Mashed Potato and Vegetable Patties

Mashed potatoes on Monday, patties on Tuesday and baked veggie cake on Wednesday. Sounds nice, but who is going to cook all that, eh? Well, I don't mind. This is actually a standard three day plan in our kitchen, which all together takes roughly half hour to make. The "recipe" (I would rather call it idea) came originally from Tompa, who learned the mashed potato from his Danish friend, however I am not sure how Danish the outcome is. But anyway, here it is - a simple no-brainer, universal recipe for:

MASHED POTATOES AND VEGETABLES:

prep time: 30 minutes

• 500 g potatoes, cubed
• 500 g cubed vegetables (I used parsnip, carrot and Brussel sprouts)
• 1 big red chili
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• marjoram *
  
• oregano
  
• coriander leaves
• salt, black pepper
• 1 tsp crushed cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp oil
  

* TIP: Try Herb de Provence as seasoning instead of marjoram, oregano and coriander.

Bring water to boil, add the potatoes and vegetables, lower the heat and let boil for 20 minutes or until soft. Meantime heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the onions, together with sliced garlic and chopped chili.
Once cooked, mash the vegetables well and add the rest of ingredients. Serve hot.

Easy, eh? Now that was Monday.
The next day, take the mixture out of the fridge, divide into small balls, press them to form:

MASHED POTATO AND VEGETABLE PATTIES:

• leftover mashed potatoes with vegetables
• flour (if the mixture is too watery)

Now you can:

- shallow fry them in smoking hot oil or - bake at 180 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes or until crispy.

On the third day, spread the remaining mixture onto a baking sheet (around 1 inch thick) to form a square. Top with sliced tomatoes or avocado and bake until crispy. Cut into slices and serve with dips. We ate ours with:

- sour cream whisked with wasabi paste
- yoghurt whisked with harissa paste

These were a few ideas on how to get away with the same food for three days. Add a little something here and there and trust me, nobody will notice that the same stuff was on their plate yesterday as well.

This is my three day contribution to the Potato Fe(a)st hosted by Dhivya over at DK Culinary Bazaar.

Brune Kager

December at our sweet kitchen is generally filled with cinnamon, cloves, orange peels, raisins, apples... Christmas in one word. This is particularly true at work and pre-Christmas get-togethers. At my most recent ones, my colleagues and I were welcoming December in a very traditional Danish way. Lots of pickled herrings, fresh (rye)breads, meat balls, potatoes... aaaaand Brune Kager ("Brown Cakes"). These little tasty cookies are filled with Christmas spices like cinnamon, cloves or ginger. I ate tons of them and could not get enough. Luckily, I managed to snitch the baker´s recipe:

BRUNE KAGER, Skårne
(Brown Cookies)

prep time: 1 hour + overnight in the fridge
makes: 120 cookies

• 250 g butter
• 125 g light syrup
• 200 g brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 3 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp powdered cloves
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
  
• 1 tsp powdered badyan
• 25 g orange peel
• 100 g chopped almonds
• 400 g flour

In a pan heat the butter, syrup and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and let cool down. Meantime, mix the flour with spices, chopped almonds and grated orange peel.
The most unusual part of the recipe for me was mixing the baking powder in the water. It started bubbling like a vitamin C tablet. That I thought was a bit strange since I didn't get the point of doing it. But anyway, I threw all the things together and knead a firm dough.
Make several balls, roll them into long rolls (at about 5 cm in diameter each), wrap them in foil and place into the fridge overnight.
The next day unwrap the dough, slice into thin disks, place into pre-heated oven (we are talking 200 degrees Celsius) and bake for only 5 - 6 minutes. Let cool down and enjoy.
As you could notice, I rolled the dough out and cut out some fancy Christmas shapes instead.

These cookies were truly the highlight of our pre-Christmas party and so I was hoping, that Susan of Food Blogga would not mind including them into her Eat Christmas Cookie round-up.