Improvised "latkes"

I woke up today, and to my horror, NO BAGELS. I nom a(t least one) bagel EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (Do not worry. I will find one, eventually, today...) This is usually at breakfast, but today, all we had to nom was:

woe.

I decided to make latkes. Here is what I used:

- 1 1/2 potatoes, peeled
- 1/2 small onion, minced finely
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
- 1 tbsp. flour
- salt and pepper
- canola oil

Topping:
- 1 ripe tomato
- 2 tbsp. sour cream
- some fresh parsley
- drizzle of honey

First, you need to grate the potatoes. Like so:

<-- grate, grate

Then, put the grated taters on a clean dish towel (preferably not a terry cloth one, because they are too nubbly and stick to your taters. Use a smoother one if you have it around. You can also use a lot of paper towels folded over a few times. --cough-- If you want to kill trees.) Wring the water from the taters. Use your little muscles.

When your taters are dry, put them in a bowl and add the finely minced onion and garlic. Add the flour, corn starch, salt, and pepper, and mix everything thoroughly.

Heat a good 1/2-inch of oil in a skillet, on med-high to high heat, and when it is hot, use your hands to make lil tater patties. Drop the patties in and flatten out or shape with a spatula. Fry til golden and let drain on a paper towel. To keep them crispy, transfer them to a wire rack (Oh, and don't stack the latkes between paper towels, layer on layer - this only makes them mushy, sad, and not-crisp.)

For my topping, I combined diced, ripe tomato with some sour cream, honey, and a wee bit of parsley. The neat thing about latkes, though, is that you can experiment with all sorts of toppings. Bye!