Draniki

Ingredients

• Potatoes — floury variety1 kg
• Onion1
• Vegetable oil100 ml
• Soured cream200 ml
• Dill20 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Grate the potato and onion finely into the same bowl.

   15 min

2. 2

   Let the mass stand three minutes and pour off the water that gathers on top, leaving the sediment.

   5 min

3. 3

   Season with salt and pepper. Add nothing else.

   2 min

4. 4

   Heat the oil over medium and drop the mixture in by the spoonful, flattening it to half a centimetre.

   4 min

5. 5

   Fry three to four minutes a side, to a deep golden crisp crust.

   20 min

6. 6

   Drain on paper and serve immediately with soured cream and dill.

   3 min

About the dish

Real draniki contain neither flour nor egg — only potato, onion and salt. Their own starch binds them, which is why the potato has to be floury rather than new.

The grated mass is not wrung dry: some moisture is needed, or the pancakes come out dense. Only the liquid that separates on top is poured off.

The onion is grated in with the potato not for flavour but to keep the mass from darkening: its acid holds the colour for twenty minutes, which covers the frying.

Worth knowing

• — The oil must be hot but not smoking. In cool oil the pancakes absorb it and go limp.
• — Do not fry more than four at a time: the pan cools and no crust forms.
• — Draniki with a meat filling inside are called kalduny. That is a separate dish, not a way of serving these.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

390 kcal

Protein

8 g

Fat

22 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Belarus

• Machanka — A thick pork and sausage gravy on soured cream, into which pancakes are dipped. Hence the name.