I needed to add a recipe to Food Nirvana for a fried potato dish my mother used to make that she called Patty Cakes. So I have. Now you get to make and enjoy these treats. The recipe/directions may or may not be identical to what she did but the result is very tasty fried potato patties, and my recipe is very simple/easy to do, provided you have the right tool to shred a potato.
My main challenge in making patty cakes was the lack of a proper tool to create very long, thin pieces of shredded potato ... roughly 1/16" thick and 2" to 3" long. Recently I saw a mandolin advertised on Amazon® that looked perfect for doing the shredding just the way I wanted it to be. And so it was.
The brand of the mandolin is Zerla®, and it is mostly plastic with a container underneath to catch whatever you happen to be slicing, shredding or making into a julienne. It is depth adjustable and it has multiple, different interchangeable processing surfaces. I give it a thumbs up for quality, versatility, safety and ease of use, and it certainly is not expensive at $15.99.
A peeled raw potato is shredded along it's length into 2" to 4" (or more) long thin pieces using the Zerla® mandolin (or equivalent), and the shredded pieces are washed very well in a large bowl of water and put into a large sieve or colander to drain away starch. More water is used to rinse away any remaining surface starch. Then the potato pieces are removed by hand all at once and squeezed to drain off excess water. The idea is to reduce excess moisture prior to frying. You may have to do the squeezing for half of the shredded potato twice if you have small hands.
I'm sure you will enjoy eating these patty cakes. They are crunchy outside and soft in the middle, and they are very different from French Fries or Hash Brown patties in consistency and taste. They are unique.
If you are making more patties than specified in this recipe (a good idea!) be sure to keep the completed fried patties from each batch on a paper towel lined plate in a 180 degrees F warming oven until all the patties are made.
If the patty cakes are the carbohydrate dish for a complete meal you should make the other food items first, depending on what protein item you are planning to serve.
Mom used to make fried ham slices and a side of buttered steamed broccoli. Yummy! Thus, the ham slices and the broccoli could share a warming oven with the patty cakes until the whole meal was ready.
Ingredients: (serves two adults three medium size patties each)
One jumbo size or two large size Russet potatoes, washed, peeled, shredded, with the shredded pieces washed and rinsed to eliminate starch, then squeezed to remove excess moisture
Sea Salt to taste after frying
Approximately 1 to 2 cups of peanut oil or canola oil for frying in a large skillet
Directions:
Divide the shredded potato into six compact mounds on a paper towel.
Heat 1/4" deep peanut or canola oil in a 12" diameter skillet on a large stovetop burner on medium high heat to approximately 350 degrees F.
Use an instant read thermometer to get an approximate idea of the oil temperature. Tip the skillet slightly to form a pool of hot oil on one side and stick the tip of the thermometer into that pool of oil to get a fairly accurate temperature measurement.
Note that the oil temperature will continue to increase while you form and place potato patty mounds into the oil ... but the addition of the cold patties will quickly reduce the oil temperature to the desired 350 degrees F or even lower.
Note also that the temperature will tend to vary a lot because there is very little oil used for frying patty cakes. Using more oil than indicated will cause the mounds to separate into a skillet full of unconnected pieces, hence no patty cakes. You want to avoid that problem.
Make a compacted ball of a shredded potato mound by hand, then place it into the hot oil gently to avoid having the potato pieces separate.
There will be a lot of bubbling initially as water is converted into steam by the hot oil.
Put two more compacted balls of shredded potato into the skillet, then increase the heat to high.
Let the shredded potato mounds fry on the first side for about two minutes.
Press on the top of each mound of shredded potato with a spatula to flatten it and start to form the patty.
Fry the first side for approximately one more minute, then gently flip the patties over. Flatten each one right after flipping it with the spatula to a thickness of 1/2". Fry the patties on the second side for three minutes.
Be sure to check the oil temperature during frying and adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a temperature of around 350 degrees F.
If the patties are golden in color around the edges they are done. If not, fry them for one additional minute on each side. The top and bottom center surfaces will be crisp but not necessarily golden in color like the edges, and that is okay.
Remove the patties to a paper towel individually using a slotted spoon or spider or even tongs to first drain excess oil from each patty back into the skillet, then put it onto the paper towel. Then salt that patty immediately.
Be sure to put the completed patty cakes on a paper towel lined plate in a 180 degrees F warming oven.
Repeat the above steps to make and fry patties from the three remaining shredded potato mounds. Typically one jumbo size russett potato will make only two batches of three medium size patties. If you process two or more jumbo size potatoes you may have to add a small amount of additional oil to the skillet to maintain an oil depth close to 1/4".
Serve the patty cakes hot with additional sea salt available if wanted. I enjoy cold beer as a fine beverage when I eat patty cakes.
Enjoy!