Day 31: Attack of the Stealth Latkes

My one-month veganniversary coincided with Hanukkah.  I had already decided that I was just going to skip latkes this year.  (Latkes are potato pancakes fried in lots of oil that we eat on Hanukkah).  I mean, aside from the fact that they are made with eggs and therefore not vegan, they are truly just a pain in the buttocks to create.  Peel potatoes, grate potatoes, grate onions, stand at the stove forever frying and frying while your hair, clothes and house are permeated by au d'frycook.  I'm getting pimples just thinking about it!  And of course nutritionally, they are like free-radical city.  Not a good thing.

Well, best laid plans and all...   We went to a couple of back-to-back Hanukkah parties last night and even though I had eaten my sensible salad and beans before we left, I was attacked by the Stealth Latkes, the ones I did not expect to actually crave.  I guess when someone else makes them they are actually appealing to me.  I hadn't thought of that.

I ate...A LOT.. of latkes. 

Unfortunately the story does not end there.  This morning I woke up and thought "Hm, I could create Vegan Latkes using tofu instead of eggs and wow my blog readers.  So without consulting cookbooks or online resources, I just launched into Project Tofu Latkes.  Totally "forgot" my pledge to not make or eat any latkes this year.

As often happens in such instances of rash behavior, the end product did not turn out quite the way I had expected.  I got this rather unappetzing result:

and this:

and oy! this:

If you don't mind burned-on-the-outside-raw-on-the-inside, they came out fine.  The kids ate the lot of 'em.  I was a bit too digusted with myself and depressed at the thought of cleaning those pans to eat very many.  I don't know why they stuck so badly?  It could have been the tofu, or the kind of potatoes or not having the heat just right in the pan.  (You can see that I fried one batch and baked one batch - neither one very successful in my mind).

None-the-less...

Vegan Latkes
330g tofu (that's the size of the package here)
6 potatoes, peeled and grated
1 onion, grated,
handful chopped parsely
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
few twists black pepper
oil for frying
Puree tofu, onion and parsley in food processor, mix in other ingredients, fry in oil, spend the rest of your life scrubbing the pans. 

If anyone makes them, tell me how they come out for ya!

So to salvage the past unhealthy 24 hours and to take advantage of the fact that it is sunny and 75 F in Israel in December (yippee!), I herded everyone outdoors and we walked to the City Park. 

We blew bubbles,

and climbed,

raced,

and the pipsqueak beat me!

Happy Hanukkah!

(Watch out for the Latkes!)