Potato Cakes with Green Onions

This was our dinner Saturday night (I know.... not last night. I'm busy, man.)


Balsamic Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Potato Cakes with Green Onions, Sauteed Greens with Toasted Almonds

It was fantastic. I'll post the recipe for the rest of the meal in the next few days, but I had to tell you about the awesome potato cakes we made. There were a ton of green onions in the CSA this week. We keep getting more and more... and I'm definitely not complaining! We've made stir-fry with them up until now, but I wanted to try a little something different. And I seem to be on a potato kick. We eat a lot of potatoes. They're cheap, delicious and nutritious! Well, at least I think so on the nutritious part...

I've started getting obsessed with my Ad Hoc at Home cookbook by Thomas Keller. My sister Tam gave it to me for my birthday this year (Thanks Tam!!!), and it's starting to become my go-to cookbook for weekend dinners. I say weekend because some of these things take a little more time than I have on the weekdays. Getting home at 6 and usually having a little more work to do from home in the evening doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for time-consuming culinary masterpieces. That being said, everything I've tried from this cookbook has been amazing. Even if it takes more than 30 minutes.


But these little babies, they don't take much time at all to whip together. And, they're super delicious. (P.S. My brother tells me I looked like that little girl when I was 8 or so years old. I think I even had that shirt.)


Potato Cakes with Green Onions
From Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
5 scallions
3 pounds large russet potatoes 1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cornstarch
Canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200. Set a baking sheet in the oven to warm.

Cut the scallions on a severe diagonal and cut the dark greens into very thin slices (I used the rest of the greens and the whites of the onions in the Sauteed Kale and Swiss Chard recipe. Posting that tomorrow!)

Using a food processor with the coarse shredding blade. Peel the potatoes and shred them. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl of cold water and rinse the potatoes. Dry in a salad spinner. Transfer to another large bowl. Sprinkle the cornstarch around the sides of the bowl and toss the potatoes with it.

Heat some oil in a 10-inch nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add 1/6th of the potatoes, gently spreading them into an 8 to 9-inch circle. Do not press down on the potatoes, which will make the cake more dense. Season with a generous pinch of both salt and pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup of scallions and sprinkle 1/3 of the remaining scallion greens over the potatoes. Carefully spread another 1/6th of the potatoes on top. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes to brown the bottom. Turn the pancake over to brown the other side. If you don't feel like you can flip it with a spatula, invert the pan onto a plate and then slide the cake back into the pan, brown side facing up. Cook until the second side is browned, 4-5 minutes. Transfer to the warm baking sheet in the oven. Repeat for the remaining 2 cakes.

Makes 3 potato cakes.

Enjoy!