Miz Cracker and Carla Make Chanukah Latkes

[grunting]

[laughing]

Oh my gosh, she's so strong. She's so strong.

[grunting] [laughing]

[upbeat music]

Hey guys it's Carla.

I'm here today in the Bon Appetit test kitchen

with a very special guest, a return guest,

and the first guest to ever jump

from back to back.

[Man] Hash tag plated hair.

To hosted the legendary Miz Cracker.

Through you I became a real chef.

That's why I'm here on this side of the table today.

I think it just needed to be out there.

It's so good. [laughing]

And today we're going to share a family recipe

Yes.

From your family. Yeah.

What are we making?

We're making Latkes today,

which is a traditional Jewish food.

It is now associated with Hanukkah.

Right. But it's really,

just a year round Jewish food traditionally.

It started being associated with Hanukkah

in like the 1850s.

One thing I wanna say about Latkes,

for everyone watching,

is that you can make it with pretty much anything.

Sometimes people make it with Matzo Meal.

We're gonna be making it with flour today,

because it's something that everyone can find.

And we're going to be making it with potatoes and onions.

If you want to you can put chives in there.

Sure. So you can put goat cheese,

you can really experiment with the flavors,

but we're just gonna make the basic recipe today,

and you can work from there with whatever you want.

The thing about Jewish cooking,

especially Russian and Eastern European

Jewish cooking, it's made by people that were kept down,

and didn't have a lot of money,

and were often on the run.

Big time. So being creative,

and using ingredients that are easily accessible

and in season, is a big part of Jewish cooking.

So you can adapt

to whatever season and area you're in.

Great, love it.

So you're representing hard.

Yes I am.

I'm wearing this beautiful Nelson Tavares dress.

He designed it specifically

for my upcoming Hanukkah holiday Christmas tour.

It's quite fetching. Isn't it great.

[laughing]

But I would hate for anything to splatter

or shatter on your dress. No.

Let's get some aprons. We should get some aprons.

Yeah we need to bring something here.

Luckily I have a beautiful

Miz Cracker branded apron,

and I would love to gift you one today.

Hallelujah.

Because no kitchen is complete

without this beautiful. Look at this gorgeousness.

On sale for the holidays,

I mean like not a markdown, but.

I feel so special. Isn't it gorgeous.

'Cause last time you were here

you had one and I was extremely jealous.

We thought that that would be the last one

because we didn't know they would be so popular.

And now you're just in it. We're just

mass producing them.

[chuckles]

I know what I want for Christmas, I mean Hanukkah.

Alright, what's the first step.

Okay, so the first step we're going to peel

these potatoes. And we're using a Idaho.

Yes just a russet potato.

For starch right.

Yeah it doesn't need to be fancy at all.

I feel like you don't want

a Yukon for waxy, you want the starchy.

Right, for sure.

Oh my god, look at what. You're welcome.

[laughing]

Wow!

Three minutes in and I've been upstaged.

I love getting things off in one stroke,

it's one of my specialties.

And now we're gonna peel

this little onion here. Great.

How do you peel, 'cause I always cut it in half,

and then pull off.

Isn't in the end it's going to be grated right.

It's gonna be grated,

so you don't want too many pieces.

So then I'm not going to worry about keeping it

in the rounds. Right.

And I just always take off the,

that's the stem end I guess, and this is the root.

And then go this way. Perfect.

And then I'm gonna leave the root

just 'cause we're grating, and a little bit of a handle.

Oh that's great. Is that how you do it?

No.

[laughing]

Do you want me to grate it?

Yeah you grate, well wait.

Let's hold off Wait before you grate.

for just a second.

Because when you start grating onions

all of that onion juice gets in your eyeballs.

And, okay, so we're gonna grate these potatoes.

It's amazing how fast it goes.

And potatoes are tubers.

They store a lot of water,

so you're gonna notice a lot of liquid right away,

but we're gonna handle that in a little minute.

Starchy.

That's how you grate a potato people, no waste.

That's great. Right.

Yeah not a single bit of waste, because--

That's true to your roots.

Okay, go ahead.

There would be no waste right.

No waste. No wasting.

Because you are trying to survive.

And just straight on here.

Trying to survive you're not going around

wasting a potato. No you are not.

So now what we're gonna do is

I'm gonna take this bowl here

with a little towel in it,

and I'm just gonna put all of this

potato stuff in here. So smart.

And we don't want them to oxidize and turn brown,

and so I'm just gonna wrap them up in this towel,

so that while we're grating the onions

they're not gonna turn brown. Oh so you're just

covering it. Yeah.

It's an air barrier. Yeah.

There was a theory going around earlier

before we started filming,

that if you freeze the onion, it won't

blast you out so much. Do that.

And I don't know why that would be

because it's the sulfur.

Like this is the onion self defense mechanism.

Did you hear that What are you looking for?

if you put a spoon in your mouth,

that your eyes wouldn't tear.

I had no,

why would that be? I have no idea.

Maybe because you're not inhaling as--

Through your mouth, I don't know.

It doesn't Let's try it.

You don't do it, I'm not crying yet.

You're the control, I'm the.

Oh, okay. [laughing]

Look at all this liquid. It's a lot of liquid.

Yeah. How do you feel?

Like with grating, I'm literally...

[laughing]

We're pulverizing it.

It's not, not going to release.

Do you want to grate the other half?

I do. Okay.

Hmm, hmm. Mhmm.

This spoon taste terrible. Oh yeah.

It's so metallic.

When you're only slightly privileged

you're born with like a stainless steel spoon

in your mouth, that's us.

Oh my goodness.

Are we going this way again?

Yeah let's go this way again.

Look at all this liquid that we are.

We want that?

We don't want that.

So for New Yorkers, a lot of New Yorkers

don't have counter space,

you have a lot of liquid on your cutting board,

liquid coming out of your eyes right now.

You may be tempted to use your cutting board

or the sink as a place to rest your spatula.

Right. Make sure you have

a dry surface to rest your spatula,

because it's gonna go into the oil

and if you get water in the oil,

you're gonna have oil all over your face.

That's also another great title

for like a self help article. What?

Make sure you have a dry place

for your spatula. Yes it is.

Just as a general rule. Just like metaphorically.

Yeah exactly.

I think you know what we mean.

[laughing]

And if we had to move on,

we can just tie the stick to this

and put it over. Oh absolutely.

Latke on the move, people are coming.

Latke on the Watke, yep there she goes.

Shpatzir, that's yiddish for take a little walk.

Uh huh [laughing]

Okay, so you're gonna grab it by it's little neck

and wring it out. Uh huh, oh good.

And the more you can get out, the better.

So if you have a nice strong man in the house.

[grunting]

There you go, ooh look at it all coming out.

That's a lot of liquid. It's a lot isn't it.

That's a lot of liquid,

and that's gonna sog out your Latke.

Right. This is a little trick,

that I have picked up along the way,

that once you squozen,

which is a made up word,

that a re-fluff. Because then you're mixing

the ones that have been squeezed by the outside.

Exactly, because I feel like

some guys got squeezed more than the others.

Here I'm gonna--

So re-fluff

Get rid of this. and then re-squeeze.

That was a good amount of liquid.

Yeah. And then that down there,

that cloudy stuff, so I've seen some recipes

that say you squeeze out all the liquid

and then you let the potato starch

collect at the bottom. Oh, okay.

And pour off the watery part,

and then that can be your binder too.

Oh really. Yeah different strokes

for different folks.

You know what, let's keep it in there.

Why not? And we can mix it in

with the oeufs, the eggs.

We're gonna have a little extra binder.

I just feel very emotional right now,

because I'm just thinking of

how traditions like this bind people together,

not unlike the starch is going to bind

this potato pancake together. That is right.

You know there are a lot of religions in the world,

but Judaism is one of those great things

that is a religion and a culture.

We're not just a religious group,

we're also a family.

And so doing stuff like this,

and celebrating family feels good,

even when you're not with your Jewish family.

You're celebrating them.

They know you're making pancakes.

Okay, so we're gonna put this in here,

go ahead and put that in. That's awesome, alright.

Here, let's mix in here. Oh yeah.

Just more room. Yeah, definitely.

We need more room. But we can pour

the starch over if we want to.

Yeah so Imma mix these around a little bit.

They look beautiful,

they didn't oxidize at all. Not at all.

They were like no.

And now this is like,

in the recipe it's like, working quickly,

which is what we're gonna do.

So break them eggs in there.

So go ahead and throw everyone in there.

Alright this looks like salt.

Yep, nice Kosher salt.

We got some peps. When it rains it pours.

Shablam. Baking powder.

Yes. A little left.

Yeah. And then this is flour.

Yep. Just regular old flour.

Some people use Matzo meal,

we're using flour, 'cause it's accessible to everybody.

That's right. It works just as well.

But it's really doing the job

of absorbing whatever liquid is still here.

That gets exuded. Yeah.

And then the flour and the water

are gonna help bind. Work, I'm into it.

Right, okay. Yeah,

and the eggs bind too right. Yeah, tots.

Let's do it.

So dig your hands in there. Alright, hold on,

I'm gonna get these off.

This feels really good.

I feel like everything is coated,

but the mixture itself is pretty dry

Right. and it's holding together.

Yep. Is that what you want.

That's perfect. Okay.

And she's just moist enough.

[snickering]

Let's go ahead and throw this potato starch

in there. Alright.

In the spirit of experimentation.

So what we're gonna do next is,

you're Italian, I am.

You know the size of a meatball.

Sure, in my heart. And that's essentially

what we're gonna do.

We're gonna make a little meatball sized globe.

Yeah so they're very cute like that.

And you'll see how we plate them later.

And then you can like have a couple bites.

I G-rated the word plate.

You can have them as your appetizer.

Yeah absolutely. Yeah,

'cause that's the other thing,

as soon as they come out of the fryer, there's no waiting.

You want it fresh out of the oil.

Right, it's like a french fry.

Very good right out away, but if you pull them out

from under your car seat a day later,

Very sad. Not so good.

But in a pinch. I too have been in college.

My car is just filled with popcorn and Cheerios.

Oh absolutely. And every car seat.

I had Fruit Loops for breakfast.

You did? Yes I did, throwbacks.

Regular milk. Nutrition, regular milk.

That would be funny if you were having

fruit loops and like alt milk.

Like no, [laughing] with the cashew milk please.

Yeah I'm watching my figure and my health.

Well I'm not watching my figure.

Dairy free Fruit Loops. [laughing]

America's watching my figure, hmm.

[upbeat music]

Is my mic showing, alright.

It's true.

So we have our little meatball size thing here

and you're just gonna put it in round.

If you don't have a thermometer for your oil,

you can just drop it in there,

and see if it begins to bubble and sizzle.

Sizzles immediately.

Yeah and the reason I like this size is

because they cook quickly,

and you can put several out on a tiny plate

and it just looks cute.

They look like little crab cakes. [laughing]

Another one of my nicknames.

[laughing]

So go ahead and take it, and drop it in.

Do you want to do the, Do the small guy.

the little taster tester. Yeah,

and then what you're gonna do

is take the spatula and flatten her.

Perfect. Just gently.

Hold on let me take this guy out.

Yeah get rid of her.

She's done, her golden brown situation.

Yeah, and this is the kind of golden brown.

[Both] That you want.

Perfectly golden brown. Yeah.

And tender, should we try?

Yeah.

Mm. Mhmm.

Yeah she's very good.

Seasoned to your liking. Yeah perfectly.

Okay, great.

[Miz] I'm just gonna drop some more in here.

[Carla] Gorgeous.

In my family, we're big eaters.

So we get impatient, and we take 'em out early.

But you should really leave them in there

for at least three minutes on a side.

So even though it's golden brown on the edge,

doesn't necessarily mean it's tender in the middle.

No. That's right.

[Miz] Doesn't mean it's time.

That's another good life lesson.

Just because she's golden brown on the edges.

Right. Doesn't mean she's

tender in the middle.

[laughing]

That's very true.

[Cameraman] We'll probably need an entire

self-help series.

We have a lot of additives.

I can't wait for our self-help book.

How do you know when to turn them over?

Let's have a little look. Okay.

[Miz] Okay, she can use a little more time.

Yeah, the middle was pale.

Yeah the middle was pale.

You just wanna hit that nice balance.

You don't want them to be crunchy all the way through.

Oh look they look so good, they're so cute.

They're perfect. Yeah.

And a good sizzle.

You said something before about low and slow.

Or like medium is better. Yes, yeah.

Because you want to give them enough time

to cook in the center before they burn on the outside.

I think this is a Latkes can teach a lesson too.

A lot of drag queens in America,

probably a lot of chefs in America,

people in all professions,

just because you push things to go quickly,

doesn't mean you're getting them done right.

Sometimes you have to cook your career

on a medium temperature,

and let it be done correctly.

Look at this nice,

we have this nice brown here. Perfect.

You can still see a little bit

of the paller of the onions and everything.

And I'll let you turn some. And I love the free radicals

of these potatoes that broke loose

from the crowd. Oh yeah, it gives it

that little filgreed edge.

That's right, and if that's

the first thing that you taste.

[gasping]

They do look like crab cakes.

Right. Yes.

Oh my goodness, look at them just sizzling away.

The great thing about having them

at this temperature too,

and not at Heller family temperature,

is that you can leave them in for a while,

let the other gals hang out

with the ones that are finishing up,

and not worry about them burning to a crisp.

But then people are probably

coming in the kitchen at this point, going like,

awe so, um so, yeah. Oh what's going on?

Are we getting closer?

[laughing] [door locking]

That's right.

Now not all recipes call for this,

but we're going to serve them

with some special sides today that my family does,

and I think a lot of Jewish families serve with.

But for now, let's get these gals out of here.

Some of them. Okay, some of them.

Why don't you take the ones you think are done.

[Carla] Okay, lemme pick.

And we're going to put them on a rack

with the towel over the rack.

So that the oil can drain off.

And there's air underneath.

Yep. Got it.

And they won't sog.

Mm this one looks perfect.

Yep.

[Carla] Such a comfort food.

Why don't you take that,

not that one. This one.

But a nice fat one. Yeah.

That's not as cute.

Oh, okay. And split it.

Okay.

So we can see if the center is good.

Great, here this one. That way we don't have

to ruin one of our--

Well this one looks pretty perf.

Right. Do you wanna open

that one up, or you wanna do one like this--

Do that ugly one yeah.

[laughing]

No one will miss her.

Let it drain for a sec,

or you want me to cut right into it.

Oh just hack open. Okay.

[screeching] [scary music]

Alright this is a sSooby snack also.

Scooby snack yes.

Oh it looks great.

You can see all the layers.

How is it?

It taste really good to me.

Is it passing? Mhmm.

Okay right well we have six. Yeah.

Put these other guys in? Yeah let's just.

Waste not, want not. Right.

Alright, and I can practice.

So they did kinda sog out

while they were sitting here.

Right you can see they're losing they're liquid.

But I tried to.

Let that happen overnight. Leave that.

It just is a nightmare.

No. It's terrible.

And it actually didn't splatter at all, so.

I really like the temperature,

I've always done mine higher also.

Yeah. And have

the same thing happen. Yep.

We have burnt onions sticking through.

I learned my lesson with this,

because I love frying things.

I learned about oil temperature

when I had the temperature up

to my favorite temperature, just fire.

[laughing]

And I was cooking naked. Oh my.

You are a true risk taker.

[laughing]

I got up.

I was going to make one of those eggs

where you swirl it in the oil.

Yeah. 'Cause I like read about it

in the Times, 'cause I'm sophisticated.

Uh huh. And I was like,

oh I'm going to do this.

So I had all this oil in the pan,

at the temperature of the sun. No.

And I dropped an egg in. No.

And a little oil went right onto my scrotum.

[laughing]

Plot twist, Imma drag queen.

And I went to bed, and I called into work.

No oh my god, you can't work like this.

I was like well today's done.

[laughing]

Okay, so let's eat these girls

while they're hot. Okay, let's do that.

I mean you're supposed to let them

sit out and blabity blabity blah.

Why, why do they have to sit out?

It seems like you have to go right

straight into it. 'Tis the season, alright.

As far as I'm concerned

there is no other thing to serve a Latke with.

Right, yeah and I seen a lot of recipes,

where I get right down to the end,

and they don't mention

that you need applesauce Yeah.

And sour cream. Yeah.

Now ours is organic. Major oversight.

Cruelty free, today.

Cruelty free applesauce. Yes.

No apples were injured in the making of the sauce.

No I didn't say they weren't injured,

they just didn't know it.

So oh my goodness. I see.

Hold on Imma just sneak that one in.

And if you had to choose between the two,

which one would you choose?

You can't, it's the balance of the sweet and the sour.

The balance of the-- That makes it so wonderful.

[Carla] So they have to be together.

Yeah.

So these look about as perfect

as a thing could look.

Oh I know. I mean besides you.

Thank you.

I'm also well rounded, with a few fly aways.

[chuckling]

I'm very proud of them,

and we have served them in the family tradition.

With a little applesauce and a little sour cream.

So just fork right into this then.

Fork right into it, yep.

Crispy exterior. Fork away.

[Carla] Tender on the middle.

[Miz] Oh it's so great.

Oh, Gorg. Yep.

Okay, you take the other half.

Yeah here we go.

[Carla] See I come from a place where everything tastes

better if you eat it with your hands.

Oh for sure, I'm with you.

Cheers. There we go.

Mm.

Yep.

You get the applesauce. Perfectly seasoned.

Yay. I can't stress it enough.

Because like a meatball,

you don't really taste the raw batter.

So doing that little tester. Yep.

So you can double check it.

Because once they're in the fryer oil, that's it.

Yeah.

And I think you did also a really nice

amount of pepper, it's not just the salt.

I'm getting like a nice little kick off that pepper.

[Miz] Just enough zing.

And it goes so well with the sweetness and the sour.

So I think what I've learned,

is that when I first tried to make my Latke,

having grown up in New York,

I've had my fair.

I had a Latke or two, you know what I'm saying.

It wasn't like-- You've been

to the second avenue deli.

Yeah exactly.

But I tried very hard to press them super, super flat,

because I was all about the crispy,

and you have taught me,

that it's all about the tender middle.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

It is, it's about the tender heart.

Every Latke has to have a tender heart.

True for Latkes and humans.

Hats off to the Hellers.

Thank you, thank you mother,

thank you for this family recipe,

and thank you Sylvia for critiquing my cooking

all the time, that's how we got here.

[chuckling]

I give them an A plus.

Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you.

Yay, two women in the kitchen.

Then you go with like a spoonful of Caviar.

Ooh, I like that.

I'm not a fancy person, but I love Caviar gentlemen.

It can just be trout [mumbles].

I love Caviar.

[laughing]

My P.O Box is.

Just kidding, I can't get it together enough

to get a P.O Box.

[laughing]

You don't want the Caviar and laughing

on the P.O Box either.

No you don't.

No refrigerated delivery is straight you know.

Straight from the sugar daddy.

Straight to HQ.

[laughing] Yes!