Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday!
No matter which way you call it, people the world over were diving into a stack of pancakes yesterday, in honour of this special Tuesday that comes but once a year. Growing up Catholic, I could go into the reasons why every Lenten season I gave up chocolate, fighting with my siblings, and volunteered to do more household chores, but I’ll save that for another time (or, not.) Pancakes are on the menu now, and since I am a diehard French Toast girl, fluffy sweet pancakes were not on my radar. Instead, potato pancakes made their way to my lunchtime menu as I celebrated Pancake Tuesday!
In the past week, I believe I have made this recipe six times! Not for myself, but for my seventh grade Home Ec students. I did a few trials and demos, and their task now is to take the base recipe and turn it into a dish that showcases their home culture.
What I have for you is an easy to make breakfast, lunch, or dinner. With the addition of smoked salmon, and a little sheep milk yogurt flavoured with a splash of freshly ground black pepper, and lemon rind, this is a dish that is sure to satisfy. I invite you to look into your home cuisine and add a personal spin as you flavour these pancakes, and sauce, to your liking. For a Greek spin, you may want to serve them with Tzatziki. A Mexican-influenced dish would be delightful with salsa or guacamole. Adding a side of Kimchi takes you over to the Korean flavour palate.
There’s SO much you can do to create a different dish, every time! For now, play around with the base, and add your touch of sass, as you like it.
WTKitchen notes:
- This recipe can be made with sweet potatoes. You’ll not need to strain the water out of them as they are pretty dry in comparison.
- Serve the pancakes with some protein on the side. Chicken, fish, sausage, or my Three Bean Salad.
- Wild caught, yes, the salmon was that intense in colour 🙂
Ingredients for Potato Pancakes
- +/- 500 grams potatoes, peeled, (or not – to your preference,) and grated on the coarse side of a box grater. Then, you need to put them into a clean cotton kitchen towel, and squeeze out the water.
- 1 medium cooking onion, finely diced
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 Tbsp buckwheat flour
- ¾ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground pepper
- coconut oil for frying
- fresh chives for garnish
Ingredients for Yogurt Dipping sauce
- 250ml fresh sheep or goat yogurt
- freshly ground black pepper
- grated rind of one lemon
- juice of ½ lemon
- pinch of sea salt
Directions
- Wash and peel your potatoes and grate them on the large side of a box grater. Place them into a clean kitchen towel, and over the sink, squeeze out as much water as possible. Place them into a medium size bowl.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients, and mix using a spatula, or your hands, until well-combined.
- In a large frying pan, heat about a tablespoon of coconut oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, drop the batter by ¼ cup portions, pressing lightly into a circular shape to increase the surface area, and even the cooking time. Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side, until beautifully golden.
- When the first batch is ready, move the pancakes to a kitchen towel lined plate and allow the oil to be absorbed by the paper. Carry on with more batches, adding a bit more coconut oil each time, until your mixture is all used up. I was able to get 12 medium-size pancakes out of this.
- You can keep these warm in the oven, until you are ready to serve them.
- Create this dipping sauce by putting all ingredients into one bowl and mixing together.
