Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Breakfast for dinner with potato cakes and black pudding

Fluffy potato cakes with crispy bacon, black pudding and a homemade apple sauce

Potato cakes with apple sauce, bacon and black pudding.

A German friend told me years ago about a potato side dish called ‘Heaven and Earth’, so-called because it was a mix of apples, from heaven, and potatoes, from the earth. It is served with crispy onions on top, often as a side dish to sausages or pork. Our son loved it when she made it for him, and I must say apple and potato work very well together. Another German take on this flavour combination are crispy potato pancakes served with apple sauce. You may have come across them if you have ever visited a German or Austrian Christmas Market.

They are wonderful, something like a very thin and crispy potato rosti, served with either salt and garlic butter or with apple sauce. I thought about them over the holidays as I reminisced about festive trips away and was inspired to try a more Irish take on the same flavour combination.