There is perhaps no other food that has more names in the Hungarian language than potato pancakes. Tócsni, lapcsánka or röszti – they are only three from its 60 names. Whatever it’s called, everyone certainly knows this comfort food: grated potatoes mixed with some flour, flattened into pancake form and shallow-fried in oil or lard. Popular, cheap and delicious.

Potato pancakes can be made in many different ways. Potatoes can be grated finely or coarsly; there are those who mix the grated potatoes with only flour and salt, others add eggs and onions, or finely chopped parsley leaves, grated zucchini, carrot or celeriac root to the mixture, too. They can be fried in oil or lard on the stove or roasted in the oven.

Potato pancakes are often served with some kind of sauce: the most popular one is sour cream flavoured with crushed garlic (I add summer savory, too, whose smell and taste are reminiscent of black pepper), but they can be topped with the mixture of oil and crushed garlic, or with mustard and ketchup, or herbed yogurt.