The Aerie
So last night we learned how to make lefse. It seems I'm a natural.
We got to Terry and Kathy's place a little after 6:00 p.m., and she greeted us with "Good, you're just in time to rice the potatoes!"
Yes, sure! And after that, why we'll broccoli the carrots! And rutabaga the pears! Why we'll verbize ANY vegetable with another - we're THAT kind of wild and crazy people
Turns out that "ricing" the mashed potatoes involves pressing them out through this Play-Doh kind of device that squeezes it into thin strings. The strings break up and the result looks like... rice. The idea I guess is to seine any lumps out of the potatoes.
Everyone took turns ricing, then my manly muscle was put to work mashing flour into the riced potatoes, which turned the whole mixture into a kind of dough... as well as my arm.
Kathy then did some magic with condensed milk and oil, and a few minutes later we were rolling balls of dough.
Each of these was pressed with a rolling pin on a floured cloth until paper thin. Then they were spread on hot iron griddles until they assumed familial resemblance with their cousin, the tortilla.
At this point Kathy took down a long, flat, slender stick and slipped it under the middle of the lefse, and gracefully turned it over on the griddle.
A few minutes more, and the steaming hot Norwegian potato tortilla was laid gently on a platter beneath a cloth to keep it warm.
Buttered, filled with something sweet, and rolled up, it was absolute heaven!
The process is slow, about the same speed as making waffles. But with one roller and two griddles, the steady flow of paper-thin lefse turned into a formidable pile in about an hour.
In addition to the lefse we ordered pizza from a very confused and frustrated pizza joint (all of the employees wondering, doubtless, what karmic price they were paying to be working these jobs on New Years eve). We played card games (Fluxx, Apples to Apples, and Elixir -- all highly recommended although Fluxx is my favorite). Finally we finished the evening with fireworks and wine as the clock struck 12.
All in all, very nice.
Posted by Albatross at January 1, 2004 1:18 PM