Potato Pancakes With Smoked Salmon

From: Zurie

On Mar 18, 2007

Reviewed for RSC #9. Potentially, this is a 5 star, fine-dining starter! But not just yet ... The cook made magic with the flavours she chose for these little potato pancakes. The fennel seeds were a delicate counterpoint to the delicious sweetish onion, which I cooked to caramelising point. The crisp potato, sour cream with dill, onion and salmon came together in a most successful and gorgeous taste. So: why not 5 stars? Because the cook was a little too casual with the amounts of ingredients, and I had to tweak these to make sure there would be at least 8 little pancakes (she said "2 medium potatoes". I used 4 potatoes, and I also used more onion, but it almost didn't stretch to 8 pancakes: the recipe is for 8 - 10). The sour cream was on the runny side: cream cheese would have been a better choice. Also, I wasn't sure whether she was referring to hot or cold smoked salmon, but that's a minor point. (I only had the hot-smoked kind). I served these lukewarm (quite fashionable these days — not wanting to heat the sour cream and salmon too much). The potato cakes did not stay crisp (maybe a plan can be made with that yet). With the little ingredient tweaks suggested, this should be a 5 star recipe. It's absolutely delicious, the flavours well thought out, and a keeper! A clever recipe.

From: Bergy

On Mar 17, 2007

This is so delicious. I almost knocked you down a star for two reasons. These should be served right out of the pan so they are crisp outside -they go a bit soft sitting in th oven and the number of servings says 8-10 where it should be number of pancakes - it is a bit misleading. However they were just too good to take away a star - I used Lox and sweet onions. I will make thse again next week as an appetizer served before a luncheon. I'll cut the size of the pancakes to 2" and serve 2 per person. You did a great job on this recipe. Good luck in the contest

From: tigerduck

On Mar 19, 2007

I completely agree with Zurie's review. Potential for 5 stars (and if I could give 4.5 I certainly would), loved the fennel seeds in the potato cakes, the caramalised onion, the dill and sour cream mixture topped with the smoked salmon. However, I had no clue how many potatoes to use. I ended up using 550g because in another recipe the weight (which was about a pound I believe) was given in addition to the remark of 2 potatoes. I had to use 12 potatoes to get this amount - potatoes are quite small in Switzerland. Furthermore, my friend and I (two women) ate all the potato cakes for dinner together with a side salad. But nevertheless, this recipe is a keeper for sure. Thank you so much for creating it!

From: French Tart

On Mar 18, 2007

I was eager to make this as one of my last RSC make and review recipes; unfortunately, I only managed 5 pancakes based on the ingredients, and they were a lttle greasy and not very crispy! I love Rosti and Potato cakes in all guises - so feeling a little guilty that I may have made a mistake, I tried again! I managed to make 6 pancakes this time but with an extra potato and the flavours were a bit diluted due to adding an extra spud! We loved the whole concept of this recipe - it has all our favourite elements - potatos, sour cream(we subbed creme fraiche) and smoked salmon....wonderful! I WILL be making these again - normally I would have tweaked this recipe to make it work, but as it was an entry for RSC, I stuck with the ingredients AND the measurments as much as possible. They were EXTREMELY nice and I am VERY pleased that I tried them, thanks for posting such a wonderful recipe for RSC and please be assured that we DID enjoy them and I will be making them again! Good Luck - a very lovely recipe, just needs tweaking a bit!!