Jerusalem’s Holy Temple, lamp oil that was not supposed to last more than one night miraculously stretched to eight nights.

Latkes in a pan with oil
Fry the latkes in 1/4-inch of vegetable oil.

The purest olive oil was used for the temple’s lamp. For my sweet potato latkes, I prefer vegetable oil. This twist on traditional potato latkes uses bright orange sweet potatoes for more color (and antioxidants – these fried potatoes are good for you). I serve them with my homegrown applesauce and sour cream.

Sweet potato latkes also make a savory appetizer. Instead of applesauce, top with sour cream or crème fraiche and a little caviar.

Sweet potato latkes

Makes about 12

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled

½ yellow onion

¼ cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 eggs

Vegetable oil for frying

Applesauce (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.  Line a cookie sheet with paper towels or parchment paper. Set aside.

Grate sweet potatoes, either by hand or with a food processor. Soak grated sweet potatoes in a large bowl of salted water (about 1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 quart water) while assembling the other ingredients.

Grate onion. Wrap in a paper towel and press much as water as possible out of the grated onion. Put grated onion in a large bowl.

Drain grated sweet potatoes in a sieve, pressing out the water. Add sweet potatoes to onion in the bowl; toss to combine.

In a small bowl or cup, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Add to sweet potato mixture.

Lightly beat eggs and add to the sweet potato mixture.

In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat. It should cover the bottom of the pan about ¼ inch deep.

Using two wooden spoons, scoop about ¼ cup of sweet potato mixture and drop into hot oil. With the back of the spoon, gently flatten the scoops into patties. Repeat as room allows in the pan without overcrowding.

Latkes on baking sheet
Keep latkes warm in a low oven until all are fried.

Fry each patty until golden brown on each side and crispy on the edges, turning once; about 5 to 7 minutes total per patty. As the latkes finish cooking, remove them from the pan and set on the prepared baking sheet. Keep the latkes warm in the oven until all of them are fried.

Serve immediately with applesauce and sour cream, if desired.

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Garden Checklist for week of May 11

Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.

* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.

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