FLOWER POT KITCHEN: PALEO SWEET POTATO & BACON PAN FRIED CAKES

19 May 2014

PALEO SWEET POTATO & BACON PAN FRIED CAKES

Just outstanding and fabulous, this is a left over meal, if I have a baked sweet potato I always bake a few extra so that you can make another meal. The left over sweet potato is transformed by adding pan fried bacon along with raw onion, chillies and coriander, these potato cakes deliver a sweet salty creamy filling with a really gorgeous crispy pan fried crust which just makes these super yummy! Bring these up a notch with a poached egg or to really va va voom this serve with hollindaise sauce.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 4)

2 baked sweet potatoes

4 rashers of sweet cure bacon

1 tbsp seed omega or avocado oil

1 small onion finely chopped

2 fresh chillies fine chopped

1 clove garlic grated

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 egg beaten

salt and black pepper

This is just as easy to make from scratch if you don't have leftover backed potatoes. Scoop out the sweet potato filling of the potatoes into a large bowl, pan fry the chopped bacon in the half the oil until crispy, add to the bowl along with the raw onion, garlic, chillies, coriander, beaten egg, salt and black pepper, mix well.

With your hands or using a ring shape the sweet potato into 4 large or 8 small potato cakes, if I am in a perfectionist mode then I like to use rings to shape the potato cakes and cook them in, this is because the rings hold the cakes together well while cooking, but if I am in rustic mode I form the cakes by hand and I am just very careful when I turn the cakes as they want to loose their round shape a little that's all.

Heat the remaining oil to a medium heat and pan fry the potato cakes for approx 5 minutes each side, I try to only turn the potato cakes once so that they keep their shape better and you ensure a crispy crust. Serve as they are with salad or as I suggested above with a poached egg and hollindaise sauce for a more sumptuous dinner.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.