Cornwall Recipes
by Toni-Maree Rowe
by Toni-Maree Rowe
When people think of Cornwall images of sandy coves, breathtaking cliffs, atmospheric ruins all spring to mind. But for many it is also the culinary traditions which form a lasting impression on the visitor. In the following pages you will find recipes for the traditional Cornish pasty (as per the husband); saffron buns and star gazey pie.
The Cornish Pasty
No visit to Cornwall is complete without sampling the pasty and since 2011 the Cornish Pasty ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ status in Europe. The origin of the pasty is lost in the mists of time however it became most closely associated with industrialisation of the county and tin miners. Essentially, it is a meal in itself and has the added bonus of being portable. There are many variations to the basic recipe (any visit to a pasty shop in Cornwall will attest to this) but the following recipe follows the more traditional form. I have also included a recipe for the short crust pastry but obviously if you don’t want to make your own then shop bought is quite okay too. Also it should be noted that some people use puff pastry rather than the short crust - like with so many things it comes down to personal preference.
Special Note: the quantities below are an approximation and should make two medium sized pastys. The husband did not have exact measurements for me - he does it by eye...
The Pastry
200g of flour
50g lard (this is important - if not used, the pastry will be too rich and too short)
50g butter
(or half fat to flour of which half the fat should be lard)
Crumble these three ingredients together, mix ice cold water into the crumb until combined and firm (but not sticky). Make into a ball and wrap in plastic put in fridge for a couple of hours to firm up further. Try not to handle the pastry too much or overmix.
Inside your pasty
Again there are no fixed amounts here...
Beef skirt is best to use but you can use beef chuck, sliced thinly.
Potatoes, diced small
Swede, diced small (or turnip if you are Cornish)
Onion, diced finely
Salt and pepper
(and a word from the hubby - under no circumstances are there to be peas or carrots in a pasty...)
Assembly
Divide your pastry into even quantities and roll into discs half a centimetre in thickness. On one half of the disc place the required amounts of ingredients to taste, leaving enough space for the crimp when folded. Fold the empty half of the disc over the ingredients and crimp along the side (another word from the hubby - do not crimp along the top, a side crimp is the proper way to do it...). Brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven until golden.
Saffron Buns
This recipe is unashamedly reproduced from the blog of Recipes From A Cornish Kitchen. The use of saffron is said to date back to when Cornwall was the central hub of the tin trade with visitors and traders from all over Europe, some even say it was the Phoenicians who introduced the spice to Cornwall...
1 lb Strong Plain Flour
4 oz fat - half each, lard and butter
4 oz castor sugar
Currants to taste - please do not be stingy! Hunt the currant is no fun.
1 oz fresh yeast - or these days, I use the equivalent of Allison’s Easy Bake yeast.
Saffron
Place your desired amount of saffron in a barely warm oven to dry for half an hour. Lightly crush and tip into 9 fl oz of boiling water. Cool to tepid, add a teaspoon of sugar and your yeast. Allow to start working and frothy.
Meanwhile rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add a pinch of salt too followed by the sugar and fruit. Make a well and tip in your yeasty, divinely smelling liquid. Using your hands bring the flour into the centre and mix well. This will be pretty wet, but don’t panic. When incorporated tip onto a floured surface and gently kneed for a few minutes, then place back into your mixing bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film and allow it to rise. When it has doubled in size, tip back onto the floured surface and lightly kneed again for a minute or so.
Get some scales with a plate on it. Prepare your baking sheet. Now you need to decide how large your buns need to be? The above were weighed out at 2 1/4 ounces. Of course, you do not have to weigh the dough out, but it’s nice to have them all the same size! Carefully shape them, always turning the dough inwards on the bottom. Place on the baking sheet, in rows and allow to rise for the last time for 30 mins or so. Warm your fan oven to 180 celsius. Cook for about 20 mins. Once baked allow to cool and spread with butter...these can also be frozen if you make too many (never a bad thing). Just remove from the freezer and microwave until warmed through.
Star Gazey Pie
Probably not the most appetising looking pie (at least not to my kids) this particular Cornish recipe has a uniquely Cornish history. Whilst there are variations it is believed to have originated in the fishing village of Mousehole in the far west of Cornwall. It is eaten during the festival of Tom Bawcock’s Eve which celebrates his heroic efforts to save the village from starvation. In brief, the story goes that as Christmas approached one year the village who relied on the fishing catch were facing starvation thanks to the devilish weather which had prevented the men from venturing forth. But on the 23rd of December Tom headed out into stormy seas in fishing boat and managed to catch enough fish to feed the whole village. The entire catch, which included seven types of fish, was baked into a large pie.
The Recipe
This is essentially a fish pie made with a white sauce and as with the pasty there are several variations. Traditionally it is made with pilchards but any firm white fish can be used for the body of the pie. The pie is topped with pastry (either short crust or puff) and the heads and tails of pilchards (or herrings) used as decoration - see photo. The following recipe assumes you are using pilchards or herrings.
6 slices bacon, cut into 1” pieces
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1⁄2 cup chicken stock
1⁄3 cup crème fraîche
2 tbsp. English mustard, such as Colman’s
2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 fresh pilchards, herrings or sardines, cleaned, heads attached
3 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and sliced
First, clean, gut and bone your fish leaving the heads on...
Heat bacon in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until slightly crisp, 5–7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add butter and onion to pan; cook until golden, 5–7 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in stock, crème fraîche, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, half the egg, and salt; set aside.
To assemble and bake the pie - heat oven to 400 F or 200 C - place a disc of pastry in the base of your pie dish (a nine inch dish works best) leaving an overhang along the edge. Arrange your chosen fish around the pie bottom with the heads poking out the top; pour filling over the fish, top with the bacon and arrange the eggs over the mix. Season with salt and pepper.
Roll out a second disc of pastry for the top cutting eight slits from the edge inwards to allow for the fish heads to poke through the pastry. Place carefully over the filling and pull the fish heads through, pinch the base and top together and fold under, brush with egg. Bake for approximately 35-40minutes or until the pie is golden and bubbling.
(recipe from https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/stargazy-pie-english-sardine-pie)
The Cornish Pasty
No visit to Cornwall is complete without sampling the pasty and since 2011 the Cornish Pasty ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ status in Europe. The origin of the pasty is lost in the mists of time however it became most closely associated with industrialisation of the county and tin miners. Essentially, it is a meal in itself and has the added bonus of being portable. There are many variations to the basic recipe (any visit to a pasty shop in Cornwall will attest to this) but the following recipe follows the more traditional form. I have also included a recipe for the short crust pastry but obviously if you don’t want to make your own then shop bought is quite okay too. Also it should be noted that some people use puff pastry rather than the short crust - like with so many things it comes down to personal preference.
Special Note: the quantities below are an approximation and should make two medium sized pastys. The husband did not have exact measurements for me - he does it by eye...
The Pastry
200g of flour
50g lard (this is important - if not used, the pastry will be too rich and too short)
50g butter
(or half fat to flour of which half the fat should be lard)
Crumble these three ingredients together, mix ice cold water into the crumb until combined and firm (but not sticky). Make into a ball and wrap in plastic put in fridge for a couple of hours to firm up further. Try not to handle the pastry too much or overmix.
Inside your pasty
Again there are no fixed amounts here...
Beef skirt is best to use but you can use beef chuck, sliced thinly.
Potatoes, diced small
Swede, diced small (or turnip if you are Cornish)
Onion, diced finely
Salt and pepper
(and a word from the hubby - under no circumstances are there to be peas or carrots in a pasty...)
Assembly
Divide your pastry into even quantities and roll into discs half a centimetre in thickness. On one half of the disc place the required amounts of ingredients to taste, leaving enough space for the crimp when folded. Fold the empty half of the disc over the ingredients and crimp along the side (another word from the hubby - do not crimp along the top, a side crimp is the proper way to do it...). Brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven until golden.
Saffron Buns
This recipe is unashamedly reproduced from the blog of Recipes From A Cornish Kitchen. The use of saffron is said to date back to when Cornwall was the central hub of the tin trade with visitors and traders from all over Europe, some even say it was the Phoenicians who introduced the spice to Cornwall...
1 lb Strong Plain Flour
4 oz fat - half each, lard and butter
4 oz castor sugar
Currants to taste - please do not be stingy! Hunt the currant is no fun.
1 oz fresh yeast - or these days, I use the equivalent of Allison’s Easy Bake yeast.
Saffron
Place your desired amount of saffron in a barely warm oven to dry for half an hour. Lightly crush and tip into 9 fl oz of boiling water. Cool to tepid, add a teaspoon of sugar and your yeast. Allow to start working and frothy.
Meanwhile rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add a pinch of salt too followed by the sugar and fruit. Make a well and tip in your yeasty, divinely smelling liquid. Using your hands bring the flour into the centre and mix well. This will be pretty wet, but don’t panic. When incorporated tip onto a floured surface and gently kneed for a few minutes, then place back into your mixing bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film and allow it to rise. When it has doubled in size, tip back onto the floured surface and lightly kneed again for a minute or so.
Get some scales with a plate on it. Prepare your baking sheet. Now you need to decide how large your buns need to be? The above were weighed out at 2 1/4 ounces. Of course, you do not have to weigh the dough out, but it’s nice to have them all the same size! Carefully shape them, always turning the dough inwards on the bottom. Place on the baking sheet, in rows and allow to rise for the last time for 30 mins or so. Warm your fan oven to 180 celsius. Cook for about 20 mins. Once baked allow to cool and spread with butter...these can also be frozen if you make too many (never a bad thing). Just remove from the freezer and microwave until warmed through.
Star Gazey Pie
Probably not the most appetising looking pie (at least not to my kids) this particular Cornish recipe has a uniquely Cornish history. Whilst there are variations it is believed to have originated in the fishing village of Mousehole in the far west of Cornwall. It is eaten during the festival of Tom Bawcock’s Eve which celebrates his heroic efforts to save the village from starvation. In brief, the story goes that as Christmas approached one year the village who relied on the fishing catch were facing starvation thanks to the devilish weather which had prevented the men from venturing forth. But on the 23rd of December Tom headed out into stormy seas in fishing boat and managed to catch enough fish to feed the whole village. The entire catch, which included seven types of fish, was baked into a large pie.
The Recipe
This is essentially a fish pie made with a white sauce and as with the pasty there are several variations. Traditionally it is made with pilchards but any firm white fish can be used for the body of the pie. The pie is topped with pastry (either short crust or puff) and the heads and tails of pilchards (or herrings) used as decoration - see photo. The following recipe assumes you are using pilchards or herrings.
6 slices bacon, cut into 1” pieces
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1⁄2 cup chicken stock
1⁄3 cup crème fraîche
2 tbsp. English mustard, such as Colman’s
2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 fresh pilchards, herrings or sardines, cleaned, heads attached
3 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and sliced
First, clean, gut and bone your fish leaving the heads on...
Heat bacon in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until slightly crisp, 5–7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add butter and onion to pan; cook until golden, 5–7 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in stock, crème fraîche, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, half the egg, and salt; set aside.
To assemble and bake the pie - heat oven to 400 F or 200 C - place a disc of pastry in the base of your pie dish (a nine inch dish works best) leaving an overhang along the edge. Arrange your chosen fish around the pie bottom with the heads poking out the top; pour filling over the fish, top with the bacon and arrange the eggs over the mix. Season with salt and pepper.
Roll out a second disc of pastry for the top cutting eight slits from the edge inwards to allow for the fish heads to poke through the pastry. Place carefully over the filling and pull the fish heads through, pinch the base and top together and fold under, brush with egg. Bake for approximately 35-40minutes or until the pie is golden and bubbling.
(recipe from https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/stargazy-pie-english-sardine-pie)
Scottish, Welsh and Irish
Recipes by Alison MacRae
Recipes by Alison MacRae
We received a couple more great recipes from Alison. Feel free to send in your own. We'll begin this page with a couple of Scottish recipes and then look at Welsh and Irish recipes.
If you were brought up in Scotland or have a Scottish Mum, Dad, or Grandparents, there is a very good chance that at some point in your childhood you would have had this on the dinner table. I’m talking about Mince and Tatties, a Scottish dish that I grew up with and still enjoy today. This is one of my favourite Scottish meals. What I find fascinating about Mince and Tatties is that there is an annual competition held each year in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull to determine the best "Mince and Tatties." Who would have thought there would be such a thing?
It is comparable to the great Chilli Cookoffs that other countries compete in. In Scotland, we have our Mince and Tatties cook off. You might also be as surprised as I was how many great Chefs are listed for Scotland. Too many to list here or count, wonderful.
I am sure everyone has their own way of cooking this meal, some make it with mashed potatoes, some with more veggies as well. This is the way I was taught and has become my way of cooking it.
Mince and Tatties
1 lb of ground beef
1 med onion
4 or 5 potatoes peeled and cut in half or quarter.
salt and pepper to taste
4 Tbls Bisto powder (gravy maker)
1 Tbls HP Sauce
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of peas (optional)
Saute the onions in frying pan. Cook the ground beef and get rid of any grease. Add onions to the ground beef, in large pot or skillet. Add Bisto powder and potatoes. I also add the peas and put all on the burner. By the time the potatoes are cooked the meal will be ready to eat as well. It is that easy!
It is comparable to the great Chilli Cookoffs that other countries compete in. In Scotland, we have our Mince and Tatties cook off. You might also be as surprised as I was how many great Chefs are listed for Scotland. Too many to list here or count, wonderful.
I am sure everyone has their own way of cooking this meal, some make it with mashed potatoes, some with more veggies as well. This is the way I was taught and has become my way of cooking it.
Mince and Tatties
1 lb of ground beef
1 med onion
4 or 5 potatoes peeled and cut in half or quarter.
salt and pepper to taste
4 Tbls Bisto powder (gravy maker)
1 Tbls HP Sauce
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of peas (optional)
Saute the onions in frying pan. Cook the ground beef and get rid of any grease. Add onions to the ground beef, in large pot or skillet. Add Bisto powder and potatoes. I also add the peas and put all on the burner. By the time the potatoes are cooked the meal will be ready to eat as well. It is that easy!
Tea Loaf
A simple meal to cook and I can assure you it is also a good one. An old Scottish recipe, this tea loaf is a delight with afternoon tea. We all know how Scot's love their tea.
2 2/3 cups mixed dried fruit
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cold tea
4 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice (apple pie )
1 egg
In a large bowl mix the fruit and brown sugar coating well. Add the cold tea, stir and let soak overnight. Next morning add the flour and stir well. Add the beaten egg and mix again. Put the mixture in the prepared loaf pan and bake in the oven 40 - 50 minutes. Test with a skewer. When ready take out and let cool.
Now for people that want a stronger taste, you can replace the cold tea with blended whisky. That will take the chill out of a cold winter day!
A simple meal to cook and I can assure you it is also a good one. An old Scottish recipe, this tea loaf is a delight with afternoon tea. We all know how Scot's love their tea.
2 2/3 cups mixed dried fruit
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cold tea
4 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice (apple pie )
1 egg
In a large bowl mix the fruit and brown sugar coating well. Add the cold tea, stir and let soak overnight. Next morning add the flour and stir well. Add the beaten egg and mix again. Put the mixture in the prepared loaf pan and bake in the oven 40 - 50 minutes. Test with a skewer. When ready take out and let cool.
Now for people that want a stronger taste, you can replace the cold tea with blended whisky. That will take the chill out of a cold winter day!
Above: The recipe box my husband made me.
One day while looking at my recipes I came across the ones handwritten by my mum. Stained with the ingredients and memories from many uses I cannot bring myself to transfer them to recipe cards. Reading the recipes brought back such loving memories in the kitchen with mum teaching me how to bake. Lots of laughter, and yes disasters while learning, it was like going down memory lane. At the time I’d had “Domestic Education” at school, which I thought gave me the expertise to be in the kitchen. While reminiscing I decided it would be nice to bring back into circulation these old and not so old Celtic recipes for everyone to enjoy.
I will never say I am "the best" but I can promise you if I can make these recipes without the fire department then you as well can easily go into the kitchen with confidence.
Since it is the month of March I am sharing a Welsh and an Irish recipe.
I will never say I am "the best" but I can promise you if I can make these recipes without the fire department then you as well can easily go into the kitchen with confidence.
Since it is the month of March I am sharing a Welsh and an Irish recipe.
Above are my Welsh cakes!
The 1st of March is St. David's Day, "Dydd Gwyl Dewi" or feast day of St. David, Patron Saint of Wales. St.David lived from circa 500 AD, until his death in 589AD. Although it is not a national holiday a number of cities across Wales celebrate with parades. Other traditional festivities include daffodils and leeks.
If you have never had Welsh Cakes you are certainly in for a treat. Close your eyes and imagine for a moment a scone, pancake and cookie all in one. Without the texture or the taste of any of them though, Intriguing isn’t it. They are cooked, not baked. The amount of sugar is adjustable. If you have a sweet tooth you add as much sugar as you like. If you prefer savoury add much less.
They are usually a tradition in the household that is served with afternoon tea, and the children often have them for their school lunches.
I was also curious how many famous chefs have come from Wales. I came up with eight although I am sure there are more.
My Mum loved to make these and I can tell you my sister and I loved to eat them. Sometimes as a treat, we had them instead of our potato scones or oatcakes. Those recipes, as yummy as they are, will be posted in upcoming issues.
Now for the Welsh Cakes. I have taken a photo so you can see the finished cake, and yes, they taste as good as they look. Not only are they delicious they are effortless to make.
1 cup self-raising flour
(If using all purpose flour add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt )
1\2 cup salted butter
3 oz.(85 grams) sugar
a handful of currants to taste
1 egg beaten
milk if needed
extra butter for greasing
Flour and butter diced. Rub with fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar, currants and beaten egg and mix well to form a dough using milk if needed to help the dough mixture. Roll dough out on floured board to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut into rounds. Use a heavy iron griddle with the butter. Cook the Welsh cakes 2 to 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from the griddle.
Preparation time 30 minutes
On a scale of 1/8 teaspoon (being easy) to one tablespoon being very difficult I rate this as 1/4 teaspoon.
If you have never had Welsh Cakes you are certainly in for a treat. Close your eyes and imagine for a moment a scone, pancake and cookie all in one. Without the texture or the taste of any of them though, Intriguing isn’t it. They are cooked, not baked. The amount of sugar is adjustable. If you have a sweet tooth you add as much sugar as you like. If you prefer savoury add much less.
They are usually a tradition in the household that is served with afternoon tea, and the children often have them for their school lunches.
I was also curious how many famous chefs have come from Wales. I came up with eight although I am sure there are more.
My Mum loved to make these and I can tell you my sister and I loved to eat them. Sometimes as a treat, we had them instead of our potato scones or oatcakes. Those recipes, as yummy as they are, will be posted in upcoming issues.
Now for the Welsh Cakes. I have taken a photo so you can see the finished cake, and yes, they taste as good as they look. Not only are they delicious they are effortless to make.
1 cup self-raising flour
(If using all purpose flour add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt )
1\2 cup salted butter
3 oz.(85 grams) sugar
a handful of currants to taste
1 egg beaten
milk if needed
extra butter for greasing
Flour and butter diced. Rub with fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar, currants and beaten egg and mix well to form a dough using milk if needed to help the dough mixture. Roll dough out on floured board to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut into rounds. Use a heavy iron griddle with the butter. Cook the Welsh cakes 2 to 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from the griddle.
Preparation time 30 minutes
On a scale of 1/8 teaspoon (being easy) to one tablespoon being very difficult I rate this as 1/4 teaspoon.
Now for my Irish Recipe - Boxty Pancakes
St.Patrick was the Paton Saint of Ireland and like all the other saints it is the day he died not the day he was born that is celebrated.
Celebrated inside and outside of Ireland, it is considered a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of the obligation it is also a celebration of Ireland itself. It is not a national holiday. We celebrate it also with green beer, in some places they make the river green for the day. Parades, four-leaf clovers and leprechauns all come to mind for me on this day.
In conjunction with the 17th March, a day well known around the world, I thought, why not make the Boxty Pancakes? These are an old tradition that likely came about along the time of the potato famine to stretch the potato. Made almost entirely of potatoes with not too not much flour. Boxty is not like any other pancake. My Irish Grandma made these for her children, and my Dad continued with the tradition in our house. Boxty was well enjoyed, being a potato lover I especially took a liking to them, and as soon as I learnt how to cook, I began to make them myself.
A very outdated little lyric that Mum and I would sing while preparing Boxty pancakes. Truly outdated but I will share it with you in jest, not to be taken seriously, although it shows just how easy they are to make.
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you can't make Boxty,
You'll never get a man.
I have passed this recipe to my daughter. She has never sung the lyrics to her children. It wasn’t fitting as she has 3 boys, but the pancakes still get made with much love. I mean, who does not love potatoes?
My mum would always tell me to take the time to read the recipe first before I started baking it. I must say they were very wise words. As at the beginning I would just read the ingredients and go forth with a burst of energy, then find out because I had not read the recipe all the way through it was not done right, sometimes I would even leave some of the ingredients out, so I started taking her words of wisdom, got all the ingredients out read the recipe all the way through and did not have any more problems in the kitchen. Mum does always know best it seems.
Fun fact. I found 42 famous chefs listed from Ireland, although there could be plenty more.
Boxty Pancakes
1 cup raw grated potato
1 cup mashed potato (Make extra as it is needed for a group)
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup mil
Butter or oil for frying.
Place the raw grated potato in a cloth and twist to remove excess moisture. Combine flour with the raw mixture and mashed potato and the eggs. Add enough mix to make a batter now the extra mashed potato on the side roll the batter in it to make the patties. Heat skillet and add butter or oil. Drop potato batter by the tablespoon in the hot pan. Brown both sides about 4 minutes per side. You can butter each Boxty and serve hot and you can add your own topping if you have a sweet tooth, i.e. Pancake syrup, Maple syrup.
Preparation time about 30 minutes.
I rate this as 1/2 teaspoon out of 1 tablespoon.
If you noticed the size of the recipe box, I had asked my husband to make me a recipe box a long time ago, and when he presented this, I thought this was enormous why did he make it this big? Then when I started putting my recipes in the box. I sure figured out fast, as it was exactly the size I needed for my recipes. So all my recipes are now in this beautiful box that he made me. Another wonderful keepsake to have from him.
St.Patrick was the Paton Saint of Ireland and like all the other saints it is the day he died not the day he was born that is celebrated.
Celebrated inside and outside of Ireland, it is considered a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of the obligation it is also a celebration of Ireland itself. It is not a national holiday. We celebrate it also with green beer, in some places they make the river green for the day. Parades, four-leaf clovers and leprechauns all come to mind for me on this day.
In conjunction with the 17th March, a day well known around the world, I thought, why not make the Boxty Pancakes? These are an old tradition that likely came about along the time of the potato famine to stretch the potato. Made almost entirely of potatoes with not too not much flour. Boxty is not like any other pancake. My Irish Grandma made these for her children, and my Dad continued with the tradition in our house. Boxty was well enjoyed, being a potato lover I especially took a liking to them, and as soon as I learnt how to cook, I began to make them myself.
A very outdated little lyric that Mum and I would sing while preparing Boxty pancakes. Truly outdated but I will share it with you in jest, not to be taken seriously, although it shows just how easy they are to make.
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you can't make Boxty,
You'll never get a man.
I have passed this recipe to my daughter. She has never sung the lyrics to her children. It wasn’t fitting as she has 3 boys, but the pancakes still get made with much love. I mean, who does not love potatoes?
My mum would always tell me to take the time to read the recipe first before I started baking it. I must say they were very wise words. As at the beginning I would just read the ingredients and go forth with a burst of energy, then find out because I had not read the recipe all the way through it was not done right, sometimes I would even leave some of the ingredients out, so I started taking her words of wisdom, got all the ingredients out read the recipe all the way through and did not have any more problems in the kitchen. Mum does always know best it seems.
Fun fact. I found 42 famous chefs listed from Ireland, although there could be plenty more.
Boxty Pancakes
1 cup raw grated potato
1 cup mashed potato (Make extra as it is needed for a group)
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup mil
Butter or oil for frying.
Place the raw grated potato in a cloth and twist to remove excess moisture. Combine flour with the raw mixture and mashed potato and the eggs. Add enough mix to make a batter now the extra mashed potato on the side roll the batter in it to make the patties. Heat skillet and add butter or oil. Drop potato batter by the tablespoon in the hot pan. Brown both sides about 4 minutes per side. You can butter each Boxty and serve hot and you can add your own topping if you have a sweet tooth, i.e. Pancake syrup, Maple syrup.
Preparation time about 30 minutes.
I rate this as 1/2 teaspoon out of 1 tablespoon.
If you noticed the size of the recipe box, I had asked my husband to make me a recipe box a long time ago, and when he presented this, I thought this was enormous why did he make it this big? Then when I started putting my recipes in the box. I sure figured out fast, as it was exactly the size I needed for my recipes. So all my recipes are now in this beautiful box that he made me. Another wonderful keepsake to have from him.