Two potato latkes

There are some days when my list-making lets me down. I usually make a rough meal plan for the week, showing dinners and any lunches we will be home for. But some days I forget to provide for a weekend lunch, or we plan to be out but then stay in and need feeding.

This was one of those. I needed most of the pack of bacon for my shrimp and grits and we had no bread and not enough eggs for an omelette or frittata. I had one potato and one sweet potato, so I decided to make latkes.

Two potato latkes (makes 12)

1 large potato
1 large sweet potato
1 large onion
2 eggs
1-2 heaped spoonfuls plain flour
Salt, pepper & nutmeg

Peel and coarsely grate the potatoes and onion. Wrap in a cloth (I used a jelly bag) and wring out over the sink to get as much liquid out as possible. It's amazing how much liquid they throw off.

Place the wrung-out shreds in a mixing bowl, add the eggs and 1-2 spoonfuls of flour until it feels like it will hold together, and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and squash heaping tablespoonsful of the potato mixture into it. Then DON'T TOUCH THEM until bubbles start coming up through the middle of them and the edges start to frizzle. Turn once with a palette knife and then again DON'T TOUCH THEM. When they smell cooked, flip onto a paper-towel-lined baking sheet and keep warm while the rest of them cook. My pan needed three batches of latkes to use the mixture.

Serve with bacon and fried tomatoes. The leftover latkes are nice at room temperature with a bit of cheese. And I suspect they'd be lovely with sour cream and smoked salmon.