Cherie Denham

Cherie Denham and Andrew Montgomery · The Irish Kitchen

These are a traditional potato pancake, originally created in the Irish home, where potatoes were a staple. Enjoyed throughout Ireland, boxty are so versatile and can be eaten at any time of day, often served in pubs with bacon and eggs, cabbage and bacon or poached haddock and parsley sauce. Each family would have their own method of making boxty; there are no hard and fast rules. Some are made only with raw potato, known as Donegal Boxty, and others are made from a mixture of raw and cooked potato, called Leitrim Boxty. In this recipe, I whizz the potatoes in the food processor with flour and milk to make a batter. Don’t let the batter hang around too long or it will go black. It’s personal choice how thick you make your boxty; in our house we like ours quite thin. The perfect breakfast at any time but especially on St Patrick’s Day. My Granny Marshall always drank the cabbage water - she said it was great for your skin.

Cherie Denham · The Irish Bakery

My Granny Neill would mix together the humble ingredients for her farls with an old bone-handled knife. The soft dough was then turned out onto her floured wooden baking board, gently shaped into a flat round and cut into farls (the Ulster Scots word for quarters). She would hang her cast-iron griddle over the turf fire and brush it clean with a goose wing, before scattering flour onto the hot surface and baking the farls on each side until they had a scorched, dusty crust and a pillowy centre. Once baked, she would wrap them in an old (but clean) pillowcase to keep the farls soft, which filled her home with the aroma of comfort and warmth. Granda Neill cut his into fingers, spread them with butter and dipped them into a soft-boiled goose egg. My favourite way to eat them is to open them up and fill them with fried eggs and bacon. They were also delicious with Granny's homemade strawberry jam and Cheddar from the breadman.