If the water stays in the potato, the fritter does not fry, it boils: the step everyone skips

Potato fritters are one of those dishes you find everywhere and nowhere the same. The Swiss call them rosti, the Germans Kartoffelpuffer, and here they turn up as something in between, usually made when three potatoes are left in the kitchen and there is no appetite for a bigger plan.

What holds them together is not the egg. It is the starch. The potato is a natural binder in itself - grated or mashed potato holds its shape, and the egg, flour or breadcrumbs only stabilise the mixture enough to work with. Which is why the choice of potato is not a detail: floury varieties bind better than waxy ones.

Here is the step that decides everything, and almost everyone skips it. Grated raw potato must be squeezed out thoroughly with a clean cloth or paper towels. If the water stays inside, the fritter does not fry - it boils in the pan and comes out soft, pale and without a crust. The same goes if you add courgette, onion or spinach: those get squeezed too before they enter the mixture.

The rest is proportions and patience. About a centimetre thick, so it cooks evenly. Medium-high heat, not high - on high heat the outside blackens before the inside is done. And do not turn it until the base is golden; a fritter turned too early falls apart, and nobody puts it back together after that.

From there on it is a base you add whatever is at home to. With courgette, as a starter with sour cream. With smoked salmon, where the fritter replaces the bread or the blini. With chard, where boiled potato and breadcrumbs mean you need no flour at all. As a sandwich, German style, with cream cheese, cucumber and dill between two fritters.

There are more serious versions too. With beef tataki and horseradish sauce, where the boiled potato mixture is combined with roasted garlic and a little red pepper, with thin slices of beef fillet on top. With purple potato and a cheese and dill sauce, baked in the oven instead of fried. And a sweet version, with brown sugar and sour cream, which works as breakfast if you make them smaller.

If you want less oil, go to the oven or the air fryer. They will be drier and slightly less good - that is an honest trade, not a trick. Any recipe promising that something fried will taste the same without oil is lying about something else too.