Potato lefse

potato lefse

Here by popular demand! <br />It's hard for me even to know where to start about lefse. I could write a book about it, how delicious it is, and how much symbolism of family and friendship and culture it has for me. But, I'll try to keep it a little shorter than a book. <br />First thing to know is: lefse is a Norwegian potato flatbread. It's soft and supple like a tortilla or crepe. And similar to both of those, you can wrap it around most anything, though the best (and most widely used) fillings are either a hotdog with ketchup, mustard, and crispy onions or else butter and cinnamon-sugar. What's funny is, almost nobody in Norway makes their own lefse anymore. Everyone buys it prepackaged in the grocery store (the kind you use for hotdogs is called lompe). But, not surprisingly, the packaged kind doesn't hold a candle to the freshly homemade kind. Fresh lefse is ethereal, soft, buttery, delicious. My family had to be taught to make lefse by our neighbors in Minnesota. As my aunt and uncle in Norway now say, "A Norwegian has to go to Minnesota to learn to be Norwegian." <br />Lefse is best made with lots of friends and a beer in one hand. That is, have a lefse making party! We make lefse with our neighbors (my neighborhood from growing up is like a big family) every year before Christmas. But we love it so much we usually look for other excuses to make it as well. Whenever one of us grown up kids comes home, or when it's Norway's Constitution Day (May 17) or for wedding showers, we break out the lefse. <br />So, here it is so you can try it too. This is a slight adaptation of the recipe originally shared with us by our dear family friend Beatrice Ojakangas (who has some fabulous cookbooks to her name).

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lefse potato

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