I love these and make them every couple of weeks or so. Unfortunately I am a member of the “pinch of this and dash of that” school of cookery so please forgive me if the amounts are a bit vague in places. Mind you I have found that this recipe is quite forgiving and can put up with quite a bit of variation and still turn out a good feed.
The basis of the patties is good, old fashioned mashed potatoe made from either home grown or organic potatoes, we use “Dutch Cream” variety. When we make mash we make a big load, enough for a meal for both of us with about 2- cups 4 left over for making patties. I usually make the patties within a couple of days and if you leave the mashed potato in the fridge for at least 24 hours, it gets a stiffer texture and the patties stay together better.
I place the mashed potato in a 3 litre glass bowl and then add –
1 onion, diced
About 6 cups of diced veggies (this may include, depending on time of year – peas, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, zucchini, sweet corn kernels, choko, Jerusalem artichoke, celery, kale, cabbage, silver beet, spinach and broad beans) To save time you could grate one or two of the hard vegetables but too much grated stuff seems to ruin the texture and make it slimy and soggy. I dice them to less than 6mm cubes.
1 cup grated cheese (we use tasty or mozzarella)
2 - 3 eggs
2 dessertspoons of spice mix – The mix can vary the flavour quite a bit, we get Thai spice from a local supplier but have also used biryani spice to give it an Indian flavour, Mexican spices to give it Mexican flavour or straight curry powder to give it a Chinese flavour.
To make the patties I mix the potato, onion, veggies and cheese together and throw in the spice mix, mixing everything together with a fork until the spice mix has been well distributed. I throw in 2-3 eggs, depending on how much mixture there is, to bind the mix. One bowl of mix usually makes 6 – 7 patties with 2 patties by themselves being a decent meal for one person.
I form the mix into balls with my hand and then crumb them (dip in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs) then flatten them out on a tray. I let them recover for 15 – 20 minutes then fry in olive oil over a fairly low heat (I put the fry pan on our wok ring over its lowest setting). I let the oil heat up for a bit and when it is fragrant I put the patties in. I cook them for 15 minutes on the first side and 10 minutes on the second. You will probably need to check them regularly to make sure you have the heat right or you can easily burn them.
Once they are cooked we eat them with some mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce. It’s a meal fit for a king!
2018 Update
I have been making these for a while and basically any veg we have floating around gets thrown in, but just this past week I made a batch and I had some cooked red kidney beans in the fridge, so I thought I would throw some in, probably somewhere between one and one and a half cups. Wow! The beans really addeded something to the flavour and texture of the veggie patties that we really like, so I can see them being a regular addition. It is well worth a go, just add in a cup or two of your favourite cooked beans, fold them through the mash with a fork and then carry on as normal. You won't be sorry!
