Placki (Polish potato pancake) recipe

[Clipper]

Tonight was Polish night here in our house. We had Keilbasa, saute'd red cabbage, and Kathy's placki made with her grandmother's recipe.

Placki recipe:

6 medium potatoes, grated on box grater
1 medium onion, also grated on box grater
1 egg
salt and pepper
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1/4 cup or so of cooking oil for frying

Grate the potatoes, put them in a collander and press the water out with the back of a wooden spoon.

Beat the egg in small dish, add the grated onion, salt and pepper, flour and baking powder. Add the mixture to the potatoes and mix well.

Heat the oil in a large skillet until quite hot. Drop the mixture with a spoon and flatten with a spatula to the desired thickness. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towel and serve immediately with a dollop of sour cream. (some people like sweet stuff on them, such as jam or syrup)

[virgilgal]

This sounds delicious Clipper! I have not seen them made with baking powder before. Thanks for posting!

[Clipper]

When you mix up the ingredients, you will see that 1/4 tsp of baking powder is very negligible. Kathy has made it without the baking powder and I didn't notice any difference. I suppose it may make the pancake fluff up a little, but who cares if a potato pancake is fluffy or not, lol. There is really not enough flour in the recipe for the baking powder to have any drastic effect on the batter.

She makes the batter and I cook the pancakes. We have a heavy cast aluminum griddle about 10 inches square. I spray it with cooking spray first, and then use a dab of crisco on the griddle between batches to insure that when they hit the hot griddle, they fry quickly and turn a nice golden brown. They get crispy on the outside, but don't dry out as they would if you simply sprayed the griddle with cooking spray.

I find that about 3 minutes on each side with our particular stove's largest eye set on medium, after preheating the griddle on high for a couple minutes, seems to do the job to perfection.

I check the heat on the griddle by spritzing a little water on it with my hand. If the water dances and pops, it is hot enough to cook on.