Crispy Veggie Potato Cakes

These veggie cakes are quickly prepared as a side dish or starter or a vegan main course. I cannot really tell what impact the abstinence from meat has to my body. I do however notice the gain in time during lunch, when I can opt out of the meat dishes from a more or less bloated menu. I could probably only save more time with a labeling obligation for dishes that violate the guest's inalienable right of ownership over the edge of the plate with unsolicited balsamico essence graffiti.

The idea for the following recipe was born while cherry-picking the meatless dishes of the menu of the restaurant MoMa in Sofia, when the вегетариянски тиганици, the "vegetarian meatballs" caught my eyes, pun probably not intended but rather owed to a too literal use of the dictionary.

The dish that made its way on my table was really tasty: deep-fried vegetables in an egg-based pancake dough, garnished with a blob of chili jam. My associations while reading the ingredient list rather want into the direction of a vegan variation of Rievkooche from my hometown Cologne, pimped up with vegetables and some chili porn. What should I say? The sweetness of the chilis and vegetables goes really well with the flavor of fried potatoes.

Ingredients

Serves four as a starter or side dish. Prepares in 30 minutes.

• 800 g waxy potatoes
• one small onion
• one medium sized courgette
• one red pepper
• 1-4 red hot chili peppers
• one level teaspoon salt
• 4-5 heaping tablespoons flour
• 500 ml olive oil for frying
• kitchen roll for drying

Preparation

1. Finely chop the onion. If wanted, fry them for a minute or two with a little olive oil. But normally they will be well cooked without pre-frying them..
2. Roughly grate the courgette. Cut the pepper in fine stripes or juliennes. Chop the chilies finely or cut them in rings.
3. Peel the potatoes and grate one half of them roughly.
4. Grate the other half of the potatoes as finely as possible.
5. Stir all ingredients in a bowl, add salt, and mix in the flour.
   
6. Head the olive oil in a pan until little bubbles until a wooden spoon produces little bubbles.
7. Slide one heaping table spoon of dough into the oil for each cake, and flatten it with the spoon. If it falls apart you have to add more flour to the dough.
   
8. Fry the cakes from both sides until they are golden brown. When they are ready, transfer them on an oven grill covered with kitchen roll, and dry them from both sides.

Instead of the roughly grated half of the potatoes you can also use sweet potatoes and cut them in little sticks 1-2 mm thick.

Exchange the vegetables to your liking, for example eggplants instead of courgettes or carots or broccoli instead of the peppers.