Traci Kelly's article "Honoring Helga, 'The Little Lefse Maker': Regional Food as Social Marker, Tradition, and Art" appears in the anthology Cooking Lessons. Kelly offers this recipe for Eat Feed listeners who want to cook up this Norwegian staple.
3 cups potatoes, mashed
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp shortening
2 tbsp sweet cream
1 cup flour
Peel, boil, mash the potatoes. Then add everything but the flour, mixing well. Cool for several hours...the dough must be thoroughly chilled. Add the flour and mix well. Roll out the dough on a floured board as thin as you can (thinner than a burrito shell). Bake on a prepared hot lefse grill (about 500 degrees) until brown spots appear on the cooked side. Flip the
lefse using your lefse stick, and brown until spots show on the second side. Remove, fold it in half, and cool before eating.
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