Bacon, Blue Cheese Tater Tots

I have been obsessing about making some gourmet tater tots for months and I decided it was time to give it a shot.   Here I did them with bacon and blue cheese, I also think Gruyere would be wonderful.

HINT:  I would say a great way to incorporate these into is to cook some extra potatoes when you are making them for other reasons, here I was making Potatoes Romanoff and threw in an extra pound of whole, unpeeled potatoes into my Cuisinart Pressure Cooker.  To me, this just makes it seem like less effort.  Once they are cooked, place them into the refrigerator for at least four hours or overnight to chill.  You will then need to grate the unpeeled potatoes using a large, holed grater.  The potatoes may crumble, do not worry about that.  I use my fingers to gently mix and combine the ingredients together and lastly add the egg and gently fold that in with a spatula.

1 lb. firm fleshed potatoes, like Yukon Gold or Red, cooked, cooled and grated
5 oz. container crumbled blue cheese
6 pieces, thick-sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled/chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten

Place grated potatoes in a bowl and add flour and salt, then using your fingers to gently combine them so the flour coats the potatoes.  Add blue cheese and bacon and using your fingers, combine them.  Lastly, drizzle beaten egg over the top and use a spatula to combine.

Pull to sheets of parchment off that are roughly 1.5 feet long and place half the mixture on one in a row pattern using your spatula.  Take the long side of the parchment and bring it up and over the mixture, pressing it into a log formation using medium pressure - you do not want it to be tightly packed.  Roll the parchment over and create a large 'tootsie roll' shape.  Log should be roughly 1.5"-2.0" across.  Repeat with remaining mixture and place both logs into the refrigerator to chill and set up for at least four hours, even overnight.

Set deep fryer to 375 degrees.  Unroll mixture from parchment and cut logs into 1.5"-2.0" sections.  Deep fry until brown, roughly 3-5 minutes.  Sprinkle with sea salt and catsup!