Деруни
- madisonunderwood93
- Oct 26, 2016
- 2 min read
So we cooked and it was a lot of fun and the food was super good! It was also really easy to make so if you want a recipe to try one of my favorite foods I’ve gotten in Ukraine so far keep reading!
For our cooking day we were making Деруни (pronounced dare-on-nay) what our teacher translated as potato pancakes, but I would consider it more of a tasty fried potato. Our first step was going to the local grocery store and purchasing everything we would need: 3 eggs, 1 kilo of potatoes, 1 onion, sunflower oil, and 5-6 tablespoons of flour.
Ukraine grocery stores are great because you can buy eggs any amount 5 and up and you can weigh out things like pasta, sugar, and flour to get the exact amount that you want.
In my very poor Ukrainian I was able to ask where the eggs were and purchase them. We got back to the kitchen and I realized very quickly why so many people recommended bringing vegetable peelers – we peeled the potatoes with very dull knives and it was pretty difficult. We then using a larger grater grated up the onion and potatoes and that took a decent amount of time. If I had been at home I would have thrown it all in a food processor and been done in less then two minutes. We mixed in the egg and flour until we got a nice thick consistency.
We heated about an inch of oil in a pan and then fried the mixture by spoonful until it was nice and golden. We topped it with sour cream and it made for a great snack!
I went home and told my host mom about how much I enjoyed them and she made them for me and I topped them with cheese and Sriracha and 10/10 would recommend. Since they’re so simple I’m sure you could play around with adding different seasons, or maybe some other vegetables. Let me know if you try to make them and find some awesome combination!
Delish Деруни
Serves: about 6 servings of 3 each
Ingredients
1 kilo of potatoes (about 8-10 medium)
2-3 eggs (check notes)
1 yellow onion
2-5 tablespoons of flour (check notes)
1 cup of sunflower oil (check notes)
Instructions
Heat about an inch of oil in your frying pan.
Peel the potatoes.
Grate potatoes and onion.
Mix potatoes, onion, eggs, and flour until you get a nice thick consistency that is not dry.
Scoop by spoonful into the oil to fry until golden brown.
Notes
We used sunflower oil, but I imagine any oil that you normally use for frying would be fine.
We ended up using 3 eggs as the mixture was a little to dry before adding the third egg. You'll want the consistency to be moist but still able to stay together, use the flour and eggs to make it the perfect consistency.
You can top with anything you like, but I've found most common in Ukraine is to top with sour cream. I've also had it topped with cheese and hot sauce. The next time I make this I'm going to try mixing in some cheddar cheese and paprika before frying!