The POPsicle Recipes: Mama Gruna’s Shtetl Potato Pancakes

This week on The POPsicle podcast, Allie and I started our book club with Rachel Bloom’s debut book, I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are. The book had various kinds of writing in it, and one particular favorite was her pitch for a theme park called “Original Narrative Fun Times Thrill World!” And going back to my RJ’s Food Rocks theme park food recreations, I figured her dinner theatre venue would be the perfect place to find my inspired recipe. Meet Mama Gruna’s Shtetl Dinner and Show! Here’s the marketing pitch:

Step back into a poor home in a Jewish shtetl in the 1800s for delicious home-cooked potatoes, onion soup, potatoes, ground fish, stale bread, and potatoes! Served buffet-style (in that each dish must be reluctantly taken from the hands of one of Mama Gruna’s many children). And bewaaaaaare of the Cossacks hiding under each table! (Vegan options available).

I picked up some potatoes and went to work with my potato pancake recipe, inspired by the Korean street food hotteok - these are not filled with a fun sweet treat, but instead… FISH! Enjoy these thrifty cakes, and make sure you grab a copy of the book!

Don’t discount the power of potato!

1. Cut potatoes in quarters for an easy boil

2. In a pot, boil water and once boiling, add your potatoes

3. Boil potatoes until a knife slides right through each potato

4. On a non-stick pan, pan-fry your tilapia fillet until fish is opaque and cooked through, 4-5 minutes per side

5. Drain potatoes and place in mixing bowl

6. Add potato starch, salt, and pepper to taste, and mash potato mixture until a light dough forms (where you can form balls in your hands)

7. Flake tilapia fillet and, with your hands, form a disc with potato mixture as wide as your palm

8. Place flaked fish in the center, and then carefully pinch edges of the pancake until the fish is covered entirely, like a filling inside the pancakes

9. Once all pancakes are made, heat up pan once again and pan-fry pancakes until surface browns

10. Let cool and enjoy!

Mama Gruna’s Shtetl Potato Pancakes

Makes about 8 potato pancakes

• 4 medium-sized potatoes (use yellow, or if russet then peel first!)

• 4 tablespoons potato starch

• 1 fillet tilapia

• salt & pepper