Potato pancakes

Crispy potatoes held together with gluten-free flour – awesome as a snack or a side dish for any occasion

One of the fun things about living in different countries is understanding how different people call the same thing by different names.  Like soda vs fizzy drink vs soft drink vs pop.  When Grant and I visited my brother in Toronto once, we stayed at a hotel and saw they had hash browns for their breakfast menu, and ordered them.  And were very surprised when they came out as cubed fried potatoes.  In Australia, we typically call hash browns those things with grated potatoes held together and fried in one mass.  Like you get at McDonalds (but this is in no way an endorsement to regularly order hash browns at McDonalds!).  

Grant also had an idea of making traditional German potato pancakes, maybe it’s due to our German heritage, but he would constantly refer to these ‘kartoffelpuffer’ as the be-all and end-all of potato pancakes.  He made them for me once, when we were in Chile, and they were awesome.  And he made them once again for the kids a few years later, and they really enjoyed them.  For some reason, they just haven’t been in our regular rotation of varieties of potatoes as a side dish.  Until now.

We have nailed down an awesome recipe – and it is my privilege to share it with you (with Grant’s permission of course!).  It works well with white and sweet potatoes, as a snack, as a base for a pizza (recipe coming soon), or as a side dish for any sort of meal you could wish for.  Basically, we love this recipe so much that every time we have it now, Henry asks for it again the next available blank spot in our meal plan!

Give it a go and see if you love it as much as we do! 

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Potato pancakes

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 3 medium potatoes white or sweet
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbs potato flour/starch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 onion finely chopped

Instructions

1. Grate the potatoes and squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, potato flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Mix in potatoes and chopped onion. The mixture will appear relatively dry, but ensure it is as mixed as possible.
4. Heat oil of choice (I used peanut oil) in a large skillet over medium heat.
5. Drop handfuls of potato mixture into the skillet and press to flatten. Cook about 3 minutes on each side until browned and crisp.
6. Drain on paper towels and devour!