Curry Kolduny

I had really been wanting to make kuldony ever since I saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It is more or less a fried potato pancake with meat in the middle...which seems awesome! So I looked up the recipe for them and found one on the Foodnetwork, which said the recipe made 3 pancakes. (I know! No way that's enough.) I doubled the recipe and was able to get about 8 as I made mine a bit smaller.

So the recipe on the Foodnetwork (Kuldony Recipe)was not tested by their chefs and was taken from the restaurant on the show I guess. I'm going to say that ingredient-wise, everything was on par, but in terms of cooking time and maybe tips on what to look out for, the recipe was somewhat lacking.

The recipe said initial to cook the first side of the pancake for a minute. I'm going to say you want to be on about medium heat and at least let the first side cook and crisp for about 2-2.5 minutes. Otherwise, it comes out pale and not crispy. A note on putting the meat patties on top would be to make sure you flatten them out nicely before putting them on. With my first batch, I sort of just spooned a mound on the pancake. But the thing is that you have to put another layer of batter on top and then flip the pancakes over, so it's much easier to flip and cook when everything is nice and flat. Otherwise, you get a mess trying to turn the pancake over. (I also made the mistake at the beginning of adding a little bit of water to the potatoes before blending because I thought they needed it - wrong. Don't. This batter, I think, works better and browns better in a thicker state.)

Then I'd say flip the pancakes over and cook on medium to medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Be careful because these pancakes tend to burn quickly after the 5 minute mark, so I would check them around that time or even a little before. Another suggestion would be to maybe lower the heat a slight bit to ensure that you crisp up the pancake and cook the meat without having the pancakes burn. That's what I think is the one big thing about making these pancakes - you do want very crispy outsides because if you don't, the batter essentially tastes like runny mashed potatoes. You want to sandwich the soft mashed potatoes and meat with these crispy sides (and yet not burn them - tricky).

Red bliss potatoes

Peeled and diced potatoes

Potato batter

Curry chicken and turkey sausage

Pancake with thin meat patty

My Twist

Well as usual, I decide not to follow the recipe to its exact on the very first try. (I'd definitely recommend to people that for the first time making a recipe, you should always follow it completely and wait for the time after to see if there are any adjustments needed...I know, I'm a hypocrite).

I somehow was thinking of currywursts as I was making these and thought, hey, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the meat patties be curry flavored. So I added about 1 tablespoon of curry to my leftover 2 or so ounces of chicken/turkey mix. (I'm not a fan of beef and had no pork, so I did sort of a chicken sausage/ground turkey mix...turned out way delicious as well). Anyhow, the result from the curry mixture was awesome! It's just sort of like eating currywursts wrapped in a French fry - delicious.

I paired the kuldony with a bit of boiled cabbage and that really balanced out the dish. I was thinking next time to maybe put the cabbage and meat together in the pancake as that would add some bite to the pancakes. Only I think it would be difficult getting all the water out of the cabbage...Still, I've give that a try next and remember to update this post when I do! Anyways, if you guys are up for a bit of a challenge, give these pancakes a try. They might not initially turn out pretty, but every pancake turns out way delicious.

Ingredients - 1 ounce ground chicken sausage - 1 ounce ground turkey - 2 ounces yellow onion, cut in small pieces - 2 tablespoons curry powder - 3/4 teaspoon salt - 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper - 14 ounces fresh potato, peeled and cut into small cubes - 4 round tablespoons all-purpose flour - 1/2 beaten egg - 2 ounces vegetable oil

Directions 1. Mix the chicken, turkey, onions, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons of curry powder. Form 3 thin patties about 4 1/2 inches in diameter. 2. Add the potatoes and remaining 1 ounce onions to a grinder and grind everything until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter in a bowl and add the flour, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and the egg. Mix everything thoroughly. Form the batter into round thin pancakes. 3. Heat the oil in a pan. Place a potato pancake in the pan, topped with a meat patty and covered by more potato batter, covering all the meat. Fry the pancake on one side, about 1 minute. Flip it to the other side with a spatula, holding the top of the not-fried side with the fork. Make the fire smaller and cover the pan. Fry for 5 to 7 minutes, turning the pancakes over from time to time.