Karen here and can you believe it's October already? I'm here to talk apples as it's National Apple Month and tomorrow Incredible Edible Prestwich will be hosting Apple Day Celebrations. Follow the link for details: Apple Day – Oct 2 2022 – Incredible Edible (iepad.co.uk)
As the team at Village Greens will assert, I am a huge fan of apples. On a number of occasions, I've ordered a whole 12kg box of apples from our wholesalers, Organic North, just for me! Favourite varieties include Russet, Ashmead's Kernal, Red Devil and Pineapple Pitmaston (which actually taste like pineapple!) and now the season is upon us where all of those intriguing varieties, that are hard to come by in the supermarkets, become available to us.
I was recently gifted a bag of apples from a family member's garden who admittedly did not know what type they were or whether they were for eating or cooking. I had a look at what I could do with them, other than the usual crumble or muffins, that I could share with our Village Greens audience and I decided on potato cakes with apple!
So here goes....
Based on a recipe from the following link (Healthy Recipes: Savory Apple Potato Pancakes Recipe (healthylunchideas.net) As usual, I swapped a few ingredients based on what my cupboards could offer:
Ingredients
3 medium potatoes 2 medium apples 1/2 medium onion (I used a whole red onion) 1 tsp salt 2 tbsp thyme, chopped finely
1 Jalapeno pepper (I used a scotch bonnet...and for me it was plenty!) 1/2 cup rice flour (I used plain wholemeal flour) 3 tbsp coconut oil (I used rapeseed)
Directions
These directions are my own based on my experience:
-Peel and grate potatoes, apples and the onion into a bowl. I left the skins on my spuds. -Squeeze out as much water as you can. I used paper towels pressed down onto the top of the mixture to leave the starch that accumulates at the bottom of the bowl, as per the original recipe. This is to help the pancakes crisp up. -Mix in all of the other ingredients except the oil.
-In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
-Remove dollops of your mixture, the size you would like a portion to be, and place on a plate. Shape into a potato cake by hand. Mine were circular and a couple of centimetres thick, although I think the ones made in the original recipe were much thinner. -Use a spatula to place in the frying pan and press down gently to flatten and firm up the mixture.
-I cooked two at a time and made four large potato cakes from the mixture. You could make fewer.
-When the underside is golden and crispy, turn over and cook the other side until that's golden. I turned them a few times and after about 5-7 mins they were ready. If they were thinner, I'm sure they would have cooked a little quicker. -Serve hot. I served mine with some tempeh bacon pieces stir-fried with some delicious cavolo nero.
Massive thumbs up from me and my husband. I don't eat many potatoes, I find them a bit boring, but like this, all crispy yet soft, with a little sweetness from the apple and a bit of a chilli kick they were fabulous.
It's apple month ALL MONTH, and my bag of mystery apples is still pretty full so I'll maybe be back soon sharing more apple related recipes!
Thanks for reading everyone.
Karen x