Draniki
Crisp grated potato and onion fritters fried until deep brown, topped with soured cream and buttery sautéed mushrooms.
Photo : Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Grate the potatoes and onion finely into a large bowl. Grate them together, as the onion keeps the potato from discolouring.
- Tip everything into a clean tea towel and wring it hard over a bowl to squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
- Let the liquid stand for two minutes, pour off the clear water and scrape the white starch settled at the bottom back into the potatoes.
- Stir in the egg, flour, salt and pepper, then cook straight away; the mixture does not keep.
- Heat the oil over medium-high and drop in spoonfuls, flattening them into thin cakes. Fry for 4 minutes a side until deep brown and crisp, then drain on a rack.
- In another pan, sauté the mushrooms in the butter over high heat for 8 minutes, salting only at the end so they brown rather than steam.
- Serve the draniki scalding hot, crowned with mushrooms and a spoonful of soured cream.
Wringing out the liquid is the step that decides everything: the drier the gratings, the crisper the fritter. Saving the settled starch means you need less flour, which would otherwise weigh the batter down.
