Smoky Potato Pancakes from Cooking Light Magazine, January/February 2011

I suppose it's no big confession that I wince when I bake foods that are really supposed to be fried. Panko bread crumbs have helped, but when it comes to potato stuff, like tater tots, French fries and potato pancakes, there's something inside that gives a little sob as the tray slides into the oven. (Just so you know, the sob is definitely not coming from my hips; they sing with joy.)

Of course, since this is Cooking Light Magazine, there's no chance that any of the recipes will be calling for an inch of peanut oil in a skillet in order to fry potato pancakes, but the recipe looked so good I knew I'd have to give them a go.

This recipe is located at the back of the magazine, in a section titled, "Feed 4 for less than $10." The potato pancakes are supposed to run around $1.85/serving. I wasn't really concerned with that, but thought you'd like to know.

The "smoky" in this recipe comes from using hickory-smoked bacon, which I think is a little deceiving since the bacon is just a garnish. The drippings are  supposed to be used to cook the onion and garlic, but if you've ever used center-cut bacon before, you'll know that it doesn't leave a whole lot of drippings. Maybe that's the idea. In any event, don't expect much smoky flavor.

Once the onion and garlic are cooked, they go into a bowl with the shredded potato, cheddar, salt, pepper and eggs and get well mixed. The direction say to make this mixture into patties, put them on a sheet and bake them after spraying them with cooking spray.

Just so you know, if you do that, your patties won't look like the ones up above. They'll look more like this:
As I was going through the instructions, I kept reading on, figuring that at some point there would be an aside about how much liquid the potatoes contained and how the potatoes needed to be dried on paper towels after shredding them or at the very least squeezed to remove liquid. Neither idea was given, so I made a few according to the magazine so you could see what they looked like, then did a good squeeze before making the rest so they'd be edible.

I recommend putting the shredded potatoes on paper towels and patting them dry before adding them to the bowl with the other ingredients. It will make a big difference in the consistency of the patties when they're done. Even the ones up top would have been better had I employed that method rather than wringing them out just before making the patties.

I liked these; with lots of sour cream. I can't even include lots of bacon because two slices had to top six potato pancakes. There wasn't enough to get the flavor.

Hubby and Dudette didn't like them at all for some reason. Hubby thought that there was a weird after taste, but that could have been from the thinned out juices that came from watery potatoes. I don't know. We wouldn't make these again.

Smoky Potato Pancakes
from Cooking Light Magazine


2  center-cut hickory-smoked bacon slices
2  cups  chopped onion
1  cup  thinly sliced leek
3  garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2  pounds  shredded peeled baking potato (about 2 large)
1/3  cup  (1 1/2 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4  teaspoon  salt
1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
2  large eggs
Cooking spray
1/4  cup  reduced-fat sour cream

Preheat oven to 425°.  Fry bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove from pan using a slotted spoon and crumble. Set aside.

Add the onion to the drippings in the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add leek and garlic; cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, grated potato, cheddar cheese, 3/4 teaspoon salt, black pepper, and 2 large eggs, stirring well.

Divide the potato mixture into eight portions, and shape each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty, placing them on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Spray patties lightly with cooking spray and bake for 25 minutes or until golden and set.

Serve with crumbled bacon and sour cream.