The Boxty Variations
Posted on July 24, 2006
“Hash?! Aw, shucks! We’re sick of hash!” - Spanky MacFarland
A potato is a wondrous thing even when served unembellished, but like others I’ve learned that the starchy white goodness of the humble spud is the perfect canvas upon which to blend the colors and flavors of the summer garden. When cooking for vegetarian friends, I often serve some manner of potato pancake studded with a rich variety of chopped vegetables. I’ve even been known to concoct buttery herb sauces for such vegi-flaps and designate them the sole course in the meal. Scant else is required to elicit smiles of satisfaction, even from carnivores.
But there are many varieties of potato pancake, some derived from the cooked mash, others from a fluid batter of raw puree or coarse mortar of uncooked shred. We look today to the lastly invoked variety, which in Ireland is termed ‘boxty’. It’s traditionally a griddlecake of shredded potatoes, often bound together with egg, buttermilk and flour, but it is alternately boiled as a dumpling or baked as a loaf. Boxty is most commonly associated with the northern midland locales of Leitrim and Cavan. An Irish verse exclaims:
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you can’t make boxty,
You’ll never get a man!
Anything can be added to a boxty, and anything often is. When I cooked at The Kerry Piper in Chicago, we had a standard recipe on the menu, then a roster of variants in the weekly rotation of specials. Chopped meats, fish or poultry, vegetables, onions, garlic, herbs, capers, olives… They’re all fair game. I’ve even added cooked macaroni to boxty mortar to startle myself. For further thrills, cheese is occasionally melted onto the top. In some instances it’s just a smattering of cheese; in others the cheese is an elemental layer unto itself, blanketing the entire affair in gooey, melty goodness. The potential permutations are restrained only by your fancy and daring, so dare to be fancy.
Today’s boxty variation is an uncomplicated partnership of three medium sized potatoes (do shred them), four cups of coarsely chopped Swiss chard and a half cup of diced red onion. Before commingling these, I soaked and tousled the spud shred in cold water to remove the excess starch, then pressed it dry. I seasoned with a bit of Vegeta, olive oil, chopped rosemary and parsley, then cracked pepper. I incorporated only an egg and the tiniest sprinkling of white flour to bind the situation.
Heat a thin layer of oil in the skillet over a medium flame, then faddle in your boxty mortar across the entire surface of the pan and trowel it down flat and even. When this business has unified into a solid mass of cooked vegetable and the bottom has turned gold and brown, please flip it over and cook the other side. And, as with many foods, bear in mind that the best boxty comes from slow, even cooking.
It may look like a simple plate of hash browns with fresh farmer’s cheese atop, but the incorporation of a nearly equal quantity of vegetables does amazing things for potato pancake batter. Broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant… Eat your vegetables.
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