Potato Pancakes {Placki Ziemniaczane}
This very thrifty dish is not only weirdly delicious, but it also won’t break your budget. Poles, through many economic and political turbulences over the centuries, were forced to get creative with their resources. Potatoes are cheap and always in everyone’s pantry. Onions? Who doesn’t grow onions or knows someone who grows onions. I believe this is a great example of Polish resourcefulness. To make this $1 dinner (yes, dinner, this is not a breakfast food), you will need:
2 lbs raw potatoes
1 onion
2 eggs
½ cups of flour
2 tsp of salt
½ cup of water (if needed)
Grease (oil or lard) for frying
Makes about 16-20 pancakes.
Old school, this would have been done on a traditional grater, with my fingers and knuckles bleeding into the potato pancake mixture. Since I like my knuckles whole, and I just got my nails done, I’m upgrading to a blender. The idea is to have smooth and a bit watery mixture, so blender will do great.
1. Peel and rough dice the potatoes and onion (be prompt, you don’t want the potatoes turning brown) and place in your blender (I needed to put some water with the veggies to get it going, but it’s not necessary if you have a high-speed super blender). I did this in two batches. Make sure to leave some onion for both the batches; it prevents raw potatoes from turning brown. Blend on high for a couple of minutes to create a smooth paste.
2. Transfer your mixture to a mixing bowl, add lightly beaten eggs, flour and salt. Mix until combined. Heat oil/lard in a pan and fry thinly layered pancakes until golden brown on both sides.
My family always ate them with sour cream and sugar (!) I know, that’s different… but so is all other Polish food. Somehow it works though.
You can also serve them with meat and gravy, or Hungarian style, with roasted red bell peppers and onions (will have to make that recipe sometime).
Till then, let me know what you think!
