Potato Pancakes

As a native downstate New Yorker I'm ashamed to admit I've never made homemade potato pancakes until this week, when I was looking for something to go with my applesauce. I guess I've always had some fear of completely ruining these pancakes, along with some concern on how best to work with shredded potatoes. But thankfully those concerns were addressed last week while I laid sick on my couch, watching mindless afternoon television. As I flipped through my paltry 20 channels (most of which are duplicates), I happened upon The Chew, a cooking talk show I had heard about, but had never watched before. In this episode, the hosts were making meals out of mystery grocery bag ingredients, one of which included potatoes. As it happened, they were going to be making some sort of skillet hash, and needed to use shredded potatoes, it was at this moment that I learned how best to dry shredded potatoes. This was quite the revelation to me, though my brother, who's a chef, jokingly mocked me about this last night as I excitedly told him about this new cooking technique I discovered. So, with this new knowledge and a big bowl of homemade applesauce, I set out to make some potato pancakes!

Potato Pancakes
Adapted from Betty Crocker "Country Cooking"
2 Servings

Ingredients:
3/4 lb baking potatoes
2 eggs
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Shred potatoes. Rinse well; drain and pat dry. I suggest using a colander to rinse the shredded potatoes in, and then using a clean kitchen towel to wring them dry with. The best way to do this is to place the shredded potatoes in the center of the towel, and then wring them tightly dry either over the sink or trash can, just as you would wring out a wet towel.

2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Add the potatoes, onion, flour, and salt. Stir with a whisk to combine. Between making each pancake you are going to want to re-stir the mixture, as the liquid will separate from the potatoes, as shown below.

3. In a 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium heat. Using a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop out the potato mixture for each pancake. While the original recipe indicates you should get 8 pancakes, I got 4, and I didn't overfill the measuring cup, so I'm not sure why there was such a discrepancy, but you may want to keep this in mind. Once you have placed the mound of potatoes in the skillet, gently flatten with a spatula to about a 4-inch diameter.

4. Cook pancakes about 1:30-2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. As each pancake finishes place them on a paper towel lined plate, with a layer of paper towel between each pancake to adsorb some of the excess oil.

5. Repeat process until there is no more remaining mixture, adding oil as needed. I wound up needing 2 tbsp of oil total.

6. Enjoy!

Nutritional Info per Serving:
Calories 338; Total Fat 19g; Cholesterol 215mg; Sodium 658mg; Total Carbs 36g; Protein 11g