Boxty is by far the most Irish recipe you’ll find. As you would expect, it’s a potato recipe with a truly remarkable taste. I have served it instead of corn bread at a barbecue and people asked for more. A traditional Irish rhyme suggests that if girls can’t make Boxty, they’ll never catch their men. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw potato
• 1 cup mashed potato
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• large knob of butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).

Grate the raw potato into a bowl. Turn out onto a cloth and wring, catching the liquid. This will separate into a clear fluid with starch at the bottom. Pour off the fluid and scrape out the starch and mix with the mashed potatoes.

Sift the dry ingredients and mix in along with the melted butter.

Add a little milk if necessary to make a pliable dough.

Knead lightly on a floured surface.

Divide into four and form large, flat cakes.

Mark each into quarters but do not cut right through, and bake on a griddle or in a heavy pan.

Serves 4.