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