I’m not very satisfied with my potato cakes. They tend to end up more like potato scramble. Share your recipes and techniques here.
My mashed potatoes are really “smashed” potatoes, since I leave the skins on. New potatoes, so the skins are pretty thin. I cut them up and boil them until a fork can be inserted easily. When I mash, I add some butter and milk. Don’t know how much, but enough to make them almost creamy, but still very substantive.
On to the cakes… I chop up spring onions and add them to the mashed potatoes. Then I try to form them into some sort of a circle or square in the pan, but they never really seem to stay together.
Am I maybe trying to turn them too early? I usually wait at least 5 minutes, and they are always brown on the bottom.
Do I need to add an egg or flour?
Don’t get me wrong, they’re pretty good, but I just think they should be more like a cake and less like a scramble that I form into a cake after they are cooked.
Whatever is left over from what I made mashed potatoes for? I’d say anywhere from a cup to 2 cups of potatoes. Potato cakes are one of those things that I don’t usually measure. Enough flour to keep it together without making it taste like flour. The texture doesn’t move too far from mashed potatoes. Also some salt and pepper and maybe a little lemon juice.
You definitely need a second binder, whether it’s egg or bread crumbs. Normally you don’t want to use more than two, and you already have milk in the potatoes, but whatever works for you.
I don’t make potato pancakes from cooked potatoes.
Pulp potatoes (on the fine side of the hand grater, or in a food processor.). Put the pulp in a piece of clean t-shirt, or a couple layers of cheesecloth.( If you hand grate it will be reddish-brown, that oxidation and there’s nothing you can really do to stop it. ) Squeeze out all the liquid that you can.
Grate or pulp a raw onion along with it.
Put the “dry” potato pulp back in the bowl with the pulped onion and beat in 2 eggs per 4 potatoes, and some black pepper.
So, I imagine Hello Again’s look more like the potato cake that you’d get at a school lunch with more of a hash brown texture. Mine are more like a potato tasting pancake.
Well, sure. That’s what the crumbs are made from, after all. I’m not any sort of expert on making mashed potato pancakes, as I’m a huge fan of latkes instead. But I would think that you would want to add something to help hold it all together whilst frying. Here’s a short recipe from the Intertoobs that seems to confirm that:
1 egg
2 c. leftover mashed potatoes
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. seasoned salt
Beat egg slightly. Stir potatoes and egg together. Melt butter in heavy skillet until hot, but not smoking. For each pancake, drop tablespoon of batter into hot skillet. Sprinkle with seasoning. Turn when brown and firm. Serves 4.
I’ve done it that way (also with leftover mashed potatoes John Mace) and the “cakes” didn’t hold together well enough to flip. Frustrating. I think it needs some flour, bread crumbs,or matzoh meal as well.
I do it with just leftover mashed potatoes - and get rave reviews.
I use a 8-9" teflon pan, olive oil and a potato patty almost as large as the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil on medium, add the potato and flatten/shape with a non-stick spatula. I usually end up with a patty around 3/4"thick.
Give it a shake to distribute the oil/keep the potato from sticking and cook until crispy brown on the bottom. Now, flip as you would a flapjack and cook the other side. Add a little more oil as needed.