The Grate Latke Cook Off Challenge

Last week I was challenged to see if I could make latkes that were better than the ones bought at a famous deli on Third Avenue.  The tasters were several friends one of whom was a vegan so I had to make two batches one with an egg and one without an egg.  Finding the right egg substitute was not difficult since there are literally hundreds on the internet, but almost all of them are intended for baking.  I did choose the Flax Vegan Egg Substitute below because I thought it would work the best.
 http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-vegan-egg-substitute-104832

In the past, when I have made latkes, I have taken the lazy girl's approach.  I threw all the ingredients into the blender and blended until the mixture was the consistency of pancake batter.  Although the latkes tasted terrific, they lacked the crunchiness associated with the ones that were grated by hand by all our mothers.

I knew that the lazy girl's approach would not work for this challenge. My ancient Cuisinart blender only has three blades, and the one intended for grating produces large chunks of potato that could not be used for frying.  So I tried a different approach.  I also bought two kinds of potatoes that required no peeling, yukon gold and and white potatoes. I started with two bowls.  I scrubbed the potatoes and cut them into quarters.  I also cut the onion in half because I wanted to work in batches.  I grated two potatoes and half the onion, transferred the mixture to the first bowl, put the mixture back into the food processor and using the blade intended for mushing, I pulsed the mixture for 5 pulses. I put that mixture into the second bowl and repeated the process with the remaining two potatoes and onion.  This method produced a mixture that was very similar to the one that you can get using a hand grater.

LATKE INGREDIENTS:
4 large potatoes or 6 medium
1 medium sized onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, well beaten
3 tablespoons matzo meal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
vegetable oil for frying

NOTE:  For vegan latkes substitute the flax vegan egg substitute

I then added the remaining ingredients and mixed them well.  I added some oil to my largest frying pan and first formed the mixture into egg shaped balls and then flattened and fried them.  I made two batches, one vegan and one non-vegan.

Now came the taste test.  All 3 batches of latkes were transported to my friend's house and reheated in a 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

After some agonizing moments, the results were in.....and it was unanimous. My home made latkes were the best (both non-vegan and vegan) and the famous deli ones were a distant second.  And because I used potatoes that I did not have to peel, the entire process was much less tiring.