Potato pancakes are one of the most popular dishes in the countries of the former USSR. When cooked correctly, the potato is crispy on top, and the inside is very tender and tasty. Despite the fact that the preparation of this dish seems simple, there are a lot of tricks and features that everyone will be interested to know. Over a long time, a large number of varieties of pancakes appeared, which are served not only in the institutions of national cuisine, but also in good restaurants. There are potato pancakes with cheese, mushrooms, cottage cheese, meat and a dozen different fillings. The most popular of them are presented in the article below.
Classic potato pancakes: a step by step recipe
Ordinary potato pancakes are served with sour cream or toasted slices underneath. According to the classic recipe, they are not stuffed with fillings, only potatoes and a few additional ingredients. List of necessary products for 3 servings:
- potatoes 700 g (the weight of the already peeled vegetable is indicated, in unprepared form it is necessary to take 850-900 g);
- 2 eggs;
- a tablespoon of flour (with a small slide);
- 120 g onion and 2 cloves of garlic;
- salt and pepper.
This is a classic set of products, nothing else will be needed.
Cooking method
In order for the classic potato pancakes prepared according to the recipe to turn out really tasty, with a crispy crust, soft and juicy filling inside, you must strictly follow the instructions of the step-by-step instruction:
- Peel the potatoes and grate it on a special grater for potato pancakes. How it looks can be seen in the photo above. This procedure is best done on a food processor, as it is a very tedious and lengthy process. Also on this grater you need to grate the required amount of onion and garlic.
- The potato mass must be transferred to a sieve and squeezed a little. This is necessary in order to get rid of excess water. Otherwise, potato pancakes will be too liquid and spread over the pan.
- Put the mass in a bowl, beat in two eggs, add a tablespoon of flour and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix everything well and taste.
Heat treatment
When the potato mass is ready, you should proceed directly to frying the dish:
- Put a dry frying pan on the fire and heat it.
- Pour a lot of vegetable oil. Please note that oil should only be poured after the pan has warmed up. Otherwise, the crust of potato pancakes will not be crispy.
- When the oil is hot in a pan with a tablespoon, lay the potato pancakes and give them a round shape. The thickness of the semi-finished product should be about 2 cm, and the diameter should be about 6-7 cm.
- Fried potato pancakes on the one hand should be until they acquire a golden color, then they can be turned over. You should not turn over a potato pancake many times, it will turn out to be too fat, and it will need to be additionally laid out on paper towels.
- When the potato pancakes turned brown on both sides, they should be placed on portioned plates and sprinkled with plenty of sour cream. You can pour it into a saucepan and serve separately, as it is convenient for anyone.
This completes the process of preparing classic potato pancakes in a pan.
Draniki stuffed with cottage cheese
This recipe for a potato dish is not very different from the previous one, but still it uses cottage cheese filling, due to which ordinary pancakes acquire a new taste. For cooking, you should take exactly the same set of products as in the past case, however there will be additional ingredients:
- cottage cheese - 150 g;
- several branches of fresh dill;
- ½ eggs.
How to cook?
We prepare the potato mass according to the classic recipe. In a separate bowl, you need to put the required amount of cottage cheese and knead it with a fork. Pour a small amount of chopped dill and pour in the egg. Add salt and pepper, mix cottage cheese thoroughly. When all the products have been prepared, you should start frying potato pancakes.
Put a frying pan on the fire, heat and pour vegetable oil. Put half a spoonful of potato mass, put a small amount of cottage cheese in the center of the potato pancake. Take a little more grated potatoes and cover them with the full curd.
In this case, the dish is recommended to be fried over medium heat, as the pancakes are much thicker than the classic ones, otherwise they will be ready outside, but will remain raw inside.
Potato pancakes
This dish has long been placed in clay pots and put in the oven. Now, of course, everything is much simpler, but traditions have remained. Moreover, such pancakes are significantly different from previous versions of the dish. The crust here is not crispy, but tender, like the whole dish.
Product List
To prepare 4 servings of this dish, you need to take 1 kg of peeled potatoes, 200 g of onions, 3 eggs, salt and pepper. In this recipe, garlic is not included, but can be added if desired. Since flour is not added (it makes the crust crispy), the grated vegetables should be squeezed out more thoroughly on a sieve.
Potato pancakes can’t just be served in pots, they must be cooked with any kind of meat or mushrooms. In this case, you will need to take 250 g of undercuts, 200 g of onions and about 50 g of fresh dill.
Cooking process
When all products have been prepared, cooking should begin. Peel the potatoes and rinse well, peel the onions, and cut the undercuts into thin slices. Grate potatoes and onions on a special grater and put on a fine sieve, squeeze out the mass, it should be a little dry. Remember that flour is not used in this case.
Salt the potato mixture, pepper and add three eggs, all products must be thoroughly mixed and tasted. After that, form the usual round pancakes and fry them in a pan until cooked.
Put potato pancakes in pots, in the meantime, fry the undercuts and onions in a pan. Onions should be cut into strips and put on the fry first, after a few minutes add meat. Fry these two products until fully cooked. Then pour them into a pot, on top of potato pancakes. Preheat the oven to 220-250 degrees and put the pots in it for 10-15 minutes.
After the allotted time, remove the finished dish from the oven, open the lid and put a small amount of chopped dill. Separately, in a saucepan, serve a little sour cream.
Fancy pancakes recipes
The previous three options are considered classic. Now pay attention to unusual and very original recipes for cooking potato pancakes. Such dishes are often served in many restaurants throughout the post-Soviet space.
The coolest potato pancakes recipe in the pan
Cooking this dish will take a lot of time, so you should expect that this process will take you about 1.5 hours. To prepare three large pancakes, you should take the following ingredients:
- potatoes - 650 g (the weight of the already processed vegetable is indicated, without peel);
- one large onion;
- 3 eggs;
- on a tablespoon of flour and starch.
To prepare the filling, you need to take 400 g of lean pork, you can use a cue ball or a spatula. You will also need 200 g of mushrooms, 200 g of sour cream, 100 g of onions and 150 g of hard cheese.
Cooking toppings
The first step is to cook the stewed pork. To do this, peel the meat and rinse it well, cut into small cubes about 1.5 cm thick. Peel the onions and cut into very small cubes. Take a pan with a thick bottom, pour vegetable oil into it, heat it well and fry the pork slices until golden brown, then pour them into any bowl. On the same fat, fry the onions, then put the meat, add a small amount of water to the pan, pour sour cream, reduce heat and simmer under the lid for 40-60 minutes. Cooking time depends on the type of meat chosen, but it must be very tender and juicy.
After the allotted time, the filling can be transferred to any container, a dense mass should be obtained. If you have a lot of liquid left, then in this case, at the end of the heat treatment, you need to increase the heat and evaporate the excess water. Grate hard cheese and set aside.
Main process
Now you need to make a delicious potato mass. The cooking process is no different from previous recipes, only here you will still need to add a tablespoon with a hill of starch. The thing is that in this embodiment one large potato pancake is fried, which is very difficult to turn over without adding this ingredient.
Now you need to warm the pan well, pour the vegetable oil and heat it, and then put the potato mass and evenly divide it throughout the pan so that there are no holes in the shingles. Fry a pancake on one side and turn it over to the other. This is best done with a large spatula and a little help with your hand. Turn over quickly, otherwise there is a risk that the potato pancake may crumble. When it is slightly fried on the other hand, put the stuffing on one half and cover with the second half of the potato pancake. The dish should be in the shape of a crescent. Sprinkle abundantly on top of a pancake with grated hard cheese, reduce heat slightly, cover. Cook until the cheese has melted. Serve the dish with sour cream.
Large grater potato pancakes
A dish prepared according to this recipe will pleasantly surprise everyone; the highlight of the dish is Parmesan cheese, which is already poured on the pancakes. To prepare this unusual variation of potato pancakes, you will need to take: 600 g of peeled potatoes, 1-2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of flour (with a slide), salt, pepper and quite a bit of parmesan. Serving the dish is recommended with fresh sour cream. For two servings, it is enough to take 100-120 g of this fatty dairy product.
Cooking
Potatoes should be peeled and washed. Grate the vegetable on a coarse grater, which is popularly called beetroot. Squeeze out excess liquid from potato mass, add flour and one egg. If the mass is too thick, then you can beat the second egg, add salt and pepper. To stir thoroughly. Optionally, add one clove of garlic, grated on a fine grater.
Form small potato pancakes from the potato mass and fry them in a well-heated pan until crisp. They should be made thin, in which case they turn out to taste very unusual and interesting.
When the pancakes are fried on both sides, they need to be laid out on a plate and sprinkled with plenty of grated parmesan.
Cooking features
To make beautiful potato pancakes, the potato mass must be made immediately before heat treatment. Otherwise, it will darken, and the finished dish will not have such an attractive appearance, and its taste will also deteriorate. If it so happened that the potatoes were grated in advance, then you can take ordinary vitamin C, crush it and add to the mass. The vitamin will not allow the potato mass to darken for several hours.
Potato pancakes should be fried in a large amount of vegetable oil, then it will be possible to achieve a pleasant, crispy crust. Spreading pancakes on a pan is best done with a tablespoon, it is then that they will have approximately the same size, and this is important when frying dishes.
The process of heat treatment should occur only in a frying pan (except in pots), but if they are cooked in the oven or microwave, the crisp will soak and they will no longer have the right taste.
Dish reviews
Monitoring the reviews on the Internet, we can conclude that all the presented pancakes recipes are tasty and not very difficult to prepare. Draniki on a coarse grater are very popular at festive tables, guests are delighted with such an interesting and simple dish. Large potato pancakes are also popular among housewives. They report that the male part of the family is always happy to see such a lunch or dinner on the table.
Now you know how to cook potato pancakes so that they turn out really tasty. For many years this dish has been considered one of the most beloved and simple in every family.