Category Archives: potatoes

Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes were a holiday tradition when I was growing up. Every Christmas Eve we would have fried fish, scalloped potatoes and oyster stew, along with an assortment of other homemade goodies. Holidays were a time of celebration and plenty. No matter how many people showed up, no one ever went home hungry.

The scalloped potato recipe I use is similar to the one my mom used to make. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
2 cups milk
2-4 tablespoons diced onions or chives
1/2 pound cheese, thinly sliced or shredded

Directions

Grease a 9×13 pan (preferably Pyrex or ceramic) with butter or lard. Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel or scrub potatoes, slice thinly. Place potatoes in cold water while you make the sauce.

To make the cream sauce. Melt butter over low heat in a medium to large heavy saucepan (one that has room for the potatoes), stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Blend in flour, pepper and salt. Cook over low heat, stirring until mixture is smooth and bubbly.

Stir in milk.

Bring mixture to boil, stirring constantly. Boil one minute. Mixture will become thick and creamy. this is a basic white sauce.

Add onions or chives to sauce. Drain potatoes thoroughly in a colander (I like my over the sink strainer). Pour potatoes into hot warm sauce, toss to coat.

At this point, you can either add the shredded cheese right in the sauce pot, or add in in layers as you place the potatoes in the pan. I had some leftover homemade mozzarella, so I sliced it and layered it in the pan. (Layer of potatoes, layer of cheese, another layer of potatoes.)

Cover with foil and bake for around one hour, until center is bubbling. Remove foil and bake ten minutes more to brown the top. Remove from oven, let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6-8.

Do you have a favorite holiday potato dish?

This post has been added to Domestically Divine at Far Above Rubies.

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Potato Pancakes Like Grandma Used to Make

Posted on August 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

When I was a little girl, I remember my grandmother making potato pancakes quite regularly, usually on Friday nights. (Potatoes were cheap, and stored well in grandma’s unheated basement.) Mom made them sometimes, too, for the same reason. Both mom and grandma always served their pancakes with homemade applesauce (and I do, too .

When I was flipping through my copy of The Garden Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman, I came across her recipe for potato latkes, which were pretty darn similar to grandma’s potato pancakes. Now that the days are getting cooler and the new crop of potatoes are coming in, I thought it was a perfect time to share my favorite recipe for potato pancakes, which is somewhat of a hybrid of Andrea’s and my grandma’s.

Potato Pancake Recipe

3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, or other starchy, not waxy potatoes
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
2 large eggs or one duck egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
butter, for frying
applesauce, for serving

Grate the potatoes, either by hand or with a food processor. Usually I just do it by hand, because my friend, Julie, got me this nifty box grater, which is very handy, plus it’s quieter than the food processor and easier to clean up.

As you grate the potatoes, move them into water acidified with either lemon juice or vinegar (1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to 4 cups water). (This is Andrea’s tip.) Mix potato with water for one minute, pour into a strainer and drain well. (At this point she pats them dry with a kitchen towel – I skip this step.) Acidification will keep the potatoes from turning pink, then gray as they oxidize with exposure to air.

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except butter and applesauce.

heat your skillet up to medium-high, and lube it up with plenty of butter. (Don’t skip on the butter – fat adds flavor and butter is good for you – honest.) Drop the potato mixture in the pan about 1/4 cup at a time. Fry until golden brown on the bottom, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Flip, repeat. Give each pancake plenty of room so you get nice, crispy edges.

You can keep the pancakes warm in the oven while you finish cooking, or you can just start dishing them up as you go (my preferred option). If they sit too long, they loose that crispy goodness. Serve with applesauce (or ketchup, if you think that’s a food group like my youngest son). These are pretty tasty warmed up (in the toaster oven or frying pan) the next day for breakfast, too, or even eaten cold.

(lol – I’m writing this past midnight while I’m waiting for the pressure canner to finish, and boy, I sure wish I had some of these to snack on right now.

Well, it’s way past my bedtime, the canner just dropped to zero pressure, and you should have the information you need to make some pretty tasty potato pancakes.

This post has been added to Homestead Barn Hop #24 at The Prairie Homestead,

Simple Lives Thursday #57 at A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa and

Frugal Food Thursday at Frugal Food Follies.

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Leftover Mashed Potatoes? Make Potato Bread

Posted on July 31, 2011 | 13 Comments

Quite often when I make mashed potatoes for supper, I end up with just a dab (less than a cup) of potatoes left – not really enough for another meal.

So how do you stretch a small amount of potatoes into another meal sized portion? One option is chicken and gnocchi soup, another favorite option is potato bread.

Most of the “potato bread” recipes I’ve seen used powdered mashed potatoes – not something I keep in my pantry My husband used to be a fan of store bought potato bread when we were first married – you know kind that resembles cotton candy in bread form? (Pretty sure they use potato flakes…) I was tickled to finally find a recipe that uses real mashed potatoes. I throw mine in just the way I serve them – butter, milk, salt and pepper included.

That recipe I use is based on one from The Bread Machine Cookbook V (this book is a bargain on Amazon.com – available used starting at $0.01).

Potato Bread Recipe Using Real Mashed Potatoes

7 ounces cooked potato (you can use leftover mashed potatoes, or cook up a small potato and mash it)
Water, enough to equal 1 3/4 cup when combined with the potato

(I put the potato into a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup, and add water to bring the level up to 1 3/4 cup)

2 tablespoons softened butter
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour (I usually use a mix of fresh ground wheat berry flour and pre-milled flour)
2 teaspoons dry yeast or 1 1/2 teaspoons saf-instant yeast

If using a bread machine, select “wheat”, “sweet”, or “white” setting, do not use a timer.

I normally mix the dough in my Bosch Universal Plus Kitchen Machine and then bake it in the oven. (I finally bought a Bosch after killing three different bread machines. It’s more expensive, but can handle double batches of whole wheat bread without a fuss, unlike lighter machines.)

I add everything into the machine and mix for 6-8 minutes, adding additional flour if needed. Add the last of flour slowly – you want a soft, elastic dough. Too much flour will give you a harder dough and a drier bread. If kneading by hand, mix wet ingredients with yeast until thoroughly blended, then add dry ingredients, adjusting flour as needed to give a soft, elastic dough.

Let bread rest and rise for around 20 minutes, then punch down and allow to rise again. (This develops the flavor and gluten of the bread.) Once doubled in size, form dough into loaves and place in greased bread pans. A single recipe makes one large loaf or two smaller loaves. I usually divide the dough into two 9×5 pans. This way I get two loaves and pop one in the freezer to keep it fresh. (Although, the last time I made this bread, the first loaf was inhaled as soon as it came out of the oven, so I didn’t need the freezer.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. Try to wait for the bread to cool before cutting, if possible. When you cut open a steaming loaf of bread, much of the moisture escapes as steam, leaving the remainder of the loaf dry. Of course, if it all disappears within a matter of minutes, this is a non-issue.

This recipe produces a moist, dense loaf that is great for sandwiches and toast, and holds for the better part of a week. For longer storage, it freezes very well, in case you want to make a double or triple batch. I had a slice of it lightly toasted with butter for breakfast this morning. (I like to observe the 1:1 bread:butter ratio.)