Perhaps the most famous potato dish in Belarusian cuisine is potato pancakes. These are such crispy potato pancakes, very easy to prepare, you can cook them every day. And every time there is a new recipe, and there are actually a lot of them.
There are classic pancakes, with meat, with the addition of zucchini or eggplant, and with mushrooms. And on the festive table you can serve the most delicate potato pancakes in pots. We have selected some of the best options for you. Cook and enjoy the simple tastes of Belarusian cuisine.
Preparation
1. Peel the potatoes, rinse and quickly grate into a bowl. Then grate the onion. Add starch. Stir immediately so that the potatoes do not have time to darken.
2. Beat an egg into the pancake mixture. Add salt and stir with a fork.
3. Heat the frying pan in which you bake pancakes or pancakes. Place a little oil on it, heat it up, and spoon out the potato dough. Flatten.
4. When the potato pancakes are browned on one side, transfer them to the other with a spatula and finish frying.
5. Serve the Belarusian treat immediately, while it’s hot, with pickles, sour cream, and you can sprinkle with chopped herbs. Bon appetit!
Classic recipe
The recipe for fried potato cakes is not exclusively a Belarusian invention. Draniki in one form or another are present in the cuisines of many European nations. Ukrainians call them “deruns”, Russians call them “teruntsy” or “kakorki”, Czechs call them “bramborak”, and Poles call them “plyatski”. In Jewish cuisine the dish is called “lactes” and the Germans call it “resti”. The Belarusian name "draniky" comes from an old Russian verb meaning chopping on a board with teeth - similar to modern graters.
Since the quality of potatoes grown in Belarusian soil surpasses any varietal tubers in the world, the national recipe of this particular people is considered classic and the simplest. The concentration of starch in the tubers allows you to prepare the dish with virtually no additives, and the taste does not require any spices or seasonings.
Composition of ingredients
The recipe for potato pancakes in Belarusian involves preparing them from crumbly potatoes with a high content of starch grains. You can repeat the dish using any variety of root vegetables, but in this case, changes in the recipe may be required, and it is much more difficult to obtain the ideal consistency: crispy top and soft, loose middle.
Ingredients for the recipe for classic Belarusian pancakes:
| Ingredients | Features of application | Quantity |
| Potato | Use raw, if the starch content is insufficient, add it separately (several spoons) | 1 kg |
| Onion | Enhances the taste and also prevents the potato mass from darkening. If the potatoes do not darken or turn red in the air, you don’t need to use onions. | From ½ to 3 pieces to taste |
| Salt | Suitable for any fraction, iodized, sea, stone, extra. To shade the taste of watery or too bland potatoes, you can add ½ tbsp. l. Sahara | To taste, but not less than 1 tsp. |
| Black pepper | It is better to use freshly ground peppercorns, which have a strong aroma. | Pinch |
| Vegetable oil | For frying, choose a refined, odorless product. Sunflower oil can be replaced with other purified vegetable fat or lard | At least a glass |
For frying potato pancakes, do not use butter, which gives the dish an uncharacteristic taste. For the same reason, any odorous varieties of vegetable oils, such as olive oil, are not suitable. The classic combination is potato pancakes cooked in pork fat and served with cracklings.
Step-by-step cooking process
Before cooking, wash the potatoes and peel them. If the flesh immediately begins to darken, prepare the onion.
Preparation:
- Grind the potatoes using a coarse grater. Onions are chopped alternately with root vegetables, which, when mixed with potato chips, prevents color change.
- Prepare a sieve and place the entire grated mass into it. This will allow the excess liquid to drain away and prevent the mixture from becoming watery.
- To speed up the removal of excess moisture, you can add salt to the mixture, mix and leave in a sieve for 15 minutes, or immediately squeeze through cheesecloth.
- Dry, high-quality potatoes may not release liquid and do not need to be squeezed. If liquid appears in the dish later, it can simply be carefully drained from the dish.
- Add salt and pepper to the mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Place the frying pan on the stove, add oil and heat thoroughly. The fat should cover the potato pancakes halfway, so add at least a 0.5 cm layer of oil. If you just grease the pan with it, the classic crust will not form and the middle will not be fried.
- Place the potato mixture into the hot fat using a tablespoon or dessert spoon, forming it like flat pancakes.
Fry the potato cakes over medium heat until golden brown on both sides. There is no need to cover the potato pancakes with a lid, otherwise they will be stewed, but you won’t get a fried crust. Each portion removed from the heat can first be placed on napkins to absorb excess oil.
What can I add?
During the frying process, the potato mixture, infused with salt, tends to release juice. You can simply drain it or add a few tablespoons of flour to compensate for the excess liquid. It is often advised to replace flour with starch, so the potato pancakes will not become dense. The recipe for potato pancakes in Belarusian suggests preparing them without eggs, but sometimes the quality of the potatoes forces them to be included in the composition. If the first batch of hash browns does not hold their shape or the pancakes break when turned over, you will have to add an egg to bind the mixture.
This problem can be prevented even at the stage of grating the potatoes: half of the tubers are crushed through the small holes of the grater, the second part through the large ones. This way the mass will acquire viscosity, but will retain large pieces that form crispy “torn” edges. Grated potato mass goes well with various fillings: mushrooms, cottage cheese, cheese, meat, fried onions, cracklings. Adding such ingredients gives a new taste each time and can be considered a separate dish.
How to serve a dish
Crispy potato pancakes are served hot; when cooled, they lose their taste and soften. Leftover hash browns from your meal can be refrigerated and used as a base for casseroles or served after reheating. The classic serving of potato pancakes involves regular sour cream as a sauce. You can accompany the dish with mushroom sauce, butter, and fried pieces of lard.
Since the dish is high in calories, it is recommended to eat it with salads, pickles or pickled vegetables. The taste of potato pancakes goes well with fresh herbs: green onions, garlic, dill, parsley.
The simplest dishes are suitable for serving: a plain flat plate, a wooden or clay dish. For one meal, potato pancakes can be combined with salted or fried fish, baked lard, and smoked meat.
Preparation
1. Chop the frozen mushrooms, thaw the frozen ones first and strain the liquid. The mushrooms should be cut finely - say, like for filling pies.
2. Finely chop the onions and fry half the onions along with the mushrooms, at the end pepper and season with salt to taste. When a golden brown crust appears, pour sour cream into the mushrooms and onions and heat for a couple of minutes.
3. Grate all the potatoes into a bowl, peel them first, of course. Add half of the raw chopped onion to the potatoes (we had some left over). Then an egg, starch and a little spices, also to taste.
4. Take a heavier frying pan and heat it well. Pour in the oil, then add the potato mixture and press lightly with a spoon.
5. When the dough on the bottom is slightly fried (“set”), place the mushroom mixture on top of the potatoes, and another layer of potato dough on top. Press everything together carefully with a spatula.
6. Cover with a lid and reduce heat. Fry potato pancakes with mushrooms over low heat, turning several times. Bon appetit!
Real Belarusian potato pancakes with meat in the oven
It turns out that sorcerers can be cooked in the oven. Baking and simmering makes this dish even more tender and softer. Sour cream used as a filling gives the dish a creamy taste and aroma.
For the recipe you will need:
- 12 small potatoes;
- 400 g minced pork;
- 1 onion;
- vegetable oil;
- 200 g sour cream;
- salt and ground black pepper;
- flour for breading.
Step-by-step recipe with photos:
1. Grate the potatoes on a fine grater or grind them in a blender using a mill. Leave for 10-25 minutes, and then drain the resulting juice a couple of times. Add some salt and pepper to the potatoes.
The released juice can be removed using a fine mesh sieve. The mass should be dry.
2. Add salt, pepper and finely chopped onion to the minced meat. Mix thoroughly.
3. Now you need to form the dough for frying. Take some potato mixture into your palm and make a well in it. Place the minced meat there and cover it with dough.
4. Pour some flour into a separate container. Roll the resulting meatballs and place them in a frying pan heated with vegetable oil.
5. Fry pancakes on both sides until half cooked. They should only brown slightly.
6. Place the sorcerers in a mold, pour sour cream on top and place in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 ⁰C.
Serve this tender, flavorful dish with yogurt or tomato juice.
Preparation
1. Knead the minced meat with your hands, season and stir in one finely grated onion. Form flat cakes, place on a board covered with film, and leave for now.
2. Prepare potato pancake dough from grated raw potatoes, grated onion, eggs and starch. Season with salt and paprika or black pepper if desired.
3. In a heated frying pan with oil, scooping out the dough with a tablespoon, fry thin potato cakes.
4. When they are golden brown on the bottom, place a meat patty on each one. Press and flatten with a spatula, then cover the meat layer with another layer of potato batter.
5. Cover the pancakes with a lid and fry for 2 minutes, turn the heat to low. Then carefully, using two spatulas, turn the products over. Press down a little with a spatula and fry until fully cooked. Under the lid.
6. It’s delicious to eat potato pancakes with meat if you serve them with some homemade sauce made from sour cream with garlic and dill, you can make aioli or homemade ketchup. Bon appetit!
Belarusian pancakes with minced meat (sorcerers), fried in a frying pan
Favorite by many and one of the most popular fillings is minced meat. You can experiment with cooking sorcerers (as such potato pancakes are called in Belarus): choose different types of meat, change the spices.
Required Products:
- 1 kg of potatoes;
- 1 egg;
- 2 tsp salt;
- 3-4 tbsp. flour;
- 400 g minced meat;
- spices to taste;
- vegetable oil.
Cooking process:
1. Prepare minced meat (for example, a mixture of pork and chicken). Add 1 tsp to it. salt, chopped onion, spices. Mix well with your hands or a spoon.
2. Grate the potatoes on a fine grater. Add 1 tsp to it. salt, stir. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes to allow the potatoes to release their juices. Drain the liquid - you can use a fine sieve for this.
3. Add egg and flour to potatoes and stir.
The dough should not be liquid so that it does not spread over the pan. But you shouldn’t overdo it with flour, it can overwhelm the taste of the potatoes.
4. Start adding half a tablespoon of batter to the pan. Place a small amount of minced meat on each pancake, a teaspoon will be enough. Cover the top of the minced meat with potato dough so that it is inside.
5. You need to fry the sorcerers over low heat, covered, on both sides until golden brown.
It is advisable to place the finished dish on a paper towel so that it absorbs excess oil. I recommend trying these golden potato pancakes stuffed with minced meat!
