A potato cake recipe from Katherine's mother!

Today I thought I'd let Katherine's mother contribute some of her wonderful cooking to the blog in a way we've not yet tapped: recipes! Taking a cue from my own wonderful mother, one of my plans while here is to create a cookbook comprised entirely of Katherine's family recipes. It will take years, but I'll be storing them all in GMail (and perhaps other locations - like a recipe wiki) until I have amassed enough to publish. Today we took the first step: I quickly wrote down all the steps associated with her fantastic potato cakes as she prepared them. If you would like to experience them yourself, here's what you need to know...

Ingredients:

6 large Russet potatoes
1/2 lb pork, ground (beef is fine too)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
5-6 shallot cloves, minced
2-3 scallions, chopped
1 egg white
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground
flour or bread crumbs for breading

Preparing the Meat Mixture:

1. Mix together the raw meat, water, 1 tsp of white pepper (the other will be used later), and the soy sauce
2. Mix shallots and garlic, sautee in oil until yellow
3. Add nutmeg to pan, stir once
4. Add meat mixture, stir rapidly until completely cooked
5. Remove from heat, make sure the meat is minced (might need to chop it further), and set aside
   

Preparing the Potato Mixture:

1. Wash and peel potatoes
2. Steam for 15 minutes (or until soft)
3. Bake for 20 minutes on medium heat (to help dry them out)
4. Remove from heat, place in a large pot, and mash until smooth
   
5. Add scallions, salt, the other tsp of white pepper, and the meat mixture; stir until blended
   

Preparing the Potato Cakes:

1. Form the potato mixture into palm-sized patties
2. Dip each patty in the egg white until covered, then dip in the flour / bread crumbs until covered
3. Pan fry or bake until golden brown.

Done! Yum! Tonight we chose to bake ours (less oil = happy bodies) and I took a little picture of them while they sunned in the oven...


Enjoy!