Boxty Aloo

Boxty Aloo

When I was growing up, my Irish family did not care for Irish food. I am now trying to have a greater appreciation for Irish cooking, since Ireland does have a culinary tradition something like a cucina povera, in which the same few humble ingredients are used with great ingenuity in many different combinations. Saint Patrick's Day menus, at least in North America, don't display the best of Irish food. They are generally meat-forward and rarely include my favorite Irish dishes.

I think the best meal I have had in Ireland was at a restaurant called The Winding Stair in Dublin, where, among other things, we were served boxty, the Irish potato pancake that combines mashed and grated potatoes.

I came up with my own recipe for boxty a few years ago, when Saint Patrick's Day coincided with the hard slog of Passover week, when I am forced to eat matzoh and ponder the intestinal blockage of my husband's fathers' affliction. Boxty came back into view as a possible source of desperately needed carbohydrates.

Passover is always the same at my house:

• Pre-holiday housecleaning: wow, matzoh is good, how come we don't think to buy it to snack on during the year?

• Day 1: matzoh is pretty good for breakfast with butter on it and some crunchy salt

• Day 2: matzoh is pretty good with peanut butter on it

• Day 3: matzoh is not so good

• Day 5: your people ate nothing but potatoes. You can do this

• Day 7: I can't believe I am still eating this

• Day 8: I never want to see another piece of matzoh ever again!

Boxty in its traditional form is just potatoes and can always use some tarting up. I recalled that the Winding Stair used herbs and spring onion in their version.

I had some leftover Napa cabbage and red onions. I decided this boxty would have some vegetable crunch. I added some scallions as well. Earlier in the week I had made chana aloo (Indian chickpea and potato curry), so inspiration struck to do a fusion dish--a South Asian twist on boxty with some crunchy spiced vegetables. The result was a fluffy potato pancake over a crispy base of spiced onion and cabbage.

This is a culinary fusion long overdue. Matching plain but hearty Irish vegetable dishes to Indian spice is such an obvious idea. And who knew it could be kosher for Passover? This year I will try gussying up champ or colcannon with some great desi flavor.

Ingredients:

3 Idaho potatoes (or any floury variety of potato)

1/4 cup flour (the first time I made this it was Passover, and I used potato starch)

3/4 cup of whole milk

1 egg

1/2 cup shredded Napa cabbage

1/2 medium red onion, finely minced

1/2 cup of sliced scallions

1 tbsp of serrano pepper, finely minced (more to taste)

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp garam masala (if you don't have this, you could use other curry you may have, or add another 1/2 tsp of cumin and coriander to which you can add a 1/2 tsp of allspice) + more for dusting

fresh finely chopped coriander to garnish

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Peel and chop up 1 1/2 of the potatoes. Fill a saucepan with water enough to cover the potatoes, and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until potatoes are tender

Peel the remaining 1 1/2 of the potatoes, and grate using a box grater into a strainer. Put the strainer over a bowl and push out as much liquid as possible.

Grate and prep the remaining potato when the boiled potatoes are ready, because raw potato left too long will discolor. You can slow this process by sprinkling some vinegar on them, but best not to leave them hanging around.

Mash the boiled potatoes with 1/4 cup of the milk.

Add the grated potatoes, egg, and remaining milk. The resulting batter will look creamy with some texture.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Add a couple of tablespoons of neutral oil into a heated skillet (recommend a cast iron skillet for the best crisp browning).

Add shredded cabbage, diced red onion, diced pepper, and sliced scallions with salt to taste, and cook over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add spices to the vegetables and cook for a few more minutes, stirring until well mixed.

Turn off heat and spread out vegetables in the skillet until they cover the bottom evenly.

Add potato batter and spread evenly on top of the vegetables.

Drizzle some oil on top of the potato batter.

Put the skillet back on the heat for a minute or two before putting it in the oven.

Bake for ~45 minutes until a brown crust forms. Cooking time is approximate, and depends on the size and type of your skillet and thickness of the pancake. I suggest watching it closely the first time you try it.

Remove from oven and dust with garam masala and chopped coriander. Add some fresh ground pepper and flaky sea salt to taste.

The resulting potato pancake is crispy on the bottom and sides, and creamy in the middle. The onion and cabbage crust is golden and spiced without much heat. This is a good side dish, but I was happy to make this my entire meal.

The success of this dish seems fitting, as genealogical research and DNA analysis recently revealed that I too am an Irish-Indian fusion. My great-great grandfather, John Maguire, (born in India ~1830) was most likely half Indian. Wish I could have shared this boxty with him. I think he would have approved.