Belarus is a quick and easy one when it come to talking about the food I made, so I'll tell you a little about the country itself. The name Belarus can be translated to mean "White Russia" and is often referred to as such. It was once a part of the Russian empire, and is now also bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania. While Belarus has its own identity of course, the culture and cuisine shows similarities to those of the countries surrounding it.
I could have chosen potato pancakes for any number of countries in Eastern Europe. However, the national dish of Belarus is their version called draniki. I had never made potato pancakes with so few ingredients before. What makes these special is their simplicity. There is no egg to hold everything together; you have to rely on the starch!
The first step is choosing the right potato for the job. In Belarus, it would be made with locally grown potatoes--known as bulba--which are very starchy and dry. Let me tell you; Belarusians love potatoes. Basically every dish I found for them was either a potato dish or a sausage dish.
So I did some light research on what the best potato for potato pancakes is, and essentially found that it really doesn't matter. However, since these don't contain a binding ingredient I figured I would stick with the tried and true Russet potato. Generally I prefer the taste and texture of Yukon Gold, but for a dish like this it makes sense to use a drier and starchier variety.
The next step is to peel and grate your potato along with an onion. I'm eternally grateful for my food processor with its grater attachments, because I was able to get this done in less than a minute. According to the recipe I used, the onion is not just there for flavor--it also helps keep your potatoes from oxidizing and turning brown. Then you add a little salt for flavor.
As the potatoes sit in the bowl, they will release moisture. To keep everything from getting too wet, you can drain the water out, but keep the potato starch at the bottom of the bowl and mix it back in. The starch definitely helps keep things held together in the pan.
Once you have your potatoes, onion, and salt all mixed together, you heat some vegetable oil in a skillet and take a scoop of the mixture and flatten it into a pancake shape and let it fry in the oil for a few minutes.
When you flip it over it should be nicely browned and crispy. I could have left the one in the picture for a tiny bit longer, but it's close to what you should see. Once it cooks for a few more minutes and crisps up on the other side, you're done!
The recipe I used called for 12 potatoes! I'm not sure if the potatoes they use in Belarus are tiny or if it's supposed to feed a whole party of people, but I just used a couple, which yielded about 6-8 draniki. I served mine with sour cream, which is a very common accompaniment.
I have to say, either in spite of or due to their simplicity, these were the best potato pancakes I have ever made. Other times I've made them I've used egg as a binder. Once common struggle is getting everything in the middle to cook without burning the potato on the outside. I think the fact that it's basically all just potato helps everything cook evenly and quickly. I guess you could consider these closer to a hash brown than a potato--according to Wikipedia the difference is whether a binding agent is used--but I've honestly never successfully cooked a hash brown from scratch either. There's something magical about these draniki. They just work. And they're delicious.
Recipes Used: Draniki
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