Last weekend, my younger daughter, Alex, brought home two books that she borrowed from the school library. The books feature her favorites — cheese and potatoes. She lost no time in showing me the books and, sometime after midnight, we leafed through the pages together while she pointed out which dishes she’d like to try at home.
The next day, Alex slept through most of the morning. I decided to surprise her by cooking two dishes from the 50 Ways With Potatoes cookbook by Rosemary Wadey. My adaptations of Ms. Wadey’s recipes, anyway. The first dish is potato fritters.
Ms. Wadey’s recipe does not include any meat but since we had leftover sautéed ground beef and sausages, I decided to incorporate meat into my potato fritters. And, to make Alex even happier, I made a cheese dip to go with the fritters.
- 1 and 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
- 1/2 cup cooked meat (ground meat, sausages, bacon, ham… whatever you have)
- 1 egg beaten
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- finely chopped herbs (I used thyme and parsley but you can substitute whatever you prefer and whatever goes well with your choice of meat)
- 1/2 cup cooking oil for frying
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Mix together the mashed potatoes, meat, egg, salt, pepper and herbs. Form into seven to eight balls.
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Heat the cooking oil.
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Place a potato-meat ball into the hot oil. Using the back of a spoon, flatten into a disc about half an inch thick. Cook two to three patties at a time so as not to overcrowd the pan. When the underside is nicely browned, flip the patties over and brown the other side. As each patty cooks, transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to get rid of the excess oil.
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Arrange the potato fritters around a plate and serve.
Recommended dipping sauce:
In a small bowl, pour in the milk or cream. Add the cheese. Put in the microwave, cook on high for 45 seconds or just until the cheese melts. Stir until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and chili flakes. Serve with the potato fritters.
