Potato Sauerkraut Patties (Tierteg)

Luxembourg Breakfast

POTATO SAUERKRAUT PATTIES
(Tierteg)

INGREDIENTS

1½ pounds potatoes
1½ pounds sauerkraut
1 pound smoked turkey or chicken
¼ cup lard or butter

SPECIAL UTENSIL

potato masher

Serves 6. Takes 1 hour 10 minutes.

PREPARATION

Peel potatoes. Cut each potato into 8 pieces. Put potato pieces into large pot. Add enough water to cover potato bits. Bring water to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Drain potatoes. Mash potatoes with potato masher. Cut smoked turkey into ½” cubes.

Add mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and chicken cubes to large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly by hand. Use hands to make patties 4″ wide and 1″ thick. Add two teaspoons lard to pan. Melt lard using medium-high heat. Add patties to pan. (Don’t let them touch each other.) Sauté for 5 minutes or until bottom side turns golden brown. Flip patties carefully with spatula. Add 2 teaspoons lard to pan. (These patties are crumbly. Should they come apart, press separated pieces together with spatula.) Repeat for successive batches. Goes well with a friend who cleans up afterward.

TIDBITS

1) The above photo shows a domesticated potato sauerkraut patty. You may safely leaves these patties alone. It’s even safe to eat them and heavens, they’re yummy.

2) Never put feral sauerkraut patties on a plate. They’ll attack your fingers. And my gosh no, never leave them alone. They know what you have in store for them and they don’t like it one bit. The feral patty, in a whirlwind of activity, will destroy kitchen and then off and hide. At night, they’ll come out and nip your toes before leaving your home, never to be seen again.

3) If you must buy a feral potato sauerkraut patty, for Pete’s sake, buy a plate equipped with electrical force fields. The force field discharges an electric shock strong enough to knock out any patty that gets too close to edge of the plate. It takes but only three or four electric jolts to turn even the wildest patty into a reliably tame one. Get one online at http://www.CulinaryForceFields.com. They’re quite the nifty gizmo.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.