Two-Bite Sized Potato Zucchini Latkes

I've been going through old recipes and watching in particular for anything that is vegetarian and can be created stove top. Although I've never been a huge fan of potato pancakes or zucchini pancakes, I came across this combo recipe which I remember making years ago. I believe it came from a Canadian Living magazine since their recipes are usually quite good and reasonably foolproof.

I thought the latkes might go well along side a particular soup I had made. They did...yum. They are also a good way to get extra veggies into the meat and potato eaters of the world. Serve with applesauce, sour cream or on their own, whatever you prefer. Combining the zucchini with the potato cuts down somewhat on carbs and calories. At a mere 36 calories a piece, eating three of these delicious morsels will not break the caloric bank.

This is a bit of a process, but they don't have many ingredients and they're totally worth it. I used some basic and ancient tools to help me and created the latkes start to finish in less than 40 minutes.

Ingredients

2 small zucchinis
3 medium potatoes (peeled)
1/2 tsp salt
half an onion (I like Spanish so I use about 1/4 if it's big)
1 egg
3 tbsp flour
Oil for frying (I used Canola)

Use a grater to grate zucchini and potatoes coarsely. I used this manual old fashioned kind  (on this larger hole side shown here) but I suppose if you have one of those new fangled food processor thingies, and like washing a lot of contraption parts, it'd work too and would save getting fingernail fibre in your food. Stop going ewwwwww...that was a joke.

Put grated zucchini and potatoes in a strainer or bowl and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt. Let stand for a few minutes while you finely grate the onion. Add to mixture. Drain, strain, squeeze or stomp out the liquid any way you know how.

It sounds weird but I have an old juicer...the manual kind and I just put scoops of the potato/zucchini/onion in here and squeezed. Good arm/batwing exercise and you'd be amazed how much liquid comes out. Dispose of the liquid and put mixture back in a clean, dry bowl. Repeat.

Stir in onion, egg, flour and remaining salt. Mix. Put oil in the bottom of a pan...don't be too cheap but you also don't want to drown your mini latkes. They don't need to be covered in oil...about a third. I used a couple of tablespoons, I'm guessing. I also used a wok like pan and it was narrower at the bottom so the oil seemed a bit fuller and not so spread out...less waste

Heat the oil. Using a tablespoon, scoop the mixture into the oil. Depending on the size of your pan, you might be able to make 4 or 5 at a time. They shouldn't touch or you won't get the nice crispy potato edges. After about 2 minutes, flip them over for another couple of minutes. Cook them hot and fast. Remove and place on a layer of paper towels to drain off excess oil. These really aren't greasy, I promise.

So here's how the photo looks that comes with my original recipe. I think my zucchini was shredded a bit finer but that's personal preference. Also, my tablespoon didn't create perfect muffin tin shapes like these.  ***Note to self - Consider making these in a muffin pan next time, or not.

Here's how mine looked. I served 3 latkes for each of us. There are many left which I have frozen for re-heating in the microwave another time. The recipe makes around 3 dozen. Enjoy. We did.