Potato pancakes: What to do with leftover mashed potatoes!

My friend Claudia shared with me another idea how to use leftover mashed potatoes.Potato pancakes! I tried them a couple of weeks ago and loved them with my fried eggs. This time I wanted to try them with prepackaged ready to serve mashed potatoes. I followed the same recipe but found the potatoes a little too wet from the package. I  had to use more flour than suggested just to get them from sticking to my hands. At first I tried all purpose flour, then I tried whole wheat which I had just ground.

3 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 cup cheddar cheese shredded
1 egg lightly beaten
1 T finely chopped onion or green onion
6 T of flour divided
1 T fresh chopped basil
3 T Olive oil

1. Mix together potatoes, cheese, egg, onion, basil and flour.

2.  In a mixing bowl combine potatoes, cheese, egg, 3 tbsp of flour, onion and parsley. In a separate bowl put in 3 T of flour for dredging. Use an ice cream scoop to get one scoop of potatoes and plop it in the flour. mix and shape the potatoes into balls or  pancakes whichever comes together first. I had to add more flour because on the second time making the pancakes my mashed potatoes  were store bought and very wet.  When I finallly got the right consistency and it stopped sticking to my hands they were ready for the pan.

3. Heat oil on medium heat. Oil is ready when you can sprinkle water  on it and it sizzles.  Drop the pancakes in one by one. Saute for for 3-5 minutes on each side. Carefully flip them over. 

4. Carefully remove from pan and set on paper towel lined dish to absorb oil. 

Here is the link for the recipe i started with and tweaked to my preferences.

http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/03/23/easy-mashed-potato-pancakes/