Crispy Sour Cream and Chive Potato Bites

What did you do with your Thanksgiving leftover mashed potatoes?  Well, to be honest with you, we didn't have leftovers.  Not until on the day after Thanksgiving, when I made Grumpy and me a Turkey dinner to have at home for ourselves.  Then we had plenty!  


For just the two of us I did roast a whole turkey (10 lbs worth), a large batch of sour cream and chive mashed potatoes, stuffing (um, from a box, but its was good!), green bean casserole, and homemade gravy.

I have never been a fan of potatoes.  I believe I have told the story before about how I was caught tossing my mashed potatoes in my Aunt Marlene's garbage one year --- all because I missed the trash can.  Ugh.  Boy was I a girl in trouble.  However now as an adult I do love some mashed potatoes with gravy and corn mixed in.  I also like crispy fried potatoes.  I happened to be on allrecipes.com and was looking at their newest uploaded photos.  I like to check them out and if I really like someone's photo, I will vote on it.  I saw the photo for potato pancakes and decided to check out the recipe.  I was thinking about those mashed potatoes in my refrigerator and how much I actually had and what could I do with some of them.  That recipe made me remember that potato patties were a good idea!

It then hit me, what a perfect little party bite these could be.  These could not only be used as a side dish to your meal (breakfast is a good meal to make this a side to also!) but they could be a part of an appetizer party.

Crispy Sour Cream and Chive Mashed Potato Bites
2 cups cold mashed potatoes*
1 egg, beaten
¼ - ⅓ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs, plus more for coating cakes prior to frying
¾ teaspoon garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
Suggested garnishes:
Bacon
sour cream
chives

*A note about your mashed potatoes.  When making this recipe, if your mashed potatoes are still kind of wet, then you will need to add more bread crumbs to help thicken the cakes up.  I wouldn't skip the egg because that is a binder, although I'm sure you can get away with it by adding cheese or something else that would help keep the cakes together.  My mashed potatoes were mashed with some butter and sour cream.  I did not use any milk when mashing, so they were on the dryer side the next day when I made these cakes.  I used about ¼ cup of the bread crumbs and they held their shape quite well.  You will have to go with what you feel will work when it comes to your potatoes and how wet or dry they are.

Cut through mashed potatoes to crumble and loosen them up to prepare for mixing other ingredients in.  Stir in egg, bread crumbs, seasoning, salt and pepper.  I would probably put about ½ cup fresh grated asiago or parmesean cheese in the next recipe I made.  I like a bit of a stronger flavor and the cheese would add just that.

Once ingredients are well blended, prep a plate by covering it with bread crumbs.  Scoop potato balls using small cookie scoop and place on top of crumbs.  Roll ball over and coat opposite side, patting cake down some to flatten.  Move to another plate until ready to fry.  Repeat until all potato mixture has been scooped and coated.

If you are garnishing with bacon, after the bacon hash been cooked, you can use some of the bacon grease for frying these cakes.  You may need to add more olive oil as you go along as the cakes do absorb the oil.  If your not using bacon, then just go ahead and use olive oil.  Heat oil in skillet until a few crumbs dropped in pan sizzles.  Add cakes and brown on one side, cooking over medium to medium high heat.  Stay with these as they cook as they can brown quickly.  Once browned on first side, flip and cook until browned on second side.  Do not keep flipping cakes.  They will be fragile and can break easily by flipping over and over.

Place cakes on serving platter with sour cream, chives, and bacon as garnish.  Another way you may enjoy these cakes would be to make them just a little larger and top a cake with a soft fried egg and salsa - perfect weekend breakfast or evening dinner!  Enjoy!