My coworker sent me this last week and it’s sad how close it hit home. I love potatoes. Like, LOVE them. More than so many things. My boss is scared to even look at french fries when I am nearby, because he knows I will fly into a rage if anyone touches them.

I think I have a problem.

 

Oh, well! Better happy with a potato, than normal and sad without one.

The true name of this dish is roesti. It’s basically a gigantic plate of hashbrowns, but Cook’s Illustrated gave me a lovely variation that I used for inspiration. They added beets, but I one-upped them with the further addition of celery root (aka, the unsung hero of the underworld…get it? Because it’s a root?…Screw you guys, I’M laughing).

I paired it with some goat cheese and horseradish sauce, fried shallots (clutch), maple-cayenne pecans (make extra, for insanely good snacking), and arugula salad. DIVINE.

Make sure to keep the heat on the medium-low side of things, so that you don’t burn the bottom. The pieces all went very well together and I would definitely recommend this as a complete meal, but if you just go with the roesti I think you’ll still be quite happy. I have visions of this with a poached egg for breakfast. Mmmm.

 

Potato and Beet Pancake

inspired by Cook’s Illustrated

For the pancake:

3/4 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and shredded
1 small celery root, peeled and shredded
3 medium beets, peeled and shredded (I used both red and gold)
1/4 c finely diced scallions
salt and pepper
6 T butter

For the horseradish sauce:

3 T horseradish
1/2 c goat cheese
3 T sour cream
pepper

For the pecans:

1 c pecans
1/2 cayenne pepper
enough maple syrup to coat the pecans (approx. 1/8-1/4 c)

Fried shallots (fry at a low heat in peanut oil for best flavor)

Arugula salad (I went with a lemon-dijon-honey dressing)

For the pancake, mix the shredded potatoes, celery root, and beets together in a bowl with the salt and pepper. Melt 4 T butter in a large cast-iron pan over medium-low heat. When hot, press the potato mixture in until you have a pretty compact cake. You may need to move the pan around over the heat, so that the pancake is evenly browned. After about 15 minutes, loosen the pancake with a spatula, place a plate over the top, and invert onto the plate. Add the remaining 2 T butter to the pan and melt, then slide the pancake back into the pan to cook on the other side. Brown another 15 minutes.

For the horseradish sauce, simply mix everything together in a bowl.

For the pecans, spray a baking sheet with oil and then mix the pecans, syrup, and cayenne together on top. Spread out into a single layer and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

To assemble, place a wedge of the pancake on a plate, dollop on some horseradish sauce, sprinkle with the fried shallots, toss the arugula salad in with some pecans, and enjoy the heck out of one fine meal, you sexy son of a B.