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Creating the perfect potato pancake
Good morning! Pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down for a second, and take a breather.
This week, I was in the mood for comfort food: specifically, German comfort food. On my mom's side of the family, that means potato pancakes, usually served alongside plump, juicy bratwursts and red cabbage. I was too lazy to get into those, though, so I instead turned my attention to just the pancakes, which are plenty hearty enough to serve as a meal by themselves.
There are two kinds of potato pancakes out there in the world: the kind made with grated potatoes, plus a little egg or something to hold them together, and the kind made with patties of mashed potatoes. I make both, and enjoy both: the grated version is a little bit crispier, firmer, like a giant hash brown (speaking of which, they make dandy hash brown substitutes at breakfast). The mashed version has a crispy outside, but is delicious, smooth and creamy inside.
How do you get one in between -- shatteringly crisp outside with a smooth and velvety interior?
The solution: Make a batter that uses a combination of grated raw potatoes and cooked, mashed potatoes. There is no substitute for hand-grated fresh potatoes, but I have used instant mashed potatoes before, and there wasn't any difference that I could taste between the two. So bring out the fresh potatoes, but feel free to use instant mashers with them.
After mixing the potatoes with a few other ingredients, the second secret is in the frying. Be sure that they are thin enough in the pan. I pat them out with the back of the ladle to be about 1/4-inch-thick, so that they will get nice and crusty outside but will cook through in the center.
Finally, once they are finished, serve them hot and fresh. They stick together if you try to stack them for any type of storage, and do not reheat well. For this reason, only make potato pancakes if you have a crowd around (it is best if no one in the crowd is on the Atkins Diet).
First, though, you need to either buy or make applesauce, the only thing (besides, maybe, sour cream) you are allowed to serve with potato pancakes. In the interest of being honest with my readers, 99 times out of 100, I use jarred applesauce from the grocery store, which is delicious. Once in a while, though, make your own. It's easy and you can do it the day before making the pancakes, if you wish.
QUICK SKILLET APPLESAUCE (makes about 3 cups)
4 cups chopped, peeled apples (Golden Delicious are my favorite for this)
1 cup canned pineapple juice
Granulated sugar to taste
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Place the apples and pineapple juice in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring frequently, or until very soft and tender.
Remove from the heat, add sugar and cinnamon to taste, and crush the mixture with a potato masher or a large fork until it's as smooth or chunky as you like. Either serve hot, or let it cool on the back of the stove, stirring now and then, then refrigerate it for up to a week in an airtight plastic container.
You can reheat the applesauce in a medium saucepan over low heat or in the microwave before serving, if you like.
Now that that's been done, turn your attention to the pancakes. The recipe looks complicated, but it isn't, not at all. I'm just being detailed.
THE POTATO PANCAKE RECIPE (makes 12-16)
1/4 cup buttermilk
6 large potatoes, peeled
1 cup COLD leftover or prepared instant mashed potatoes
2 eggs
1 small onion, peeled
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for frying
Line cookie sheets with triple thicknesses of paper towels. Set aside.
Pour the buttermilk into the bottom of a large glass or plastic bowl. Using the side of a grater with the largest holes, grate the potatoes directly into the buttermilk, giving them a stir in the bowl after each potato is grated in.
Crumble in the mashed potatoes and add the eggs, onion, salt, pepper, and flour, then mix. The batter should not be too soft, but should drop easily off a spoon, like very soft cookie dough.
Pour just enough vegetable oil into the bottom of a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat until a small piece of bread dropped in sizzles.
Ladle in about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, and spread each out a little in the oil with the back of the ladle -- they should each be about 1/4-inch-thick. You'll probably be able to fit three pancakes comfortably into the pan at once.
Cook the pancakes for 15-20 minutes, turning once or twice, or until beautifully crunchy and golden brown on both sides and soft and creamy on the inside. Carefully remove the finished pancakes to the cookie sheets (do not stack them) and repeat with the remaining batter.
The pancakes will hold their heat at room temperature for about 10 minutes. If you need to keep them longer, put them in a 250 degrees F oven on unlined cookie sheets, where they will keep for about half an hour.
Serve the pancakes hot with applesauce and, if you'd like, sour cream as well.
Chris Summers lives and cooks in Barboursville, and has just finished nine dozen cookies and a batch of fudge for a bake sale. Yep, he's tired. You may contact him at cordhaven@hotmail.com.
