You can see why boxty is considered a bit of a poor relation to the rather more sophisticated latke. With latkes, the potatoes are washed before you cook them, ridding them of the starchiness that persists in an unwashed potato. Whether it was for economic reasons or for reasons of taste, kosher Irish boxty was never washed, and consequently the little cakes are enveloped in an elemental glueyness that makes them, shall we say, quite sustaining, but a little heavy.
A true boxy, known as “boiled boxy” is only made in the northern counties of Ireland and is a complex mix of both cooked and raw potatoes. We make a more simple version at home. This is known as boxty-in-the-pan.
The trick here is to really squeeze those potatoes. If you remove that fog of starch it helps to make this dish rather more noble.
Boxty-in-the-pan
3 large potatoes (approximately 550g)
50g butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
oil for frying the boxty
1 Grate the potatoes and put in a clean tea-towel. Squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Place the potatoes in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and pour over the melted butter. Stir well to incorporate the butter.
2 Heat a generous quantity of oil in a frying pan and place serving spoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot pan. Try to keep the spoonfuls the same size. Cook over a fairly high heat, turning after approximately five minutes. The outside of the boxty should be crispy, the inside just cooked. This makes enough for ten cakes.
@BoxtyBakers Pan Boxty , Boiled Boxty and don't forget the king of Boxty - Baked Boxty Loaf. I hope John shared the samples of our original and Bacon Added Baked Boxty Slices - if not , drop a line. Stephen
ReplyDeleteCould you clarify what the three different types include: Pan is the one above, boiled is cooked and raw potato, is that right? What are the constituents of Baked Boxty Loaf?
ReplyDeleteJohn certainly shared the samples ;) They were delicious. I wish I could buy them in West Cork, but that might spoil the joy of eating food in its region.
Yes , Boiled and Baked (Loaf) Boxty use Raw & Cooked Potatoes - the different cooking process means boiled emerges like a dumpling while the loaf is baked. Both are reheated (though I know a few who skip it to get to the grub all the quicker!). Traditionally it would be fried off - often in the fat left on the pan from frying bacon - Ours (baked) can be grilled , oven heated , has been toasted and BBQ'ed even. The product is already cooked so a dry heat to crisp the outside. We also have added flavours - one with a locally sourced natural dry smoke bacon. Yum.
DeleteWe use equal quantities of day old mashed potato, grated raw potato and flour for our boiled and baked Boxty. With the baked Boxty we knead in butter. For the pancake we use the same base add 10% extra flour, mix back in the starch that has settled in the bottom of the bowl after extracting the liquid from the potatoes, and make a batter by adding milk.
ReplyDeleteHave you come across any local recipes for staimpí (stampy) in your beautiful part of the world?
I just know stampy as another name for boxty - I didn't know it was a different type, or had any regional significance. I've never seen any reference to boxty in Cork. The furthest south (and West) I've heard of boxty being traditionally made is in the Aran Islands, where I first saw the potatoes grated on a tin, many years ago. Could you tell me a little about staimpi?
ReplyDeleteWow. The world of boxy is so different in Galway. Yours, to me, looks like a Swiss Rösti cake. Our boxy is raw potato with flour, milk, salt and pepper. Fried in the pan with a little butter until crisp and perfect. I had seen Kristens blog (edible-Ireland) a while back and her recipe called for both cooked and raw. So many ways to cook the spud! Yours do look delicous mind you.
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