Irish Potato Cakes

May 13, 2003

My ancestors came from various parts of England, Ireland and Scotland to settle in New Zealand from the mid 1800s onwards. It must have taken a great deal of courage to leave friends and family behind and make the long voyage here by sailing ship.

For some of the Irish ones there possibly wasn't a lot of choice. Ireland was in the grip of a potato famine and maybe a new life on the other side of the world seemed infinitely more hopeful.

A couple of my Irish great-great-great grandfathers had been soldiers and were used to travelling the world. One, John Christie, served in Jamaica, St Helena and Capetown and in various parts of England and Ireland. The other, Roger Jones, was in America, Bermuda, Gibraltar and the West Indies.

Both were destined to travel out here on the Ann as Royal New Zealand Fencibles - retired soldiers recruited to protect the northern city of Auckland from the Maori. They departed Belfast on Christmas Day 1857 and arriving in New Zealand around six months later. John's daughter Mary Jane was to marry Roger's son John Edward.

During a recent visit to Auckland I called by the Howick Historical Village which shows what life was like for the Fencibles in the 1850s. Unfortunately it was closed for a public holiday but I did take some pictures over the fence and here is a typical Fencible cottage.

My Irish ancestors must have kept their traditions going because my mother tells me as a child she would come home from school with her brothers and cousin, and their Irish granny - who came from Newport, Tipperary and was married to John and Mary Jane's son William - would have a batch of Irish potato cakes ready for them to tuck into.

I can remember Mum's own mother coming to stay with us and I would arrive home to a freshly baked batch of goodies - sultana buns or pikelets or peanut biscuits. My mother always had her day for "filling the cake tins‚" too. I don't think too many of today's kids arrive home to the wonderful smell of Mum's baking.

I've been promising myself a batch of Irish potato cakes for some time but whenever I try to cook up a big lot of mashed potatoes so I will have leftovers, The Spouse - himself with a fair touch of the Irish - regards it as a personal bonus and scoffs the lot.

I outwitted him on Mother's Day when we had our own mothers around for lunch. Even he could not handle the mountain of potatoes.

There are a couple of version of potato cakes. Some are made from mashed potatoes, flour and butter. Others include grated fresh potato as well and are sometimes known as boxty, from the Irish "Bacstai‚" which refers to the traditional method of grilling over an open fire.

Boxty usually has the same quantities of flour, mashed potato and grated potato. I use a cup of each and the recipe makes eight good-sized potato cakes.

You can serve them with rashers of bacon and an egg or two. Add some pork sausage and grilled tomatoes and you have a pretty good Irish breakfast.

When we motored around the UK and Ireland four years ago, staying at B&B places, we had our fair share of Englishbreakfast that became Welsh breakfasts as we detoured through Pandy in Wales. Once over the border into Scotland they became "Scottish breakfasts‚" and then of course across the Irish Sea and they were "Irish breakfasts‚". Each place had a little touch that made them their own.

Irish Potato Cakes

1 cup mashed potato
1 cup grated potato (approx two medium to large potatoes)
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
Seasoning
Oil and butter for frying

Grate the potatoes and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Place in a bowl with the mashed potato (1). Sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix all together well (2). Whisk the eggs with the milk and stir into the potato mix until well blended. Shape into eight rounds and flatten slightly.

Heat some oil and butter together in a pan and fry the potato cakes for about six minutes on each side (3, 4). If cooking in batches, place the cooked potato cakes in a preheated oven to keep warm.

If you want to jazz up your potato cakes you can add some grated cheese, or finely chopped spring onion (or both). Try serving with some hot-smoked salmon. Or you can use them instead of muffins for Eggs Benedict.