Potato Cakes (Irish Boxty Potatoes)

Traditional Irish potato pancakes, also known as boxty, are made with a mixture of mashed and grated potatoes for a texture that's part pancake, part hash brown. An old verse says "Boxty on the griddle, / Boxty in the pan, / If you can't make boxty, / You'll never get a man." Boxty, occasionally spelled boxdy, is basically a potato cake, eaten mostly in the north of Ireland, especially in counties Cavan, Fermanagh, Derry, and Tyrone. (Its name perhaps derives from the Irish bocht, meaning "poor.") Tokens predicting the future state of those who find them are sometimes secreted inside boxty, as they are in Barm Brack and Colcannon.

Mashed Potatoes:
2 lb russet, Yukon gold or long white potatoes, peeled
coarse sea salt
black pepper, freshly cracked
1 cup milk or cream
4 Tbsp. butter

Boxty Potatoes:
1 cup russet potato, grated and squeezed dry
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
¼ cup milk
¼ cup scallions, thinly sliced
½ cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. black pepper, freshly cracked
¼ cup butter, preferably Irish

Make the Mashed Potatoes:
Bring a saucepan of water fitted with a steamer insert to a boil over medium-high heat. Peel and cut potatoes into 1” pieces; add to steamer insert. Cover and cook until fork-tender.

Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Transfer potatoes to a large bowl; mash potatoes using a potato masher. Slowly add milk mixture and stir to incorporate with a wooden spoon until smooth; season with salt and pepper.

Make the Boxty Potatoes:
Transfer 1½ cups mashed potatoes to a large bowl; reserve extra mashed potatoes for another use. Add grated potato to bowl with mashed potatoes. Whisk together egg and egg yolk; add to bowl with potatoes along with milk and scallions and stir to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and pepper; add to bowl with potatoes and stir to combine.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, adding butter as necessary, add 2 Tbsp. batter to skillet and gently spread to form a 2-3” round; cook, turning, once, until browned on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Serve immediately with butter.

Makes 4-6 servings.