Potato pancakes are pretty nostalgic for me. My Nanny, who is my maternal grandmother, use to make these for us once in a while.
And while a lot of her meals were super easy, I always remember this being a very daunting process. Although very few ingredients, the idea of grating 5 pounds of potatoes and the onions with a box grater is definitively a deterrent for me. But what’s not a deterrent is the fact that its really hard, near impossible for me to find potato pancakes like hers. Usually they are either latkes (which I’m not necessarily complaining about) or a cake-like patty made with mashed potatoes. While both of these are still delicious, they are not potato pancakes.
Often imitated hard to duplicate
The closet thing I’ve had to a potato pancake were the potato pancakes that were served in the no longer existent Pancake Cottage that was in Hampton Bays. My friends and I would frequent there many mornings after long amazing nights outs. More on that another time. All of their pancakes were delicious. What was so nice is their potato pancakes came as part of the breakfast and if they didn’t come with what I was ordering, I’d just order a side of em.
So after many years of missing good old fashioned potato pancakes I decided to give Nanny’s recipe a go. Instead of using the box grater, I decided to try the food processor and it worked perfectly.
It really mushed up the potato and onion the way it was supposed to. Once you have your grated potato and onion, you add an egg, a teaspoon of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of flour and mix well. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.
Add about a 1/4 inch of oil to a nonstick pan. Once the oil is hot add a spoonful of pancake mixture. It will bubble and the edges will crisp up when it’s ready to be flipped.
Once they are crispy brown, remove from the pan and either drain on paper towels or if you have a cooling rack, this works really well to drain the access oil.
These pancakes are so crispy and addictingly delicious!! You can eat them with apple sauce or sour cream. I eat them with both. These potato pancakes are cheap and fairly easy and just so worth the time.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2-3lbs all purpose potatoes
- 1- medium onion
- 1tsp baking soda
- 1- egg
- 1/4 cup flour
DIRECTIONS:
In a food processor, add potatoes and onion and pulse until almost liquified. Once at the desired consistency, add to a large bowl and combine all other ingredients. Mix well and let sit for 10 minutes.
add 1/4 inch of oil to a non stick pan and let get hot. Once ready drop by the spoonful in the pan as you would when making pancakes. Do not overcrowd the pan. Once some bubbles start to form and you see the edges getting crispy you can flip over. Leave for another minute or so and remove. Drain access oil on a paper towel or cooling rack. Now is the time to salt. Serve warm with sour cream and or apple sauce. Enjoy!
