Description
With a few simple ingredients you can turn potatoes into Irish potato farls, which are little potato cakes that tender on the inside, and crispy on the outside. They are the perfect addition to any breakfast. We especially love serving them with over easy eggs.
Ingredients
Irish Potato Farls
- 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled (about 3 large potatoes)
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided (for gluten free – sub with all purpose gluten free flour blend)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp, or melted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (if using table salt, reduce to 3/4 teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
For Frying
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil, divided
Optional garnish
- green onions, sliced
Instructions
- Prepare – Bring about 6 cups of water to a boil in a medium sauce pot. While the water is coming to a boil, cut the peeled russet potatoes into 2 inch chunks.
- Boil the potatoes – Once the water has reached a boil, season the water with 2 tablespoons of kosher salt (reduce to 1 tablespoon if using table salt), and add the potatoes. Allow the potatoes to simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, or until they are fork tender.
- Drain the potatoes – Carefully drain the cooked potatoes into a colander that is placed in a sink. Allow the potatoes to sit in the colander for 2 minutes to allow the steam to escape.
- Rice the potatoes – pass the potatoes through a potato ricer, and into a large mixing bowl, so that the potatoes are a really fine texture. If you don’t have a potato rice you can mash the potatoes using a potato masher to mash the potatoes as finely as you can – ideally you don’t want large chunks of potatoes in your mixture.
- Add the remaining ingredients – To the riced potatoes, add 1 cup of the all purpose flour (or AP gluten free flour blend), the 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter that is room temp, or melted – along with the kosher salt, and black pepper. Stir until a shaggy dough forms. If the dough seems really wet then add in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Use your clean hands to knead the dough in the bowl, 2 to 3 times, until a mostly smooth ball has formed (see photo in post).
- Cut into triangles – Lightly flour a clean, smooth work surface, and turn the potato farls dough out onto the floured work surface. Use your hands to flatten the dough into an even disc. Flour your rolling pin and roll the dough to about 3/4 inch thick. Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut the dough into about 8 triangles.
- Fry the potato farls – heat a 12 inch cast iron skillet (or a stainless steel skillet) over medium high heat. Once the pan is nice and hot, add the butter, and 1 tablespoon of the avocado oil. Add 4 of the potato farls to the pan. Cook until the underside is nice and browned, and crispy – about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip each potato farl, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes on the other side, until it is also golden brown. Transfer to a plate, and repeat the cooking process with the remaining potato farls.
- Serve – Serve the potato farls hot form the pan, and top with green onions, if desired. We like to serve our potato farls with some over easy eggs, with a runny center for dipping the potato farls into, for a complete meal. You can also serve it with bacon, or breakfast sausages. In Ireland, it is common to fry up half of a tomato in a pan, and some mushrooms, to accompany many savory breakfasts like this one. NOTE – see notes on leftovers. These re-heat nicely.
Notes
Gluten free option – to make this recipe gluten free, simply swap the all purpose flour for an all purpose gluten free flour blend. Works great.
Using leftover mashed potatoes – this recipe was created in Ireland as a way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. You can certainty do this, but I haven’t tested this method. I would recommend using mashed potatoes that are pretty plain, as in they don’t have a lot of cream, milk, or other added ingredients. If using leftover mashed potatoes you will want to adjust the salt and pepper accordingly. Also, if the mashed potatoes are more on the liquidy side, you may need to adjust by adding more flour to the mixture to create a nice dough.
re-heating leftovers – The potato farls are excellent re-heated. Simply heat up a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, once hot add some butter in and add the potato farls. Cook about 2 to 3 minutes per side, or just until warmed through and crispy on the outside. Serve immediately.
