Potato pancakes
There's a bit of a grey area between whether these count as hash browns or potato cakes, which I think comes down to the chunkiness of the diced potato you're using. Myself, I like 'em chunky. Whatever the case, they make a cracking breakfast with bacon and a fried or poached egg dribbling onto them.
You'll need
- A frying pan
- A blender
- A spatula
- Some oil
- Salt and pepper
- Some flour
Ingredients (for two portions):
- A potato
- Half an onion
- An egg
Method
Peel the potato and onion, chop them just small enough that you can fit them in the blender, and put them in.
Blend on the lowest speed you can. You want the potato and onion to look like grated cheese, rather than being completely smooth. If you do go smoother than that, don't worry though -- the recipe will still work.
Put the blended potato and onion into a bowl and give them a good squeeze with your hands; if any juice comes out, pour it away. This is especially important if you blended them finer than intended.
Crack the egg into the bowl, and give it a good mix until the veg is coated with beaten egg. Also add salt and pepper.- Add flour to the bowl a dessert spoonful at a time, stirring as you go, until the mixture is a sticky paste holding the veg together.
Heat up a spoonful or two of oil in the frying pan. When it's hot, add the mixture in tablespoon-sized dollops, pressing down on them with the spatula to flatten them. They will sizzle and start to brown. You might not have room in your pan for all the mixture you've made -- that's okay, you can just do them in several batches.- You need to give the pancakes time to harden before you move them; this will take a minute or so. Turn the heat down if they start spitting too much or smell burny.
- After a while you will find that if you nudge them with the spatula, they slide freely around the pan instead of sticking to the bottom.
You can now flip them over -- this is best done with the spatula in one hand and a fork in the other. Get the spatula under them and lift, using the fork to keep the far edge down, and flip them onto the uncooked side. The cooked side should look brown and crispy -- if it doesn't, wait a little longer before you flip the others.- Once they're cooked, lift them out and onto a plate with the spatula and fry another batch if you have more of the mixture left.
Variations
- A good rule of cooking is that if you're frying onions, you could also be frying garlic. This recipe is no exception -- I personally avoid it because I find the things I tend to have with potato pancakes are flavourful enough, but equally that's no reason not to pop a clove or two of garlic into the blender along with everything else.
- If you want to make the recipe more vegan, you don't really need the egg -- you can make a perfectly servicable tempura-style batter from just flour and water.
- You can also make the recipe wheat-free by using cornflour instead of the regular kind.
- Traditionally, potato pancakes are eaten with sour cream and apple sauce. Myself, I like them as part of breakfast so I usually have them with eggs, bacon and ketchup.
- Be sure to use the batter quickly after you've made it: it will soon turn to a nasty grey sludge if not cooked. However, after cooking the pancakes will sit happily in the fridge for a day or two -- though they won't be quite so crisp after microwaving.