Crispy Potato Cake

Unless you're my best friend Lizzie (who inexplicably hates potatoes), you are probably already mesmerized by this giant potato cake. You are wondering, Is it a giant latke? Amazingly round hash browns? Oh my friends, it is both. It is neither. It is delectable potatoey goodness, all in a convenient plate sized package. And so easy to make. You could make two. After all you won't want to share. Ryan ate half and then longingly stared at the remaining quarter. Eventually he mumbled forlornly, "I would eat it, but it's yours." I didn't disagree.

POTATO CAKE
modified from Melissa D'Arabian

Ingredients:
Two russet potatoes
1/2 a large sweet onion
2 T cooking oil (I used corn)
2 T butter
salt and pepper

Directions:
Grate the potatoes and onion. Melissa used the attachment on her food processor. I used my old school box grater. She had less work, but I had less to wash. Also, from years of latke making I know I just prefer hand grated potatoes, but I promise not to judge if you take a short cut. In a large non-stick pan, Add a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter and melt over medium high heat. Swirl it around so the pan is covered. Add more oil as needed. Press the grated potatoes into the pan, being careful not to burn yourself. You want them to evenly cover the whole surface area. Sprinkle liberally with salt and grate some pepper. Leave it alone, cooking (no peeking) for 8 to 10 minutes. Slide off onto a plate. Add the rest of the butter and oil. Now this is where Melissa got a bit crazy. She waited for her pan to cool for awhile, and then turned it upside over the cake and held the pan and the plate and flipped so the raw potato side was now in the pan. No really, I watched the show. I just flipped that sucker off the plate and into the pan. I did it fast. And it worked fine. Use whatever method makes you less crazy. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until crispy on the outside and meltingly scrumptious on the inside. Ask yourself why you didn't think to add onion. Resolve to try it with onion next time, and report back. As you can see, onion is now officially part of the recipe. Soooo good.

Also Melissa garnished hers with parsley. Parsley is for sissies. We pretended it was a giant latke and ate it with applesauce. I think I would also thoroughly enjoy dollops of sour cream.