Scallion Potato Cakes

This dish reminds me of the Chinese green onion pancakes that's a favorite amongst many.  I wanted a side item for the halibut main dish and this seemed like a good choice.  There are only 4 ingredients for this delicious side, and it's pretty easy to make if you got some basic tools.

First we start with the potatoes.  3 pounds of large russets.  You will need a grater of some sort or a food processor.  I was really surprised how good a hand grater worked.  It shredded the potatoes just to the right size, also invest in a salad spinner, it will make drying the potatoes a lot easier.

Grated potatoes using a hand grater

The potatoes changes color (to a reddish brown) very rapidly, so submerge them in cold water while you work in batches.  The salad spinner is used to completely dry off the potatoes once you are ready to make the cakes.  The binding ingredient for this cake is corn starch, which is very interesting because it completely changes the texture of the finished cakes, I absolutely love it!  Use a 10 inch non stick frying pan, make sure there's enough oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan, spread a thin layer of potatoes, then add the scallions, season with salt and pepper.  To make it into a cake, add another layer of potatoes right on top.

Potato cakes cooking in the frying pan

Each side will take about 5-6 minutes, if all goes well you should be able to flip it relatively easily in the pan.  Or you could use a cooling rack to slide it on and off from.

Browning the cake on both sides

Since there are quite a bit of potatoes to work on, it's a good idea to keep them warm in the over at 200 degrees while you work on them in batches.  The oven also adds additional crispiness to the potato cakes.

Keeping the potato cakes warm in the oven

Once all of the cakes are done, you can stack them in any number of layers and cut into wedges.  Garnish with additional scallions for final serving.

Finished scallion potato cakes

Tasting:
Delicious!!!  The corn starch definitely made a difference in this dish, it held the potatoes together but also added that extra bite/firmness to the cakes.  It probably would've been a lot better if you ate this right as it was made, but it's difficult keeping that crispiness if you let the dish sit for too long.  So try to enjoy it when it's fresh out of the oven!  This side dish was completely gone within 30 minutes of the supper start, so my friends absolutely loved it as well.