Belarus

The Belarussian drankini, a sort of potato pancake thing

For Belarus, we cobbled together four things. Drankini, the Belarussian national dish; some sour cream with chopped, marinated herring and raw onion to accompany it; red cabbage, always a good accompaniment to anything from the Russias; and for authenticity some neat vodka to wash it all down.

Drankini is pleasantly and surprisingly easy to make. A shallow-fried pancake comprised of finely-grated potato and onion with an egg and a little olive oil, it’s not wholly dissimilar to the Andorran trixnat we cooked a couple of months ago. We fried up half a dozen of them and ate them with our various accompaniments. The drankini – the ostensible purpose of the whole exercise – didn’t really make itself noticed against the herring, onion and sour cream.

So that’s Belarus; a pleasant, but not terribly noticeable, sort of potato pancake that sits as an adequate accompaniment to the main event. Next up – Belgium.