Zbojnícka kapsa

The title means ''bandit's saddlebag'' and it is very popular in restaurants in Slovakia nowadays. Normally I don't hold modern Slovak restaurant inventions in high esteem, but this is actually a good idea. It's meat ragout in a large potato pancake, often topped with grated cheese.

To make zemiakové placky (the pancakes), you'll need about a pound of grated raw potatoes, finely chopped onions (not too much, perhaps one large), finely chopped garlic (a little, e.g. two cloves), dried marjoram (a teaspoon maybe), salt, pepper, an egg, several tablespoons of flour to hold it together. Mix it all into a batter and then fry rather thin pancakes in lard. For this recipe they should be quite large, but otherwise they're made much smaller.

The ragout can be pretty much anything you like. A good idea would be the classic Hungarian pork pörkölt. Cubed pork is seared in lard, removed from it, quite a lot of chopped onion is added, fried, then some chopped garlic and paprika, the meat is returned to the pan, seasoned, barely covered with water and braised covered. To improve upon this basic recipe, you could add some wild mushrooms, some chicken livers, perhaps a bit of strong mustard or worcester sauce (the latter is quite popular nowadays in Slovakia).

The pancake is then stuffed with the ragout and often sprinkled with grated cheese. Various pickles may be served with it. It's the Slovak response to tacos, it seems.