Monday, March 16, 2009

Saint Patrick's Day - Irish Boxty


In honor of St. Patrick, Patron of Ireland, we are having Irish Boxty for St. Patrick's Day on March 17. Boxty is a traditional Irish dish made of - go figure - potatoes! I haven't made this exact recipe before, but I have fried mashed potato cakes in butter. This is similar. While I cannot claim to have a trace-worthy hint of Irish in my blood, potatoes were a huge part of my Grandpa Earl's life. My mom's dad, Grandpa Earl is a potato farmer. At 95 plus years, he's still growing and harvesting potatoes. This root crop has been a part of every 'big meal' and many small meals in our family. Here's the recipe if you'd like to join us in sampling this Irish tradition.


Irish Boxty
Yield: 6

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups grated raw potato
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Toss the grated potatoes with flour in a large bowl. Add mashed potatoes and stir until combined. In another bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Mix the egg mixture into the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drop in the potato mixture to form patties about 2 inches in diameter. Fry on both sides until golden brown (approximately 3 to 4 minutes on each side). Remove the patties to a paper towel lined plate. Serve while warm.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This brings back such great memories! Any time my Irish mom made mashed potatoes she would make something very similar from the leftovers, they were wonderful (when I had a 10 year old's metabolism!) :)