Commie chef: Cheese and potato cake

This is a great accompaniment to just about any main course that you might normally serve with potatoes.

I like it, however, hot or cold with a simple salad and a glass of white wine.

Treating it as the centrepiece of the meal in that way means I don't have to worry too much about calories and such like, which I'm apt to do.

This, or something similar, was a favourite when I was a child, when many people could remember quite different worries about their food intake, and obesity was as rare as rich people.

This is a very cheap and nourishing meal. The turning can be a bit tricky, so if it doesn't come out quite right get it back into the pan as best you can, provided it's the other way up.

If people are impolite enough to comment on its uneven appearance, tut loudly and say in a superior voice: "It's traditionally served in that way, but then I don't suppose you've ever even been to Pomerania," or wherever.

That should shut them up.

Ingredients

2lbs 8 ozs/1.2 kgs potatoes, peeled and grated

4 eggs, beaten

1lb/450g hard cheese, such as cheddar, grated

Small onion, chopped very fine

3 cloves garlic, crushed

Small bunch parsley, chopped fine

1lb/440g plain flour

2 tsp vegetable oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

What to do

Mix the potatoes, eggs, flour, onion, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper.

Heat half the oil in a wide, thick-bottomed frying pan with a lid.

Add the potato mixture, turn the heat down low, and wait 15 minutes.

It should be firm to the touch when you slide a spatula under it, but does not need to be set right through. Now you need a plate of some kind onto which you can slide it prior to returning it to the pan the other way up and repeating the process.

When it's firm right through, slide it on to the plate again and serve in wedges.