I don’t know about you, but every time I open the fridge, I’m faced with what seems like billions of little containers of leftover this and leftover that. Yesterday, when asked “What’s for breakfast?” I started searching the little containers and discovered some mashed potatoes. It got me thinking about these biscuits I used to make from an old Irish recipe for Potato Cakes. No longer having the recipe, I decided to start from scratch and memory. And really? What’s better than a warm, flavorful biscuit with breakfast?

Mashed Potato Biscuits
(makes about 12)

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour (divided)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups mashed potatoes (warm or cold)
1/2 cup milk (or soy milk)
1 large egg (lightly beaten)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375º F. Put 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl and add the salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk together to combine thoroughly.

Add the mashed potatoes, milk, and beaten egg. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon until the dough becomes a sticky, shaggy mass. You may want to switch to using your hands at this point – I suggest latex or nitrile gloves, but that’s just me.

Start adding additional flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, while mixing lightly, until the dough comes together in a relatively smooth ball. Try not to overwork it. The dough will still be soft and slightly sticky, but much easier to work with.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and pat it down with your hands to half-inch thickness. Sprinkle a bit more flour on top, and using a 3-inch round cutter, or even just a drinking glass, cut out the biscuits and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet about an inch apart. You can also line your baking sheet with a silicone liner or non-stick foil, if you prefer.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with your choice of milk, soy milk, or melted butter – just a bit – and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly golden brown.

Notes:

You’ll notice that there’s no fat in this recipe. Doesn’t need it. The potatoes keep these biscuits moist. Mine didn’t, but if your leftover mashed potatoes already contain butter, etc., all the better!

Potato Biscuits are pretty quick to throw together, and you can freeze these leftovers in a freezer bag for future use. They’re more substantial than your traditional baking powder biscuits and work great for breakfast sandwiches, sopping up gravy, or just a bit of butter and some of my Freakin’ Flamingo Five Fruit Marmalade. Just a weensy little plug?

Wait. How did it get to be December, already? Here I am, going about my business searching for new ways to dispose of leftover Thanksgiving turkey, and there it is on my calendar: Latke Week! Potato pancakes, that is. Chanukah came early this year, time to light colorful little candles and to commemorate the miracle of a little bottle of oil lasting eight days, by feasting on fried foods. Yum! I thought I’d kick things off with my favorite of them all: Potato Latkes.

Traditional Potato Latkes (Potato Pancakes)
(Makes about 12 4″ pancakes, depending on size)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. white potatoes
1 small onion (about 3 oz.)
1 large egg
1/3 cup matzo meal
2 tsp. kosher salt

Canola or peanut oil for frying

Preparation:

Grate the potatoes and onion together, either in a food processor or with a box grater. Drain off any water and place in a medium glass bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir by hand, using a sturdy wooden spoon.

Pour about 1/4 inch of oil into a large frying pan and heat it on high, till a couple of drops of water in the oil, pop. And I mean only a couple of drops! Otherwise, you’ll start your own Fourth of July sound effects going. Seriously.

Now, choose your size of pancake: For a larger latke, scoop up 1/4 cup of the potato mixture, and place it in the hot oil. Using your wooden spoon or a spatula, flatten out the mound to about 1/4″ thickness. If you want a smaller pancake, use 2 Tbs. of the potato mixture and flatten.

Fry each latke for about 3 minutes on each side, or until crispy and golden brown, and remove to a plate lined with paper towels. If you’re making a lot of latkes, you may have to add more oil to the pan. It shouldn’t take long for it to come back up to temperature.

Serve immediately with apple sauce, sour cream, or as we did when we were kids – a light sprinkling of sugar.

Notes:

My ninety-year old mother, bless her, still uses the fine side of a box grater to grate everything by hand. The potatoes seem to release less water that way. I gave that up years ago, though, using the shredding disc on my food processor and simply draining off the excess liquid before adding the other ingredients.

Use a glass or plastic bowl to mix the latke batter. A metal bowl will instantly make the potatoes start oxidizing and turn pink. It won’t hurt the latkes any, but they won’t be white inside. They’ll be pink. Or beige.

This recipe is easily doubled, or even tripled, if you’re cooking them up for a larger gathering. To keep the latkes hot and crispy, set your oven to 200º F, line a large baking sheet with newspaper and put one of your baking racks on top of that. After draining off each batch of latkes, put them on the rack and place the whole pan in the warm oven. They’ll keep in there for a couple of hours.

You can also make these ahead! Just cook as described, and when the cooked pancakes are completely cool, just put them in an airtight container or freezer bag(s) and chuck ‘em in the freezer. To serve, heat your oven to 350º F and lay out the latkes on a baking sheet. Heat for about 15 minutes, or until hot all the way through.

By the way, I just learned a new fact about Chanukah today, by way of an e-mail I received from Jason at BlogCatalog.com. Did you know that there are 16 accepted spellings of Hanukkah in the English language? Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah, Hannukah, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Channukah, Chanukka, Hanukka, Hannuka,Hannukkah, Channuka, Xanuka, Hannukka, Channukka, and Chanuqa. There is, however, only one in Hebrew:

However you spell it, Happy Chanukah! Or Hanukkah!