Indian Potato Pancakes

Potatoes are good. So is Indian food.

I made these quick and easy fried potato cakes twice last week. It's adapted from a recipe in Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favorites and garam masala is what makes them so special. I ate them plain and with mango chutney the first time, but after eating delicious homemade Indian food at my friend's birthday party, the second rendition of these potato cakes was screaming for an accompaniment a little more mirchi (spicy!). However, I didn't have any delicious Indian chutney, so my TJ salsa had to do. It was better than the chutney (too sweet), but it wasn't quite right either. Green chile provides the heat in both chutney and salsa, but the tomato base of the salsa didn't suit the garam masala flavor. Is tomato used in Indian food that much? I'm sure I wouldn't even have noticed the salsa's inadequacies if my palette hadn't been treated to the incredibly delicious birthday dinner of the night before.

My Indian friend just mentioned her plans to do a lot of cooking while we're on spring break in two weeks. Hopefully I can finagle some cooking lessons into those plans!

Little and Odd

Here's my corn salad, I followed Bittman's recipe except I used a regular onion instead of a red one, and I put some lime on it because I couldn't resist. I was amazed at how many meals I got out of it...This week's share is a little odd. Or maybe I should say little and odd. I got: a cantaloupe, a red-ish pepper, a tomato, a tiny crookneck squash and one carrot, three potatoes and some kind of hot-looking red pepper, broccoli (which already turned yellow and droopy, and I had to throw away...too bad!). The odd part is the multi-colored corn. Do I eat it? Is it for decoration? The kernels are plump not dried-out like ornamental corn. Confused...
Arganica threw in a half-dozen fresh pastured eggs from Shenandoah Valley Family Farms this week, one or two of which I plan to eat for breakfast when I finish this post.Last night, I started reading Julie & Julia and the first recipe spoken of is Child's Potage Parmentier (potato and leek soup). I'm not a big soup eater in August, but I do have a serious potato stash right now that probably needs some attention. Any other potato ideas? Perhaps something more palatable in this August heat and humidity?