Latkes for A Serious Man

One of the lesser talked about nominees for Best Picture, and one which, without prior knowledge of the story of Job- one where some of the nuances were lost on us.

It just felt a little, undercooked to me. But you can read a much more insightful take on it by the very clever Alice Tynan here

So for us, its natural home was right in the middle of the meal. The place in a long tasting menu where the ‘white fish filler’ course usually goes- slotting in after some colourful entrees, and right before the main event.

For those who have been pre-warned to stick around, at the end of A Serious Man’s credits it says ‘no Jews were harmed in the making of this film’.

And hopefully no one’s heritage was harmed in our efforts to recreate potato latkes.

It was ten small potatoes, peeled and put through the very nifty vegetable shredding insertion of my food processor. It’s amazing how quickly these pale blonde spheres of carbohydrate morph into sweet squiggly little worms. They then get put in a clean tea towel where you take out some aggression on them, and squeeze the suckers as hard as you can to extract as much moisture as possible.

Two eggs, some lemon juice and salt and pepper then get added, and we kept the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours to get to know each other better.

The Hungry One then made small patties and lightly shallow fried them. Some were sent down a healthier route and were grilled on the bbq. The fried ones were the superior specimens.

There wasn’t any sour cream on hand so we topped them with a dollop of organic yogurt which was mixed with a little walnut oil and some lemon juice and a speckle of fish roe.

They looked like freaky sea anemones, but tasted safe; like salty, squishy potato cakes that came from a square state.

A seemingly sensible option for A Serious Man.

Read the rest of the Oscarsfest meal here

Leave a comment

*