A Very Boxty St. Patrick's Day

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

A little poem for you:

Boxty on the griddle,
boxty in the pan,
if you can't make boxty,
you'll never get a man.

What is boxty, you want to know? Good question. For if you were paying attention to the poem, you should not only know what boxty is, you should definitely know how to cook it. For "if you can’t make boxty, you'll never get a man." (So maybe that's my problem!)

Okay, I didn't know what boxty was either until a couple of weeks ago. But I figured with a poem like that, I better find out what it was and fast.

My boxty discovery started as a search for something new to do in celebration this St. Patrick's Day, even if it is just new for me. For several years now I have been in the midst of a few of the world's biggest St. Patrick's Day celebrations. In New York City, it was the Irish with their pubs and the world's biggest St. Paddy's Day parade with every clan in existence marching its way up 5th Ave. In London there was also a parade, but even better was the massive festival in Trafalgar Square. It had everything from planned musical entertainment to what I can assume was some unplanned streaking from a handful of tipsy Irishmen. As for what I have eaten throughout the years, it has been a little different every time: corned beef, mushy peas, tacos (the year I was on vacation). The only food that seems to span the globe and its various parties is a pint of beer with a drop of green food coloring courtesy of a festive bartender.

When it comes to food, year after year we default to the same things: corned beef or a green-themed meal. All, of course, washed down with some of that lovely chartreuse beer. Corned beef is immediately ruled out, since its cooking time is less Real Meals in Minutes than Real Meal in Hours. And although I love my greens, it is possible to have too much of a good thing when it comes to your digestion.

So I delved into the archives of Irish cooking with little more than a potato and St. Patrick to guide me. And that is where I discovered boxty. It is listed everywhere from Irish cooking websites to the Catholic organization's recipe archives. And everywhere was this poem! Any recipe that comes with its own poem is celebration worthy to me.

Boxty is a potato pancake similar to a latke but made with both grated raw potato and mashed potato. The addition of flour and baking soda bind the potato together and make it more like a breakfast pancake than its latke cousin. Either buttermilk or regular milk and an optional egg are added just until the ingredients stick together. Then they are cooked in a griddle and served with sausage or bangers and thick cut bacon or rashers. The boxty turns out particularly well when cooked in the fat rendered from the sautéing of either the bacon or the sausage.

Boxty is a breakfast or supper food that is traditionally served in honor of the feast day of St. Bridget on February 1st or on Fat Tuesday. Being such a perfect Irish food with its combination of potatoes, I think it's worthy of standing on its own any time of year. Not to mention, a hearty helping of boxty and bacon is just the sort of base to make sure you survive the green beer later in the day. And if you are really good, maybe you'll have some people over and with the help of a little boxty and a little more beer, you might just get your man after all.

Serves/Makes: 6

• 2 raw potatoes
• 1 1/2 cup mashed potato
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup milk, more as needed
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 pound thick cut bacon (optional)