This recipe is brought to us by our awesome volunteer Kyle, who has excellent taste in soup as well. It calls for matzo meal, which I admittedly had to look up: it is, not surprisingly, a ground flour type substance made out of matzo, an unleavened cracker-bread typically eaten at Passover.
I love grated vegetables, especially potatoes, in all forms: my favourite hash-brown is a grated potato with the water pressed out of it, seasoned with spices and finely slivered onions, slapped on a hot cast iron pan and scraped off and flipped when it starts to get crispy. While this is delicious, pancakes are a little more reliable and less likely to stick to the pan, not to mention easier to dip in mayonnaise (my other favourite thing) so try this one out for size. You’ll need:
3 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
3 medium carrots, peeled and grated
3 thinly sliced scallions (or onions)
Coarse salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup matzo meal
¼ cup vegetable oil for frying
Mix grated potatoes and carrots in a bowl with the scallions and 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. Using your hands (the most fun part!) mix thoroughly, then add the matzo meal and egg until smooth. Form into eight mounds of equal size (so that nobody fights over whose is biggest).
While all this mixing is happening, you could have been heating oil over a skillet on medium heat. Add potato mounds (you’ll probably have to do it in two batches, unless you have a massive pan) and flatten them to about ½ inch thickness. Cook until golden brown, about 2-4 minutes per side.
Transfer them to paper towels to drain off some of the oil. Serve with sour cream, applesauce, or if you’re giving them to me, a home-made garlic aioli. Mmm.
You could liven this recipe up and add some nutritional pizzazz by adding cooked quinoa, nutritional yeast, spices like dill or cumin, ground flax, or chia seed (try substituting a flax egg for the real one!), or slivered almonds. Additions will change the texture slightly but play around with it and you might end up with a nice little patty. Enjoy!