Buffy, and fellow Hypographers, here's an old family recipe. My family calls Baba (
Polska)
Takes a little time, but is well worth it. There are variations, but for the basic recipe,
You will need:
One, 9x13x2 Baking Pan or
One, cured 12" Cast Iron skillet. Skillet will impart a better taste
Two, Large mixing bowls
Ten pounds of potatoes
One, maybe two pounds of Bacon
One to two Large Onions
At Least 5 eggs, depends on the size of eggs, and how dry, potatoes are when mixing
Salt, and Pepper
Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, Butter
Preparation (40min.) and cooking: (90min.)
Make sure oven is empty! Start at 425
°, Place rack in middle.
Start cooking Bacon until crispy. It can be done in Pan or Skillet. Slow cook while your working on potatoes. When done, reserve drippings, leave Pan, Skillet for later.
Peel, Rinse, Grate, Potatoes
To grate, I use a KitchenAid
® mixer, with the Slicer/Shredder attachment, use the Fine Shredder.
Back in the day, we used a hand grater that was a little bit finer, but this works okay.
Check bacon, if bacon is done, separate bacon from drippings, let cool.
Depending on the potatoes, you'll see some white foam caused by the starch and shredding action, rinse.
Its okay to leave some foam…..Usually takes me 3 rinses. Drain thoroughly, let sit.
Take drippings from bacon, and coat pan or skillet, reserve what is left. Let sit
Peel and dice, or thin slice Onion, Toss into bowl of shredded potatoes
Break eggs into bowl
Salt, and Pepper to taste
Crunch bacon into bowl
Mix thoroughly with hands, place mixture into coated pan or skillet, level and coat top with reserved drippings.
If you do not have enough, lard will do, Crisco's
® okay, lard has the better flavor.
Place in oven; bake for 1 to 1½ hours. Check after 30 min, if dry, coat with more drippings.
It is done when it has a nice golden crust on top; it will also have an outside crust from pan or skillet.
Cut potato pie into manageable servings; let family add, Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, Butter, extra salt, pepper, ketchup, and salsa, whatever you like. Serves 6
Variations include Ham instead of /or including Bacon, a Veggie Baba, with all or some of carrots, onions, broccoli, a hamburger Baba. You can add cheese to the mixture before baking. Only your imagination can hold you back.
All variations require the bacon drippings/Lard to obtain the Golden crust.
You can use Pam
® or similar product, but it will be harder to obtain crust.
Veggie Baba, comes out very lite, it's done and has crust, but very lite
IF…….. There is any left, I usually make two. It is good cold, later, or with eggs in the morning.
Oh.....If you do make it, tradition holds, you save some for your fellow Babanites, that's part of the reason I make two.
Enjoy …………..chendoh
Re: Homemade Comfort Food Recipes
semantics is not always just pedantic quibbling. ~ douglas r. hofstadter
lol, You can also scale down the recipe.
