Potato Fritters

Outlander Kitchen

I have never been very happy with the potato pancakes that I've made myself. But, I have almost always made them with leftover cooked potatoes, not from grated raw ones like this, and I don't think I've ever used russet potatoes, either. Plus, I'm pretty sure I fried them in much less oil. I really loved these, though! They have the perfect hint of onion, and the straggly bits of potatoes on the edges get super crispy while the centers stay fluffy and creamy.

The hardest part of making these potato fritters is grating the potatoes and onion, but you could use the grating blade on a food processor for that part to speed it up. (If you don't, I highly suggest a cut proof glove if your grater is anywhere near as sharp as mine is!) Leftovers heated up nicely in the oven, and they tasted almost as good as the first day.

You can find this recipe, with part of one of my favorite scenes from the Outlander books, here: http://outlanderkitchen.com/posts/claires-potato-fritters-at-the-gathering-in-tfc

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're working once
[00:09]: again out of theresa carl sanders
[00:11]: outlander kitchen cookbook and we are
[00:13]: cooking breakfast we are making potato
[00:15]: fritters
[00:18]: so
[00:19]: i've made potato pancakes before i'm not
[00:22]: sure that i've made them this way
[00:24]: usually make them out of mashed potatoes
[00:27]: leftover mashed potatoes but these are
[00:29]: using raw potatoes
[00:32]: fresh raw grated potatoes um a little
[00:36]: bit like hash browns but they do have
[00:38]: other ingredients to sort of bind them
[00:40]: together
[00:41]: so
[00:42]: the first thing that we need to do is to
[00:45]: grate our potatoes so these are russet
[00:47]: potatoes
[00:48]: um which i had a bunch left so that's
[00:50]: why i chose to do this recipe and
[00:54]: um i've washed them
[00:56]: really well just like i would if i were
[00:58]: going to bake them because
[01:02]: we are not uh peeling them so it doesn't
[01:05]: say to peel them and i've got my grater
[01:06]: i used it for a little bit of cheese
[01:08]: earlier and it's fine i don't care if
[01:10]: there's a little tiny bit of cheese in
[01:11]: this recipe
[01:12]: and i have my cut proof gloves so i
[01:15]: don't kill myself on my grater so
[01:18]: i'm going to be
[01:20]: grating my potatoes here
[01:23]: for a while
[01:24]: okay
[01:26]: that is good enough for that
[01:29]: now i'm not going to clean off
[01:31]: my grater yet because i still have
[01:33]: something else left to grate
[01:35]: so
[01:36]: i only need half of this onion
[01:39]: but what i'm going to do to make it
[01:41]: easier to grate is i'm going to cut it
[01:43]: in half that way and that's the half i'm
[01:45]: not going to use
[01:46]: i'm going to try to peel off
[01:50]: the outside layer and leave
[01:54]: the
[01:55]: root end attached
[01:58]: so it hopefully won't
[02:00]: all fly apart
[02:04]: while i try to grate this
[02:06]: into the bowl
[02:07]: with the potatoes
[02:12]: i think that is
[02:13]: plenty of that and that worked out much
[02:15]: better than i have ever had a graded
[02:18]: onion workout for me before when i did
[02:20]: it by hand so that is great i will
[02:22]: remember
[02:24]: that
[02:25]: so we're done with the grater i'm gonna
[02:27]: put that in the sink and take off my
[02:29]: glove all right
[02:30]: so now we have the rest of our
[02:32]: ingredients
[02:33]: we're gonna make it very basic she does
[02:35]: say you could add some sausage in here
[02:37]: if you want and make it sort of a full
[02:39]: breakfast i've already made some bacon
[02:40]: we're going to eat with our breakfast
[02:42]: so that is not
[02:45]: a thing
[02:48]: um
[02:50]: so i'm going to add
[02:52]: i've pre-measured this flour
[02:55]: and that will help bind it together
[02:58]: i'm going to go ahead and put in
[02:60]: my pepper i'm not measuring it
[03:08]: that should be plenty i am going to
[03:10]: measure my salt as
[03:14]: she says
[03:19]: there we go
[03:20]: and now
[03:22]: need eggs
[03:23]: and
[03:26]: i'm going to break them into here just
[03:28]: in case we get shell
[03:30]: because these eggs have really thin
[03:32]: shells so
[03:33]: there's one
[03:39]: and one more
[03:40]: all right
[03:42]: so there we go now we just have to mix
[03:44]: this up i'm gonna go get a rubber
[03:45]: spatula
[03:47]: just mix well to combine we want those
[03:49]: eggs to break up and
[03:52]: flour to get absorbed and all of that to
[03:55]: be one
[03:56]: batter
[03:59]: so you want to mix it up pretty well
[04:05]: but not be super messy
[04:07]: i think that is pretty well mixed and it
[04:10]: kind of just looks at this point like
[04:13]: potatoes um
[04:15]: but it does have the eggs and the flour
[04:18]: in there
[04:19]: to
[04:21]: keep it all together
[04:23]: so
[04:23]: we will see you over at the stove to fry
[04:26]: these up
[04:27]: my oil is pretty hot right now i so i
[04:30]: want to go ahead and get these started
[04:32]: it's a little bit
[04:33]: lower than she said so i'll have to turn
[04:35]: it back up when i get this in but i
[04:36]: don't want it to burn
[04:38]: so um half an inch of vegetable oil she
[04:41]: says medium high heat
[04:44]: and drop by rounded tablespoonfuls
[04:48]: in your pan
[04:50]: and try not to overcrowd it
[04:53]: so
[04:54]: there's that i have a
[04:57]: um
[04:58]: [Music]
[04:60]: paper towel lined sheet pan over here
[05:04]: to
[05:06]: transfer it to
[05:09]: okay um
[05:11]: when they are done and the oven is set
[05:14]: to yeah we're good we're good now uh the
[05:16]: oven is set to 250 so once we put some
[05:20]: in there
[05:22]: we're gonna go ahead
[05:23]: and stash those in the oven
[05:27]: just to keep them warm while we make the
[05:29]: rest now my batter does have a bunch of
[05:31]: loose
[05:32]: egg water stuff
[05:35]: i'm gonna hope that that's okay and i
[05:37]: don't need to add more flour i'm not
[05:38]: going to add anything at this point it
[05:40]: just is what it is
[05:42]: she says these will be about three
[05:43]: minutes per side
[05:45]: so
[05:48]: we'll see
[05:50]: you want to just turn them when they're
[05:51]: golden brown yeah it's not quite brown
[05:53]: enough so
[05:54]: when they're golden brown i have my sort
[05:57]: of fish spatula and a stainless steel
[05:59]: pan so i can use it i'm not a nonstick
[06:02]: uh with a lot of oil like this that
[06:04]: should be absolutely fine
[06:12]: i'm gonna go ahead and put another one
[06:13]: here in the middle and just keep though
[06:15]: keep these uh frying up
[06:20]: they're probably not going to be as
[06:22]: pretty and round as hers
[06:25]: but they'll be fine they'll still be
[06:26]: delicious
[06:28]: [Music]
[06:43]: so these are all out i'm gonna try and
[06:45]: get these little bits of potato out so
[06:47]: they don't burn
[06:52]: i'm just gonna be frying these up until
[06:54]: we're all
[06:56]: good
[06:58]: [Music]
[07:06]: on this episode of cooking the books
[07:08]: with heather you watched me make potato
[07:10]: fritters from teresa carl sanders
[07:12]: outlander kitchen cookbook
[07:15]: now i found this
[07:17]: relatively easy but it would be easier
[07:20]: if i just used my food processor to
[07:22]: grate the potatoes
[07:24]: uh
[07:25]: grating potatoes and onions is a little
[07:28]: bit
[07:30]: prone to injury at least in this house
[07:34]: managed to get away with it this time
[07:36]: didn't have any problems but i think
[07:38]: grading it with a food processor would
[07:40]: be a good idea
[07:43]: they ended up with just the right hint
[07:45]: of onion so i did like that addition
[07:48]: um i did have a lot of extra sort of
[07:52]: juicy stuff in the bottom where i think
[07:55]: the onions and the potatoes
[07:57]: with the salt sort of um
[07:59]: leeches some of their moisture out and i
[08:02]: just tried not to get too much of that
[08:05]: into my potato fritters when i put it in
[08:06]: the pan so there was some left left over
[08:09]: um at the end of cooking it but all of
[08:12]: that was fine the potato fritters held
[08:14]: together really well they did not sort
[08:17]: of
[08:17]: um break apart uh they didn't taste sort
[08:20]: of like there was too much flour in them
[08:22]: which i think is what i end up doing
[08:24]: when i
[08:26]: don't
[08:27]: follow a recipe and i end up adding a
[08:29]: little bit more flour because there's
[08:30]: all of that liquid in there
[08:33]: and so i add more flour and then they
[08:35]: just sort of end up sort of stodgy these
[08:37]: weren't really like that um
[08:39]: they did kind of
[08:41]: end up they didn't feel like they were
[08:43]: grated potatoes in there really at the
[08:45]: end it was more like you know
[08:48]: if i'd made them with mashed potatoes
[08:50]: but
[08:51]: they were they were just they were good
[08:53]: they were delicious um
[08:55]: frying things kind of sucks but that
[08:57]: wasn't too bad
[08:58]: um
[09:01]: and the whole family liked them because
[09:02]: you know they're they're fried potatoes
[09:04]: which
[09:05]: everybody likes in my family
[09:07]: um
[09:09]: she says you can serve them with sour
[09:11]: cream
[09:12]: and green onions you can serve them with
[09:14]: ketchup if you want but i think she said
[09:16]: her favorite is um applesauce now her
[09:20]: favorite's his favorite is plain with
[09:21]: just a little bit more salt and pepper
[09:23]: um
[09:24]: but
[09:25]: applesauce is also sort of a standard we
[09:27]: didn't try that but we did try it with
[09:29]: both sour cream and green onions and
[09:31]: ketchup and everybody liked it that way
[09:34]: so
[09:35]: i will i will definitely be doing this
[09:38]: again if i ever want to make potato
[09:40]: fritters
[09:41]: and i quite often am looking for potato
[09:43]: recipes that my kids enjoy because they
[09:46]: don't like mashed potatoes because
[09:47]: they're weirdest kids ever in the world
[09:50]: i thought mashed potatoes were something
[09:51]: kids were supposed to like but they do
[09:53]: not
[09:54]: um
[09:55]: so yeah this would this would be a good
[09:57]: potato recipe i like to sort of
[09:60]: vary
[10:01]: our meals a lot so having another option
[10:05]: for something to do with potatoes would
[10:07]: be great and uh even though these are
[10:10]: in the breakfast chapter they would go
[10:12]: perfectly well with a dinner
[10:15]: or a lunch
[10:17]: whatever good potato good sort of
[10:19]: all-purpose potato recipe
[10:21]: anyway
[10:22]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[10:23]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[10:25]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[10:27]: me make something else next week
[10:29]: [Music]