Mar 9

Written by: Frank Davis
3/9/2010 3:57 PM 

When you find yourself getting a little stale on mashed potatoes, French fries, noodles, rice, and even grits, and you want to serve a side dish that's got a little more flair, try making these corn and potato rounds. And guess what? They go beautifully with almost anything you serve as an entree. Here are the ingredients you'll need:

4 cups peeled and cubed Russet potatoes
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (do not use canned corn)
5 slices (6 ounces) thick-cut bacon, diced and cooked crisp
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (tops and bottoms)
2 cups Panko bread crumbs divided
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 whole egg, beaten well
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 heaping teaspoon Frank Davis Vegetable Seasoning

First, you want to preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then coat a large baking sheet with Pam or line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until they become fork tender, which should take anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes. When they're done drain them while they're still hot and mash them coarsely with a potato masher. Now set them aside to cool for awhile after uniformly in the corn, bacon, green onions, one half cup of Panko, parsely, bell pepper, egg, salt, black pepper, and vegetable seasoning.

When you're ready to cook, assemble 8, plump, 4-ounce potato corn rounds. Then drain each one of them gently in the remaining Panko crumbs, pressing down on the rounds to get the crumbs to adhere solidly to both sides. Then liberally spray both sides of each round with Pam--this is what helps them to brown in the oven. Hint: Use two egg turners to flip the rounds over so that the crumbs don't fall off.

All that's left to do now is bake the patty rounds on the prepared baking sheet on the center rack of the oven for about 15 minutes. But immediately before you serve them, give them a final light toasting under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes.

Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette makes a nice topping for the rounds, especially when it's lightly drizzled over the rounds and topped with Parmesan cheese.

You can look for these kinds of recipes regularly on this blog because the bottom line is. . .this is comfort food. Mangia!

Now if the oven isn't the way you want to go, you can always do these in a nice non-stick skillet on the stovetop until the rounds become brown and crispy.

Copyright ©2010 Frank Davis