Vietnamese Potato Croquettes (Cha Khoai Tay)

Submitted by East Wind Goddess

"Lightly spiced potato patties present a nice blend of flavors that make this old favorite a welcome departure from the ordinary. If you want to have the traditional dipping sauce, there are many recipes for nuoc cham on ‘Zaar: I use Gourmet Garden chili spice blend (in a tube in the salad section of the grocery stores), mixed into equal parts water, lime juice, soy sauce and rice vinegar to make it easier if not wholly authentic."

 

• Ready In: 25mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Yields: 12 patties
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 russet potatoes (or 1 potato and 1 yam, of equal size)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 cup cornstarch
• 1⁄2 medium onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 scallions, minced
• 2 teaspoons lemongrass, minced
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce (Vietnamese nuoc mam)
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 2⁄3 cup vegetable oil, for frying

• Optional

• vietnamese dipping sauce (Nuoc cham)

directions

1. Shred the potatoes in a food processor and place in a colander. Sprinkle with the salt and mix well. Let stand in the sink to drain for 15 minutes.
2. Mix the dry seasonings together.
3. Squeeze the potatoes dry and place in a mixing bowl. Add the cornstarch and mix thoroughly. Add all the remaining ingredients except the panko crumbs and oil and mix well.
4. Drop the potato mixture by tablespoonfuls into the panko crumbs and flatten slightly. Coat all the way around.
5. Divide the oil in half and heat in a pan over moderately high heat. Lower the patties into the hot oil and flatten the patties with a spatula if necessary: the patties should not be too thick, and should be about 2 inches across.
6. Fry until crisp and golden on the bottom, then turn and fry the other side. Drain on a wire rack or on paper towels, then transfer to plates. Add more oil as needed for frying the remaining patties.
7. Optional: serve with Nuoc Cham dipping sauce.
8. (A note on fish sauce: this is a very salty Southeast Asian specialty food. I don't care for the odor, but it blends well into sauces and other foods. You can substitute soy sauce for an approximation if you want to leave it out and make this a true vegetarian dish).

Reviews

[La Dilettante]

I baked them instead of frying them, which circumvented the "greasy" problem mentioned by another reviewer. Delicious flavor!

 

[Rita1652]

A take on Cha Khoai Tay with necessary RSC ingredients added and adjusted to qualify for the contest. I did use jarred lemongrass. I liked the free flow of the patties. I did remove from pan when fried and placed on paper towels to absorb the excess oil and place in the oven to keep warm. I used a 1/4 cup to make 12 patties. I used Recipe #414471. Close to this recipe here http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/1166.html Enjoyed!

 

[Studentchef]

These were really good! I used soy sauce instead, because I couldn't find fish sauce that was kosher. Simple to make, and quite good. I never tried Vietnamese food before, so I didn't know what to expect. I did find them to be on the greasy side, and I was hoping the 2/3 cup of oil wasn't going to be too much, but I still found them to be greasy anyway.

 

[GirlEatsWorld]

These were fairly simple to make, although my mixture was a little too wet and the patties did not want to stay together while coating them in the panko, and I found coating them with the panko to be a bit awkward. Coating them in panko though gave them a very nice crispy crunch and they fried up nicely, cook time was quick. Although this recipe calls for strong spices, I found it lacking somewhat in flavor, maybe as simple as additional salt? It also could have been the brand of fish sauce I used, as I tend to go for the brands with lower rather than higher sodium content. I did however, make the dipping sauce, and it definitely upped the flavor, but the consistency of the sauce didn't really mesh with the recipe itself for me. It's a very thin, almost watery sauce, and I think a thicker, maybe creamy type sauce would have held up better with the patties. Regarding creativity for the contest, there are many recipes on the web for this dish, so I don't know that the originality factor was truly there, although additional contest ingredients were added. A decent recipe, just didn't take me over the top. Good luck in the contest.