25th March 2013
I thought I would contribute this small brunch dish to the ‘what shall I do with my old starter’ conversation.
Not everything in life needs a recipe and these are a prime example.
I had some old starter in the fridge from when I had been away and when I stirred it up it had a bit of life in it still. I dipped a finger in and had a taste, sour but not unacceptable.
It was so cold yesterday that I thought we had better have something warm for lunch.
So I dry fried a couple of slices of Lindsays of Cockermouth’s best dry cure middle cut bacon, no nasty white stuff coming out of this like the supermarket rubbish, and not very salty either, a little black pudding for Brian and a few tomatoes with a splash of balsamic vinegar to give them a bit more taste than they have at this time of year.
I then found a small bowl of mashed potatoes from last night’s supper in the fridge and thought oh why not…
So here is the method. Forgive the quantities.
In a large bowl
- Pour in your old starter
- Add a couple of large spoonfuls of cold mashed potato
- A glass or two of milk (skimmed is fine)
- A couple of spoonfuls of flour
- Two large eggs
- A pinch of salt
- Whisk it all up, but don’t worry too much about the little lumps of mashed potato.
- Heat a small pan on the hob.
- Put the oven on a keep warm setting and pop a plate in.
- Chase a fingernail’s worth of butter round the pan once it is hot.
- Tip little ladles of mixture into the pan and swirl them round.
- Cook on one side, till nice and golden brown, flip and cook the other side.
- Stack on the warm plate in the oven.
Serve your sourdough mashed potato pancakes with optional brown sauce and toppings and a large mug of tea.
That’s it. No added sugar, no added fat. I can’t believe that this is particularly bad for you, but the food police might say it is. I don’t care.
Soft and fluffy and just the thing for a hungry gap.