Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Recipe Wednesday - Karen Hall

Author Karen Hall is here is with a recipe for Lefse. They sound a lot like something my sister makes we call potato dumplings. My sister got the recipe from her mother-in-law and we all love it! This recipe sounds great also.

Lefse


(With apologies to my ancestors, a.k.a. “the Norwegian tortilla”)



1 cup loosely packed riced cooked potatoes

1/3 cup white flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons soft butter



Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain. Cool, then put through a ricer or large sieve.

Combine the ingredients and cut in with a pastry cutter or your fingers to make a soft dough. Divide dough into five balls. Using a rolling pin cover and lots of flour, roll each ball into a thin circle. Carefully shake off excess flour and transfer the dough sheets, one at a time, to a dry griddle or large frying pan, and cook over medium high heat for a minute or two. When lightly browned, turn and cook the other side.


Serve warm with butter and sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, soft cheese or anything else that needs to be conveyed from plate to mouth.


Variation: For those with celiac disease, substitute potato flour for white flour. The result tastes much like French fries.


Karen’s Bio
Karen Hall, an environmental engineer and writer, lives in the Black Hills outside Rapid City, SD, with her husband Jeff Nelsen and their two cats, Rocky and Junior. After obtaining an English literature degree at the University of Minnesota, she spent time as an editor, lifeguard, graphics designer, marketing executive, bank teller, secretary and cherry picker (really—Yakima Valley, Washington). None of them fit her well, so she went back to school for degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering, and spent nearly nine years working in Minnesota’s oil industry. She left to start her own environmental consulting business—and to devote more time to writing. Her first novel, Unreasonable Risk, published in 2006, is a thriller about sabotage in an oil refinery. Ms. Hall has also published several short stories and travel pieces. She has recently finished a second thriller, Through Dark Spaces, set in the hard rock gold mining industry of the Black Hills, and is also working on a novel about infertility. Her website, currently under construction, is at www.karenehall.com. Please check back in a week or so.



About the Book
Unreasonable Risk is currently out of print, but is still available from amazon.com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karen,
The recipe sounds great, and easy. Now I must confess it's my second exposure to Norwegian food. First time was on a trip to Scandinavia in 1969. We had a buffet on our ferry to Norway. Most beautiful display of food I had ever seen -- and not a sprinkle of seasoning anywhere on it, not even salt and pepper! (:

I'm very interested in your book about hard rock gold mining. When will be it be out?

Pat Browning

Karen Hall said...

Thanks, Pat. And it's true about Norwegian cuisine -- not much seasoning and, nearly as important, not much color. Lots of white food. The exception that proves the rule is a fabulous blood red fruit pudding called "Rodgrod med flode." If you want the recipe, I'll be happy to share.

My next book, set in a hard rock gold mine and tentatively titled THROUGH DARK SPACES, is making the rounds looking for an agent/publisher. I'll let you know when it finds a home.

Thanks again,
Karen