Potato Patties

Name: Potato Patties with Mushrooms and Cracklings Recipe
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Large potatoes 4; Mushrooms 50 g; Onion 1; Bacon 100 g; Dill, parsley 3-4 sprigs; Egg 1; Breadcrumbs as needed; Salt, black pepper to taste

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1 h

For many people potato patties are a vegetarian dish, which is not always true. Even fried potatoes – a favorite of millions – are often cooked with pieces of bacon or pork fat, in lard or butter. In the same way, portioned patties made of fried mashed potato are tastiest when fried with cracklings. Still, you can make them however you like.

Potato on its own is not very high in calories, despite its high starch content. But its ability to soak up fat when frying significantly raises the nutritional value. Potatoes lose vitamins when heated, so do not overcook or over-fry them. Unless you cook them in their skins, they need to be peeled.

For patties, peeled potatoes are boiled or baked, and the prepared flesh is turned into a soft mass, which is shaped into balls or elongated patties and then baked or fried. To keep potato patties from falling apart, eggs and flour are added to the mixture, and for a nice golden crust they are breaded before frying.

It is worth saying that grated raw potato is very common in cooking. Exceptionally tasty draniki with cracklings or deruny with sour cream have long been part of the world’s culinary heritage. Mashed potato is used to make croquettes, potato zrazy with all kinds of fillings, or is served as a favorite side dish.

Just like chickpeas for falafel, the potatoes are cooked until done and mashed, the mixture is combined with the additions, and you can start shaping. After a short fry, the dish is ready.

This dish is called patties only loosely, mostly because of the shape. In essence these are breaded croquettes, deep-fried. An important feature is that the patties should have a slightly crisp crust. The frying fat can be vegetable oil. But the tastiest potato patties are fried in pork fat with well-rendered cracklings.

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Potato Zrazy with Mushrooms

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Deruny – Ukrainian Potato Pancakes

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Ingredients

2 servings

Large potatoes 4
Mushrooms 50 g
Onion 1
Bacon 100 g
Dill, parsley 3-4 sprigs
Egg 1
Breadcrumbs as needed
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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It is best to boil the potatoes for the potato mixture. Any variety with any starch content is on sale now. We are used to large tubers with dark pink skin and yellow flesh. Such potatoes fry beautifully and make wonderful mash. Large tubers are also easy to peel.
Peel the potatoes and carefully remove any dark spots and eyes. Be sure to cut the tubers open – there is often a cavity with spoiled flesh right in the middle. Cut the potatoes into large pieces and put them in a pot. Cover with plenty of cold water and set over the heat. Boil the potatoes until done – the pieces are easily pierced with the tip of a knife. This usually takes 15-20 minutes from the moment it comes to a boil.
Drain the water and let the potatoes cool. Mash the boiled potatoes with a fork or, more conveniently, with a small hand press. A ricer mashes potatoes beautifully, especially for mash or gnocchi. It also separates the outer layer of the tubers, which is a little denser than the flesh.
Cut a piece of bacon or pork belly into cubes and put it in a saucepan. Fry the bacon over below-medium heat. The point of frying is to render as much fat as possible and get golden, crisp cracklings. Never rush it – the cracklings will simply burn. Transfer the crisp cracklings to a saucer. The fat should cool down a little so that it does not splatter in the next steps. If you can, carefully pour off the top layer of pork fat for frying the patties, so that the overcooked bacon bits stay at the bottom.
Pour 1 tbsp of the rendered fat into a frying pan and fry the onion cut into strips and the mushrooms in it. Once the onion is soft and golden, use a spoon to move the mushrooms and onion to a cutting board and chop them finely with a knife. Add the mushrooms and onion to the mashed potatoes.
Finely chop the herbs. Add one chicken egg and the herbs to the potatoes, then season with salt and pepper. Mix the potato mixture thoroughly with a fork so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed. The consistency of the mixture should be close to regular ground meat for patties. If the mixture is runnier, you can add 1 tbsp of flour (10 g) or breadcrumbs.
It is better not to use store-bought coating mixes or breadcrumbs. As a rule, their quality is poor. For breading I use a dried baguette, which I grate and sift. It makes an exceptionally good coating – it is always at home and always fresh. With wet hands, divide the mixture into four parts and shape elongated potato patties.
Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and coat the potato patties generously in them. Do not make a thick coating. During frying the top layer of the potato mixture becomes firm, and the crust turns out quite thick enough.
In a small pot or saucepan, heat all the pork fat left after frying the cracklings and mushrooms. Important: do not let any water splash into the hot fat. When the fat is hot, carefully lower in the potato patties – all at once or as many as fit.
Reduce the heat to medium and fry the potato patties. The fat should be bubbling – you can tell by eye. Fry the patties until a nice dark golden crust forms. Then carefully turn them over and fry the other side. That is enough, because the potato inside is already ready to eat.
Take the patties out of the fat and move them to a plate lined with a paper napkin, which will soak up the excess fat. Arrange the potato patties on a plate, add a sprig of herbs and the cracklings. The dish needs no side dish.
If you like, you can add pieces of bacon to the potato mixture, but then it should not be crisp. You can use any mushrooms – wild or cultivated. If you are making the potato patties as a vegetarian dish, use vegetable oil for deep frying instead of pork fat.