Ashy's vegetarian recipes ©2003 all rights reserved
When I first made potato scones, my wife said they reminded her of the draniki her granny used to make. Her granny was from Byelorussia. This was quite a long time ago, and afterwards I just assumed that potato scones, which up until then I had thought of as a Scottish culinary invention, were also a traditional Byelorussian staple.
One day we were watching a cookery programme on TV and the theme was Byelorussian cuisine. Draniki were, of course, one of the things they showed how to make. I understood that draniki and potato scones are not as similar as I had previously thought, and as the recipe for making draniki looked much easier and quicker, I thought I would give it a crack. It really is as simple as it looks and the results are well worth it.
Ingredients
Potatoes
Salt
Oil
Peel and grate the potatoes. Mix a little salt with them. Heat a little oil in a pan and use a dessert spoon or soup spoon to put lumps of grated potato into the pan. Flatten the lumps and shape them into thin cakes with the spoon. You should be able to get three or four cakes into the pan at one time. Fry on a medium heat for about four minutes each side. The draniki should be golden brown when you turn them over (use a spatula for turning). Add a little more oil to the pan and repeat with another lot.
I made marrow 'caviar' on the
same day as my first draniki and they went together very well. Draniki also
go well with salad and/or sour cream.