Mock Fish Variation

Potato and Feta Pancakes

from Sydney Food, Bill Granger, Murdoch Books, 2000.

When I was a child we often had something that we called ‘mock fish’. It was a meal I always looked forward to yet it was nothing more than grated potato spooned into the frypan and fried. The resulting crispy cakes didn’t taste anything like fish but they had a texture, I guess, that was somewhat similar.

Since that time I’ve had lots of potato-based cakes with many variations from the simple ones I used to have. The ones I had when young were no more than the grated potato with nothing more added. Somehow the variations never quite come up to the memory of the simple mock fish ones. Perhaps that’s the nature of childhood memories: you can never quite duplicate those early joys.

In Sydney Food I came across another variation on the mock fish recipe. So far I’ve not made much from this book that seems to be a bit of a classic so I thought I’d give it a go.

The potatoes were grated with onion and left to drain. This was new for me as I’m used to cooking them immediately even though the last few to be cooked are usually a little wetter than the first ones. The drained potatoes were then mixed with beaten eggs and the remaining ingredients: mint, feta, flour and seasonings.

While the result didn’t come up to my childhood memories, they were still a flavoursome, crispy dish.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔