I encountered my first potato latke when I was in the second grade. I was absolutely in awe of the room mom who came in to make them for our class. Out of seemingly nowhere, griddles full of steaming hot potato pancakes popped up, replacing our usual worksheets and textbooks. Ummm food in place of work? Sign me up!
After we received our fresh, hot, latke, we were allowed to top it with applesauce or sour cream. I remember thinking that anyone who picked applesauce must be absolutely crazy. I mean, it’s a potato, people! There is only one topping option! Even our principal got in the latke action . . . and he picked applesauce. No. words.
That was the last time I had a latke. Which, in retrospect, is absolutely crazy, given these established facts: 1) I love potatoes. 2) I love fried potatoes. 3) I love sour cream. 4) I love sour cream on potatoes. Sense a theme here?
It took a recipe challenge from the Modern Home Kitchen to start me thinking about latkes again. Get this, though: The ingredient for the challenge was not potato, but rather, squash. Squash! Since I’ve only ever steamed squash, I was equally excited and intimidated by the challenge.
I started thinking about all things squash – squash bowls (adorable), squash and risotto, squash fries, you get the picture. But then. I had a revelation: Squash dessert . . . squash pancakes? SQUASH LATKES! I found out, via a quick Google search, that squash latkes were not an entirely insane idea. I looked at a couple of squash latke recipes before coming up with my own, slightly sweeter version.
I used a Delicata squash, which was one of the three I picked up in Kroger’s $10/10 pounds of fall squash deal. You should’ve seen me rifling through that bin of squash. Or, maybe not. It’s a good thing two of my squash were labeled, too, because I am such a squash amateur that I didn’t even know all of those gourd-shaped things were varieties of squash. Hope you guys like it, though, because I have two more squash to go!
P.S. First one to correctly tell me how many times I used the word squash (it’s an embarrassingly high number) in this post – including the recipe – gets cookies. Seriously. Continue reading
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