Curried Potato Fritters

Two posts in one day? And so close together? What could prompt this?

Well, I finished posting before and then immediately went to the kitchen with Jeff to work on dinner. And what a dinner it was! We made these deep-fried curried potato fritters and they were awesome. The outside was golden brown and crispy, but the cheesy filling was soft and gooey. The sweetness of the mango and heat of the ginger in the chutney complemented the spiciness of the curry beautifully. Even though I had no intention of blogging this one, once we'd tasted the first batch, I had to grab my camera and document as much as I could.

I think this is only the second time ever that we've deep fried something, primarily because it seems like a waste to me to use so much oil for one recipe (and, honestly, we even didn't use enough this time to make the oil as deep as it should have been), but for this recipe, I think it's worth it.

The recipe said that it should make 24 small fritters, and we managed to make exactly 24 (I'm pretty sure that's never happened to me before - it's because Jeff was forming them). Now that's too many fritters for two people in one meal, and our oil started to get a bit low, so we decided to experiment with them. We ate a third of them for dinner, fried another third and put them in the fridge, and froze the last third unfried. We're going to try baking the pre-fried ones in the toaster oven for dinner tomorrow. The frozen ones will be fried at a later date. I'll check back in and let you know how those go! I think this would make a fantastic party food - and an even better one, if it turns out they can be prepped in advance!

**We had the rest of the fried fritters the next day for lunch. We popped them into the toaster oven at 350° for ten minutes or so and they were nearly as good as the day before. We'll be frying up the frozen ones next week.

Curried Potato Fritters
From Food Network Magazine July/August 2010.

2 medium russet potatoes
1 c 4% cottage cheese (this is a substitute for the more traditional paneer)
1/2 c frozen peas, thawed (we used full-size peas, rather than petite)
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 c + 2 tbsp flour
2 tsp kosher salt
vegetable oil for frying (depends on your pot size, but you should definitely have a lot - we had a small bottle and used a small pot and it wasn't nearly as much as the recipe called for)
4 eggs
2 c panko
mango chutney, for serving

Prick potatoes all over with a fork and microwave 8-10 minutes, until tender. Peel the potatoes (I tried to just peel the skin off with my hands to mediocre results. Surprisingly, a vegetable peeler worked better - I had thought the potatoes would be too soft for it, but not so). Transfer the potato to a large bowl and mash with a fork until mostly smooth. Mix in the cheese, peas, curry powder, 2 tbsp flour, and salt. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Heat about 2" of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until it reaches 375° F (a deep fry thermometer would help with maintaining this temperature - although we let the temperature drop quite far - below 300° - and the fritters still came out fine. They just took a much longer time to get to that golden brown color).

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl. Add the 1/2 c flour to another bowl and the panko to a third. Form the potato mixture into about 24 golf ball-sized portions, then flatten each one into 2" patties. Dredge each patty in the flour (dusting off any excess), then the egg, then the panko (we had some trouble getting the egg to stick to all the flour - try to keep those bare spots to a minimum, though, because the cheese will leak out when they hit the oil).

Fry the patties in batches until golden, turning as needed. Each batch should take about 1-2 minutes, if your oil is properly hot.

Once the fritters are golden, transfer them to a paper bag or paper towels to drain. Once they've drained, serve with mango chutney.