Saturday, November 26, 2011

Potato cakes

My brother mentioned on Thanksgiving that I have a food blog, and oh maybe I'd like to do something with it sometime soon? He wouldn't take my lack of camera batteries as an excuse, so this is for him. Fried food for you, little brother!

For some reason, I thought that 3 pounds of potatoes for 5 people on Thanksgiving sounded like a reasonable amount. And it might have been, if I only served mashed potatoes. But I went and loaded the menu up with 64 different carbs, rendering the mashed potatoes an overkill. A delicious overkill, but overkill nonetheless.

And because my mashed potatoes are not unhealthy enough - hello butter and half-and-half, loves of my life - I decided to fry the leftovers. Hello clogged arteries!

These were really good, though. Possibly even worth the inevitable heart attack. I got 10 little cakes out of this recipe

2 cups cold mashed potatoes
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 Tbsp flour, + dredging
butter/oil for frying
salt

Heat your butter and/or oil in a skillet over medium high heat.

Put the potatoes, egg, cheese and 2 Tbsp flour in a bowl and mix until combined.

Form into small cakes - about the size of a sausage patty.

Dredge the cakes lightly in flour and put them into the hot oil. Cook until browned, then flip - about 4-5 minutes per side.

Drain on a towel, and sprinkle with salt while hot.

And just for my little brother, here's a Crappy Cell Phone snap of the little wonders:



Notes: The potatoes need to be cold or the cakes won't hold together very well.
Use butter or oil or mix it up. I used half butter and half canola oil.
If you make these too big, they'll fall apart when you flip them.
I think adding a little hot sauce would be awesome, but then The Professor would accuse me of trying to kill him. So I skipped the hot sauce.