How To Make: Pražen Krompir (Slovenian Style Sautéed Potatoes)
Slovenia is undoubtedly the best country in the world. It’s the only country with the word “love” in the name (sLOVEnia), an amazing 53% of Slovenia is protected land (topped only by Venezuela), and you can literally do anything you want: ski, go to the beach, become a farmer, make a startup, it’s all possible. Being half-Slovenian, I was always interested in our food. It’s usually either dessert or meat: Potica, Gibanica, and Kranjska Klobasa are some of the notable ones. However, a few years ago I found about this amazing recipe called pražen krompir.
It came when I was visiting some relatives in Slovenia, and you have to understand that visiting relatives in the Balkan always ends up with a massive feast at the end, there’s no way around it. This time, we went to a tiny village in the middle of Slovenia, and walked into what looked like someone’s living room, but my uncle assured me it’s a restaurant: “trust me I’ve known these people for years!” They had the classics: meat with rice, meat with pasta, meat with meat, and then they also had this dish called pražen krompir (with meat of course!).
Pražen krompir translates to “sautéed potatoes” and consists mostly of potatoes, onions and lots of fat. Which fat you use is flexible: goose fat is great with any kind of potatoes but olive oil works as well. I like to use some goose fat and some olive oil mixed together. The potatoes I had at that little village restaurant were so perfect in every way: they had this amazing glaze-like layer of fat over them and just the right amount of beef stock that prevented the potatoes from falling into the sautéed potatoes trap of being absolutely tasteless. Since then, I’ve tried and tried to replicate this dish and I really like the way it’s turned out. Enjoy!
Ingredients (2 servings):
4 potatoes
1 onion, halved and chopped crosswise
125ml beef stock
125ml vegetable stock
100ml goose fat
150ml olive oil
1. Lay out all your ingredients.
2. Submerge the potatoes in cold water, then bring them to a boil. Boil them for about 40 minutes, until they are cooked all the way through.
3. Halve the onion, then chop it crosswise.
4. Around 10 minutes before the potatoes are cooked, mix the goose fat and oil together in a pan, then throw in the onions and let them fry on medium/low heat. At the same time, combine the beef and vegetable stock in a pot and keep hot.
5. Once the potatoes are cooked, peel them quickly (even if they’re hot!) and then throw them in with the onions. Break the potatoes down roughly with a wooden spoon.
Let the potatoes fry with the onions, then slowly, incrementally add the stock mixture just like you would with a risotto. You might not need all of the stock: the key is to add enough so that the color turns slightly darker and richer, but to stop before the potatoes turn into mashed potatoes.
6. And it’s done! Serve as a side dish with salmon, steak, chicken, pretty much anything.
