Slovak potato pancakes (sweet or savoury)

Sepedi: tapola
Ruanda: ibiraya
Suahili: kiazi
Sestwana: lekwele
Bemba: ifyumbu
Shona: mbatátisi
Swazi: li-tábhane
Zulu: ilizambane
Xhosa: izambane
Hausa: dànkálȉ
Lingala: mbala
Maasai: ilpiasi

This is a small collection of "potato" in several African languages. Africa is known to be by far the most linguistically diverse continent. The number of African languages is usually put at around 2000 but it is difficult to estimate. I love languages and don't like to be "eurocentric" but for me it reslts quite difficult to find good african resources. But with potato, it worked :) Even if yam would be Africa's staple starchy root vegetable, not potato. While here, in Central Europe, potato is very, very important. And Slovakia is a country in the heart of Europe. And Slovak potato pancakes (lokše) are really tasty!

see also: Lithuanian potato fritters
see also: Slovak potato dumplings

1 kg potatoes
300 gr flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt

optionally:
+ vanilla sugar, icing sugar and apple mousse
+ slices of ham and grated cheese*

1. Cook potatoes, peel, mash and mix with flour and egg. Add a pinch of salt and, if they will beserved sweet with apple mousse or jam, you can add vanilla sugar (1 teaspoon or more)

2. Sprinkle your workplace with flour. Roll the dough thinly, as thin as you can. But beware, it is a hard work! Don't get descouraged cause the final result is really great!



3. Fry thin pancakes in few oil.

4.* There are some ways of serving savoury lokše. Here is one of them: leave one pancake on the pan and fry it only from 1 side. As quickly as you can, put a slice of ham and grated cheese (or slices of cheese) on 1 halve of the pancake. Cover with the secon halve, close the edges well by pushing them with a fork. Fry a bit more to be sure that the cheese inside melts.

(my version without ham)




(sweet lokše with apple jam)

Slovak potato dumplings

Polish: ziemniak
Nahuatl: tlālcamohtli
Aymara: ch'uqi
Quechua: papa
Maasai: ilpiasi
Occitan: trufa
Sudovian: bulvē
Kashubian: bùlwa / tufla
Georgian: კარტოფილი
Vietnamese: khoai tây
Plattdeutsch: Kantüffel

Earth bean? Earth pear? Ground fruit? Ground apple? Type of sweet potato, truffle or yam? That is how potato is called worldwide :)
In Poland people were always, always eating groats (especially cooked buckwheat, millet, barley and wheat). That was Polish staple food, most beloved in the court and in the village, so when the noble friends of the king Jan III Sobiecki tried potatoes for the first time (it was XVII century), they didn't like its taste. Portatoes suddenly became very popular and got acclimatized to Polish fecund soil quite fast. Now potatoes are consumed on many ways, as fritters, pancakes, many sorts of dumplings, baked, stiffed, in salads and so on. Potatoes are widely consumed in Central Europe, but we do remember that originally they come from the Andes. In Pozna (Posen), a city in western Poland, people call them pyry, which word derivates from Peru, potato homeland :)
Today's potato dish is a national dish in Slovakia, but also eaten in Poland. Slovaks call them bryndzové halušky and in Poland we call them przecieraki (literally: the strained ones). These small cooked potato dumplings are somehow similar to German Spätzle - cause prepared same way (through a special noodle strainer), but of differrent ingredients. A very important ingredient would be Karpatian salty sheep spreadable cheese, bryndza, but you can use any soft spreadable sheep or goat cheese, or even salted curd.

see also: Slovak potato pancakes
see also: Lithuanian potato fritters

500 gr uncooked, peeled potatoes
300 gr flour
salt, pepper, oil
1 pack (about 200 gr) bryndza cheese (or any salted curd - see explanation above)
+ (optionally) fried salo (pork underskin fat, Central-European delicacy which some Central Europeans really dislike :P) tiny squares [I know, I know, the original recipe really requires slanina (salo in Slovakian), but without it the dish is lighter in digestion and also for vegetarians), chopped chive and dill, fried chopped onion

1. Grate raw potatoes, combine with flour and salt (about 1/2 tablespoon). Now you need a noodle strainer (see photo instructions how to use it --> put a piece of dough on the strainer and push with your hand so that the tiny pieces jump into boiling water), if you don't have it, cut the dough into thin slices or nibble tiny irregular pieces of dough and pour them into boiling, salted water with a tablespoon of oil







2. Prepare the cheese: rub it (you can add a spon of sour cream) and combine with cooked, drained halušky. You can sprinkle with fried salo, onions, chives and / or dill

The final picture was of bad quality, you could see only a white stain... that is why I will not post it...

I add this entry to celebrate World's Potato Year and I wanted to join Ode to Potato event hosted by Sia from Monsoon Spice . I know a plenty of potato recipes but no time to post all of them so I just encourage all potato lovers to visit my blog again and browse well :) and you will find more Central-European (Polish, Belarussian, Lithuanian) delicious potato dishes to try :)