Draniki is one of the most popular dishes of Belarusian cuisine. They are not only tasty, but also very satisfying. When fresh vegetables and meat components are added, the dish turns out to be more original.
Draniki is a favorite dish of many. Cooking it is simple and even a novice hostess can handle it. Its name comes from the word "to tear", that is to rub on a grater, peel off in layers. Potato pancakes are popular not only in Belarusian, but also in Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Jewish cuisines.
Potato pancakes according to the classic recipe without eggs
To prepare delicious potato pancakes, you need to choose the right potatoes. In Belarus, mainly starchy varieties are grown. Perhaps that is why traditional Belarusian dishes made from different types of potatoes are distinguished by their excellent taste. Young potatoes are not suitable for making tasty and crispy pancakes. There is very little starch in it. But with too long storage, the content of vitamins in the product decreases, so the finished dish turns out to be less useful.
To prepare hearty pancakes according to the traditional recipe, you will need:
- 1 kg of potato tubers;
- 1 onion;
- 20-30 g of flour or potato starch;
- some salt and pepper;
- oil for frying (sunflower or olive).
Wash the potato tubers and then peel them with a vegetable peeler or knife. Peel the onion and then chop the head. You can skip the onion through a manual or electric meat grinder, chop with a blender or gently grate. Pieces of onion should be very small and not palpable in the finished dish.
You need to grate the potatoes on a grater and put in a bowl. Lightly salt the potato mass. It is required to put the onion in a bowl and then mix the ingredients thoroughly. Chopped onions are needed not only to give crispy pancakes a more original taste and aroma. When added, the potatoes do not darken. Ready-made potato pancakes will not turn blue and will look delicious.
After 10 minutes, the juice can be drained from the bowl. When preparing a dish without adding eggs, this is very important, as it allows you to make the mass thicker. For even more thickening, you can add flour or starch. Better to use starch. With him, the pancakes are more tender. Flour makes the dish a little tough, especially if you add too much of it.
You need to fry the pancakes over medium heat, but there should be a lot of oil. It is better to spread the potato mass with a tablespoon and only in hot oil. It is enough to fry the potato pancakes for 3-5 minutes on each side. Then they are laid out on a paper towel. It absorbs excess fat.
Serve the dish hot. Sour cream sauce will perfectly complement the taste of pancakes. You can mix sour cream with chopped herbs or put it on portioned plates without any additives.
Potato pancakes with egg
In order for the potato mass to turn out to be more viscous and not to fall apart, you need to add an egg to it. To prepare the dish you will need:
- 1 kg of potatoes (high in starch);
- 1 chicken egg;
- 1 onion;
- 100-150 g sour cream;
- 1 tbsp. l (with a slide) wheat flour;
- some pepper and salt.
Peel potato tubers and onions. It is recommended to grate vegetables on a fine grater or even chop them with a food processor. Salt and pepper the mixture and let it stand for 5 minutes, then drain the released liquid.
Add beaten egg and flour to a bowl with grated potatoes and onion, mix well. To add fluffiness to the mass, it is recommended to separate the egg white and yolk before adding to the bowl. The yolk can be added to the mass immediately, and the protein must first be whipped with salt and only then added to the rest of the ingredients. You can pour into a mass of 2 tbsp. l sour cream liquid and mix everything well. Sour cream adds juiciness to potato pancakes.
You need to fry crispy pancakes in a hot frying pan. It is better to add more oils to the pan. It is recommended to fry potato pancakes on each side for 3-5 minutes. You can additionally steam them under a closed pan lid over low heat, but in this case the potato pancakes will not turn out crispy.
If you need to serve a large number of potato pancakes at once, you can put them on a baking sheet after the end of frying and then heat in the oven, bring the dish to readiness. Potato pancakes should be baked at 200 ° C for 5 minutes. It is better to serve them hot and with sour cream.
Potato pancakes with cheese
In Belarus, housewives cook potato pancakes with different fillings and additives. A very tasty and satisfying, aromatic dish is obtained with the addition of cheese. To prepare it, you need:
- 1 kg of potatoes;
- 1 small onion;
- 1 egg;
- 1 small carrot;
- 2 tbsp sour cream (15% fat);
- 2-3 tbsp flour;
- a bunch of parsley or dill;
- 150-200 g cream cheese;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- some salt and pepper.
Carrots, onions, and potato tubers must be carefully peeled. Grate the tubers on a medium-sized grater. On a fine grater, you can grate carrots and onions. Put all the chopped vegetables into a bowl, add salt, beat in a chicken egg, add flour. Mix the ingredients thoroughly.
Peel the garlic cloves and then pass them through a press. Grate cheese on a coarse grater and then mix with garlic. You can add a little sour cream to the mixture to give it a more viscous consistency.
Spread the potato mass well heated in a pan in the oil. On top of each potato pancake, put grated cheese with garlic and sour cream and then cover with a second layer of potato mass. Fry for 5-8 minutes, then turn the pancakes and fry over low heat for another 5-8 minutes. In this case, it is better not to use a large fire, since the dish must be fried throughout. Fresh dill and parsley can be used to decorate ready-made potato pancakes or add them to the potato mass when cooking.
Potato pancakes with meat
Fans of hearty meat dishes like pancakes made with minced meat. This type of potato pancakes is native to Belarus. The dish is also called sorcerers. To prepare it you need:
- 1 kg of potatoes (only starchy varieties);
- 300-400 g of minced meat (beef mixed with pork);
- 1 chicken egg;
- 2-3 tbsp wheat flour;
- some salt and pepper;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1 small onion (medium)
Peel potato tubers and small onion. Grate the potatoes on the largest grater, and mince the onion. You can grind it with a blender. Mix onion with potatoes, pepper and salt. Break an egg into a bowl, add wheat flour and mix everything thoroughly. To make the mass more dry and sticky, before adding the egg and flour, you can drain the excess liquid by throwing the grated potatoes and onions into a colander.
Mince meat through a meat grinder if it contains large pieces of meat. Mix peeled garlic cloves with minced meat, salt the mixture. To form sorcerers, put the potato mass on your hand, put the minced meat on top and cover with a second layer of potatoes. It is recommended to pinch the edges of potato pancakes.
Put the formed semi-finished products in a hot pan and fry in vegetable oil for 5 minutes on each side. Sorcerers turn out to be thicker, higher in comparison with classic potato pancakes. In order for them to cook well throughout the entire volume, after frying, cover the pan with a lid and steam the dish over low heat for 5 minutes.
Instead of minced meat in this recipe, it is permissible to use even slices of bacon or smoked sausage. But the sausage must first be cut very thinly. Ground chicken is also suitable as a meat filler. It is more dietary than minced pork, it contains less fat, but in this case the pancakes are drier.
Garnish with chopped potato pancakes with meat when serving. Sour cream sauce with the addition of garlic will also perfectly complement the taste of sorcerers.
Potato pancakes with zucchini and green onions
Draniki is a high-calorie dish. To reduce its energy value, you can add less high-calorie vegetables. Zucchini is well suited for these purposes. To prepare the dish you will need:
- 1 kg of potato tubers;
- 1 onion;
- 3 chicken eggs;
- 3-4 tablespoons flour;
- 1 small zucchini (zucchini);
- some salt and pepper;
- green onions (half a bunch);
- vegetable oil for frying.
Peel potato tubers with a knife or peeler. Peel the small onion and chop it gently. You can mince the onion or grate it on the finest grater.
Gently grate the potatoes and place in a bowl. Peel the zucchini with a knife, peel the pulp and seeds, and grate the hard part with a medium mesh size. Pour a little salt into the potato and zucchini mass, put the onion in a bowl and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Drain the released juice after 5 minutes. When preparing potato pancakes according to this recipe, the juice must be drained, since a lot of it is released from the vegetable marrow. Beat the eggs and add to a bowl, add flour and mix thoroughly. Chop green onions finely with a knife, and then add them to the mass and mix everything well again.
Fry potato pancakes with zucchini for 3-5 minutes on each side over medium heat in hot oil, and then put on a paper towel to absorb excess fat. If you reduce the frying time to a minimum and bring the pancakes to readiness in the oven, you get a dish that will suit even those who are losing weight.
Serve the dish hot and with sour cream sauce. You can pour potato pancakes with sour cream 15% fat.
You can also reduce the calorie content of a dish by adding other vegetables to it instead of zucchini or in addition to it. For these purposes, suitable carrots, celery or an apple. Vegetables or fruits must be grated or chopped in a food processor before mixing. Some housewives prepare a dish only from zucchini or pumpkin, but this already turns out vegetable pancakes. Real potato pancakes should be made from potatoes.
Potato pancakes with cottage cheese
Potato pancakes with cottage cheese - an original dish, but very tasty. To prepare it you will need:
- 1-1, 2 kg of potato tubers;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- 100-120 g of cottage cheese (fat content 5%);
- 2-3 tbsp sour cream;
- some salt;
- 2 tablespoons flour.
The potato tubers need to be peeled and then grated on a medium-sized grater. Mash the curd with a fork. You can grind it with sour cream. For cooking, it is better to choose sour cream 5% fat.
Beat chicken eggs with a fork with salt. Put neatly chopped potato tubers, cottage cheese with sour cream, eggs in a bowl, add flour. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
You need to fry a lot of potato with cottage cheese in a hot pan. When the pancakes are browned, you can cover them with a lid and cook for another 3-4 minutes over low heat. This dish can be beautifully served with sour cream or low-fat natural yogurt. It is permissible to use yoghurts with sweet fillers. The taste of such a dish will turn out to be even more original if you add a little grated apple to the cottage cheese.
