Polish Potatoes

when grating potato, put them inside a clean tea towel and squeeze all the liquid out.

My friend's mom made a roast chicken and "kartoffle" every Sunday. It was an awesome dinner and I was always happy when they invited me to stay for dinner. Kartoffle are mased potatoes, but the best "mashed potatoes" ever!!! Anyone know how to make them?

I second the Polish Heritage Cookery by Robert Strobel. Great reference.

Kartoffe is just the word for potato in central and eastern Poland. (not surprising that is also the same in German). My Polish husband's family generally just boils the potatoes, drains them and then mashes them with a hand masher. They think my American style of beating them with a mixer and adding milk and butter is just too much work. But they do like them my way for special occasions.

i grew up with kluski. my father was polish and russian, grew up on farms in NJ, and he made the following dish all my childhood: he would grate raw potatoes, add some flour, salt and pepper til sticky (not sure of the amounts of the ingredients). he would then drop them by spoonfuls into vigorously boiling water. when they rose to the top, he pulled them out. we ate them with butter and cottage cheese. i am swooning thinking about it. its been years. i think i need to make them this weekend.

another dish we also called kluski (i think its a generic term for noodles and dumplings) was the green spinach noodle/pasta, after he boiled a pound of the pasta, he would toss with a stick of melted butter, a container of whole milk (at that time) cottage cheese, salt and pepper. it was heaven in your mouth. i could never figure out why he used the spinach noodles, but it was a standard for this dish.

This may be the one:Placki kartoflane--potato pancakes

I tried it with the mushroom sauce and it was very good!

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for the potato pancakes my mother taught me, no flour at all. Nothing but potato, onions, maybe egg to bind, but not even necessary. Salt, black pepper. Forget all that marjoram bussiness. Experiment with different food processors for the consistency you like.

Gnocci - pain in the a** super sticky mess, easily overcooked.

that's what we did---we experimented with different flavours to where we got the taste that we like.you don't have to add all the flavouring that we add..also you may like something that's not on the recepie list.Go for it---change is good for every one.

Oh my GoshThank you Krysia!!!!! I finally found the correct spelling of food "slaskies" with the recipe. My dad is from Polish/Bohemian descent. He made these and they were leftover mashed potatoes. I remember the egg and flour mixed in a bowl but not with a blender. Just mix by hand (maybe we didn't have one") and put on a greased pan and he shaped them like small croissants. My parents would use the blender for potato pancakes and fry them and also for the egg & flour dumplings which are put in boiling water after blending. I am anxious to make the "slaskis" now. Thank you!!

Okay my husband and his cousins think that kluski is the best food ever. You take boiled potatoes and put them through a ricer. Mix them with flour and egg roll the dough into long snakes and cut them on an angle. boil them in water for til they float to the top and then serve them with pork roast and gravy lots of gravy. Or steak rolls. Then the next morning fry the leftovers up in butter with or with out onions.

Make the best Wódka in the world.....nuff' said.

My mother made a potato dish similar to kopytka that was handed down from my Polish great-grandmother, but it had no egg in it. I only know it by "phiska" or "physka"(?) phonetically "feesh-kah". She would use cold leftover mashed potatoes (it didn't matter if there was milk or butter used in making it), then mixed in flour until it wasn't sticking to your hands. Then she would gather it up in a ball on the counter top and roll out into a rope about 1 1/2" in diameter and then pat down to flatten it to about 3/4" thick (would look like a long skinny rectangle), cut it into diamonds but instead of boiling them, she generously floured a baking sheet and then floured the tops of the pieces of dough and baked them at 450 until the bottoms browned and then flipped them over to brown the other side. When they were done you would slide them into a bath of browned onions and butter. Has anyone ever heard of this? It could have been her take on kopytka to use up leftovers. Appreciate any feedback, thanks!

@old country.#11

I use this recipe as well but I also add baking powder to help the dough rise.

For about 8 months each year we rely on our own potatoes which come in different sizes. I leave the big ones to my wife and kids while I take the small ones. I don`t have time to peel them before boiling, I do it when they are served on the plate.

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It's tedious work and you can burn your fingers.

I never peel them, even for chips or roasties and of course eat the lot.

It is less tedious than peeling them raw and my fingers are resistant to heat.


Wow! You eat them American style.

Normal style.

The best bit is the skin and the flesh just below it.

With new potatoes, almost nobody peels them anyway since the skin is so scant. Some people scrub them a little however I can't see any point in that.

Yes. But new potatoes finish quickly. In my case, this year in mid June.