Russ and Daughters’ Latkes Are a Cookbook Treat

Although Chanukah latkes don’t require expert kitchen skills, for those who want to make it easy for themselves, there’s always the frozen, ready-to-heat packages from Trader Joe’s or the mixes from Manischewitz or Streit’s. But if you want to go first class for $40 plus shipping, the Goldbelly website will send you a dozen from Russ and Daughters on New York City’s Lower East Side.

They are big sellers. An estimated 40,000 of the latkes are sold during the Chanukah holiday in the local New York store and by mail order. They are also available year-round and sell, even on a slow day, about 800 to hungry New Yorkers.

In 1914, Joel Russ packed up his pushcart on the streets of the mostly Jewish neighborhood in Lower Manhattan and opened his own small store. What he named Russ’s Cut Rate Appetizing sold herring, smoked whitefish, and pungent Polish mushrooms called borowic. Two years later, he moved to 179 East Houston St., and they’ve been in business there for nearly 110 years.

He and his wife, Bella, had three girls and they all worked together in the store. In 1935, he renamed the business Russ and Daughters, one of the nation’s first establishments to acknowledge the female members of the enterprise.

Last month, during the waning days of the Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center, two members of the fourth generation of the Russ family showed up with a new cookbook they have written.

Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper have just published, “Russ and Daughters – 100 Years of Appetizing.” In this case, appetizing is not an adjective, but a noun.

In the kosher world of the turn-of-the-century Lower East Side, stores that sold fish and dairy products were called appetizing businesses, to distinguish them from delicatessens, which sold smoked and cured meats. Keeping milk and meat items separate from one another was part of the kosher tradition. The book is a tribute not only to the century-old family business but to the largely disappeared world of appetizing.

There are more than a dozen chapters in the book devoted to everything from soups and caviar to noshes and salads and finally to drinks and sweet baked goods. The crowd attending the MJCCA Book Festival were treated to a lavish brunch, mostly prepared locally from the cookbook’s recipes by Added Touch Catering.

The book appeared in September and is already a bestseller in the very competitive food segment of the publishing business. Amazon has made it an editor’s pick as a best book of the year.

It’s not the first time Russ family members have written about the food and recipes of their family enterprise. Over ten years ago, Mark Russ Federman wrote a volume with the help of the first-rate writing talent, Calvin Trillin.

And, about the same time, Julie Cohen put together a documentary about the store, called, “The Sturgeon Queens.” It featured Trillin as well as other celebrity fans of the store such as actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, the “60 Minutes” reporter Morley Safer, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. A highlight of the production was interviews with two of the original Russ daughters, for whom the business is named.

The two present-day authors of the Russ cookbook also make an appearance in the video work. Cohen went on to make a documentary of the Supreme Court Justice, “RGB,” which was nominated for two Oscars and was a critical and big box office success.

If you’d like to try making a dozen Russ and Daughters latkes, here’s the recipe adapted from this year’s best seller:

Russ Potato Latkes

2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled
1 medium onion. peeled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
1/2 cup matzo meal
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups canola oil for frying

Coarsely grate the potatoes and the onion. Put them in a fine mesh strainer over an empty bowl and press them to remove as much liquid as possible. Allow them to continue to drain for another three to five minutes. Pour off the potato and onion water but leave the potato starch in the bowl.
Combine the potatoes and onion with the starch, add and mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Shape into patties three inches wide and an inch thick. In batches, brown them, about two minutes a side, in a half-tablespoon oil.
Let them rest on a paper towel while you heat the remaining oil to 375 degrees. Fry them for an additional four to five minutes, without crowding, until golden. Drain on paper towel and serve hot with the usual accompaniments. For a more lavish presentation, a dollop of salmon roe atop creme fraiche is also suggested.