I hadn’t heard of boxty until my son and his wife took us to Holohan’s Pantry in Belfast, a restaurant that offers traditional Irish food with a modern twist. Boxty of the day appears on every menu.
It’s appears quite simple really – a pancake made with grated raw potato, fried in butter, crispy on the outside and soft within. I was expecting a new veg and fruit box today, but still had quite a lot of potatoes to use up so decided to have a go at making it yesterday.
Boxty presents a few challenges – I’m sure I must have a gadget somewhere in the cupboard that would make the process of grating a lot of raw potato easier, but if so I couldn’t find it. Then the potatoes have to be placed in a tea-towel and squeezed to get out as much liquid as possible. The liquid is left to stand until the unwanted water separates from the starch, which is then added back to the potatoes with flour, salt and buttermilk.
Ah yes, buttermilk. Not something I usually have in my house, and I can’t pop down to my local Sainbury’s to get some even if they stocked it. But what I do have is quark – some of you will understand why I always have some in my fridge. Quark is a soft cheese made from buttermilk, so I mixed a spoonful or so with some ordinary milk to get a good approximation to buttermilk.
The next challenge was to turn the boxty over once one side had browned in the butter. Mine was too large to flip like a normal pancake, so I had to invert it onto a board and slide it back in to the pan.
Well, it worked – the evidence is in the photo above – and you have now read through a whole recipe, which you don’t often do on Lib Dem Voice. You can read the proper version here.
Please note
We have been in full self-isolation since 16th March to protect my husband whose immune system is compromised.
If you are in self-isolation then join the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group.
You can find my previous Isolation diaries here.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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8 Comments
I am enjoying your diaries, Mary.
Ordinary milk with a splash of lemon juice in substitutes for buttermilk. I’ve done soda bread like that.
Thanks, Daniel
Now, Mary, this is a really excellent contribution to LDV life. (and to every other shade of political life too). Thank you Daniel as well for the link to making buttermilk substitute.
Mary,
I think even those of us whose culinary skills do not extend much beyond boiling an egg could have a go at your recipe. Boxty it is for breakfast tomorrow.
Well that has solved a mystery!
I’ve seen the Irish Blues Band Johnny Gallagher and Boxty a couple of times, and wondered where the name came from (in some places its written as ‘boxtie’ which I though was string on a package…… obviously not).
Have a listen to him here:
https://www.facebook.com/johnnygboxtie
@Joe Bourke – do please read the full recipe that I link to, and don’t rely on my approximation! It does take longer than you think.
An occasional feature of my childhood in South Lancashire were grater cakes, cooked by my grandmother on my father’s side. Which were raw grated potato fried like pancakes. And they were delicious. My grandmother’s family did come from N Ireland. My father’s aunt gave us orange lily bulbs for the front garden when we moved house to show which side we were on. They sound very like boxty.
My mother disapproved of grater cakes as too greasy. She made potato cakes which were like scones, made with mashed potato and flour and cooked on a griddle. Her family came from North Wales. But also delicious.
I’m now minded to try making grater cakes.
Mary,
you are right. I was being a little optimistic that I could manage to cook up a Boxty quickly. I did, however, jump on my son’s bicycle to go and get some of the ingredients so at least got some rigorous exercise from following your posts.