Hungarian-style Potato Fritters

Over the time that we've been here, we've learnt a few new recipes.  The potato fritters are a recipe that Amanda recognizes from when her grandparents used to make them so we were excited to give them a go.  We were at a BBQ with my music teacher a week or so ago and they were making the fritters so we asked for the instructions.  They were very vague with instructions like: add a bit of this and a smudge more of that etc, but upon trying it we realized that you can't go too wrong.

Firstly you have to peel the potatoes.  We were told that we'd need half a dozen or so, but it seems that must be catering for the Hungarian appetite as I think we could have gotten away with two.

Next you grate them.  They were not specific as to whether you grate them finely or not, but they seemed to do a little of both.  It seems like this step would take ages, but it's actually really fast - even if you're doing half a dozen.  I think it only took us maybe 5 or 10 minutes to do the lot.

The third step is to add flour and garlic.  Garlic is to taste so, of course, Amanda and I added a lot.  It still wasn't particularly overpowering however, so it could have almost done with more.  The flour is really in order to soak up all the juice from the potatoes and turn the whole batch into a paste.  Again, our friends were not very specific as to quantities so I won't be either.

Lastly it's as simple as putting into a pan of hot oil.  You need a decent amount of oil but we don't need to go overboard.  The technique that we learned was patience bordering on neglect.  If you think they are done then leave them another 5 minutes or so then turn them.  They don't really need to be turned very often.  We probably made ours a little large, the thinner they are the more crunchy they are, but I like the soft innards so... I suppose it's to taste.

The result is a garlicy, crisp-but-chewy potato cake that, in my opinion tastes pretty bloody awesome.

- Daniel