fitfool

An anonymous comment led to www.nicemeal.com which has a bunch of Chinese recipes. I found one for Fried Potato Patties. Having tried making Two-Potato Latkes and Lefse (Norwegian Potato Pancakes), I of course couldn't resist trying out yet another version of a potato pancake so I adapted this one a bit to come up with these Chinese Potato Patties. Delicious. Kinda like having mashed potato nuggets. The little bits of water chestnuts gave little surprises of crunchiness mixed with the 'meaty' texture of the mushrooms and the smoothness of the mashed potato texture. Well worth the effort for me. I ended up with 18 patties and I think I ate all but 4 of them.

I modified the recipe a bit to suit what ingredients I had. Also, I wanted to bake instead of frying them. I didn't quite know what I was doing so I've noted desired changes for next time. They can be summarized as more bits of different things to chew on and more flour/corn starch to make it more doughy. Oh and I also think the mixture would've been easier to work with it it had been chilled so next time I'll prepare the mix the night before and just form and bake the patties the next day.

Here's my version.
4 small to medium potatoes (peeled and diced small) (can use more if desired)
1 carrot (cut into coin-shaped slices) (next time I'll use 2)
1 dried shiitake mushroom (minced) (next time I'll use 2)
8 water chestnuts (minced)
1 green onion (minced) (next time I'll use 2)

seasoning:
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger (optional)
1 Tbsp flour (next time I'll double this)
2 Tbsp corn starch (next time I'll double this)
1 tsp canola oil
dash of sesame oil (I used one with a little chili flavor in it)
few dashes of white pepper or ground black pepper

Soak the mushroom in hot water.
While the mushroom soaks, peel and dice the potatoes and the carrot. Put the diced potatoes and carrot into a pot of water and boil for 5 minutes or until tender when you poke it with a fork.
Turn oven on to preheat to 425F.
While those are boiling, mince the shiitake mushroom, water chestnuts, and green onion. Mix and set aside.
Drain the potatoes and carrots and mash them up. Mix in the minced mushroom, water chestnuts, and green onion.
Add in all of the ingredients in the seasonings. Next time, I'll stop at this step and put this mixture in the fridge overnight or at least for an hour to chill. Then continue later. I think that chilling them will make it easier to form the patties later on.
Spray a cookie sheet or two with cooking spray.
Form patties and set them on the cookie sheets. The potato mixture was pretty sticky and got all over my fingers. Next time I'll add more corn starch and flour and hope that makes it a little less sticky.
Bake at 425 for 14 minutes.
Turn heat down to 375, flip the patties, and then put them in for another 10-11 minutes. Be careful when flipping them. They're still kinda soft so the shape got slightly smushed when I was trying to flip them.
Serve it with soy sauce or ponzu. Just a little dab tastes really nice with this. Also tasted good plain. The original recipe suggested ketchup or salad dressing which sounds crazy to me.

For reference, here is the recipe I adapted from http://www.nicemeal.com/vegetable/vegetable11.html
Potato 250 g
Mashed Carrot 2 tbsp
Dry Black Mushroom 4 pcs
Mashed Water Chestnut 4 pcs
Egg White 2 pc
Sugar 1/3 tbsp
Salt 1 tbsp
Mash Ginger 1 tbsp
Plain Flour 1 tbsp
Corn Flour 2 tbsp
Oil 1/2 tbsp
Sesame Oil some
Pepper some

1) Peel off potato, make thin slice then steam for 20 minutes until fully cooked
2) Soak dry black mushroom, steam for 10 minutes until soft, mince it
3) Place steamed hot potato into a large container, press and make paste
4) Add in mashed carrot, water chestnuts and mushroom, stir and mix well
5) Add in seasoning and egg white, then stir and mix well, make round patties
6) Heat wok with 4 tbsp of oil, fry both sides of potato patties
7) Dish up when potato patties turn golden, serve with ketchup or salad sauce

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