There are not that many meals that are as universal as fried potato damper we make here in Slovakia. It can be enjoyed as main course or accompany many different meals as a side-dish. Learn to make this tasty meal in few easy steps. It does not take long to finish and ingredients are fairly cheap.

Ingredients for approximately 5 dampers:

4 or 5 medium sized potatoes, 1 egg, salt, 1-3 spoonfuls of flour, 1 or 2 shucks of garlic, caraway seeds, marjoram, sunflower oil (or any oil you prefer for frying)

Method:

1) The first phase is the hardest for some and might be the most dangerous as well. You’ll use shredder to turn skinned potatoes into a mush as seen in the picture below. Do it very carefully as you can easily injure your fingers while mashing the potatoes. If you do not have the manual shredder you see in the picture, you can always cut your potatoes into little cubes and use kitchen robot for shredding vegetables, fruits and other stuff. The result might not be as good, but it should not spoil the taste.

2) Add the egg, mashed garlic, some caraway seeds and marjoram according to your taste. However, be sure not to overuse them. That would ruin the taste. Mix it all together and salt this mix. I used about ¾ of teaspoon of salt. However, the amount of salt is subject to your taste and health conditions. Nevertheless, pretty much nothing can be done to correct the taste once your dampers are fried. So, either taste the mix (which I do not recommend) or simply fry a small damper for tasting. Taste it and you will know whether more salt is needed.

Lastly, add the flour before you do any frying. The amount will depend on the amount of potato mush, but 1 or 2 spoonfuls should be enough for 5 medium sized potatoes. Though, third spoonful should not ruin the taste either.

3) Turn on the cooker when ready and let the sunflower oil get hot on the pan. The oil should cover the bottom. However, it should be a fairly thin layer. Anyway, you can make your fried dampers far less oily by stacking them on paper towels and putting some in-between them as well. Spread the paste onto the pan. The dampers should be rather thin, but you can make then thicker as well. However, thick dampers take much longer to fry and might remain raw inside. So, fry your thin dampers until they are nice and crispy on both sides.

4) Enjoy your meal! Easy fried potato dampers can be enjoyed as the main course – they surely have enough calories for that and leave your stomach full as well. However, this awesome meal can also be used as a side-dish or part of many other meals. For example, it is best enjoyed with creamy and acid soups such as creamy green beans soup. Here in Slovakia, it is also often seen filled with roasted goose livers (or any other livers) or different types of roasted meats with some kind of sauce.

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