Moskole - Highlander's potato pancakes with mushroom sauce

Author: Kamila Drozdowska – thyssenkrupp Materials Poland

INGREDIENTS

Pancakes:

  • 1 kg of boiled potatoes

  • 1-1.5 cups of wheat flour (1 cup is 250 ml)

  • pinch of salt

  • 150-160 g oscypek cheese

 

Sauce:

  • 1 medium onion

  • 15 g of butter

  • 2 cloves of garlic

  • 250 g mushrooms

  • 50-100 ml of water

  • herbal pepper

  • black pepper

  • salt

  • 250 g sweet cream 30%

  • fresh parsley

 

Ingredients are for 9-10 pieces. You can make a double portion and reheat it the next day.

STORY

Moskoles are boiled potato pancakes known in the Polish region of Zakopane. They make a great dinner meal or side dish. It is being said that, there are as many recipes as there are families. You can use the potatoes left over from dinner, thanks to nothing being wasted. They are lean, so they taste best with fatty additions. Serving will be up to you, it could be with garlic butter, pork scratchings, sour cream plus herbs, stew, or even sweet with sugar, in fact… the toppings could be whatever you like.

I have been to the mountains many times, but only recently my friend noticed this dish. When I got home, I decided to create my own recipe and present it to a family as a regional delicacy. This version is inspired by travels, people, and a passion for cooking. Let me invite you to my home bistro, where I will share with you Moskoles with creamy mushroom sauce. They are distinguished by the addition of Oscypek (smoked ewe’s milk cheese made in the Tatra Mountains). Don’t worry if you don’t have access to Oscypek, you can replace it with smoked cheese or just omit it – pancakes are also delicious without it, but with it, they are simply brilliant!

Preparing the dish takes quite a while and but in the meantime, you will have time to drink coffee and wash the dishes. The taste of Moskoles will reward your work, believe me! It’s simple, all you need is typical kitchen equipment, a few simple ingredients, a bit of motivation, some time, abracadabra, and here we are – magically in a highlander tavern.

DIRECTIONS

1. Peel the potatoes and boiled them in salty water. Drain them, and wait for them to cool down.
2. In the meantime make the mushroom sauce, heat the butter with the onion in a large frying pan over medium heat until soft and lightly golden.
3. Add the sliced mushrooms and chopped garlic plus water, stir, and cook for a few minutes.
4. Put the mixture in the pot, season to taste, add the cream, and chopped parsley, then simmer until heated through and boiled. Set aside, the sauce should thicken a little after it cools down.
5. Using medium–size holes, grate potatoes into a bowl, add the flour with salt, then mix and knead it quickly by hand (Be careful with the amount of salt if you use the cheese – it is very salty).
6. Optionally use again medium–size holes to grate Oscypek, add it to the rest of the potato mixture kneaded it again.
7. Form balls in your hand. (The potato mixture will be sticky and that’s OK. If necessary, scutter your hands with flour but be careful not to add too much because the pancakes will be hard later).
8. Put the balls in a hot Teflon pan next to each other and after about a minute of frying, change the side and press them to form the pancakes.
9. Fry it without adding fat for a few minutes on both sides (I turn the pancakes a few times, and it takes me 7.10 minutes for each side on low heat).
10. When you noticed that your Moskoles are golden on both sides, they are ready.
11. Reheat the sauce on low heat at the end of frying.
12. Serve the hot potato pancakes topped with mushroom sauce.