The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 27, Steppe, Forest and the Reclaimed Kitchen
Deruny and Draniki, with Machanka
Ukraine and Belarus
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 7 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Both countries grate raw potato, press and reserve its starch per rung three, and fry it into a pancake, bound with a little egg and flour. Ukrainian deruny are typically plain, served with soured cream. Belarusian draniki are the same idea taken further: sometimes made with a raw meat layer sandwiched between two grated-potato pancakes before frying, and always eaten with machanka, a thick pork sauce, from makats, to dip, built from pork trimmings, smoked or salted meat, lard, sausage and bone, thickened with flour and seasoned with onion, mushroom and dill, the draniki torn and dipped directly into the pot rather than served alongside it as a separate course.
As tradition built it
Fried 2 to 3 minutes a side, then a further 4 minutes covered.
Ingredients
An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.
For the pancakes
- 500 g raw potato, grated, its pressed-off starch reserved and folded back in per rung three
- 2 egg, a little, to bind
- half a glass (about 60 g) flour, a little, to bind
- a few thin slices, to taste raw meat, optional, sandwiched between two pancakes before frying, for the Belarusian variant
For the machanka
- 1 kg (pork ribs), fried until browned pork trimmings
- as available smoked or salted meat
- about 500 g, roughly half the meat's weight lard
- 500 g, fried until browned sausage
- as available bone
- flour, to thicken
- 1, finely chopped onion
- to taste mushroom
- for garnish dill
Method
- Grate the raw potato, press and reserve its starch per rung three, and fold the starch back into the batter with a little egg and flour.
- Fry into pancakes. Ukrainian deruny are typically plain, served with soured cream.
- For Belarusian draniki, sandwich a raw meat layer between two grated-potato pancakes before frying.
- Build the machanka from pork trimmings, smoked or salted meat, lard, sausage and bone, thickened with flour and seasoned with onion, mushroom and dill.
- Tear the draniki and dip directly into the pot of machanka, rather than serving it alongside as a separate course.
What a modern chef changes
Fried in clarified salo, a confit machanka, judged by fat
Rung 1
Method
- Fry the draniki in clarified salo fat rather than plain oil, per the technique already established for this chapter's other dishes, for a rounder, more savoury base flavour.
- Build the machanka as a confit: render the pork trimmings and smoked meat slowly under sous vide before finishing the sauce on the stove, giving a more even, less stringy texture than the traditional long stovetop simmer.
- Serve the draniki as a single large, thin sheet rather than individual pancakes, cut into wedges at the table for dipping.
- Finish the machanka with a last spoonful of smetana stirred through off the heat rather than served separately, judged by fat and culture per rung one.