These ingredients will make about 8 ice-cream scoop cakes, I’d reckon on 2 per person with a poached egg as a main course, and I’d make enough for seconds, but with a drink, I’d make them smaller, tbsp sized and get about 16
800g potatoes
300g cabbage
3 scallions (spring onions) diced finely
¼ cup parsley (chopped roughly)
½ cup bacon chopped into lardons
1 cup of flour
2 tbsp butter (at least)
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
- Peel and chop the potatoes, then rinse in cold water to get rid of some of the starch. Put in a pan, cover with cold water, salt well, then boil for about 20 minutes (depending on the size of the chunks) until tender
- While the potatoes are cooking, shred the cabbage finely and steam over the potatoes for 8 mins (or boil in a separate pan then drain well
- Fry the bacon. Pat dry on a paper towel
- Mix the chopped scallion, the bacon and the cabbage into the mashed potato – you have colcannon!
Now to turn it into cakes: (You should have something in the region of 3 cups of colcannon.)
- Add the cup of flour to the colcannon and mix well
- Chill the mixture for 15 mins or so to make it easier to shape (if it’s very wet, add more flour until the mixture feels stiff and shapeable)
- Use an ice cream scoop (or a spoon) to ball out the mixture, then flatten each ball to make a disk
- Fry in butter with a splash of oil to stop it burning for about 3 – 4 minutes per side until golden
- Keep warm in the oven while you fry the rest of the mixture
Serving Suggestions:
- Serve with a poached egg for utter perfection
- Colcannon is delicious served with stew, or with some sausages and a dollup of mustard
If you can make that you can make this:
- Leave out the cabbage and add cooked flaked salmon to make fish cakes
- Add ½ tsp of cumin, coriander and some fresh chopped mint to take these potato cakes in a more Indian direction
This recipe originally appeared for St Patrick’s day along with memories of making potato cakes with my grandmother.