Potato Cakes – the cheesy, lemony version

 

Hey there!

 

I am finally back with another recipe. This time it actually includes nor pumpkin nor sweet potato. What an achievement for Fanny the girl who’s been obsessing over pumpkin and sweet potato ever since having lived in beautiful Down Under.

 

I guess you could say this post is devoted to my dad who’s actually a man I admire and love a lot and especially since I am not seeing him everyday anymore I realise how much I miss him. When my sister and were little girls my parents always shared the watching–the–kids-part. Both of them were working part time. So whenever we had mashed potatoes the night before and my dad was home the next day we’d have potato cakes for lunch.

I’ve never actually tried any other’s potato cakes, so I honestly can’t judge whether his were the best, yet I am giving my self the permission to say, they were pretty amazing and I can not imagine that someone would actually succeed in preparing potato cakes which would convince me to be even more delicious than my lovely dad’s.

 

I was having some difficulties while coming up with recipes this week especially because the friend I was cooking for doesn’t like everything I like. No coriander, no mushrooms, no raw peppers and for some reason all the creations, which kept popping up in my head, included at least one of those ingredients.

 

So I decided to go with a classic and just add a little simple twist to it. Whenever I decide to prepare a rather traditional dish I start reminiscing in child hood memories when we definitely used to eat traditional food more frequently, though I am not saying my parents weren’t experimental with food. We used to have stir-fries all the time, then paella on new year’s, a must in our house hold, octopus prepared in all shapes or forms and the best homemade lasagne and yes homemade to the last little bit even the pasta was handmade by my parents. So I did most definitely not grow up in an ordinary culinary environment.

 

Anyways, back to the potato cakes, since I was rather tired from a busy week at school I decided to go with an easy classic hence the potato cakes.

To add a little extra something I decided to include ricotta in the wet ingredients and I also added some lemon juice and zest for some freshness. I always thought that my dad’s potato cakes were a little dry so I sometimes dunked them into ketchup therefore I decided to prepare my own sauce today. The base of the sauce was the other half of my ricotta tub and then I added some more lemon as well as some basil for colour and an extra hint of flavour.

 

This creation was honestly so yummy although I must say not a dish for everyday. Not because of its cooking time, it actually doesn’t take all too long. It is however quite rich because of all the cheese added that is also why I suggest having it with just a salad on the side and it will most definitely make a dinner that fills you up.

 

 

So now you can get started on these delicious little potato cakes. There you have the recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for 12 small potato cakes

 

• 450g potatoes
• 250g ricotta
• 60 g parmesan + additional for plating up
• 2 lemons
• 50g spelt flour
• 1 egg
• 20g fresh basil
• olive oil
• salt

 

1. Bake your potatoes for about 45 minutes at 200°C or until their soft and tender.
2. Peel the baked potatoes and then mash them until you reach a smooth consistency.
3. To the mashed potato add the flour, the egg, 125g of your ricotta, your parmesan, the zest of one lemon as well as its juice and some salt.
4. Mix it all up until your batter is smooth, you should be able to mould it into a shape without it going to spread out by itself.
5. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and shape your potato mixture into little patties with about 5cm in diameter, fry them on both sides over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
6. When all your potato cakes have been fried, you can stack them and sprinkle a little grating of parmesan in between each layer, then bake at 200°C for about 5 minutes or until the top layer of parmesan is crispy.
7. While your potato cakes are in the oven you can prepare the sauce, just add the zest of one lemon, as well as its juice, the rest of your ricotta and about 20g of basil in a food processor and process until smooth.

 

Voila, finished is this lovely twisted version of a potato cake. This is really so delicious and with a big colourful bowl of salad this will make a perfect dinner.

Prebake the potatoes the day ahead and this dish is prepared super quickly and won’t have you standing in the kitchen for ages. I was cooking for a friend this time and we both loved it, we might have even eaten a little too much of it…

Oh well who cares, sometimes you just got to go with the flow.

So enough said. Now you can get cooking and I wish you all the best with that. Enjoy!

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie