: : Kartoffelpuffer ~ Potatoe Pancakes : :
It all started back in November 03 when Alberto cooked Kartoffelpuffer for dinner and graciously providing me with the recipe. Then, I promptly forgot all about it and when Josh did another posting, then I remembered and wanted to do it in US. Since Jas was in the midst of moving apartments and packing up her cutleries, I didn’t do it until today with Granny. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon so I thought, why not?
Wena : Eh! Want to make potatoe pancake ah? Very nice wor! But you got tepung biasa (wheat flour) or not?
Granny : Errr…don’t think so lah! Have to check one!
After checking the fridge.
Granny : Don’t have flour lah but got this one! Can make very very crunchy! Better than KFC wor!
Wena : See see!
The powder was a batter mix by Hup Loong which is famous in Kuching for making crispy dishes. My Granny searched everywhere for it and finally found it at Top Point Supermarket in Tabuan Jaya. Click on the last picture above to read the ingredients and instructions on using the powder. We didn’t follow those instructions but used the one from Josh’s posting although we did add more flour in. More information here on the various batter premixes that they manufacture and sell. The reason why we decided to use this was because it was raining very hard and we didn’t want to tackle the traffic jams in Tabuan Jaya.
So we prepared the ingredients to fry the Kartoffelpuffer. I didn’t dry the grated potato as much as I should have but oh well. The batter more than made up for it. I added in another bowl of batter in upon Granny’s instructions since she said that needed a lot more of this flour to make it crispy. So it was another quick mix and in it went with the others. I did notice that a lot of water was seeping out of the potatoe, making the entire mixture very soggy. Hmm… must bear that in mind the next time.
We used a Chinese wok for this as to pull out a pan out of the kitchen mess (undergoing massive renovation works since July). Looks okay from the picture no? The ends were extremely crispy and tasted just like potato chips.
Pipeman : (Crunch munch) Sweet potatoe ah?
Granny : No lah! Normal one lah! Eat with chilli sauce chun (good)!
The chilli sauce is an Asian touch to it all. I didn’t want to be stuck with 1.5 quarts of applesauce and with it raining and all, didn’t go down to Choice Daily to get a small bottle of it. Oh well. I ate it plain as it was good enough to do so. I luv the crunchy ends a lot.
Granny : Can start good business wor! We sell during Chinese New Year want?
Wena : Ahem…
Having said that, we decided to prepare a batch for visitors on CNY. Figured that the crispiness would last for probably one day or rather, fry it when people are around. We don’t get a lot of visitors so phew! Am also thinking of making some Rice Krispies treats as Jas showed me how to do it in the US. She got it off the cereal box but I found a recipe online via Stef’s blog. Only problem is that people will definitely compare it to the crunchiness of Bee Pang (local rice version). The Rice Krispie Treat will not be as crunchy as that but just as oily.
CNY entails too much preparation, methinks.