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potato pancakes
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5 from 8 votes

Polish Potato Pancakes (placki ziemniaczane)

Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Servings: 2 servings (9 pancakes)
Author: Aleksandra

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs (900g) potatoes*
  • 1 small/medium onion
  • 1 large egg
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • frying oil

Instructions

  • Grate the potatoes: Grate half of the potatoes and the onion on the big holes of a box grater, then grate the remaining potatoes on the small holes of a box grater. Mix together with 1 teaspoon of salt and let stand for 15 minutes.
  • Drain the potatoes: After this time squeeze out as much water as you can from the potatoes, reserving the water in another bowl (!) (I'm just taking a handful of grated potatoes and squeeze them out with my hands, but you can also use a fine mesh-strained and a spoon or wrap the potatoes in a clean kitchen cloth to do it). Discard the liquid from the bowl, leaving a thick white paste that will be at the bottom of the bowl (potato starch).
  • Combine with the other ingredients: Combine the grated and drained potatoes and onion with a lightly beaten egg, and potato starch together. Season lightly with salt (the mixture should be at this point lightly salty) and generously with black pepper.
  • Fry: Pour a couple of tablespoons of frying oil into the pan and warm it up over medium or medium-high heat (the amount of oil will depend on how big the pan is, there should be enough oil to cover a minimum of 1/3 of the thickness of the pancakes, and better would be at least 1/2 of their thickness). When the oil is hot, scoop 3-4 heaped tablespoons of batter onto the pan (or as many as will fit in your pan without overcrowding the pancakes, about 1 heaped tablespoon of batter per pancake), flatten it with a fork into rounds about 1/4 - 1/3 inch (1/2 - 3/4 cm) thick. Cook until golden then flip over and cook on the other side until golden. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess fat.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

  • If you're not sure if the pancakes are cooked through: just cook one pancake and cut it in half. If it's raw in the middle but already nicely golden on the outside, you can cook it a little longer over very low heat until cooked through in the middle. Cook the remaining batter over lower heat.
  • Ingredient notes:
    • Potatoes - best are starch/mealy potatoes like Russets/Idaho or all-purpose potatoes like Yukon Gold. Do not use waxy or young potatoes as they are very watery.
    • Onion - can be omitted, especially if you plan to serve your pancakes with sweet condiments, like apple sauce (but I personally am leaving the onion anyway).
    • Egg - egg binds the potato batter together and makes the pancakes easier to fry. If you want to make dairy-free potato pancakes or you've run out of eggs, you can omit it. Add 1 Tbsp of flour instead.
    • Potato starch - If you have forgotten to reserve the water from squeezing the potatoes and don't have the naturally released potato starch, you can add about 1 tablespoon of store-bought potato starch or flour to the batter.
    • Frying oil - Any high smoke point vegetable oil will do. Alternatively, use lard, olive oil for frying, or clarified butter. Do not use regular butter as it's not suitable for frying and it will burn too quickly.
  • How to grate the potatoes - if you want softer pancakes, grate the pancakes on the small holes of the grater, if you want them to taste more like fritters - grate them on the big holes. My absolute favorite way is to grate half on the big holes and a half on the small holes.
    You can grate the potatoes by hand (this is, unfortunately, the best option) or with a food processor. I don't recommend pureeing the potatoes in a food processor so that they almost resemble a mash, although some people prepare them this way. Try out a couple of options to see what you like best!
  • Recipe variations:
    • You can season the pancakes for example with: garlic, paprika powder, onion powder, garlic powder, chopped parsley or dill, Parmesan cheese.
    • One of my favorite recipes for potato pancakes uses chanterelle mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. Proceed as in the recipe above, but grate the pancakes only on the small holes of the grater, and add 7-oz(200g) finely chopped chanterelles or button/cremini mushrooms, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese and 1 heaped teaspoon of chopped dill to the batter. Fry as described in the recipe.
  • How to serve potato pancakes:
    • Sour cream is obligatory.
    • My favorite way - with chanterelle sauce and sour cream. If you can't find chanterelle mushrooms where you live or they're out of season, you can use the button or cremini mushroom, you can cook them the same as in this recipe.
    • Hungarian goulash or letscho (meatless Hungarian goulash)
    • sour cream, smoked salmon, dill, optionally caviar
    • sprinkled with sugar and served with apple sauce - it may seem weird and for a long time I didn't want to even try them this way but they're really delicious and go well together!
    • Ratatouille (French summer vegetable stew).
  • Storage / make-ahead / reheating tips:
    I have for you some storage and make-ahead tips, but please bear in mind that the best-tasting potato pancakes are made fresh, just after preparing the batter and everything else is second-best.
    • Can you leave the potato pancakes batter and fry them the next day?
      Yes. Cover the freshly prepared batter tightly with plastic foil (the foil should touch the surface of the batter) and put them the fridge for up to 24h. The batter will be very watery on the next day so you need to drain it again very thoroughly and lightly season again with salt and pepper. The batter will also darken, but you won't see it after frying the pancakes as they will be just golden from frying. These pancakes will be more oily in comparison to freshly prepared pancakes.
    • How to store cooked potato pancakes? Wrap them tightly in plastic foil or put in a tightly closed container, store in the fridge for up to 48 hours.
    • How to reheat cooked potato pancakes? You can either reheat them in an oven preheated to 375°F (190°C) until warm or put them on a dry or just lightly-oiled non-stick pan and cook until warm and crispy (the second option is better but more labor-intensive if you have more pancakes to reheat).
    • Freezing: The pancakes and the batter can not be frozen. This results in very mushy and tasteless pancakes.
  • How many potato pancakes per person? It depends on how do you serve them. I would serve about 2-3 pancakes as a side with a meat sauce (like pork goulash) or 4-5 pancakes as a side with vegetarian sauce (like mushroom sauce) or on the sweet side with sugar and applesauce.
  • Calories: 1/2 of the recipe = 4 1/2 pancakes, without the sour cream and the mushroom sauce that are shown in the photos. This is only an estimate!

Nutrition

Calories: 611kcal