Rhenish Döppekooche

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 2 ½ kg potatoes, mainly waxy
• 4 onions, finely diced
• 150 g bacon cubes
• Oil for frying
• 4 Mettwurst sausages, sliced
• 3 eggs
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg
• possibly mashed potato powder and some dumpling whites
• possibly oat flakes
• 1 jar applesauce, 700 g

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes

Wash and peel the potatoes and grate them into not-too-fine strips using an electric food processor. This will of course also work with a conventional grater, but it is very time-consuming. Then squeeze out any excess liquid from the grated potatoes and add a pinch of dumpling whites to prevent the mixture from browning. Fry the bacon and onion cubes in a suitable pot or roasting pan with a little oil and let them brown. Squeeze the potato mixture again slightly. Discard the collected water, but leave the settled potato starch in the bowl. Now add the eggs, bacon, onions and sausage slices and mix everything together. Season well with salt, pepper and nutmeg. If the mixture is still too wet, thicken it slightly with mashed potato powder or oatmeal. Now transfer the mixture to the pot or roasting pan in which the onions and bacon have already been fried and cook uncovered in the oven at 180°C (top/bottom heat) for just under two hours. If the potato cake browns too quickly or becomes too dark, cover and finish cooking. If you don’t have a suitable pan for this dish, you can also use a loaf pan. To serve: Spoon the potato cake onto plates in portions and serve hot with applesauce. Enjoy!