Potato fritters

I've been quite uninspired about dinner recently. Cooking for two children is never quite the same as cooking for two adults. And I'm a little out of routine, I'm not in my own kitchen, and Esther has been a bit funny about vegetables over the last few days. But the more picky the kids get, the more determined I am to make dinner work, and I nailed it the other night. Esther seems to have got back to her usual quite-well-eating self too.




I have actually made these potato fritters before, but not in Esther's lifetime. I love fritters in general as an option for lunch or tea, and love being able to put almost anything in them. The problem, though, has been Reuben, not Esther. We ate them often when he was extra little, but he won't eat them anymore. But Mum used to make potato fritters years ago that are different to the usual fritter. In fact they are different enough that I can call them potato cakes - just a sneaky way to make sure Reuben didn't dismiss them before trying.

"Reuben," I said, as he flew past on his bike. "We're having potato cakes for dinner tonight."
"Potato cakes? YUM!"
Yeess.

So. Instead of a flour base, they're made with grated potato. You can add egg (I don't because of allergies), a good shake of flour, a sprinkle of baking powder (especially if not using egg) and a good splash of milk to stick it all together. This time I also added finely chopped leftover chicken, peas, parsley and cheese.

The original fritters that I recall used raw potato; the idea being that if it is grated it will cook with a quick fry in the pan. I have never found this very successful however, so I chop my potatoes and give them a brief, light cook before grating. I haven't given a recipe here as I just threw things in until it looked right. If you're familiar with fritters aim for a similar consistency, or if you're nervous drop me a line and we'll work it out.

I should tell you that Esther gobbled hers down and asked for more - I felt terrible guilty that I had just eaten twice as many as her, until I looked at our relative sizes. But I did give her corn fritters for lunch the next day, and potato ones are on the menu for next week.

Do you have any quick, simple meals like this that are nice and quick to make, with a few nutritious ingredients for good measure? What's your favourite easy Sunday tea?

If you get stuck for ideas, do pop over to our old spot, Last Night. It was going quite well for a while there, and I'm always happy to get more inspiration from you.