It was lefse (lef-suh) making day at our house.  If you’re not Norwegian, you’re probably thinking – what on earth is that!  It is basically like a potato tortilla.  We always had lefse at Grandma Blanche & Olaf’s house, for the holidays, when I was growing up.  So after I got married, Matt & I took part in a special lesson from grandma to learn how to make it ourselves.  We haven’t made it for 4 years though, so it was definitely time to do it again!    Grandma is no longer with us on earth, but she would be proud today!  It was heartwarming to pull out the recipe, written in grandma’s handwriting, to make our lefse.

So how exactly do you make lefse?  Peel & wash a lot of potatoes…  I would start with 5 pounds if it is your first time. We did…  24 pounds.   Cut the potatoes in smaller pieces and boil until soft.  Drain.   Place the potatoes in a large mixing bowl.  Mix with a mixer – I use my Kitchen Aid, but you could use a hand mixer too.  Dump the mixed potatoes into a new bowl.  Measure the potatoes (1 cup at a time) back into the original mixing bowl.  (keeping track of how many cups you have)  Add 1 T. of shortening for each cup of potatoes you have as well as a bit of salt and pepper.  Mix until shortening is melted and well blended.  Place in refrigerator overnight.  The next day, mix in (with your hands – my husband wore plastic gloves this time and it seemed to work well) 1/2 c. flour per number of cups of potatoes you had.  Roll the potato mixture into golf ball size balls.  Place them in the refrigerator.  Cover a countertop with LOTS of flour.  (At this point, it goes much smoother if you have two people – one to roll, one to cook – an be prepared to be covered in flour)  Preheat an electric griddle (450 degrees – some don’t go that high – they actually sell lefse griddles – that’s what we have) or use a cast iron pan (we have that too – we used both at the same time today).  Take out a few potato balls at a time (the rest need to stay cold) and roll them out (one at a time) on the floured surface – make them fairly thin, but not so thin that you can’t get them to the griddle.  Using a spatula or long skinny stick (the traditional way – see picture below) transfer the rolled out potatoes to the grill.  Cook until small brown spots appear and then flip.  Then transfer to a cotton tea towel to cool.  After you have cooked a couple pieces of lefse, you will want to brush off the extra flour from your grill.  All in all it is a long messy process, for a yummy once a year treat.  (At least that is how it is at our house.)  You can serve warm with just butter (how Matt likes it) or butter & cinnamon sugar (how I like it).  They can also be served cold – either way – experiment & see what you like.  And then there are others who just hate the stuff – I think you either like it or you don’t. 

So, actually we aren’t done.  We made about 80 so far and have about 150 more to go!  But we had to take a break for Annika to go to the Dr., pick up Ryan from school, homework, guitar lessons, a meeting tonight… Yeah, they’ll get done at some point RIGHT?  (my kitchen still looks like it does below – so Matt is out picking up dinner)

The lefsa only stays good for 2-3 days in the fridge, but you can freeze them and just defrost them as needed as well.   

We’ll be taking 80-100 pieces to the large Thanksgiving Gathering we are going to – we’ll see how the German’s like a Norwegian treat! 

So where are you in the lefse world.  Have you heard of it before?  Do you like it or hate it?  Have you ever made it?  Are you going to try to make it? 

Let me know in the comments.

C-

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