Yikes, the end of the week at work has been crazy – I had some projects I’ve been wanting to get to since the beginning of the week but things kept coming up. Meaning I had that sense of “I need to get to this” hanging over my head until yesterday, when I got it done! So a bit of a stress-free weekend I hope – at least until Monday when I’ll get started on the follow-up….. But on to the Dark Days Challenge spotlight this week.
I am blessed with an overflow of potatoes. And I mean that seriously, as they are really one of the things (along with winter squash) that I rely on for my meals during this winter and early spring. But yes, they get tiresome if prepared in the same/similar ways all the time. I love potatoes roasted with red onion – the sweetness of the onion just caramelizes with the crispy potato… yum. There is also the straight-up baked jacket potato with cottage cheese and chives on the top. And of course, I mentioned that roasted potato-leek soup is a constant in my rotation during the Spotlight for week #6 of the Dark Days Challenge (humm, potato/onion general theme here?). However, my Dark Days spotlight this week is on one of the oldest ways that I remember eating potato: potato patties, also known as aloo ki tikki.
Dinner tonight was a return to these goodies that I started eating as a toddler. My mother made them for me when, well, I remember them from when I was about three, so at least going forward from then. She made them by pressure-cooking the potato until they were so soft they could be smashed even by just picking them up. They are then mashed, and get some turmeric, chili powder, paprika and cumin powder added in to taste. As a child, I got less of the chili powder and more turmeric, I still like the turmeric heavy handed please! Sometimes a handful of peas and some thinly shredded corriander leaves were also tossed in the mix. I make mine so that the potato actually turns medium yellow when mashed. The potato mash is then divided into small golf-ball sized rounds and flattened to about 1/4 of an inch or so, and crisped until golden brown in the greased skillet. I remember my mother made them even a bit smaller, getting 2 or 3 on a heated medium skillet and just sliding them hot onto my plate – I always ate a minimum of 12 I am told! Back then, I smothered them in ketchup till there was at least as much ketchup as potato! Now, I go for them plain, or with a bit of my homemade applesauce to dip as a sweet taste and others with my cottage cheese for a savory taste. I will admit though, a couple always get that bit of ketchup still 
Here are some pics from tonight. I had this as the core of my meal with some local navy beans on the side. Potatoes thanks to George Hall Farm and/or Purity Farms (no other optional mix-ins used); applesauce homemade from apples from Silverman’s Farm; cottage cheese homemade from Smyth’s Trinity Farms milk:
The mashed potato with added spices
My spice container - chili powder, cumin powder, mustard seeds, turmeric, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds
Some uncooked patties
The "golf-ball" sized round
On the skillet
Time to eat!
This made me very happy, with lots of great memories attached.
