Bloomfield Township resident Howard Blank was raised by a mother who peeled and shredded her own potatoes at home to make latkes every Hanukkah. However, his mother in law, local West Bloomfield resident Marilyn Kohen, had always made her potato pancakes using pre-shredded spuds since they do not turn brown.
With his parents living out of town, Howard missed his mother’s latkes, so while discussing the Hanukkah menu on Thanksgiving in 2010, he– bravely (and, as he said, probably out of sleep deprivation)– decided to comment on Marilyn’s latkes.
“You have to feel pretty secure with your spot in the family to question your Jewish mother-in-law’s latke recipe,” Howard’s wife and Marilyn’s daughter, Jamie, said laughing. “At first, I thought to myself, Why you gotta do that? Don’t mess with the recipe! But luckily we’re a close family, and Howard and I were married for quite some time already, so it was never going to be a controversial thing.”
Coming from a sports-loving, naturally-competitive family, Jamie said it was no surprise to her that her mother did not accept the, as Marilyn herself described, “politely critical” latke comment without at least a little fight. Jamie recalls the competition being her mother’s idea where Howard said it could have been him; regardless of how it actually went down, this was the year that their family’s “Hanukkah Showdown” was born.
With a latke spatula prize on the line, Howard arrived at his mother-in-law’s that Hanukkah with his crispier latkes where Marilyn stuck to her traditional soft ones in addition to the rest of the holiday spread. Howard and Jamie’s daughter Ella, who was around five at the time, was in charge of tallying the votes.
“Voting was interesting since loyalty really got in the way,” Jamie explained. “My dad, for example, seemed to go in with the idea that no matter which latke he liked better, he had to vote for his wife, so then I, of course, felt like I had to do the same for my husband. The kids ended up being the deciding vote, but it was still hard for them, too, as they had to make the tough decision between Gree (Grandma) or Dad.”
Marilyn, who (rightfully) dubbed herself the “Latke Queen,” ended up winning that first year. However, Howard entered a Greek latke with spinach and feta that ended up beating his mother-in-law’s entry the following year.
“I loved Howie’s Greek latkes,” Marilyn said. “They were creative and delicious.”
As the years went on, Jamie said her aunts wanted to join in with their secret family recipes, and they even had a non-Jewish neighbor try to work her way into the competition one year, offering to enter sweet potato latkes.
“It’s just funny to me since no one used to want to make the latkes since if you made them, your house smelled for like a week, and now everyone’s houses smelled like latkes even though the gathering itself took place at one house,” Jamie said.
Instead of Hanukkah being only about the gifts, Jamie said the annual latke cook-off has shifted her family’s focus back to why they’re gathering in the first place and why they eat what they do.
Latkes, which are fried in oil, are meant to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah when the oil of the menorah in the Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day. Over a thousand years later, the miracle is still being celebrated by Jewish families across the world.
“This whole thing has really given us an opportunity to teach them how to have fun without always getting something,” Jamie explained. “Plus, just like any other Jewish tradition or speciality food, these recipes have really become meaningful gifts in and of themselves.”
Marilyn’s "Winning" Latkes
Ingredients
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1-2 bags of frozen, shredded potatoes
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1 small onion
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2 eggs
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½ cup flour or matza meal
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1 tsp salt
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¼ tsp pepper
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½ tsp baking soda
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Oil for frying
Directions
01 Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl.
02 Heat oil in a heavy pan or griddle.
03 Drop batter by the spoonful and fry until golden brown and crisp on both sides.
04 Drain on paper toweling.
05 Serve hot with applesauce, sour cream or cinnamon and sugar.
Howard’s Latkes
Ingredients
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5 large potatoes
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Approximately ¼ cup matzo meal
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1 onion
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1 egg
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Vegetable oil for frying
Directions
01 Peel potatoes and grate them. Grate onion, as well.
02 Add 1 beaten egg, and then add matzo meal slowly until the mixture is no longer wet.
03 Heat oil in skillet.
04 Use a tablespoon to drop potato mixture onto the hot skillet.
05 Drain on paper towels.
06 Serve with applesauce.