Episode 6: Buckwheat Onion Latkes

Hot Librarian whipped these together in 30 minutes flat, while I was writing. The recipe is photocopied from a French-Jewish cookbook (whose title or other bibliographic info is not on the page, so I can't identify it), but the name, Gretchenes Latkes is Polish/Yiddish:

• 1 cup buckwheat flour (surprisingly easy to find here in Maine, thanks perhaps to the French-Canadian influence; you can find it in any Hannaford)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups grated onions

Stir the dry ingredients together. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the onions. Heat a nonstick frying pan and add a film of oil. 2 tablespoons of batter per latke. Fry until golden, then flip and cook the other side. Drain on paper towels. Makes a lot more than the 8 the cookbook said it would.

They went well with the beet, farro and feta salad I had planned for tonight. But in retrospect, they would have been amazing topped with a bit of creme fraiche and smoked salmon.

Another thing that might be amazing: Cooking them in rendered duck or goose fat instead of oil.