Welsh Potato Cake

Welsh Potato Cake

I'm pretty sure I never met a potato I didn't like.  When Sweetie-Pie and I go out to eat, he'll ask me what kind of potato should he order because I'm the one who's going to be eating it.  We're like Jack Spratt and his wife like that.  I take two bites of my meat, give him the rest, and he's scraping his potatoes onto my plate.  We work as a team like that.

I'm very content with the basic mashed or baked (and can we talked about fried?) potato.  No matter how you slice 'em, I love 'em. Yeah, it takes a little time to slice them and arrange them in the pan, but the little extra effort created a lot of wow.  Crispy, buttery potatoes on the outside, and melty, fluffy, buttery, onion-y potato on the inside.  Sometimes the simplest ingredients, beautifully presented, can garner the greatest wows, and this humble potato recipe is one of them.  No fancy ingredients and no advanced culinary skills needed here.

But you will need an eight-inch springform pan and either a mandolin or patience and a sharp knife to thinly slice the potatoes.

WELSH POTATO CAKE 

2 pounds of potatoes, peeled and sliced
8 ounces finely chopped onion
3 ounces melted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice your potatoes into thin discs (as if cutting for thick potato chips). Put the slices in a dish of ice water while you finish slicing the potatoes and then rinse and dry when ready to use.

Line the bottom of the springform pan in a layer of tight overlapping concentric circles (as you will want this and all potato layers to be snug so that when you slice into it the layers and slices will stay together).  

Sprinkle a bit of diced onion over the potatoes, a bit of butter and salt and pepper.

Repeat layers.

Bake for an 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until easily pierced with a knife.  

The thicker your potatoes slices, the longer it will take to cook.

COOK'S NOTE:  I've seen other recipes where a bit of grated cheese is added between the layers or a tiny touch of rosemary.