Potato Pancakes!

One of the easiest and tastiest local meals to date have been some crunchy-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside potato pancakes with green onion. I first saw a variation of this on a Food Network special about left-overs, and have been making them ever since, changing the recipe and toppings according to what's available at any given time. Basically, It's a pan-fried hash-brown with some tasty vegetables cooked right into it. I really love this because they're perfect for when you have leftover potatoes and odds and ends of vegetables left that you don't know what to do with. I call them portable potato pancakes because they can easily become ideal picnic food, if you pack them chilled and bring toppings. Here's how I made them this time:

Start with: 

Potatoes (pre-cooked and cooled or raw) 

One green onion (finely chopped)

Olive or canola oil

From there:

Roughly grate your peeled potatoes into a bowl, and mix in the onions with your hands, being careful not to smush the potatoes too much. Heat a little oil in a pan at about medium, or a little higher. Next, you're going to want to make a potato-ball in your hand, about the size of your palm (but, once again, try not to smush it too tight. You want it to be a fairly loose ball). Now place the potato ball in the hot oil and press down with a spatula so that it becomes flatter, but leave it so it's about half an inch to an inch thick. If you're doing this with cooked potatoes, then you're  just going to have the watch the colour forming around the bottom edge of the pancake. When The edges have turned nice and brown, you'll want to check it. You can do this by flipping and checking to make sure that the colour is even. When the one side looks nice and brown and crispy, it's time to cook the other side, so flip it over so the not-browned side is on the pan. For people using raw potatoes, you'll have to watch the colour changing throughout the pancake. So watch for the brownness creeping up the side of the pancake, because even though the flat of the pancake might be brown, the inside might still be raw potato. When the pancake has cooked about halfway up, flip the pancake and watch it until it's cooked through. It's important to have a plate ready with paper towel to absorb the extra oil, because the pancakes will initially be pretty greasy when you take them out of the pan. So before you serve them, lay them on the paper towel and allow the grease to get absorbed. From there, you can top it with almost anything. Two of my personal favourites are topping it with sour cream, chives and smoked salmon or a simple soft-poached egg on top, with salt and pepper. Eating local is so good to me. Om nom nom.