Recession Roeschti, again, now with a breakdown of costs

Allotment cuisine: the Recession Fritter

• a big bowlful of stored potatoes from the allotment (we have Golden Wonders), peeled, washed and grated
• 3 big or 5 smaller onions, cut up small. Also stored (we've already used up all of the white ones so used our Red Barons instead – very potent, very oniony)
• 4 eggs from the local farm down the road, 68p (12 eggs for £2 means each egg costs 17p)
• garlic if wanted – we didn't use any today
• a dried crusty roll that I found in the baking cupboard. I grated this into breadcrumbs, to bind the potatoes and eggs
• as much frozen chopped allotment parsley as you want. We used a fist-sized amount.

Mix this and season to taste (pepper mainly – bear in mind that the accompaniment, the smoked salmon, is already quite salty). 

Add massive amounts of sunflower oil to two frying pans and fry up the fritters. Flatten them into patties and cook until they're crisp and brown. Drain of oil and put on a kitchen roll.

To accompany the fritters, you need the following:

• 1x 200g packet of smoked salmon from Lidl, £2, split in two for each plate
• half a lemon from the corner shop (ca. 13p, with 1 lemon costing ca. 25p per lemon if bought in a pack of 4). Cut the half lemon into 2 quarters and give one each quarter to squeeze over the salmon and the patties

For the sauces:

Yoghurt Sauce:

• Turkish yoghurt from the corner shop, 35p for 250g. (1 kg tub for £1.39, on special)

• Polish mayonnaise, sold for half price by the corner shop – 80p a jar. Deal! Two heaped tablespoons needed, to be mixed with the yoghurt, costs around 16p
• some fresh dill chopped up to be mixed with the yoghurt (still growing on the allotment despite night frosts) but dried dill is also good

Creamy Horseradish Sauce:

• 1 Bavarian purple radish from the allotment, about 4-5 inches long. Peel it, then grate it.
• I mixed the grated radish with some crème fraiche we still had in the fridge from the Christmas shop.

The potato patties yielded a meal for two followed by 3 further meals for one. Piles of the stuff! People eat, on average, 2 to 5 of these babies, but usually no more as they're so filling. Can be combined with savoury and sweet sauces – I also like to eat potato patties with blobs of my home-made plum jam.