Rantings of an Amateur Chef

When I was a younger teen, I was lucky to travel over to Europe with my family. We flew into Germany and drove down into Bavaria and later into Austria, Switzerland and France. While in Germany, we ended up for an evening in Munich. We walked around through the older downtown area looking at all of the interesting architecture and ended up going to the Hofbrau House for dinner.

We walked in to the music of a live polka band and sat at a picnic style table. The food they brough was glorious and although I was too young to order one of their enormous steins of beer, I fully appreciated the strength it must have taken for the waitresses to carry five in each hand. Being a tuba player, I was right at home with the tunes.

Many years later, I ended up having regular work trips to Cincinnati, Ohio. Just across the Ohio river is Newport Kentucky, which, being a sister city of Munich, was the site of the first Hoffbrau house inside the United States (2003). I became a frequent diner there on my trips, fully enjoying the right and ability to order my own liter of beer.

My dinner order became very predictable whenever I was there. Weiner Schnitzel sandwich on a pretzel bun, spaetzle and potato pancakes for sides. Hey! Don’t judge me. I know….I know…..all bad for me stuff, but it tasted so good.

Potato pancakes can really be good or just plain awful. Luckily at the Hofbrau House, they were good. In several attempts over the years, I’ve tried  a few recipes and found this one to be pretty good. I changed the recipe a bit from the original source.

The ingredients are very limited.

I used a food processor to shred the potatoes, I am very thankful for the shredding blade as it saves my fingertips and knuckles.

A good potato pancake is really the balance between potato, egg and flour. Too much flour and it becomes thick and gummy. Too little, and it tends to fall apart. After shredding and mixing everything up, I knew I wanted to have eight pancakes. I scooped mounds onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet in anticipation of the fryer. I then slid a spatula under a mound, flattened it out with my hand, and slid it into the oil, pressing down with the spatula to flatten it out some more.

I made these fairly large (about 3-4 inches in diameter), so they took about 4-5 minutes per side to cook.  It is a tricky thing to flip the potato pancake without hot oil splashing everywhere. I found that I did best by flipping one pancake onto another and then sliding it off into the oil. No splatters!

I would normally serve these with some applesauce and sour cream, but I had other plans for these puppies. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Potato Pancakes

Makes: 8 large pancakes

Ingredients:

• 4 large baking potatoes, peeled
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ground black pepper to taste
• 2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

Finely grate potatoes with onion into a large bowl. Drain off any excess liquid.

Mix in egg, salt, and black pepper. Add enough flour to make mixture thick, about 2 to 4 tablespoons all together.

Turn oven to low, about 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).

Heat 1/4 inch oil in the bottom of a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Drop two or three 1/4 cup mounds into hot oil, and flatten to make 1/2 inch thick pancakes. Fry, turning once, until golden brown. Transfer to paper towel lined plates to drain, and keep warm in low oven until serving time. Repeat until all potato mixture is used.

Nutritional Info:

Calories 283 kcal 14% Carbohydrates 46.7 g 15% Cholesterol 35 mg 12% Fat 8.4 g 13% Fiber 5.8 g 23% Protein 6.5 g 13% Sodium 415 mg 17%

Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/potato-pancakes-i/