Boxty on the Pan

Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan,
If you can't bake boxty,
sure you'll never get a man.

Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan,
If you don't eat boxty,

you'll never get a man.

Old Irish rhymes like the ones above sums up the importance of a boxty in traditional Irish cuisine. I read somewhere that if a restaurant menu promises to serve traditional Irish fare and boxty is not part of it then it is not a traditional Irish eatery. It should not come across as a surprise considering that potato has been a staple of the Irish peasant diet for centuries and they ate potato three times a day. Boxty derived from the word 'bacstai' meaning poor-house bread in Irish and are basically potato based pancakes. Boxty is prepared in several ways traditionally in Ireland. Boxty on the pan uses a batter of mashed potatoes, grated potatoes, buttermilk, flour, baking soda and sometimes egg and are cooked on a griddle like pancakes. The other versions use only grated potatoes and are boiled like a dumpling or baked like a loaf.

Traditionally the recipe is kept to the basics since it was a peasant dish originally. However the modern versions may include grated onion, garlic powder and such for added flavors. Personally I felt that the boxty do not need any flavors at all and the basic version itself was good when served hot from the griddle. They are crispy from outside and softer inside. While preparing the pan version, the size of a boxty would be of the griddle size though you can make them bigger or smaller. It makes sense to make the griddle sized ones since the recipe has raw potatoes and they take longer to cook on low flame. If you start making small sized boxty, it would take forever. However for presentation sake, I made small sized ones. I used about 2 heaped tbsp. sized batter for each pancake and ended up with 5 boxty.

Ingredients:
3 large sized peeled potatoes *
(or 1 cup mashed and 2 cups grated potato)
2 to 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Salt to taste
6 - 8 tbsp. buttermilk
Butter / Oil to make boxty
* I cooked one potato and mashed it which came to scant 1 cup. I grated the other two potatoes that came to about 2 cups. 

Method:
* Chop one potato into pieces and cook it until done. Drain well and mash it finely. Or you can substitute about 1 cup of mashed potato.
* Grate the remaining peeled potatoes onto a cheese cloth or a thin cotton cloth. Wrap the towel around the grated potato and squeeze out as much water as possible. One would be surprised to note the amount of water that is released from potato gratings.
* Combine flour, salt and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Add the mashed potato, grated potato and buttermilk to the flour mixture and mix well to combine. It should be on a thicker side.
 
* Heat a griddle and grease it with butter or oil. You can make the griddle sized boxty or small sized ones depending on your choice. The bigger ones can be cut into wedges. I poured about 2 heaped tbsp. of batter and spread lightly with the back of a spoon to shape into circle.. 
* Cook on low flame until the top is almost set, doesn't appear wet and the bottom side is golden brown. When done, it should be easy to flip the boxty with the spatula. Flip and cook the other side too until done.
* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter. 
* Serve them warm with more butter and traditionally bacon goes with it.

 
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Staffordshire Oatcakes

 
We are moving towards England today for some oatcakes. When I say oatcakes, they are not actually cakes but are yeast based savory pancakes which are eaten as a breakfast item. These oatcakes are a regional specialty of North Staffordshire area of England, specifically the Stoke-on-Trent region and prepared with a fermented batter of oat, wholemeal and all purpose flours. They are normally referred to as North Staffordshire cakes by non locals because they were once made only in and around Staffordshire and Cheshire. These oatcakes are treated as a delicacy in the region and the locals supposedly pay a trip to the nearby vendors on weekends to pick fresh oatcakes to savor them leisurely at home serving along with cheese, bacon, eggs and tomato. Those fillings / sides along with the oat pancakes is what the dish is about. Without those, they would be plain, pitiful pancakes I guess.I sprinkled cheddar cheese over our oatcakes.

These oatcakes were / mostly still a local fare and they go even by some nicknames like 'Potteries Chapati'  and 'Tunstal Tortilla'. The oatcakes are supposedly made for hundreds of years and naturally there are are several myths surrounding the origin of the dish. One being linked to the times when India was a British colony. Some claim that the local soldiers who served in India took a liking to chapatis and they tried to recreate them on their return to Staffordshire. They used the locally grown oats while doing so, resulting in these oatcakes.

Oatcake recipe has been a closely guarded secret for many years and the recipe varies among oatcake makers. The rural tradition of oatcake making had become a booming cottage industry during industrial revolution because of the local availability of oats and the expansion of pottery and mining business in the Potteries region. It was once common for oatcakes to be sold directly from the window of a house to customers on the street, through out the Staffordshire Potteries, the industrial area in the region. However the last business which sold oatcakes in this style closed recently and there are now small and large businesses selling oatcakes.

 And these oatcakes are not to be confused with the Scottish version oatcakes. They are also oat based but are biscuits that are baked. The Scottish oatcakes date back to the 19th century and used to be baked on a hotplate over open fire.

Ingredients: (Yield 6 oatcakes)
1 & 1/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. rapid rise yeast *
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
Oil if necessary
Fillings as needed
* The original recipe uses dry yeast or fresh yeast. I used less yeast since I was resting it for about a couple of hours.

Method:
* Sieve together flours and salt in a mixing bowl.
* Combine sugar, yeast and warm water in a bowl and leave aside for about 10 minutes or until the mixture turns frothy.
* Add the yeast mixture and warm milk to the flour mixture and mix well to combine.
 
* Leave the batter to rest in a warm place for about 2 hours.
* The fermented batter would be frothy. Gently stir the batter with the ladle to combine.
 
* Heat a griddle on medium flame and grease it if necessary. Pour a ladleful of batter and spread it tilting the griddle or using the back of the ladle. Cook until the bottom side turns golden brown and flip. Cook until the other side is done too.

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter.
* Oatcakes are served with fillings such as cheese, tomato, onion, bacon, egg and sausage. They can be eaten plain buttered / grilled with cheese. They can be served with jam / syrup / bananas though it would not be a traditional version.
* The leftovers can be reheated in a microwave.

 
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Eggless Flapjacks

 
Event: Blogging Marathon #56
Theme: Breakfast
My choice: U.S.A & Canada

I chose to go today with one of my kid's favorite breakfast items, the flapjacks. These get made regularly in my home and surprisingly it took me so long to share them. Flapjacks also referred to as griddlecakes / hotcakes are the American and Canadian version pancakes that are served as a breakfast. Flapjacks are soft, fluffy and are easy to whip up in no time.
I am giving the basic version here but you can make them fancier by going with your choice of add-ons into the batter. Fruits, cheese chocolate chips to name a few and ditto with the toppings though maple syrup and the butter are the traditional choices. I used a flax egg here but your choice of an egg substitute or an egg can be used instead. If using an egg reduce the liquid quantity by 1/3 cup. Milk can be substituted with butter milk too.
Ingredients for 6 pancakes:
1 tbsp flax meal (Or one egg substitute)
1 cup all purpose flour (Substitute half the quantity with wheat flour for an healthier version.)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. melted butter
1 cup milk (I prefer it at room temperature.)
Butter and maple syrup to serve
 
 Method:
1. Whisk flax meal and 3 tbsp. warm water together and leave aside for about 5 minutes.
2. Heat a griddle / non stick pan on medium heat such that a drop of water beads when dropped on it.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Whisk the flax meal from step 1, melted butter and milk in another bowl. Combine both dry and wet ingredients and whisk the mixture to a thick batter. 
4. Pour about 1/4 cup batter of batter onto the pan. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the bottom side turns golden brown. Flip the pancake with a spatula and cook for about 30 - 40 seconds more. Tranfer onto a serving plate. Repeat the steps with the remaining batter.
5. Serve the flapjacks warm with maple syrup and honey.
 

 

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Gamja Jeon ~ Korean Potato Pancakes

 
The word 'Jeon' refers to a Korean style pancake in general and gamjajeon is a variety made by pan-frying finely grated potato until golden brown using vegetable oil. Traditionally, this humble pancake is kept simple and made just with potato, salt and oil and uses no flour of any kind. Additionally onions or scallions, garlic chives, carrots, sliced mushrooms can be added to the batter to add color, texture and flavor. Or these jeon can be garnished with shredded fresh red or green chilies as well while frying. I think I made these jeon a tad thicker but recommend a thinner and crispier version. Gamjajeaon is usually served with a dipping sauce called choganjang, that can be made in a jiffy with soy sauce and vinegar.

The potatoes used to make jeon can be either finely grated or blended. Either way, a gamjajeon recipe recommends to remove some of the water content from the blended / grated potatoes so that the final batter is not watery. The potato is drained in a sieve and the starch water is allowed to sit for a while until the starch sinks to bottom. And that starch gets used in the recipe as well.  

Ingredients: (Yield 5 pancakes)
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks
1 medium onion, peeled / A bunch of scallions, chopped
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste / 1 - 2 green chilies deseeded and finely chopped
Oil to make pancakes

Method:
* Blend onion and potatoes together using a mixer / food processor adding no water. If you find it harder to process, adding a little water is fine. (or you can finely grate the vegetables as well.)
* Place a mesh strainer over a bowl and pour the pureed vegetables into it. Let it sit for about 10 - 15 minutes to drain the water.

* After the water has drained, transfer the vegetable mixture to a small mixing bowl. And just don't throw away the water collected in the bowl underneath since it contains the starch that can be added to the batter. (After resting, you would notice that the white starchy stuff sinks to the bottom and forms a dense layer at the bottom of the bowl.) Carefully discard the water until you get to the potato starch sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Add that starch to the potato - onion mixture in the mixing bowl.
* Add salt, pepper / green chilies and scallion if using, to the bowl as well and mix to combine.
* Heat a non stick pan on medium flame and add a tbsp. of oil. Scoop out about tbsp. of batter on pan and toast them until they are cooked through and golden brown on both sides, flipping them once or twice intermittently. Repeat the process with the remaining batter.
* If they are made mini size, you can make as many pancakes as the frying pan can fit at once. (I made a little bigger sized pancakes and so made them individually.)
* Serve them warm with choganjang or ketchup.

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Scallion Pancakes

For the uninitiated, that's not a misnomer. These flatbreads from China are indeed called pancakes and they use a dough instead of a batter. These chewy and savory pancakes are just like Indian parathas except that all purpose flour is used to make them and some plain, chopped green onions / scallions are stuffed inside. This recipe is a cinch to make as there is no need to cook the stuffing, which is the usual case with the classic Indian stuffed parathas. These mildly flavored pancakes are usually served with a soy - ginger dipping sauce. I made the sauce from here but no one at home cared about it.

Ingredients: (Yields 5 pancakes)
1 cup all purpose flour + extra for dusting
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp. water at room temperature (more or less as needed.)
1/4 cup finely chopped, green parts of scallions
Oil to toast the pancakes

Method:
* Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add water in small increments and knead into a soft, pliable dough that is no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. In case the dough looks dry, wet you hands with water or add about 1 tbsp. water and knead. In case the dough is sticky, add extra flour until the dough is workable. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes. No harm is done if the dough is allowed to rest longer.

* Divide the dough into 5 portions and roll each portion between your palms into a smooth ball. Work with one portion at a time and keep the rest covered to prevent them from drying out. Gently press the ball into a disc.

* Dust the working surface with flour if necessary. Roll the disc into a thin rectangle and gently brush with oil over the surface. (Sesame oil is preferred for this step.)

* Sprinkle the chopped green parts of the scallion over the surface of the rolled out dough.

* Starting from one longer side, roll it like a mat / carpet.

* Coil it up and gently press down. Again roll it into a thin circle of about 5 inches diameter, using a rolling pin. 

 

* Heat a skillet or a shallow frying pan. Place the pancake onto the skillet. Cook for about 30-40 seconds and flip. Cook for another 30 seconds. Then add about 1/4 tsp oil around the edges and brush the surface with the back of the spoon used earlier to drizzle oil. Flip and brush the other surface too with oil. Cook until brown spots appear on both sides and pancakes look cooked.

* Repeat the steps of rolling and toasting the pancakes with the remaining dough.

Note:

Add scallions directly to the flour while making the dough in the first step. in case if stuffing the scallions while rolling looks hard. 

This goes to Blogging Marathon #50, under the theme of "International Flatbreads". Check out the link to find out what other marathoners are cooking.

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R for Russia ~ Oladi

Event: BM #44, Around the world (A - Z Series)

Choice of Country: The Russian Federation

Capital City: Moscow

Official Language: Russian

I am going to Russia, the largest country on the planet (by area) to try some of their scrumptious pancakes named 'oladi' for today's post. There are basically two kinds of pancakes from a traditional Russian kitchen though there are supposedly hundreds of variations for Russian pancakes depending upon what kind of flour / starch and leavening agents are used and how they are made (plain with toppings or stacked with filling). Above mentioned two pancakes are oladi and blini. Blini are on the thinner side like crepes while oladis are thick, airy pancakes.   
 
This version of oladis are yeast based and take some planning owing to the required double rising of the batter. I think these make a great weekend brunch item than a breakfast in a rush, owing to that rising period. Though the pancakes themselves take little time to make, the rising takes around 1&1/2 to 2 hours. And here is a useful tip from the original recipe if you want to hurry up the rising process. Preheat the oven at the lowest setting and turn off the oven. Place the dough in a heat proof bowl, cover and place it in the oven and it quickens the rising process. These puffy pancakes are soft from inside while the outer surface is delightfully crispy.

Ingredients: (Yield about 15 oladis)
1.5 cup + 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1 tbsp. flax meal (or any other substitute for 1 egg)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp.oil
Oil to make oladi

Method:
* Mix flour, yeast and milk in a bowl using a wooden spoon.

* Cover the dough bowl and leave it to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume.
* Combine flax meal and 3 tbsp. warm water in a small bowl and leave it aside for five minutes.
* Add this flax meal mixture, sugar, salt and oil to the fermented batter and mix well to combine.  At this point berries, finely chopped apples, nuts or chocolate chips can also be added to the batter if desired.

 * Cover it and leave it again in a warm place to rise until it doubles.

The dough would be very sticky and hard to drop from the spoon onto the skillet. To avoid this situation, keep a small bowl of water handy and dip the spoon (you are going to use to spoon the batter) each time in the water before using it to scoop out the dough.
* Heat a non-stick skillet on medium flame and add about 2 tsp of oil. Now dunk the spoon in the water, remove and scoop out the dough and pour on the skillet with out deflating it as much as possible. The dough effortlessly slides off the spoon. Drop more spoonfuls of batter taking care to dunk the spoon in water every time before using it.

* Cook on low flame until they are cooked through and they turn golden brown both sides. If they are cooked on high flame, they get brown faster without getting cooked inside.

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter. Ravish these scrumptious oladi warm with jam, sweetened sour cream or berries. I also served some with bananas and maple-cane syrup.





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