March is here and I couldn't be happier. Spring is a good time of the year to clean house, especially your pantry. I always find all sorts of surprises in my pantry when I reorganize it-- probably because my pantry is all spread throughout my small apartment in order to give everything a home. I have a "flours" shelf, and often find that extra bag of powdered sugar that I didn't know was there, or a huge unopened bag of quinoa flour I bought for some cookies I never made.. etc. Today was my lucky day, because I found 2 giant bags of cashews! I sort of felt like I won the lottery. The cashew lottery. The best kind of lottery.
With them I made a new recipe-- an Irish Potato Pie! Is that a real thing? No? Okay good, then it was my idea. I suppose it takes inspiration from a french gratin, but Irish stuff is like waaay way cooler than french stuff, so I'm referring to this baby as an originale.
I sliced the potatoes super duper thin with a knife, but you could use a mandolin if you've got a good one. Use the slicer attachment on your food processor if you must, but they usually make my slices to thick for proper layering. I used part of my rediscovered cashew stash to make a creamy sauce to pour over the top, and baked it.
Intended for but not limited to St. Patrick's Day fixings. I can't see this not going over fabulously at a potluck. Unless you have, like, really weird friends.
Irish Potato Pie
4-5 yukon gold potatoes, washed
3/4 cup cashew pieces
1 head garlic
1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
Peel away as much of the papery outsides of the head of garlic as you can without removing any cloves. Place on a small baking tray and roast for about 35-40 minutes, or until cloves are soft and golden. Remove from oven and carefully remove the cloves from the papery skin.
Using a food processor fitted with the slicing blade, or a mandolin, or by hand, slice the potatoes into thin slices, no thicker than 1/8 inch. If slicing by hand slice as thin as possible. Put sliced potatoes in a mixing bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.
In a blender, combine the cashews, roasted garlic cloves, almond milk, the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice, garlic powder, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Puree until very smooth and no grainy-ness remains.
Spray a pie plate with canola oil spray.
In a spiral pattern, line the pie plate with the potato slices in a neat pattern. Continue until all space is used up and spiral is complete.
Pour the cashew sauce over the potatoes and smooth out top so that you can slightly see the tops of the potatoes. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until top of the pie is lightly puffed and golden.
Serve whole, and slice as you would a pie.
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