Potato Palaver

I don’t often make Croatian style potato pancakes as it is a bit of a palaver, to be honest. That comes from this modern style of cooking dinner where you arrive home from work, throw your hands up in the air in despair and throw whatever is in the fridge into a stir-fry, or salad bowl. Last week, however, I suddenly decided I would revisit my roots and make them.

Subsequently, when I was brainstorming ideas to experiment with risoprinting effects, I thought it would be fun to create a step-by-step illustrated recipe to share – so here we are. As legibility was important, I kept the texture to a minimum under the text, and did not include any misaligned registratation effects.

When researching potato pancake recipes – according to Professor Google – I found no one else in the world seems to make them using this same method. My friend suggested it was a secret family recipe, but while that’s an exciting notion, it can’t be true, as questioned, my mum said both her own mother and my dad’s Ukrainian mother made them this way. Also, it utilises the same dough as potato dumplings, the recipe of which is commonly known.

One of my sisters says she usually only makes these when she has leftover mashed potato, and suggested that perhaps grandmas all over the countryside did so, but never passed the method on. It seems odd to me. Surely other people hailing from that part of the world have done the same? If you have or know of anyone who has, please let me know! Otherwise, feel free to try the recipe out yourself.