Breakfast · Ireland · Donegal

Boxty Breakfast 🥞

Name: Boxty Breakfast
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 27 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 4 large potatoes, peeled; 1 bunch spring onions, sliced; 100 g plain flour; 1 egg white; 150 ml buttermilk; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 50 g butter; 2 tbsp vegetable oil; 6 cherry tomatoes; 12 short-cut bacon rashers; 6 eggs, to serve; Milk, splash (if batter is thick)

Boxty is Ireland's humble potato pancake, a 19th-century staple whose name comes from the Irish 'botóg'. The trick is mixing raw grated potato for crispness with boiled mashed potato for softness, lightened with whipped egg white. Fried in butter until golden, they stack into a weekend breakfast plate with rashers, a fried egg and grilled tomatoes — the comfort food that kept generations of Donegal farmhouses going.

County Donegal Irish ⏱ 45 min Medium

Method

1

Grate 2 of the potatoes and squeeze them very dry in a clean tea towel. Boil the other 2 until tender, then mash. Combine both potatoes with the spring onions and flour.
2

Whisk the egg white to soft peaks, fold in the buttermilk with the bicarbonate of soda stirred through, then gently fold everything into the potato mix.
3

Heat a little butter and oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Drop in spoonfuls of the mixture and fry 3–5 minutes per side until golden and crusty; keep cooked boxty warm in a low oven.
4

Soften the tomatoes in a pan with butter, grill the bacon, and fry the eggs.
5

Stack boxty with bacon and egg on the plate and serve the tomatoes alongside.
6

Make ahead: boxty keep a day, drained on kitchen paper; reheat in a low oven for about 20 minutes.

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Boxty Breakfast 🥞

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