These traditional Irish potato cakes are so easy to make and a great way of using up leftover mashed potato this St Patrick's Day. Plus they are dry fried in the fry pan, or on a griddle, making them healthier and more authentic than some fried potato cakes!! Serve them for dinner with corned beef or for breakfast with smoked salmon. Or make small ones and serve as an appetizer for your St Patty's day feast.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, they should come together to form a soft dough. (see note 2 if your dough is too wet)
Shape the dough into two roughly equal sized balls. Sprinkle your work surface generously with flour and use your hands (or a floured rolling pin) to flatten out a disk about 1cm thick.
Cut the disk into 4 quarters.
Use the excess flour from the board to give each potato cake a covering of flour, set to one side and repeat with the second ball of dough.
Place a large frying pan or griddle pan over a medium heat. (don't add any oil)
Dry fry the potato cakes for 4 minutes on one side until they are coloured (see note 3 )
Carefully flip the potato cakes and cook for a further 4 minutes until heated through and dark brown in places.
Notes
2 cups of mashed potato works out at about 1 pound (500g) of raw potatoes boiled and mashed. If you are making mash specifically for this recipe don't add any butter or cream to your mash.
Ideally you want to use mashed potatoes that haven't had butter and/or cream added to them. If you are using very wet/buttery mashed potatoes then you may need add extra flour to form a manageable dough.
Because there is no oil in the frying pan, the potato cakes don't get a golden color to them, instead they get a darker dirtier look. This is exactly what you are looking for and is completely traditional and authentic.
To Freeze:
After cooking allow the potato cakes to cool fully and then freeze each cake individually wrapped in glad wrap. Once frozen, allow to defrost for 10 minutes and then heat them in the toaster.