Latkes with eggs vs. latkes with eggs

I woke up Sunday morning craving a decadent brunch. I wanted to make something I’d never done at home before and, for whatever reason, latkes with eggs came to mind.

I wanted to wing it, but needed to check in with a few recipes to get the potato-to-egg ratio down. Most of the recipes I came across looked pretty straightforward: grate a potato, mix with an egg or two, add chopped herbs, season well with salt and pepper. With that basic formula in mind, I got to work.

First, I peeled three medium russet potatoes. With a box grater, I grated them into a colander set inside a bowl.

I pressed and squeezed the potatoes to remove the excess moisture.

A recipe from America’s Test Kitchen (subscription required) called for pouring out most of the liquid and reserving the thick potato starch left behind, then mixing the starch back into the grated potatoes to help bind them. So that’s what I did.

A couple of the recipes I came across called for mixing in a diced onion. I had a leek on hand, and I love the potato-leek combination, so I rinsed the leek well, finely diced it, and mixed it in with the potato.

I whisked an egg and added it to the bowl with the potatoes and diced leeks.

Then I added a handful of fresh chopped parsley to add some bright, herbal flavor.

I mixed it all together, seasoned the mixture generously with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, and pressed it into thin patties with my hands.

I added enough olive oil to a large non-stick sauté pan to cover the bottom of the pan, and heated it over medium-high heat. When the oil was almost smoking, I gently added the latkes to the pan.

I left them alone to brown well on the first side, 5 minutes. I flipped them over, lowered the heat slightly, and let them cook until the second side was brown and they were cooked through on the inside, another 5 minutes.

I took them out of the pan and put them on a paper grocery bag to drain for a minute or two. Then, I gave them an extra sprinkle of salt and pepper while they were still hot.

I had picked up a small jar of caviar on a whim the day before. Since I had about half the caviar left and some chicken eggs on hand, I decided to go with two different versions of latkes with eggs.

For the first, I put a dollop of crème fraîche and a spoonful of caviar on top of a latke. Potatoes and chives are a classic combination, so I sprinkled this version with chopped chives. It was — no surprise here — really, really good.

For the second version, I topped a latke with a fried egg (there’s not much that’s not better with a fried egg on top). I love tarragon and associate it with brunch and eggs, so I sprinkled the egg with fresh chopped tarragon.

Both were delicious, but the combination of the salty caviar, the rich, tart crème fraîche and the latkes’ crisp, brown crust was too much competition for the egg-tarragon combo. Next time, depending on how I’m feeling on the decadent-to-delicate spectrum, I’ll stick with one or the other.