Potato pancake I. - "Polesník", "Podlesnik" od "Polesniak"

The last weekend, I was invited to spend Saturday and Sunday with my old good friend at the north part of the Slovakia, "Kysuce". I love this part of the world, apparently I was born and grow up there. We were hiking to the nature and enjoy silence, fresh air and nice views. Each day we had a lunch or dinner at local Slovak restaurant. I have not been there before, however it was very pleasant experience. Despite of fact that it was first time in my life when I was in restaurant where soup is served with spoon in it, the foot was delicious. We had a summer cabbage soup which is lighter version of our Christmas cabbage soup and the main dish was chief shepard's bag, i.e. potato pancake with stewed pork meat filling. This lunch encourage me to give you another recipe of traditional slovak food, potato pancakes. Potato pancake is simple basic meal which can be eaten with or without any topping or filling. You can fill or top it with anything you like. My favorite toppings are sour cream with freshly grated cheese or stewed vegetable filling.

Potato pancake I. - "Polesník", "Podlesnik" od "Polesniak"

600g potatoes
2 eggs
fine flour
freshly grated black pepper
oil
marjoram
salt
three garlic claws

Peel and grate raw potatoes, peel and mash garlic claws. Mix potatoes, eggs and garlic together. Add right amount flour. Mixture has to be moist, easily spreadable and pliable. Season with salt, pepper and marjoram. These three ingredients are essential, you have to taste them in the batter, however any of them should not be very heavy. Afterwards the batter is ready, heat frying pan with little of oil. When the oil is ready to fry than lower the fire and put several spoons of the batter in the pan, form around 5 mm thin pancake and fry it until golden from both sides.

Tips and tricks

• if you add roasted cubed stripped bacon with dipping into the batter, then its flavor will be richer;
• tasty option is to fry them on the pork lard, even if it is not so healthy ;);
• stack them into one pile and put small peace of cow's spreadable butter in between;
• you can pour the batter in the large greased tin and bake it for 30 or 45 minitues. This meal is called "Potato Hag".
  

Note that, in the Slovak cuisine there are several recipes of potatoes pancakes. These ones are made from raw potatoes.