Polish Potato Pancakes with Creamy Mushroom Sauce (Placki Kartoflane)

One of the wonderful things about living in Berlin has been being able to travel to other countries easily. Want to go to Poland? Jump on the overnight bus! I'm still getting used to the change. In New Zealand we're so far away from everything that going anywhere (except Australia) takes a long time and isn't budget-friendly.

Old Town in Warsaw, Poland

Our last Poland trip was to Krakow, a beautiful city with a castle, gorgeous old town, and, of course, delicious food! My boyfriend, who's a vegetarian, had some wonderful potato pancakes with decadent mushroom sauce on top. This is a recreation of that dish, Placki Kartoflane. This picture is of a version with blended potatoes, but it's easier to make them with grated potatoes.

Polish Potato Pancakes with Creamy Mushroom Sauce (Placki Kartoflane)

Serves 4

Ingredients

creamy mushroom sauce
400 ml (200 g) cashews, not roasted or salted
2 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
150 ml water
1 onion
400 g mushrooms (1000 ml chopped)

pancakes
6 potatoes (1150 ml grated)
1/2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp rice flour
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Blend the cashews with the vinegar, salt and water. Chop the onion and slice the mushrooms. Fry the onion in an oiled pan over medium heat until glassy. Add the mushrooms and cook until done. Stir in the cashew cream. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

2. Peel and grate the potatoes. Mix together corn starch, rice flour and 2 tbsp water. Combine with potatoes, flour and salt. Heat an oiled pan over medium heat. When hot, add several pancakes and spread to a 1 cm thickness. Wait until the underside is a golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining potato mixture.

3. Divide the pancakes between four plates. Briefly warm the cashew sauce, adding water to thin if it's too thick. Top the pancakes with sauce and serve.

New Zealand Sweetcorn Fritters

Fritters have been popular in New Zealand for some time. Their fame was probably helped by their inclusion in the "Edmonds Cookery Book", New Zealand's most popular cook book. The book was originally published in 1908 to market baking powder, hence the slogan "sure to rise" that still stands on the cover.

You can sometimes buy seafood fritters at fish and chips shops, but corn fritters are normally made at home. They can easily be dressed up or down. I remember my dad cooking corn fritters made with creamed corn for me and my sisters a lot when I was a child. I've also eaten them on a date.

If you want fancier fritters, use fresh corn and chilli and throw some minced herbs into the batter.

New Zealand Sweetcorn Fritters

Makes 18 fritters
Serves 2 as a meal or 6 as a snack

Ingredients

1/4 onion
660 g canned corn (ca. 900 ml)
300 ml flour
1 tsp baking powder
350 ml soy milk
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Chop the onion finely. Drain and rinse the corn. Combine all ingredients. Heat an oiled pan over medium heat.

2. Spoon in a few fritters. Cook until browned, turn and brown the second side. Drain on paper towels. Cook remaining fritters, adding oil between batches as needed. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Latkes

I could eat latkes every day, if making them didn't involve grating the potatoes. If you have one, you can use a food processor with a shredder attachment to speed up the route to delicious crispy latkes.

Latkes

Makes around 25 latkes

Ingredients

1100 ml potatoes
1/4 tsp salt
150 ml flour
vegetable oil

Method

1. Peel and grate potatoes, by hand or with the shredder attachment of a food processor. Put them in a colander and squeeze the water out them as best as you can.

2. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of oil. Mix the potatoes with the flour and salt. Put a few latkes in the pan. Wait until one side is browned and the latkes move easily before turning them. Brown the second side. Cook the rest of the latkes, adding oil between batches as needed.

3. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with some more salt. Serve with apple sauce or vegan sour cream.

Kimchi Jeon

I've been very busy with university in the last few weeks. It's a good thing I have to write blog posts; testing recipes, taking photos and putting together posts gives me a break. Not that I'm complaining, what could be more fun than trying to work out what, exactly, Adorno is trying to say when he pops out something like this: "Though discursive knowledge is adequate to reality, and even to its irrationalities, which originate in the laws of motion, something in reality rebuffs rational knowledge"?

Anyway, onwards to the most important thing, the food. Kimchi jeon are fritters overflowing with tangy kimchi. They make a great snack or dinner with a side or two. In my opinion, they'd also go really with a barbecue or as snacks for a party. They're very easy to put together - just mix everything in a bowl and fry them up. On the evening I took this picture I had them with hobak namul (stir-fried zucchini) and rice for dinner.

Kimchi Jeon

Makes 6 jeon

Ingredients

500 ml vegan mak kimchi
6 tbsp kimchi juice
6 tbsp soy milk
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp rice flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Method

1. Drain the kimchi, saving the juice. Combine kimchi with all remaining ingredients.

2. Heat an oiled pan over medium heat. Spoon in 1/6th of the batter and spread evenly into a thick fritter. Fry until browned, turn, and brown the other side.

3. Cook remaining fritters, adding more oil between batches as necessary. Enjoy! You can have the jeon with soy or dipping sauce, but I find them flavourful enough just as they are.

Variation: You can make two large jeon instead of six small ones, and then cut them into wedges or tear them up with your chopsticks to eat them.