Rasp/Boxty

kerash

Does anyone make Rasp (i call it) or boxty? My dad makes it - tastes great:), but when i try it always tastes like there is something missing...

He grates raw potatoes, (it's like puree) then add flour, breadsoda, salt and milk... He never measures, but he'll know if it needs more salt, flour, liquid etc.. he then frys it, on low to medium like a pancake (but for longer so it doesn't taste "raw")

Anyone have any good recipies?

I don't use breadsoda....thats blasphemy!

I've always thought that rasp was a thinner boxty.

Boxty always tastes better reheated the next day and beyond.

I'm a veggie so I can say for sure, but think the fat you cook it in makes a huge difference, the best being bacon fat.
That is definitely the case with potato cake.

seanabc

I never heard it called Rasp but we used to have thin boxty at home. I was at my uncles one time and they gave us boxty that was an inch thick. I thought it was disgusting. I loved the boxty like my mother used to make though.

I make it myself from time to time when I'm homesick. I grate the potatoes and then mix in the flour, an egg, milk and salt and fry it all up. I read a recipe where they added in cooked, mashed potato as well but I've never tried that so I don't know.

It's true about tasting even better when it's reheated.

themadchef

There are so many variations on boxty it's insane I can give you my grannies recipe...pretty simple one i think.

Obviously main ingredient is the potato. Her particular choice was Golden Wonders. Now i know it's easier to use the food processor but it's nothing like the result you get using the old fashioned grater. Actually they used to open out bean tins and punch holes in them with nails....oh the good old days :D

Ok, so you grate your peeled potato on the popped out side (not the cheese grating side) imagine what above would look like then you get the picture. Very important if you use the wrong side it's muck, simple as that really.

So you have a mushy almost brown (if you took ages) mixture in the bowl. next you strain this mixture through a new or very very nearly new tea towel until most of the liquid is gone. Drop the contents of the tea towel into a bowl, then add salt and flour. Bear in mind you only need a little flour just to bind the mixture together. No eggs no milk..nadda. Fry in hot pan with real Irish butter, none of that olive oil stuff , Turn it over when brown, cook that side till nice and brown too, serve hot...yumm, can almost smell it.

Actually when I said thin, I mean crepe like as opposed to american pancake like. Just my assumption from descriptions I heard.
They have boiled boxty and baked boxty loaf for sale in the shops around my parts. Frankly it just sounds wrong.
I honestly don't believe that grating is any different by machine or by hand. Although I only ever do it by hand, its punishment for the boxty eaters. Makes sure I'm not permanently attached to the hob!
It is the same mechanical process at the end of the day.
Do anyone else think it makes a difference?

kerash

also i jus remembered someone saying to grate the potatoe and leave it until it went black!! not sure why this is, but i agree it alwas tastes better the next day! and yes i would make it thin like crepes but i know in some parts of the country they make it in loaf tins..i think it's like making bread, some people can just make it better!!

seanabc

I was inspired by this thread to make some boxty this evening and I have to stand by my mothers recipe:

1 part grated, raw potatoes
1 part flour

Mix the two together with milk and an egg and fry it up into nice thin crepe-like pancakes.

It does taste lovely when you reheat it and serve it along with the rashers and sausages the next morning. The problem with this though is that it tastes so lovely when its fresh that I just ended up eating it straight out of the frying pan!

raymond sweeney

Since I heard a woman in Ballycastle, Mayo on a Donncha O Dulaing program on RTE radio 1 many years ago describe how she made boxty I now make it her way and it is much tastier. No flour! grate potatoes in foodprocesser, squeeze some of the water out through a calico cloth, add half a teaspoon of salt to potatoes after squeezing, spread on a hot, oiled pan. spread with a kitchen utensil like an egg lifter without holes. I don't know what it is called. I have an induction hob, which cooks all evenly on a big ring, not like an ordinary hob which burns the middle and leaves the edges raw! serve with fried rashers and egg on top of plate of boxty; accompany with tea. Delicious for main meal!

martic

Scroll to "Thursday, 28 July 2011" for a video of Ciaran making Boxty, recipe is above the video and they taste great, the raw potatoes have been strained in a cloth after grating

http://ciaronskitchen.blogspot.com/

seanabc

Anyone tried rosti, on sale in Ikea? It's very similiar to the boxty my mother used to make.

Semele

Moonbaby wrote: »

Actually when I said thin, I mean crepe like as opposed to american pancake like. Just my assumption from descriptions I heard.
They have boiled boxty and baked boxty loaf for sale in the shops around my parts. Frankly it just sounds wrong.

The boiled one is the one I'm most familiar with (from the North, if that makes a difference?) We used to make it in primary school and it's sold in a lot of the local shops. It's great, you just slice and fry it in butter, then spread with lots more butter to eat! My great-aunt used to make the baked one which was also sliced and fried then- quite liked it as it has a crunchy crust. The sort of crepe style that people are talking about here isn't the same thing as I would call boxty at all...my gran used to do that sometimes as what she called a "potato pancake", distinct from potato bread in that it used raw rather than cooked potato.