Smoked bacon potato cakes with soft egg dressing and watercress salad

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Adam Gray's bacon potato cakes recipe can be used to make a simple main or a more hearty breakfast. The richness of the egg yolk dressing perfectly offsets the saltiness of the bacon, and is a great salad dressing that could be used in many other dishes.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Potato cakes

Soft egg dressing

To serve

  • 250g of watercress, large stalks removed and washed

Method

1
To make the potato cakes, place the potatoes in a pan, cover with cold water and gently boil until three-quarters cooked (still slightly raw in the centre). Peel and grate the potatoes whilst still hot and stir through the butter
2
Sweat the chopped shallots and thyme leaves in a little of the rapeseed oil on a low-medium heat with no colour, then add them to the grated potato
  • rapeseed oil
3
Add the cooked bacon to the potato mix and stir in thoroughly. Season with ground white pepper only
4
Separate the mix into 80g portions and mould into the desired shape - using round or square moulds will give a nice neat finish. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes to firm up
5
Place the eggs in cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes - it is important that the eggs are soft-boiled so take care not to overcook
6
Refresh the eggs in ice-cold water and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before peeling
7
Finely chop the eggs and mix with all of the other dressing ingredients. Season with salt and ground white pepper to taste
8
Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a splash of rapeseed oil. Fry the potato cakes until they are golden brown all over, then remove from the pan and keep warm
  • rapeseed oil
9
Place the potato cakes in the centre of each serving plate and scatter around some of the washed watercress. Spoon the soft egg dressing over each dish and serve immediately
  • 250g of watercress, large stalks removed and washed
First published in 2015

Adam Gray pulls off classic British flavours with grace, intelligence and admirable lightness of touch.

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