Hello this is Chef John from
foodwishes.com with Potato Pancakes
one of my favorite potato preparations
it's something I just don't make often enough
its super easy to make
take two pounds actually I had 2 and a quarter
2 pounds of russet potatos
peel them and then grate them with a cheese grater
into a bowl of very cold water
and i'm also going to grate in half an
onion into the same bowl and by the way
you've never cried
until you've grated onion, it's a good cry
alright once that's done I'm going to add some
more water, fill it up a little more
and these are going to sit in the cold water for
about twenty, thirty mins you don't need to rinse it
just let them sit there
in the mean time take a couple eggs
some flour
black pepper
a little pinch of cayenne
salt of course
and we're going to whisk that up until very smooth
and then set that aside
and when our potatoes are ready
drain them, rinse them
put them in a collander and squeeze squeeze
squeeze
squeeze
all the water must be squeezed out
so i squeeze it a fistful at a time
and then I press it again with some paper towel
make sure all the water is out
of your potatoes,
it's the only way to screw this up
is to have wet potatoes
once the potatoes are as dry as humanly possible
add them to a bowl
mix in your egg mixture with a
spatula
and that is a potato pancake mixture
ready to fry
it's an incredibly easy recipe, I told you
I'm going to cover that while I make these
because you don't want any air to get to the potatoes
if possible, because they do oxidize
this is not something you could store, put
away and it's going to be good the next day
so you're going to want to make this stuff
fresh
alright now to fry these we're going to
use a heavy-duty skillet with a good
amount of oil they say a
quarter-inch of oil, I don't know if you
quite need that much on the bottom but you need
enough oil to come up the side at least halfway up
the pancake
if you want a nice crispy cake, this one
I'm just doing a little test to taste for
salt and we're going to heat the pan on medium high
and when it's hot add your pancake mixture
flatten it out, this one is a little smaller than
the ones you're going to see
but again I'm just tasting it for seasoning I'm going to taste this
Oh man so good and it did need a little more seasoning
so what you want to do, is you want to put your oil in the pan
heat it to medium high when it starts to shimmer
add your potatoes, flatten them down a little bit
they don't have to be round who says they need to be
round?  If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand
times the kitchen is no place for a perfectionist
alright flatten them down to about
half an inch
cook them for about like I said five minutes per
side you want to see the edges get really
crispy and crunchy before you turn 'em
five minutes on the other side and when
I flip them normally I turn them down to
medium because this is raw potato
you got to give it time to cook through if
you keep going on high heat or medium high
the whole way sometimes towards the end
the edges start getting a little too brown
and the middle isn't quite tender enough
and there you go
I topped mine with smoked salmon, sour cream and dill
a very classic combination
you could do these with apple sauce and sour cream
another even more classic combination
or just plain next to some eggs and bacon
anyway go to the site - the ingredients for the filling
are quite important, so go check those out
and as always
Enjoy!
