Kate's Cooking: Boxty

(The logo for this column is a picture of a spice market in Provence, France)

Greetings. I am so pleased to be writing for House Abukoff. Where I currently reside it is getting cold and it is time to retreat inside and warm our small apartment by cooking fun things and experimenting. Cooking can be tough these days in hard economic times. Today I am talking about the very versatile vegetable – the potato. My heritage is largely Irish and the Irish have a long history of involvement with the potato. In these modern times there are many new varieties for us to use and more often than not you can find the basic white potato at a good price for those of us who are on tight budgets. If you are lucky enough to be able to grow your own in a traditional outside garden then that’s great! If you live in a small apartment you can also grow potatoes in a large bucket or planter of solid dirt that has a depth of at least 12 inches or 30cm. Sunny places by a back door or on a ledge or out on a patio are suitable. Plant about 3 or 4 medium sized seed potatoes that have sprouted (the number of potatoes depends on the size of the planter). Cover the potatoes with an inch or so of dirt. Your potatoes will break ground in a relatively short time and bring forth their stems and leaves, then flowers. When the flowers dry and fall off, you can have fun harvesting them. NOTE: if you are growing plants inside and have small children and / or animals in your home, keep an eye on them as the potato leaves etc. are poisonous. Most animals generally have a sixth sense about these things. The following is a great recipe from Ireland. I call it an economic recipe as most folk have the ingredients for it as part of their kitchen food items.

BOXTY

This is a traditional Irish dish. It has an interesting texture. I like to add some chopped spring (or green) onions, chopped chives and black pepper. Salt is optional.

Ingredients:

1 cup each of – grated raw potatoes, mashed cooked potatoes and plain white flour.

* your own choice of seasonings
* chopped spring onions and/or chives
* ¼ cup of butter or margarine – add extra if you want but not too much

In a bowl mix all the ingredients well. Turn out onto a flat, floured surface. Knead a little and roll out like a cookie dough. Using a medium cookie cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can. Melt extra butter or oil in a heavy based or non stick frypan and cook until golden brown on each side. Serve hot.

We like to have them for breakfast and sometimes add bacon to the platter. Personally I find Boxty good to serve with cold meat and salad for a nice lunch.


Happy cooking to you.

Kate