Cooking: How to Make “Perkedel Kentang”

Today I’ll share yet another recipe. It’s called Perkedel Kentang. For the previous recipes, you can read it here.

Perkedel Kentang is one of my favorites. Well, maybe some people will say it’s just a variation of mashed potatoes, but nope, for me it’s not. It’s different. This is one of my Indonesian prides. LoL I mean, I’ve been experimenting with it, like making it with tuna, or ground beef, minced chicken meat, etc. But for today let me just share the original version. By original, I mean without meat or such, and just use potatoes. And so let’s keep the original name: Perkedel Kentang. Well, let’s start^^

What you need:

• Potatoes. I usually used 4 potatoes. But potatoes in the US are big, while potatoes in my hometown in Indonesia are small. Or perhaps because we were poor so we could only afford the small potatoes in the traditional market. LoL But, oh, well…
• Eggs. I usually use one-two eggs but it really depends on how much you plan to make or how much you have.
• A little of all-purpose flour (and a bit of starch. The starch should be less than the all-purpose flour).
• Spices: Salt, garlic powder, white pepper powder.
• Frying oil.

How to make Perkedel Kentang:

• Boil the potatoes with water until it’s entirely cooked and soft. You can tell by sticking the fork into the potatoes. If it’s still hard to penetrate, then you’ll need to boil it a bit more, at least until it’s easy to stick the fork into it. Well, there are many ways to cook the potatoes. You can steam it. I usually steam it together with the rice I am cooking using rice cooker, but somehow it’s not really cooked so it’s kinda hard to mash. Sometimes people also fry it before mashing it, but well, I don’t really like the idea of having too much oil in this step. And let’s save the frying oil for something else😝 But, really, for me, it’s easier to mash the potatoes after boiling it until it’s cooked and soft.

  

• Mash the potatoes. You can use a combination of fork and spoon for this. Or, use a potatoe masher. Or, traditionally, we have this thing called “cowek and ulekan” in Javanese and Indonesian. Can’t find the English equivalent. LMAO But you know, it’s something we use to grind/crush the spices. You can see the pic to understand it better. And yes, it’s my own, which I brought from Indonesia. I try to use pics that I took myself, instead of taking it from Google. But, anyway…
• Add salt, garlic powder, and white pepper powder. Again, if you don’t have garlic powder and white pepper powder, you can just grind the salt, garlic, and white pepper together using cowek and ulekan 😌
• Mix them together with the mashed potatoes until it’s spread out. Add flour (and a bit of starch). Mix them. You can use your clean hand or spoon. As for me, I usually use the spoon. I try to not dirty my hand because it’ll get sticky and I kinda don’t like it.
• Separate the egg yolk (the yellow part) and the egg whites (the like-water liquid). We’ll use the white part to fry later.
• Put egg yolks into the mashed potatoes. Mix thoroughly. You can try to taste it too. If you think you need more salt, garlic, or pepper, feel free to do so. I mean, people’s tongues are different, right? What’s salty for me might be bland for you, so please decide for yourself 😌😝
• Shape it into a flat sphere. Ok, you might be confused. By flat sphere, I mean you can shape it like a ball, but not entirely like a ball, just flat and circular, you know what I mean? You can see the pic. LoL But, ugh, if you want to make it like a ball, that’s okay too. What matters is the taste, and not really the shape, so feel free to be creative 😉 Also, you can make use of plastic wrap for this step, like when you make an onigiri. Just so it doesn’t stick too much to your hand. Also, people might see it as more hygienic (damn, I actually browsed to find the right spelling because apparently, English still fails me in this kind of writing. Hikz).
• Put it into the refrigerator for maybe 15-30 minutes. I read that this is so it doesn’t easily break when you fry it later.
• Heat the frying oil in a frying pan.
• Put each shaped perkedel kentang (or shall we call this “the dough”? 😂🙈😅✌) into the egg whites before frying. You know, you have the egg whites in a bowl. Then you kinda dip the perkedel kentang into it before carefully putting it into the heated oil. Gosh, you know how to fry!
• Don’t forget to flip the side so that it’s entirely cooked and one side is not overcooked. Well, in Indonesian we have this word “gosong”, but in English, depending on how it happens, you can use burnt, scorched, or singed. Well, I’m not sure which one to use, but the point is, you don’t want to over-fry it. So when the color turns golden, you can remove it from the frying pan and drain it on the plate, which has been covered with paper towels. I mean, it’s gonna be oily and if you’re concerned about it and think maybe you need to make it look like it’s healthier, then you can reduce the oil by placing kitchen paper towels on the plate to absorb the oil.
• Well, when you’re done frying all of them, then your perkedel kentang is ready to serve. Well, people in my country eat it as a side dish in addition to other side dishes. But, oh, well, feel free to eat it as it is 😉

So, well, will you try to make it? ^^ Did you make use of any of the recipes I shared before? How was it? Hope you like it 🙂