Central Europe · Volume 20, Lard, Bryndza and a Court Cuisine That Passed Overhead
Zemiakové placky
Slovakia
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- 27 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Slovakia. Potato pancakes, marjoram their defining aromatic.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 batch grated raw potato, squeezed dry
- 2 eggs
- 4 to 5 tbsp flour
- to taste garlic, salt, pepper, marjoram
- shallow pool, 2 to 3 mm deep oil or lard, for frying
Method
- Grate the potato raw, then squeeze hard to remove as much water and starch as possible.
- Bind with the eggs, flour, garlic, salt, pepper and a generous amount of marjoram, to a thick but pourable batter.
- Fry in a shallow, 2 to 3 mm pool of oil or lard, spooned onto a hot pan, turning once golden on the first side.
What a modern chef changes
The potato's moisture controlled precisely, and the marjoram's aromatic oils preserved rather than cooked flat
Rungs 1 and 4
Method
- Spin the grated, squeezed potato briefly in a salad spinner rather than pressing by hand, achieving a more consistent, drier starting point that keeps the pancake's edges genuinely crisp rather than steaming from residual moisture, extending the same starch-and-hydration discipline rung 1 sets out for dumpling dough.
- Add half the marjoram to the batter and finish the cooked pancakes with the other half, freshly crumbled, straight from the pan, protecting its more volatile aromatic compounds from the full cooking time rather than losing them all to heat.
- Fry in clarified butter rather than plain oil or lard, giving a rounder, nuttier finish while keeping faith with the volume's own butter-versus-lard class logic: this is a dish improved, not betrayed, by a more refined fat.