Chef Lesia
Banosh (банош, Carpathian cornmeal porridge)
Cornmeal and sour cream go over the flame pale and separate, then suddenly turn glossy, yellow, and almost stubborn. Stir one way only, the shepherds say, and listen.
Culinary Explorer
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Deruny (деруни, potato pancakes)
Created by
Raw potato turns sly the moment you grate it: wet, starchy, already darkening. Deruny reward speed, hot oil, and the courage to leave the edges alone until they crisp.
Breakfast & Brunch
Ukrainian
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
Weeknight
20 min
Active Time
25 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
Raw potato turns sly the moment you grate it. One minute it is pale and clean, the next it is weeping starch into the bowl and threatening to go grey on you. Deruny are built in that narrow little window: squeeze, season, fry at once, while the potatoes still smell fresh and the oil is ready to answer back.
The one why is simple. Dry potato browns; wet potato steams in the pan and sulks. So you grate the onion straight into the potato to keep it pale and sweet, then squeeze the mixture until your hands complain a little. Aunt Nadia wrote only, "not too wet, not too proud," which took me two attempts and one tragic soft batch to understand.
Serve them as they come from the pan, lacy at the edges, tender in the middle, with cold smetana and dill. Enough for eight guests or one hungry Ukrainian, if nobody is watching.
Deruny take their name from the Ukrainian verb deraty, to tear or grate, and the dish became especially rooted in Polissia and the northern forest regions after potatoes settled into Ukrainian kitchens in the nineteenth century. Korosten in Zhytomyr Oblast even holds a deruny festival, which tells you what a serious thing a cheap potato can become when a whole town argues about the best grater.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
starchy potatoes
Quantity
1.2 kg
peeled
yellow onion
Quantity
1 medium
peeled
eggs
Quantity
2 large
plain flour
Quantity
3 tablespoons, plus more only if needed
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to finish
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
unrefined sunflower oil
Quantity
120ml
for frying
smetana (sour cream) (optional)
Quantity
to serve
fresh dill (optional)
Quantity
small handful
chopped, to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| starchy potatoespeeled | 1.2 kg |
| yellow onionpeeled | 1 medium |
| eggs | 2 large |
| plain flour | 3 tablespoons, plus more only if needed |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to finish |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| unrefined sunflower oilfor frying | 120ml |
| smetana (sour cream) (optional) | to serve |
| fresh dill (optional)chopped, to serve | small handful |
Equipment Needed
- •A box grater or food processor with fine grating disc
- •A clean tea towel or fine sieve
- •A heavy frying pan
- •A cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Grate the onion
Set a box grater over a wide bowl and grate the onion first on the fine side. It should turn juicy and sharp-smelling. That onion juice keeps the potato from darkening too quickly and gives sweetness right through the batter.
- 2
Grate the potatoes
Grate the potatoes into the onion, working quickly and turning the mixture through with your fingers as you go. If it starts to look grey, don't panic, just keep moving. The bowl should smell clean and raw, like a cut potato field after rain.
- 3
Squeeze it dry
Tip the mixture into a clean tea towel or a fine sieve and squeeze hard over a second bowl until the stream slows to drops. Leave the liquid to stand for a minute, then pour off the brownish water and scrape the white potato starch from the bottom back into the potatoes. That's your crispness. Don't throw it away.
This is the step that decides the dish. Dry potato browns in sunflower oil; wet potato hisses, steams, and gives you soft middles with no lacy edge. - 4
Mix the batter
Stir in the eggs, flour, salt, and black pepper. The batter should hold together on a spoon but still look mostly like grated potato, not pancake batter from a packet. If it slumps into soup, add a spoon more flour. If it stands stiff, leave it alone.
- 5
Heat the oil
Pour enough sunflower oil into a heavy frying pan to generously coat the base and set it over medium-high heat. Drop in one shred of potato: it should answer with a lively sizzle at once, not silence and not fury. That is when it sounds right.
- 6
Fry the deruny
Spoon in small mounds of potato and flatten them with the back of the spoon so the edges spread thin. Fry until the rims turn deep gold and the potato smell changes from raw cellar to nutty and sweet, then turn once. Don't fuss with them early; they release when they're ready.
- 7
Serve at once
Lift the deruny onto a rack or paper towel and salt them while the oil still shines on the surface. Keep frying in batches, adding more oil as the pan asks for it. Serve hot with cold smetana and a scatter of dill, the contrast doing half the work.
Chef Tips
- •Use starchy potatoes if you can. Waxy salad potatoes make a looser, wetter batter and ask for more flour, which quiets the potato flavor.
- •A food processor is a bit more modern and perfectly allowed on a weeknight. Use the fine grating disc, then still squeeze the potato properly.
- •Fry a small tester first. It tells you whether the batter needs salt, a spoon more flour, or a hotter pan before you commit the whole bowl.
- •Deruny wait badly. If you must hold them, use a rack in a low oven, never a covered plate, or the crisp edges soften under their own heat.
Advance Preparation
- •Deruny are best mixed and fried immediately, before the potato darkens and releases more water.
- •You can peel the potatoes an hour ahead and keep them submerged in cold water, then dry them well before grating.
- •Leftovers can be reheated in a dry frying pan or hot oven until the edges return, but the first batch from the pan is the prize.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 250g)
Calories
405 calories
Total Fat
20 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
14 g
Cholesterol
90 mg
Sodium
640 mg
Total Carbohydrates
49 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
9 g
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