A New Twist on a Classic Irish Dish

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and everyone will be making Corned Beef and Cabbage, Shepherd’s Pie and Irish Soda Bread. There are so many other traditional Irish dishes that are really spot on, but never seem to bubble to the surface: Dublin Coddle (sausage, bacon and potato), Colcannon (potatoes and cabbage), and Boxty. Boxty, you ask? Boxty, known as “poor house bread,” is simply a traditional potato pancake. Ask any Irishman or lass and they will wax poetic on this dish. Hailing from the North, this super simple fried pancake is comfort food at its best.

Traditionally boxty is made with grated potato, onion, buttermilk and flour – give or take a few ingredients. Some recipes call for egg and some not. In my research I asked several of my Irish friends to give me the lowdown. It seems many an Irish Granny skipped the egg and just used flour and buttermilk to keep their boxty intact. I knew I wanted to try to skip the flour, but how could I keep things “together”?

Right about now we are in what I like to call the “tired boring lull” of the northeast vegetable year. Everyone, including me, is pretty much done with root vegetables, the last survivors of Fall. So what could I do to jazz them, and this dish, up? The answer was easy: roast them! A great way to bring out the full flavor of any vegetable is to roast it over high heat. I used a mix of several vegetables: turnip, parsnip, carrot and, of course, potato. While that magic was happening in the oven I did a quick saute of onion, garlic and kale. After roasting I gently smashed the veggies with a potato masher. Keeping some nice chunks for texture. The stickiness of the mash will generally keep things together, though I did use both an egg for one half and the vegan egg substitute of flax and water for the other half. (The flax being slightly more successful in binding.)

Once the patties were made I immediately pan-fried a couple. The rest went into the fridge over night. The immediate batch is creamy and soft while those that rested overnight held together a bit better. Either way they turned out really delish. The flavors of the vegetables came together in a beautiful way.

This is a great make-ahead dish for your St. Patrick’s Day feast. Make them a day or two before, layering between sheets of parchment paper. Then pan fry in a nonstick pan with either butter or flavorless oil, and serve warm.

To read more about this dish and see more of my recipes go to: http://food.lohudblogs.com/author/mreina/