Check out these cheese stuffed potato cakes. Not only are they fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. But they are slightly spicy and have a cheesy middle. They pair wonderfully with salad, but they make a great snack as well.
I don’t know where to start. Hmm. I love potatoes and even more, I love cheese. I found this Italian cheese called scamorza in the supermarket. Scamorza is a South Italian cheese, most commonly made from cow’s milk.
More, the smoked variety or scamorza affumicata gives a lovely smoky background flavour. Delicious! The texture of scamorza is a bit stringy and elastic. Somehow, it reminds me of a firmer mozzarella, but way less watery. It melts great, too. Wink.
Just like I said. I am a big fan of cheese. I like scamorza as much as mozzarella, burrata, gouda, feta, camembert or brie and many more. Oh, that’s cheese heaven. Wink. Here you can check some recipes with my favourite cheeses: my latest recipe honey figs cheese stuffed mushrooms, a classic parmigiana di melanzana, this colourful peppery raspberry arugula salad, these cute zucchini cream cheese puff pastry shells, a healthy spring blueberry arugula salad, gorgeous pesto zucchini noodles with burrata or the summer number one watermelon carpaccio. Each of them made with a different cheese. Lovely!
Scamorza was the key ingredient of this recipe. Of course, I checked on the internet for inspiration and the most often pairing ingredients were potato or pasta. Let it be then. Potato it was.
Furthermore, the procedure is very simple. In fact, everyone can make mashed potatoes, right? However, normally, I add some milk and butter to the potatoes. But this time, I combined them with coriander and turmeric, to give some more flavour and colour.
I also added some chili, breadcrumbs and one egg. The addition of the egg makes them fluffier, just like in these potato swirls stuffed peppers. As a result, you get a fluffy and spicy inside, a crispy crust with a rosemary note on the outside and a cheesy melting middle.
These cheese stuffed potato cakes can be made ahead and kept in the fridge (covered, overnight) until ready to fry. You can make them in the oven, too. However, I would try them fried, at least once. Like they say, “everything taste better when fried”. Wink. Once in a while.
Ingredients for 14-16 cheese stuffed potato cakes:
- 600 g potatoes (3 large potatoes)
- 2 chilis
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp of turmeric
- 1 tsp of coriander powder
- 3 Tbsp of breadcrumbs
- ca 80 g smoked scamorza (or any other cheese, cubed)
- 2 handfuls of mixed salad greens
- sunflower oil (for frying)
To start, wash and cook the potatoes. Once tender (do the check with a fork), drain them and let them cool down for a couple of minutes. Then, peel them, place them in a medium bowl and mash them with a fork. Allow cooling for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop the chili (or simply use chili flakes), beat one egg and cut the cheese into 1-2 cm sized cubes. After the potatoes are cold enough to handle them with your hands, add the coriander, turmeric, egg, breadcrumbs, chili, salt and pepper.
Mix well (you can also use a hand mixer) until all combined. Next, lightly grease your hands with a drop of oil and take about one spoon of the potato mixture in your hand. Form a ball (ca 4-5 cm), slightly flatten it, add a cheese cube in the middle and close it back. Shape it back to a ball and place it on a plate or board that fits your fridge. Once all of the potato cakes are stuffed with cheese, place them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare one plate with flour, one with a beaten egg and one with breadcrumbs. Finely chop some fresh rosemary and add it to the breadcrumbs. Also, place a larger frying pan with a higher edge on the stove and fill it with 2 fingers of sunflower oil (or any other oil). Wash the salad and let it drain, too.
Furthermore, take the potato cakes out of the fridge and carefully, one by one, roll them in the flour, egg and last but not least, in the breadcrumbs. After all of the potato cakes are breaded, heat up the oil.
In order to see if the oil is hot enough, simply insert the tip of a toothpick to the bottom of the pan. If you see small bubbles going up along the toothpick, the oil is hot enough to fry. At this point, carefully put half of the cheese stuffed potato cakes into the pan and fry them for 3-4 minutes until golden brown on all sides.
Remove the cheese stuffed potato cakes from the pan and lay them on some paper towels to drain all of the excess oil.
Finally, toss the salad with some olive oil, vinegar and a squeeze of lemon. Nicely arrange it onto the plates and top with the spicy cheese stuffed potato cakes. They are great for lunch or dinner or as a snack.
Enjoy!
