Tuesday, March 31, 2009

My Grandma's Potato Pancake Recipe

I haven't tried this yet, but figured this would be a good place to save it (and someone else may enjoy it as well). This is from a letter written by my aunt. By the way, this a recipe from my Grandma Lawless, who I never met, because she died several years before I was born.

I finally figured it out, and it needs to have good old "Russet" (Idaho)
potatoes. They are good and starchy which is key. I had tried it with "New"
potatoes and that, I think, was the main problem. So now I've done it this
way twice and I think my Mom would approve. This makes enough for two, it's
also a good size for testing to see if you're happy with them then adjust
for the size of your family.

POTATO PANCAKES

1 Egg
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1/2 Cup milk
1/2 Cup all purpose flour
1 Extra large baking potato diced medium
Couple shakes of salt

The potatoes I used both times are the really huge size, they don't sell
these in bags, but you can adjust for that.

In a blender put the egg, milk and onion and puree it. Add the flour and
blend, then the potatoes and salt. Pulse this a few times until it looks like a rough pancake batter. Using a ladle, pour onto a hot, lightly oiled griddle, and with the back of the ladle spread batter out very thin.

If you are using a dark Teflon griddle you will see the darkness through
parts of the pancake. Watch closely they cook pretty fast. Turn when nice and brown, cook other side until it looks like a flour tortilla. That's it.
Put on a dish, spread with butter, roll up like an enchilada, and pour a
ribbon of syrup over it. Yum yum.

I wouldn't use self rising flour because they aren't supposed to rise like a
regular pancake. When finished they are the thickness of a flour tortilla and look like one on the second side. I make mine round, in a frying pan but for efficient use of space when using a griddle Mom made them in rectangles.

It's scary to think Mom's recipe almost vanished!

8 comments:

Theresa said...

Are the potatoes raw or pre-cooked? Peeled or not?
I am always looking for new ways to cook potatoes!

love2learnmom said...

You know, I don't really know. I think you'd have to cook it before throwing it in the blender. Oh, but it does say diced.

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

Try both, but peel before mixing.

In Sweden Kroppkakor come in two varieties. The Småland variety - made for me by my granny - uses boiled potatoes. The Öland variety, which I tasted when visiting that landscape, uses raw potatoes.

Oh, potato pancake? In Sweden they are called rårakor. "Rå" means "raw". As in raw potatoes.

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

On the other hand - we do not serve rårakor with butter and syrup. Again: try both. Use whichever goes best with butter and syrup.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the recipe. I used three smaller potatoes for the extra-large one, and they were raw. It might make a difference if your blender isn't too good. Mine blends like the dickens. The pancakes turned out well - most of my family liked them. I put jelly on mine, but one of my kids wanted ketchup!

Unknown said...

Nice - we used to have these on most Fridays with a applesauce topping. My mom's recipe used to have baking soda, but I tried this recipe tonight and it was great. I added a lot of garlic to go with it because that makes my wife smile. Turned out great and made a real nice side for our salmon. Cheers.

Unknown said...

To answer Theresa's question, Grandma always used raw potatoes. WE used to put butter and jam on them when I was growing up.

love2learnmom said...

Thanks Dennis!!! Unfortunately I never got to taste Grandma's actual pancakes because she died two years before I was born. :(