“The best things made in Grandma’s kitchen are memories.” ~ Unknown
NOTE: I spend my Wednesdays Unplugged from appointments. It’s my day to stay home, enjoy cooking and welcome our kids and grandkids for dinner in the evening. We end our meal with quotes from the Norwegian ‘Quote Cup’ passed on to me from my grandmother. I share a quote and a recipe here each week, along with an update and photos of what has been going on in our lives. I love trying new recipes…and love getting recipes you would like to share!
We made many stops on our North Dakota road trip, including a visit to John’s Aunt Evelyn. With 6 children, she has lots and lots of grandchildren, and feels like Grandma to many, many more. She was our son’s first baby-sitter more than 40 years ago! She gave John the interesting cooking utensil above from his grandpa’s farm home, great for chopping onions in the frying pan… and she said she used it for cutting up spaghetti into smaller pieces.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Even though it isn’t officially lefse season for a few more months, Evelyn is known for her lefse making. One of her granddaughters made a book, “Making Lefse Like Grandma” for her 90th birthday a couple years ago and we got a copy while we were there. It seems only fitting that I share her recipe… after all, you can eat lefse any time of year!
EVELYN’S LEFSE
DAY ONE
- 5 pounds red potatoes
- 1 teaspoon salt and extra for boiling potatoes
- 1 stick of salted butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup flour and extra for rolling
Toss all the potatoes into the sink and soak. Peel potatoes, making sure to remove all eyes. Cut potatoes in half and toss into a pot filled with water to rinse. After cutting all the potatoes, drain water and refill with clean water. Put on the stove, add a little salt and boil for 15-20 minutes, until tender with a fork.
Take a large mixing bowl and add sliced stick of butter, salt, heavy whipping cream and sugar. Take your cooked potatoes, and use a ricer to add them to the mixing bowl. Mix well with electric mixer using the flat beater. Scoop dough into a zip lock bag and store in the refrigerator overnight.
DAY TWO
Cut open the bag of cooled dough and cut it into a grid, with pieces small enough to fit into ricer. Rice your dough for a second time into a mixing bowl. Add 1 cup flour and mix into dough by hand. Flour a round pastry board, then place dough on pastry board and roll into a log by hand. Take 1/3 measuring cup, scoop out dough and place on a tray.
Start by dusting the pastry board with flour to avoid sticking. Keep a small bowl of flour handy at all times. Take one of the scoops, dust with flour. Start by rolling it out into a circle with a corrugated rolling pin covered with a clean tube sock inside-out. Making sure to flip after a few rolls, again adding more flour below to make sure the dough does not stick to the board.
Continue rolling until you hit the 12″ mark on the pastry cloth. Be sure to keep an eye out for wet spots sticking to the board below. Pick up lefse with a stick after rolling, it can fall apart if left too long. Roll onto preheated grill surface. Peek at lefse and flip when you see golden brown spots forming. If a bubble begins to form simply poke the air out. Lefse is fully cooked when both sides are golden brown. Take lefse off grill using your lefse stick and roll out into your towel for cooling. Let sit until it is cold to the touch before folding, can vary with stack size.
Enjoy with lots of butter and sugar!
