Jo’s fried potato dumplings and spring salad

As Jo says, they’re sort of like a savoury, filled potato cake. Don’t be frightened by the list of ingredients, these can easily be made using replacement filling ingredients, whatever you have at hand. As always, fresh is best: that’s fresh ingredients, and made same day works a treat. If you don’t have a ricer, you can use a potato masher, but a ricer will give a much better consistency. Don’t be tempted to use a stick blender, or you’ll end up with glue. That’s the starch for you! Speaking from hard-earned experience here.

Ingredients

• Four potatoes, any kind
• A clove of garlic
• 2 – 3 shallots
• Fresh bay leaf
• A bunch of saltbush (see notes)
• Snowflake mushroom, or other variety as available (see notes)
• 2-3 shitake mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons of potato flour (see notes) or plain flour
• 2 egg yolks
• A salad bowl full of fresh, mixed leaves from the garden (see notes)
• Apple cider vinegar and oil for your salad dressing

Method

Peel potatoes, cut into even cubes, about 2-3cm. This will help the potato cook evenly, so it’s all ready at the same time.

Put cut potatoes in cold, salted water, with a clove of garlic.

Boil potatoes until tender.

While potatoes are cooking, prepare your dumpling filling.

Sauté finely chopped shallots in a tablespoon of oil over a low heat.

While onions are cooking, blanch saltbush in boiling water for about 15-20 seconds, then drain and refresh in iced water. Once cold, take them out of the iced water.

Shred snowflake mushroom and finely chop shitake mushroom.

Add mushrooms to cooking shallots, stir to mix, and let it cook down until wilted. About 5-10 mins. Add a splash more oil if it’s a bit dry.

Remove mushroom and onion mix from the heat, add the saltbush leaves to the pan along with a splash of vinegar and salt to taste (a good pinch).

Once potatoes are ready, drain and mash through a ricer into a mixing bowl.Season with salt and pepper.

Add two tablespoons of your preferred flour to your mixing bowl with the mashed potatoes.

Add two egg yolks to your bowl.

Mix the potato mixture, while it’s still warm, into a dough. Use your hands for this bit. Add a splash of oil if it’s a bit dry. The dough doesn’t need to be worked, as you’re not building up gluten, so just mix until it sticks together.

Take an ice-cream scoop-sized portion of the dough into your hand and roll it on a work surface or in your hands into a ball.

Flatten the dough slightly and make a well in the centre, leaving a 1cm wall around the well.

Spoon a tablespoon of your mixture into the well of your dumpling.

Press the dumpling together by pinching the sides, to cover the mixture inside and form a complete dumpling. Flatten slightly with your hand so you’ve got a thick, round potato cake-shaped dumpling.

Repeat until you’ve made all your dumplings• Heat a generous amount of oil (3-4 tablespoons) in your fry pan over a medium heat on the stove.

Once oil is hot (a sprinkle of flour in the pan should foam and you should see bubbles in the oil), place 4-5 dumplings carefully into the pan, so that they’re not touching.

Fry until the bottom of the dumplings until browned and crispy (2-3 minutes).

Flip the dumplings and cook on the other side until done.

Serve with your fresh leaf and herb salad, dressed with oil and apple cider vinegar, seasoned to taste.

Notes

• Snowflake mushrooms are a native form of lion’s mane mushroom. They’re not widely available though, so you can replace with any other variety of mushroom
• If you can’t get fresh shitake mushrooms, you can use dried ones, which are available at any Asian grocer. You’ll need to pour boiling water over them and let them soften for 20 minutes before chopping and adding to your dumpling filling
• Saltbush is a native species of plant, with a salty, spinach-like flavour. If you don’t grow your own or can’t access saltbush, you can replace this with baby spinach leaves or other green of choice
• You can use any fresh salad leaves you like for this. This could include rocket, coriander, cos, or anything that is ready to use. You can also add nasturtiums or other edible flowers and fresh mint, coriander, parsley or other herbs you have growing.