My grandmother was a wonderful, sweet lady. My grandmother could not cook anything very well — except for potato cakes. I had not thought about Grandma’s potato cakes for a long time when out of the blue the other night my wife asked me if I have ever had potato pancakes. I remembered Grandma’s potato cakes and have been craving them all week. This morning I ended that craving.
My Grandma made potato cakes when ever she had leftover mashed potatoes. She would serve them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner depending on the amount of left over mashed potatoes and her mood. These potato cakes are so simple and yet tasty and filling I don’t know why I have not made them for years. This is simple comfort food that brings back many fond memories of my childhood. Since I did not have any leftover mashed potatoes I had to make some fresh. I hoped that would not ruin the taste of the potato cakes.
Potato Cakes
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Ingredients:
If you are making these potato cakes from leftover mashed potatoes add the egg and the flour and mix well. If you are using fresh mashed potatoes then let them cool after mashing them before mixing in the egg and flour. Mix in salt and pepper to taste.
In a medium skillet heated to a medium high temperature add either a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or bacon grease. I know that the vegetable oil is healthier, but I, like my grandmother, always use bacon grease. It adds much better flavor and I love bacon.
When the oil is hot, or the bacon grease is melted add a couple of spoonfuls of the potatoes to the pan and flatten with a spatula. Let the cake cook for a few minutes and flip. The cake should have a nice golden brown color just like a pancake.
If the cake does not want to hold together like a pancake add a little more flour to the remaining mashed potatoes to help keep it together. The key to making these potato cakes come out correctly is to make sure that you keep plenty of bacon grease, or oil, in the pan. If you add more grease let it heat up to temperature before cooking the next cake.
As I made these for breakfast I topped them with fried eggs, crumbled bacon, and diced onions also cooked in bacon grease. Did I mention I love bacon? Add some country gravy, salsa, or ketchup and you are ready to eat. If you really want to get crazy you can top them with some pancake syrup like my wife does.
Clacked by Jeff Love
on Mar 28, 2010 @ 10:23 EST5EDT
