Most shredded potatoes find themselves nestled inside latkes and hashbrowns. But if you want to get islandy (or Latin American), something else gets thrown into the mix -- black beans.
Suddenly, that fried and starchy side gets a whole new depth -- the meaty beans offering a thicker and slightly creamier texture and a more substantial latke sort of flavor. Rather than a crisp, thin slab of potato, you get a thicker pancake, crisp on the outside and creamy inside.
Putting together potato and black bean pancakes isn't the quickest task, unfortunately. In the recipe that follows, you must rid the potatoes of their water, chop up a whole myriad of ingredients, let then firm in the fridge, form them, coat them (in ground saltines which gives them a nice, unique taste), fry them and then bake them.
So it's not really the sort of dish you throw together after work unless you like eating really late. But when you've got some extra time or an extra hand or two in the kitchen, this side quickly becomes a nice twist to your meal.
The following recipe is quite basic, relying on fresh parsley and bacon to amp up the flavor, but there are other ways to make these pancakes pop. They're just itching for some hot peppers, extra spices or even a coriander + cilantro twist.
Potato and black bean pancakes after the jump.
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