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Everything and the Kitchen Sink

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Potato Pancakes


Cartmann99

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Growing up, we ate a LOT of mashed potatoes. It was one of the few vegetables my Mother could get everyone to eat. We occasionally had some left over and Mother would do what her Mother taught her to do with them and make us some potato pancakes. My Mother was born during the Great Depression, and her Mother did not believe in wasting food. Potato pancakes are simple, cheap, use up leftover food, and don't take long to prepare. I discovered this week that some people, grew up in homes where cheese was added to the top like you do when you are cooking hamburgers. I feel cheated by this revelation, as I love cheese, and yet my Mother never made any with cheese. :pb_sad: 

I pulled some leftover garlic mashed potatoes out of the freezer and thought about how to gussy them up. This is about two cups of thawed mashed potatoes.

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Those of you who follow the Rodrigues family will be relieved to learn that no green eyeliner or Aqua-Net was involved in the "gussying up" of this recipe. :pb_lol:

Luckily, we haven't had a freeze yet, so I went outside to the garden to see what looked good. I got sidetracked and picked up a gallon of pecans from the ground, but that's a story for another time. I chose some chives, parsley, and tomatoes. Did I ever tell you that my sixty year old house has a built-in food processor?

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Sorry, couldn't resist.:pb_lol: While chopping everything, I noticed the cutting board needed some TLC. Later that day, I cleaned it with vinegar and water and gave it a nice rubdown with a little unscented Daddy Van's

I left the parsley and tomatoes on the cutting board, and mixed the chives and one egg into the potatoes. I also mixed in enough flour to make them stiff enough to handle. If you look over to the right, you'll see some ratty looking green painter's tape on the floor. It's to remind us that the transition strips are missing and to be careful not to trip as the kitchen floor is higher than the living room. My temporary pet gates are cardboard and a partial sheet of hardboard, and since I ripped off the window trim in the bathroom, that window is covered with a 6ml layer of plastic sheeting. Martha Stewart would run away screaming if she were here. :pb_lol:

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Over on the big burner, I've got a cast iron skillet with small amount of oil in the bottom getting nice and hot. Medium heat works well for this. Drop spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot skillet, flatten them out, and cook them on each side until golden brown.

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The reddish specks are the peels as I don't normally peel my potatoes. They are reddish brown because I used Klondike Rose potatoes. When your potato pancakes are done, arrange on a plate with the sliced tomatoes, put a ramekin in the center with whatever sauce you prefer, a little salt and pepper, sprinkle the parsley over everything, and serve.

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Now, that @apple1 has shared that her family had cheese on their potato pancakes, I want to do a version with cheese! :dance:

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HerNameIsBuffy

Posted

I was never A fan of these growing up, but my mom's never looked as good as yours.  Those look delicious.  And you got me with the food processor LOL!

waiting patiently for the pecan story!

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EyeQueue

Posted

OK, this is so my plan for dealing with leftover mashed potatoes this year. Thanks! It looks heavenly.

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Grimalkin

Posted

I learned to make potato pancakes from a Maeve Binchy novel! Yours look prettier than mine. I have added shredded cheese to the mash, and sometimes horseradish. Jalapeño sounds good to me too. I always made them for breakfast served with eggs.

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My Depression-era Grandma and my mother made them whenever they had leftover mashed potatoes, too.  The only difference between yours and theirs is that our family form the pancakes (using flour and egg, like yours) but mine were then dusted lightly with flour and refrigerated for 15min+ before sauteeing. It made them extra-crispy :-)

I don't make them. No matter how many potatoes I mash, they all seem to be eaten!

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CTRLZero

Posted

This looks delicious.  We rarely have leftover potatoes, since I am a glutton, but I have made similar potato pancakes adding leftover salmon.  Cheese sounds yummy, don't know why it didn't occur to me.  My grandma used to serve us something she called "scrapple" when I was growing up, and to my hazy recollection it looked similar to a potato pancake.  So...I went and looked up the recipe in case I wanted to recreate it.  I suspect it was something she learned to make also as a young woman of the Great Depression, when everything was used to avoid starvation.

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xlurker

Posted

I've never made potato pancakes using leftovers--always made them on purpose, shredding potatoes and onions, mixing in a bit of flour and an egg or two.  Salt/pepper and fry those puppies up!  We eat them with sour cream, pretty much right off the paper towel lined draining plate.  My family are gluttons, and these never make it to the table!  Now I'm thinking I have to run to the store and get some potatos and sour cream

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