Draniki

Belarus's potato pancakes, raw potato grated coarse and squeezed dry, bound with a little onion and egg, and fried hard until the edges are lace

Origin: Minsk and Belarus

From the journey of Potato.

Belarus eats more potato per head than almost any country in Europe and draniki are the national dish. Raw potato is grated coarse, wrung out hard, bound with a spoonful of flour, an egg, and grated onion, and fried in hot fat until the edges go dark and lacy and the centre stays soft. They are eaten with sour cream, or with machanka, a thick pork and flour gravy that is poured over or served for dipping. The name comes from drac, to grate or tear, and the grating is the technique. Potato pancakes exist across the whole region, from Jewish latkes to Polish placki ziemniaczane to Ukrainian deruny, and the differences between them are small and argued over with disproportionate energy. What is genuinely Belarusian is the sheer centrality of the crop. The potato arrived in the eighteenth century, took to the wet acid soils of the Pripyat marshes better than any grain, and reshaped the diet so thoroughly that bulba became a national nickname. The Belarusian repertoire runs to hundreds of potato preparations and draniki are the first among them.

Ingredients

Batter

1 kg floury potatoes, peeled
1 large onion, peeled
1 egg
2 tbsp plain flour

Seasoning

1.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp black pepper

To cook

100 ml sunflower oil or lard, for frying

To serve

200 ml sour cream, to serve
2 tbsp dill, chopped, to serve

Method

Grate the potatoes on the coarse side of a box grater into a bowl of cold water as you go.
Grate the onion on the same grater and add it to the potato.
Tip everything into a clean tea towel and wring it out hard over a bowl. Squeeze until no more liquid comes.
Let the squeezed-out liquid stand for two minutes, then pour off the water carefully, leaving the white starch settled at the bottom. Scrape that starch back into the potato.
Mix in the egg, flour, salt, and pepper. Work quickly from here.
Heat a generous layer of oil in a heavy frying pan until it shimmers. Drop in heaped spoonfuls and flatten each to about 8 cm across.
Fry for four to five minutes a side, until deep brown at the edges and crisp, turning once.
Drain briefly and serve hot with cold sour cream and dill.

Notes

Floury potatoes, and grated by hand. A food processor gives too fine a shred and releases too much water. Recovering the settled starch from the squeezed liquid is the step most recipes omit and the one that makes the pancakes hold together. Machanka, a thick pork and flour gravy, is the traditional Belarusian partner and turns them into a main course. Leave out the flour for a gluten-free version; the reclaimed potato starch is enough to bind.

The Gastrographer

Name: Draniki
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Minsk and Belarus
Ingredients: 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled; 1 large onion, peeled; 1 egg; 2 tbsp plain flour; 1.5 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper; 100 ml sunflower oil or lard, for frying; 200 ml sour cream, to serve; 2 tbsp dill, chopped, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control