Polish potato pancakes (placki ziemniaczane)

Before I will show you more photos from Italy (it takes ages to decide which ones I like most), let’s cook something Polish.

You know I love potatoes, I could probably survive on a potato diet  without any other damage then getting fat. Polish cuisine has plenty to offer when it comes to this humble veggie. So far I only presented to you Lazy dumplings, but it’s just a start.

You probably know some versions of potato pancakes – hash brown, rösti, latke, etc. Polish version is known as placki ziemniaczane what means potato pancakes.

In my family there were two versions of the potato pancakes: granny’s, with much more flour and very often some additions like onion or apples and dad’s more loose and with only marjoram as an addition. In the end I turned out to be daddy’s girl and his version is my favorite.

When it comes to eating pancakes there are some problems. Grandma was always trying to convince me to eat them with cream and sugar or at least sugar. I was always against it as it is a savory dish, but this is the way my mom would it, I tried it this way maybe once or twice , but I didn’t like it. I always eat it with no additions at all. Some friends love it with a hungarian stew. This is how it was served at my work cafeteria. It’s good, more filling and perfect for meat lovers. Finally Tomek likes it with lemon and sour cream, I must say it tastes pretty good. So as you can see there are plenty options to choose from.

Never use baby potatoes for pancakes as they are too watery. Try to select a potato type that is rather dry.

If after grating you see that your potatoes are water simply remove the liquid.
If you don’t fry mixture straight away remember to sprinkle some flour at the top, otherwise the potatoes oxidise and change colour to grey.

• 1,2 kg potatoes, peeled and shredded finely
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1,5 Tbsp cream flour
• pepper
• marjoram

Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix it together. Depending on the amount of liquid in your potatoes you may need to add more flour. Sometimes they may need even 5 Tbsp of flour or more, but the easiest way to check if the consistency is alright is just to fry sample pancake, if it fries well and tastes well, no more need for flour.

Head a frying pan over a medium heat and add oil. When hot place a heaped tablespoon of a potato mixture, flatten it and try to shape round. Cook until golden and crisp, then flip and fry the other side.

When pancakes are nice and crispy place them on a plate lined with a paper kitchen towel (it will allow to soak excess of the oil).

Serve them warm with whatever extras you like.

They taste delicious on a second day sliced into thin strips and fried with an egg.