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Now that St. Patrick’s Day is near, trying a variety of Irish or Irish-American recipes may be a festive choice for meals. Most markets still have plenty potatoes, so you can feast on a vegetable that’s come to be known as Irish, even though its origins are the Americas.

I have my favorite potato recipes, which you may have figured out by now are simple. Here’s a parmesan potato patty recipe, not necessarily considered Irish, that’s similar but different from other potato patty recipes with cheese.

Here’s what you’ll need to prepare the patties:

5 medium or 6 small potatoes peeled
2 teaspoons of salt
¼ onion chopped
1 egg
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup of pancake mix or all-purpose, self-rising flour
2 tablespoons of milk
2-3 tablespoons of canola or other cooking oil

If you have leftover boiled potatoes, you can use those. But here’s how to make what my grandmother always called “Ar’sh” potatoes – peel your potatoes, cut them in half, placing them in a pot of cold water.

Add the salt, one tablespoon of cooking oil and the chopped onion. Boil the potatoes until they are done.

Before making the batter, you’ll want to remove the water from the pot or place your potatoes in a large bowl and let them cool. Placing them in the refrigerator, too, works. Once cool, mash the potatoes and add the egg, mixing well.

Next, stir in the parmesan cheese, the pancake mix (or flour) and milk. Mix well. At this point, the batter will be thick and somewhat sticky feeling. This is OK.

Place two tablespoons of canola oil in a frying pan and heat to medium low. Once the oil has warmed up, place a serving spoonful of the potato mixture in the pan and flatten the batter with your spoon.

When the patty has golden-brown edges, you can turn it. (Fry about 2-3 minutes on each side.) You’ll continue doing this until you have made as many patties as you want.

As you fry a couple, you may need to add a bit more oil to the pan, but I prefer adding just a tablespoonful at a time. This prevents too much oil soaking in the batter, creating greasy patties.

This particular recipe makes about 10-12 patties. If you don’t want to make that many, refrigerate the batter and use it the next day. These parmesan patties have a light cheesy taste. I like adding a bit of pancake syrup or maple syrup to the dish.

  – Bobbie Whitehead