Potato cakes with asparagus and salsa

Tamara West

Make the salsa verde ahead of time - it will keep for 2 days in the fridge, be sure to keep it well covered. The potato cakes can be made up and cooked to order if necessary. Add a poached egg or cook some sausages for the children and pass them the tomato sauce bottle. Serve with a green salad, add some cut tomato and crumbly feta cheese.

Salsa verde

2 cups	Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1 cup	Mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 cup	Basil leaves
2	Garlic cloves
½ tsp	Salt
1 tsp	Capers, rinsed
2 tsp	Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp	Extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp	Lemon juice

Potato cakes

4	Potatoes, large floury (agria are good), peeled (Main)
50 g	Butter
3 Tbsp	Olive oil, 2 Tbsp are for frying
1	Onion, finely sliced
125 g	Streaky bacon, rindless and diced
2 tsp	Fresh thyme
12 stalks	Asparagus

Directions

Salsa verde

1. Place the herbs, garlic, salt, capers and Dijon mustard in the mortar and crush using the pestle.
2. Slowly pour in the oil until the mixture is creamy. Add the lemon juice and season with extra salt and a little pepper to taste.

Potato Cakes

1. Cut the potatoes into even-sized pieces and boil in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, dry off over the heat and mash. Using a wooden spoon, beat in 25g of the butter
2. Place the remaining 25g butter and 1 Tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until soft and lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Add to the mashed potato.
3. Using the same frying pan, cook the bacon until golden and the bacon fat is sizzling away, add the picked thyme leaves and stir. Add all the contents of the frying pan to the mashed potato and season with salt and pepper. Leave to cool.
4. Shape the potato mix into 8 patties (cakes). Pour the remaining 2 Tbsp oil into a frying pan and heat. Place in 4 potato cakes and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until they have a crisp crust. Repeat with the remaining 4 potato cakes.
5. Meanwhile, remove the woody ends of the asparagus spears and discard. Cut spears in half if you wish. Steam the asparagus spears or cook in a small amount of lightly salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes until just tender, then drain.
6. Serve the potato cakes topped with the asparagus and drizzle over some of the salsa verde.