Schmaltz and Latkes!

What is schmaltz and what is it good for?  

There has been a lot of talk lately, or at least mentions on menus of schmaltz.  Usually it is used to describe potatoes cooked underneath spit-roasted chicken.  What kills me is it has recently been presented as a new way to cook potatoes.  There is nothing new about schmaltz.

Schmaltz has been used for centuries by the Jewish community and I assume other groups that do no eat pork as a cooking fat that was acceptable for their dietary constraints.

When I looked up schmaltz on Wikipedia it mentioned goose fat as well as chicken fat.  It also mentioned a vegetarian schmaltz that I did not read as it made no sense whatsoever to me.

When I cut up a chicken for grilling etc, there are often reasonably large masses of fat in the opening to the body cavity and also to a lesser extent around the neck.  I remove these and put them in small containers destined for the freezer.  I usually continue on this thread until my wife says "Mike, we have enough chicken fat.  Stop!"

Since this statement was recently heard several times, it is time to make some schmaltz and latkes!  Just in time for Easter/Passover or maybe just because I want to eat latkes.  I never knew that chicken fat would help make something so delicious.

I did not experience true schmaltz cooked latkes until I was the executive chef of the Canterbury Hotel in San Francisco.  One of the owners, Dean Lehr, adamantly insisted that he cook the latkes that we were to have on the Easter buffet.  Dean and I rarely saw anything eye-to-eye, especially about food, but his latkes were yummy.

I never did get his recipe for them but have found some good recipes to work from since I left the hotel.  

But I am putting the cart before the horse.  Let's make schmaltz.

I have before me a bazillion small containers of chicken fat that will soon be rendered.  Most of the descriptions that I have found call for the fat to be cut into small pieces.  I find this unnecessary.

Place the chicken fat into a small sauce pan with a little water, 8 oz or so.  

Turn the burner on low.  Not a simmer, but just a little above that.  The water will evaporate long before the fat has completely rendered.

It is important that the temperature below enough to render the fat without coloring the final product.  

What we're looking for here is a white solid mass when the schmaltz is cold.

Let it roll for a while, maybe 20-40 minutes or so depending on how much chicken fat you have.  I had a bunch, so it took about an hour.  Remember to stir it from time to time.  It is ok for the solids brown a bit while this process rolls forward.

Once you have rendered all the fat it should look like this.

Strain the fat into containers for storage.

For the latkes here is the recipe:

1 lb Russet Potatoes peeled

1/2 yellow onion

2 eggs

2 Rice Flour (for Gluten Free) or 2 T all-purpose flour (for regular)

Kosher Salt

Pepper

For the purpose of my family I will be using rice flour, if gluten-free isn't your deal, use all purpose flour in its place.

Peel the potatoes and rinse them to stop discoloration.  

Shred them with a box grater.

Crack the eggs and whip them.

Grate the onions with the box grater.

Squeeze the extra starch and water from the potatoes. 

Add the onions, flour, egg, salt and pepper.

Put a little schmaltz in the pan, 

grab a handful of the potato mixture, squeeze it to remove extra liquid and put it in the pan.  

You can cook 4-5 latkes at the same time in a 10-12 inch pan.

Once the bottom has browned a bit, turn them over with a spatula and cook the other side.

You can hold these hot or save them for reheating later.

Serve them with sour cream or Creme fraische.  If you have gravlax, that is also a traditional accompaniment.  Actually the latkes are an accompaniment for the gravlax.  I'll write about gravlax as soon as the salmon run starts in a couple of weeks.