As the heroine of one film said: "fried, boiled, stewed potatoes , french fries, and so on to infinity." This unique root crop is good in any form, and you simply can’t count dishes from it. Potato chops, this is another unique dish from the "always at hand" category.
It is difficult to imagine your diet today without this indispensable root crop. Potato in its composition contains a large amount of carbohydrates, due to which it is quite nutritious, but it is even more useful in its potassium content. It is this macroelement that has a positive effect on the heart muscle, controlling the content of water and salt in the body and removing its increased excitability. Potato dishes are so diverse that in one form or another they are served as a main course, as a main course, or as a sweet.
Potato chops are a culinary emigrant, this is a French dish, and the history of bringing potatoes to Russia by Peter the First from Holland also cannot be forgotten. And it seemed that this root crop was always and impossible for us to imagine that in Russia it had been cultivated for only a few centuries. Previously, it was such an outlandish dish that it was served only to honored guests, often as a treat, and not with salt, but with sugar. Now it is served in such a way that you can’t immediately guess what is hidden behind this bizarre form: these are shavings, and rings, roses and potato balls.
But initially these were cutlets of chopped meat, over time they evolved from meat to vegetables, and only the form, not the content, remained from the dish. The meatballs outwardly resemble tightly formed rounded cutlets of arbitrary size. This dish is easy to prepare, it is safe to say that all products are always available, and it is always pleasant to diversify the table with unusual design.
There is an opportunity to save yesterday’s mashed potatoes, but there is a reason to cook fresh potato balls. Root crops with a good gluten content are best suited for this, which will give them a more stable form. Wash the potatoes, peel and rinse, cut into half. Put a pot of water on the fire and let it boil. Remember that all vegetables, without exception, are best added to boiling water in order to preserve their vitamin value to the maximum. Salt at the rate of ½ teaspoon of salt in 3 liters of water. Cook potatoes for 30-35 minutes, depending on the variety.
Potato meatballs, the recipe we took as the basis, suggest the presence of the following ingredients: potatoes 1-1.2 kg, 4 eggs, breadcrumbs or semolina - 200 grams, 150 grams of cottage cheese or low-fat cheese, pepper, garlic. Drain the water from the potatoes, knead the potato masher to a homogeneous mass, allow to cool so that the eggs do not boil when mixing the components. Beat 2 eggs into the foam with a mixer, add cottage cheese, pepper and chopped garlic (one head), pour the mass into mashed potatoes and mix with a special nozzle with a mixer. Allow time to thicken (5-7 minutes).
Next, beat the remaining 2 eggs into the foam. Using a spoon, we form potato chops of arbitrary size, giving them a slightly flattened shape for better contact with the frying surface. Dip them in beaten eggs and roll them in breadcrumbs (you can mix them with an equal amount of semolina). On a fire, heat a pan with thick walls, pour in vegetable oil and fry potato balls on a high fire until crisp golden crust for 2 minutes on each side. We spread our dish, depending on the quality of which we serve it. If this is the main dish, then put it on a flat tray, pour with sauce or sour cream and decorate with chopped greens of dill and parsley. If potato chops are used as a side dish, then you can serve them immediately on a portioned plate in combination with the main dish, but greens will not hurt either.