Daisy Saatchi's stuffed potato patties: the breakdown.

I made this recipe from Feast on a whim after flipping through the book. In the lead-in to the recipe, Nigella kind of makes the recipe sound daunting, which I really didn't think it was. I suppose any food that requires separate, multiple steps can be a bit of a chore, but the steps for these patties are pretty basic, like, 1.) bake potatoes; 2.) sautee onion & add ground beef/spices.
I'm much more motivated to try a recipe if I can see it made, or visualize the process, so I wanted to post these pics for anyone thinking of making these. They're very delicious.
You're starting w/4.5 lbs. of russet potatoes (about six) scrubbed and baked in the oven for an hour, then cooled so you can split them scoop out the fluffy cooked potato. The "dough," as Nigella calls it, is basically mashed potatoes with a couple eggs.

Meanwhile, little doses (1/4 tsp., 1/2 tsp.) of the C spices are added to a small amount of sauteed onion & ground beef and cooked through. That's cinnamon, ground cardamom, clove, cumin, coriander, and all-spice -- & it makes for a very aromatic mix. Reminded me of some of the Greek pasta dishes that call for these spices which I usually associate with sweets. It's a nice change. When the beef is cooked & cooled, you add chopped fresh parsley.


And now, for the assembly. The potato mixture was super-sticky. So the forming of the patties did not, for me, work as expected -- like a pliable bread dough. Rather, I ended up with those wet-dry-wet mittens. At this point, I did swear a bit and suggest that probably I would have to be married to Charles to make these again.
A small amount of the beef mixture is pressed into the middle of the potato mixture and you form a patty, then coat w/Matzo meal and fry. I used olive oil, simply b/c it's always my preference.
The patties turned out nicely, and my "Charles" was so enthusiastic, that I beamed a little stoveside. But I thought they could be thinner, so I switched methods. I covered my wooden board w/Matzo meal, pressed down discs of potato mixture; put a little spoonful of the meat mixture on top; and then pressed more potato mixture onto the top & formed it. A final sprinkling of Matzo & then into the frying pan.



(That pic is a little blurry b/c I wasn't faster than the eater.)
The second batch turned out flatter, and larger but thinner, and of course as tasty as batch #1.

See? Easy! You would have to be slightly insane, in my opinion, to fry any kind of food for 20 people, as suggested as an option in the sidebar to this recipe (probably only b/c it's part of the "Wedding Feasts" chapter), but if you're perhaps not insane but willing, then your guests would be happy.
I would only make these for parties of 4, where it's a casual gathering & you're all just hanging out. The bottom line is that they're not as hard as you might think, and they're so delicious that they're worth the multiple-step process.