One Gorilla Kitchen

Mashed potato cakes

... and I'm JOLTED back into blogging my recipes after wasting at least twenty minutes (again), looking for "that yummy recipe that uses up leftover mashed potatoes". 

I always go to Easy Indian Cooking (Suneeta Vaswani) first, where I flip through "vegetables" first, and then every other chapter.  No, it's not the pea filled potato cakes.  And it's not the potato and pea turnovers. And then I have a vague sense that it should be in the "stuff to do with leftovers" section-- except this book doesn't have one.  The leftovers section is in Indian Every Day (Anjum Anand).  Except then I also remember that it's not in that section, because Anjum's recipe calls for boiling potatoes and then mashing them up with grated carrots and green beans, and then cooking them until they're soft.  So ... I suppose I've altered her recipe by being lazy. *Note to self:  See? They're in the "lazy grazer" section.  Duh!

It totally doesn't matter.  Try them:  they're awesome.  I'm going to start making extra mashed potatoes (or ... asking Slim to, since he's in charge of our mash.  Also, I've wanted to call mashed potatoes "mash" every since I first read I Will Never Not Ever Eat A Tomato to Bee.)  I like the extra buttery creamy flavour of yesterday's mash in my potato cakes.

Mashed Potato Cakes

*A brilliant leftover mashed potato recipe

• Mashed potatoes (Leftovers, if you can!)
  
• Boiled peas.  (Leftover, if you can!)
• Breadcrumbs
• Ginger (fresh, grated)
• Garam masala
• Dried mango powder (amchoor)
• Chili powder
• Fresh cilantro (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Vegetable oil

I just mash it all together.  Since I use leftover potatoes, I never bother measuring how much I've got.  I add breadcrumbs until it seems like a good consistency, and spices until I like the intensity of flavour.  Fry in oil until the outside is crispy. 

If you try this recipe, I'd love to hear what you think.  I'd also like to know what you think about using this recipe for latkes-- or is shredding raw potato and filling your home with fried onion smell just supposed to part of the latke-making experience?

 

Tinfoil potatoes

From:  My first serious boyfriend's mother.

Circa:  1990.

Easy to throw together.  And they go well with anything you're ever going to barbeque.

Chop up some potatoes.  I mean, chop them roughly.  The smaller you chop them, the faster they'll cook-- but you want them to be a bit chunky, too. (The ones pictured above are teeny-tiny potatoes, so I only chopped them in half.)

Eyeball the pile of potato pieces to get a sense of how many pieces of tinfoil you'll need.  A small double-handful of potatoes should fit on one piece of tinfoil.  You may find that you need to skim a few off the top to make it a more comfortable fit. 

Glug some olive oil over the whole thing.  Add some butter if you feel like it.  Or just butter, if you want.  Throw on some salt. I've added fresh rosemary, slice onions ... um .. probably other stuff, but I don't remember what.  Add whatever you like on your potatoes.

Seal the tinfoil however you want.  I know there's a whole technique out there, but I usually just scrunch it up as best I can to make sure the potatoes don't spill out when they're transferred to the barbeque. 

Cook for ... Slim says "oh ... getting onto half an hour, but it depends on how many potatoes you've got, and how high the heat on the barbeque is".