Prairie Kitchens - Spudnuts

Spundnuts
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup warm potato cooking water
1 cup mashed potatoes
3/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
3 – 4 cups flour
Vegetable oil or lard for deep frying

Dissolve yeast in warm potato water and let sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. Stir in mashed potatoes, milk, butter or oil, sugar, egg and salt. Add 3 cups flour and knead 8–10 minutes, adding the remaining flour as needed to form a smooth dough that is not sticky. Place in an oiled bowl, turning the dough to oil all sides, cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down and rise again until doubled. Roll dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut with a doughnut punch, or cut in circles and work a hole in the centre with your fingers. Let spudnuts rest for 15 minutes.

Heat vegetable oil at a depth of 2 inches to 360F. Working in batches, fry spudnuts until golden brown, turning to cook both sides and draining on paper towel. Sprinkle with sugar or glaze with vanilla icing.

(From up upcoming cookbook Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens.)

 

 

Prairie Kitchens - Hot German Potato Salad

Imagine getting through the winter without a single green vegetable. That was reality for the early pioneers. After homesteading, their first priority was to build a house and plant potatoes. Potatoes were a staple food along with bread, oatmeal, dried fruit (such as raisins and prunes), salt pork and wild game, when available.


Potatoes were served in creative ways, not just mashed and roasted, but also in soup, perogies, pies and cookies, biscuits and potato bread such as Norwegian lefse. Mashed potato was also used as a starter for making bread before commercial yeast was available.

Hopefully, the store of potatoes lasted until spring, but that was not always the case. One family of Barr Colonists (settlers from England who came here in 1903) lost their entire potato crop one frigid night in December. The potatoes were kept in a cellar dug under the floor of their little house, but the hole wasn't deep enough. One night, the fire went out and the whole house froze, including the bread that was rising on the stove and, sadly, the entire store of potatoes.

"We tried thawing them in both hot and cold water, baking them and boiling them in their skins, but no matter how we treated them they tasted horrible, like sweet potatoes gone sour," writes Mary (Pinder) Hiemstra in her memoire Gully Farm. Without potatoes, she says a typical meal that winter was wild rabbit, stewed prunes, bread and tea. Not a vegetable in sight – until the first greens of spring.

Warm German Potato Salad
1 lb potatoes (3 medium)
3 slices bacon, small dice
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Boil whole potatoes in water until they can be pierced through with a sharp knife. Cool slightly, peel and slice about 1/4 inch thick.

While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the bacon until soft. Add onion and cook until bacon is done. Add chicken broth and vinegar and heat through, seasoning with salt and pepper to your taste. Pour the bacon mixture onto the warm potatoes and toss gently. Eat warm, perhaps sprinkled with chopped chives or parsley, if available.

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(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Week 7 - BUBBLE & SQUEAK

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week - June 1.

Breakfast – Yogurt and stewed rhubarb.
Lunch – Buffalo salami on a bun with sliced tomato.
Dinner – Bubble and Squeak, pork sausages.

Bubble and Squeek
I found this in a Britsh cookbook by The Two Fat Ladies.
3 cups chopped cooked cold potatoes
1/4 cup lard
1 onion minced
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped cabbage
salt and pepper

Melt half the lard in a frying pan. Cook onion lightly. Add potatoes and cabbage. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, pressing the mixture into the pan until the bottom browns, about 15 minutes. Add the other half of the lard. Flip the potatoes and cabbage and brown on the other side, another 15 minutes.

Sources: dad's potatoes, farmers' market cabbage.