Food on Friday – Sweet Potato Pancakes

There is a constant debate in our family over who likes sweet potatoes and who likes white potatoes.   I fall on the sweet potato side of the debate and Markus is firmly on the white potato side.  Jesse waivers and Chip and Vash will eat anything you put in front of them.

One of our compromises is Sweet Potato Pancakes – which uses both potatoes and tastes so good that even Markus takes seconds.  This is from a recipe that I also found in Moosewood Cookbook, so you can go there to find the original.  Here is what we do.

First we grate up a bunch of sweet potatoes and white potatoes and carrots – about equal amounts on all three.  The carrots are essential because the non-sweet potato eaters won’t know which they are eating.  (grin).  We have a big family so we grate up about a cup and a half of each.  Firmly pack each cup.

Potatoes are full of fluid (who knew?) so after grating them you salt them (not alot – only around 1-2 tsp depending on amount of potatoes) and then let them sit in a strainer over a bowl for the fluid to come to the surface and drain out.

You don’t have to drain the carrots – just the potatoes.  After they have sat for 15-20 minutes, rinse the salt off and then squeeze out as much fluid as you can from the potatoes.  Obviously you will need clean hands when you do this.

While the potatoes are draining you can grate your carrot (if you have not already done so), grate a small onion (my boys won’t do this part – they say it stings their eyes so a cold onion out of the frig is best), beat some eggs (figure 4 eggs for every three cups of potato/carrot combination), cut a lemon in half for the juice (only use half the lemon) and grab some flour, salt and pepper if you like (I don’t like pepper).  Moosewood states that you can also add other seasonings such as parsley, nutmeg, clove and/or garlic.  I am not a spice person so I don’t add extra flavors alot of times.  I really love the taste of vegetables all on their own so to some my cooking may seem bland where to me, it is full of flavor – just not spices.  But I will tell you what spices are recommended so you can experiment with your flavor combinations.

After the potatoes, grab a big mixing bowl and mix the potatoes with the carrots, onion, eggs, lemon juice and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour – depending on amount of potatoes.  Its okay to mix it with your hands to make sure you get a good mix – as we do.

This is what you should end up with.

Then just fry up your patties in butter in a fry pan . . .

and you are done.

 We paired the sweet potato pancakes with the baked pork chops from last week and the Amanda’s Maple Pecan Slaw that I posted about previously, and it made for one terrific dinner.

I hope you enjoy.