Shredding potatoes II, potato pancakes from all over the world

A few months ago I started Postcrossing. Postcrossing is an online community that allow people to receive and send postcards all over the world. You send a postcard and will receive one back, to and from random Postcros-users form somewhere in the world.

After sending six cards, I received the first on back. All the way from Belarus. The card had a drawing of a cathedral of Minsk. On my profile I ask people to send me their favorite recipe or a traditional or local dish. And when you ask, you receive. Olga from Belarus, the sender of the card had written down one of her favorite recipes, draniki. What is the national dish of Belarus.

When I read the recipe it reminded me of rösti or hash browns, the breakfast potato pancakes from Switzerland and America. When I started to search the web for it, I found many other countries that make a kind of potato pancake. Mostly European and Middle-Eastern recipes. So we have the Czech bramborák or cmunda, the German Kartoffelpuffer or Reibekuchen, Hungarian tócsni, the Jewish latkes or latkas and many more from Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukrain, England and Ireland. And from there on bringing it to other places on earth, like Africa and America.

I've been making potato pancakes for some years now. As a hash-brown for breakfast, as a rösti for dinner. Mixing in different kinds of potato, vegetables and seasonings. Here is my basic recipe.

Potato pancake
for 1 big pancake
3 mediumsize potatoes
1 onion
2 tablespoons of flour
seasoning

Peel and shred the potatoes and onion, wash them and drain. Squeeze out all the moisture. Mix in the flour and season well with pepper and salt. Heat up a large skillet and oil. Put in the potato mixture and using a fork press down the potatoes all over the skillet. Trying to make it as thin as possible. On high heat let it brown for around 7 minutes, pressing the potato down. Check the bottom if it is browning. Then flip the pancake, using a lid or by cutting it in four. Let the other side brown for around 5 minutes. Serve directly.

This is just a basic recipe, you can spice it up with different other ingredients. Add some shredded carrot, pumpkin or sweet potato. Or seasoning like smoked paprika or curry. The sky is the limit! Use it as part of you breakfast, lunch or dinner. Enjoy!