Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

Just for you, Diane, I know you were sick of looking at pickled garlic every time you checked my blog!

I swore I wasn't going to eat anymore wheat for a long while after the Thanksgiving holiday (I don't get along with grains) but I made chicken fried venison, gravy, and mashed potatoes (with cream cheese) for Wesley's birthday dinner last night and with all those leftover taters calling to us this morning, well, I couldn't resist. But no more after this morning! I hope. Maybe. We'll see.

I have wanted to make these since visiting a friend's mother up north several years ago. It was the morning after Christmas and my friend's daughter (a military trained electrical engineer pregnant with her first child) came out of her room demanding that her grandmother make her potato pancakes with the leftover mashed potatoes from the day before. I'd never heard of such a thing--but then I don't get out much. I don't remember tasting them (I think I was successfully abstaining from wheat back then) but I remember that they were gorgeous.

My first attempt was good, tasty, but a bit too thick and a slightly bland for my taste. The ingredients here are how I'll make them next time so they'll be a bit thinner and tastier than the pancakes shown in these photos.

Approximately 4 cups leftover mashed taters
3 green onions, minced (or shallots or onion or leeks)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional, gives them a nice gourmet taste though--caraway seeds aren't for everyone but I liked what they did for these pancakes)
1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic or 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt (less if your taters are pretty salty to start with)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
handful of cheddar cheese (optional, use as much or as little as you like)
3/4's to 1 cup of flour (depending on how thick you want your pancakes--I'd go with 1 cup your first time out)
3 to 4 eggs (the more eggs and flour you use, the thicker the pancakes--mine held together really well with four eggs)

Thin with water if needed, but don't let the mixture get too thin. You shouldn't be able to pour it quite as easily as pancake batter but you can make them a lot thinner than these for "maximum crunchiness" as my friend Darbee says when talking about how her mother makes them.

Mix all ingredients with a mixer and your batter is ready. Now you'll need a little Crisco for frying them up--I tried doing them with Pam and they just didn't get crispity crunchity on the outside--so I did another batch with Crisco and YUM! You don't need a lot, just a few tablespoons in the pan or on the griddle. I tried butter as well but it burned before the pancakes were ready. Yup, it's gotta be Crisco or oil.

I served it up with the leftover gravy from the day before (made with stock, nom nom) and I was in heaven.