Lent offers culinary specialties
To make potato pancakes for a parish sale, 'you do it with love'
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 9, 2007
Photos by Robert Delaney
Elizabeth Zarek, 81, stirs eggs and other ingredients into potato pancake batter at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish. |
A plate of potato pancakes, with applesauce and sour cream, plus rice pudding for dessert, as served up. | Detroit — Lenten Soup Days at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in southwest Detroit not only offer a change from fish frys, but are drawing people from near and far for their made-from-scratch potato pancakes.
When the parish's Rosary/Altar Society started up its Lenten luncheons 12 years ago, the ladies appreciated that it would hard to head-to-head with the fish dinners being served at nearby St. Francis d'Assisi Parish, says Diane Grunas, who coordinates the luncheon series at Our Lady Queen of Angels.
So, they hit upon the idea of serving home-style soups, but also sometimes adding Polish-style potato pancakes to the menu. The potato pancakes proved so popular, they are now a fixture at the meals.
"We use real potatoes in making our batter, and we serve the meals using real bowls and plates. We get people coming from as far as Farmington Hills and even Oxford who saw our ad in The Michigan Catholic," Grunas says.
Irene Pilch is a regular customer for the potato pancakes. "They're like homemade – like I would make at home or my mother would have made," says Pilch, 81, who drives over from St. John Cantius Parish in Detroit's Delray area, where she is the secretary.
"And the soups are superb," she adds.
A choice of two soups is available each week, and Grunas says the beet soup is "a big, big seller." Others include potato, vegetable, cream of broccoli, cabbage, tomato rice, mushroom barley and bean soup.
Grunas, 51, is one of a group of women at the parish who have been working the soup days from the beginning. "We lost a few — a couple of them went to heaven — but otherwise it's the same group," she says.
They come the night before to peel and cut up all those potatoes that will be needed for the next day, which on a high-volume day such as this past Ash Wednesday can require 180 pounds of spuds.
Besides Ash Wednesday, the soup and potato lunches operate on the Fridays of Lent, through March 23.
Asked about the ingredients that go into her potato pancake batter, Elizabeth Zarek, 81, says the first one is love. "First of all, you love your parish and are willing to do this for it, and then you do it with love," she says.
But as to the other ingredients, Zarek says it is important to start with Idaho potatoes, which are cut into squares and then grated in a food processor. She lets the grated potatoes drain in a colander. Then, she adds two eggs, two tablespoons of freshly minced onion, a couple of teaspoons of salt, and two or three tablespoons of flour.
"And then these other ladies cook them to perfection," she says, indicating Grunas and Anna Skoczyn, 81, at the stove.
Fr. Anthony Richter, Our Lady Queen of Angels' pastor for the past year-and-a-half, says the Soup Days mean a lot to the parish. "They help in building community, among are own parishioners, among non-parishioners who live or run businesses around here. People who used to belong here will sometimes return for these, and they also help with the parish finances," he says.
Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish is at 4200 Martin Ave., just south of Michigan Avenue in Detroit. To place carryout orders or for more information, call the parish at (313) 897-8160.
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