Pancakes: Potato pancakes using instant potatos?
Subject: Potato pancakes using instant potatos?
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: jimsmith at nospam.net
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 17:25:02 GMT
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I was wondering if I can use instant mashed potato flakes to make good german-style mashed potatos? I have a huge can of the flakes and would like to find good uses for them.
From: catmandy99 at aol.com (Sheryl Rosen)
Date: 02 Dec 1999 02:43:20 GMT
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No, no, no. <shaking head>
Good german-style potato pancakes must be made from potatoes. There is no shortcut.
You can make somewhat edible mashed potatoes from that can of flakes....and if you add some fried onions and some sour cream, they might actually be tasty.
Instant potato flakes can be used successfully to thicken potato soup.
You could also make them into mashed potatoes and make potato croquettes. they won't be the type of potato latkes you're looking for, but they will probably taste ok.
Nothing beats fresh potatoes.
From: Tara Danielle (tara_danielle at my-deja.com)
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 14:30:01 GMT
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A shortcut that's just as easy, almost as cheap and tastes much better is to use a bag of OreRida shredded frozen potatoes, hash brown style. Defrost and pat dry first. My family uses the powdered manishevitz taters, and I like these from real potatos much better.
Bye,
Tara in NJ
PS It doesn't have to be OreRida of course.
From: jimsmith at nospam.net
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 06:47:11 GMT
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Tara Danielle wrote:
>A shortcut that's just as easy, almost as cheap and tastes much better
>is to use a bag of OreRida shredded frozen potatoes, hash brown style.
Thanks for the tip. I'll try it.
The real reason I asked is that I have a HUGE can of Idahoan instant pototo flakes and am looking for creative uses for them. And I like potato pancakes, but hate the mess and fuss of peeling and cooking and shredding fresh spuds.
From: jdeinet at shentel.net
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 20:16:44 GMT
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>I was wondering if I can use instant mashed potato flakes to make good
>german-style mashed potatos?
Having been born in Germany and having made German potato pancakes often I must say that the answer is no. The true German pancakes call for coarsely grated potatoes (very coarse, in fact) and this texture cannot be achieved from instant. The coarsness is almost the equal to what the Swiss call rosti (a very large pancake). Always remember to mix in coarsely grated onions and other seasoning.
From: Siobhan Perricone (astarte at sover.net)
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 21:53:57 -0500
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>I was wondering if I can use instant mashed potato flakes to make good
>german-style mashed potatos? I have a huge can of the flakes and would
>like to find good uses for them.
Well, you can make a number of really nice things with potato flakes. I don't know what german-style mashed potatoes are, so I can't say if flakes could be used to substitute. I'd give it a try and see what I got. Probably what you'll get won't be exact what you're looking for in "german-style mashed potatos", but it'll probably be good in its own right.
I know that when I make potato pancakes with flakes, I have to make sure that I add extra flakes so that it's thicker, and it takes more flour, but you can't add *too* much flour, or it'll get too sticky. Some nice onions... and eggs, you need to add eggs. I don't know if what I'm doing is loosely based on german-style or not. I just know that's what mom did with leftover mashed potatoes. :)
Anyway, other things you can do with potato flakes are use them to thicken soups and stuff. You can put mashed potatoes on top of shepard's pie. And you can use them instead of potato water (actually, you mix the flakes into some water so it's thin) to make killer potato bread.
I also add mashed roasted garlic, or cheddar cheese, or plain ole minced garlic to dress up the mashed potatoes.
From: jimsmith at nospam.net
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 21:02:51 GMT
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Siobhan Perricone wrote:
>Well, you can make a number of really nice things with potato flakes. I
>don't know what german-style mashed potatoes are,
Sorry! I meant to say german-style potato *pancakes*. Ooops.
From: Siobhan Perricone (astarte at sover.net)
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 07:04:51 -0500
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jimsmith at nospam wrote:
>Sorry! I meant to say german-style potato *pancakes*. Ooops.
Even so, I don't know what those are. :)
From: dawna at portal.ca (Spooky)
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 05:00:33 GMT
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jimsmith at nospam wrote:
> I have a huge can of the flakes and would
>like to find good uses for them.
Simply in the spirit of using up the can, I suggest you try using the potato flakes to make bread. Pretty much any basic bread recipe can get a lift from mashed potato or potato flakes (although you may need to use more liquid). The potato starch seems to be a prefered food of the yeast, and the bread will rise high and be lighter in texture if you use a little potato, in my experience. Also very good for dinner rolls.
From: Bill (WRLIPPERT at cinci.rr.com)
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 21:03:51 GMT
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The instant potato flakes would make nice "snow" in a Christmas vignet and this might be the best use I can think of for instant potatoes. <:) Another good use might be to donate them to a shelter or some other social service program.