POTATO CAKES (INDONESIAN STYLE)

Today I spent most of my day in my kitchen, my original plan was to cook our daily dinner, today I cooked Baked Cornish Hen with green chili, I ran out of my green chili sauce so we went to the store to buy some green chili and tomatillo, as I was working on those, my friend called me and told me that they wanted to visit us and asked me when the good time was, we did not have any particular plan so we agreed to see them on Wednesday, a day after New Year.. while we were chatting on the phone, my mind has already made plan, thought what to serve for our lunch, what I had in my refrigerator... then I came up with our Indonesian Yellow Rice as I have the instant seasoning, I just bought potato flakes and some chickens last night.

So after I finished with my dinner ( which was so yummy, I'll talk about it in other post later), I started making Potato cakes, this time I was cheating, I used store bought potato flakes, the original way was to boil, steam or fry chunky cut potatoes, then smash them, same way as we make mashed potato, today I took the short cut, here was what I did.. I have to write it down for my future reference.. Potato cake is one of the must have side dishes for Yellow Rice

Here is the Yellow rice I made for my sister's house warming party in Houston last summer, the decorated Yellow Rice are usually for celebrations like birthdays, house warming, graduations, and a simple way for Indonesians to give thanks...




Ingredients:
- 15 oz ( 1 box) Potato flakes ( Hungry Jack)
- 2 cups of water + 2 cups of milk
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped green onion
- dash of grated nutmeg
- 2 tbsp of crushed fried shallot
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 tsp of garlic powder

How:
- heat water, milk and salt in a pan until boil
- remove from the heat
- pour potato flakes in a big bowl
- add the boil liquid, quickly stir until well blended
- let it cool a bit
- add the rest of ingredients
- mix well
- form 2 inches in diameter and half an inch thick patties
- chill patties in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes
- heat oil in a nonstick saute pan, about 3/4 inch
- before we put the patties in the hot oil, dip them in some lightly beaten egg white
- slowly put the patties in the pan, reduce the heat to medium high
- fry the patties until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side
- drain on a cookie rack