Abstract:

Welcome to Boy Dinners, the cooking show where we teach hungry college students how to cook struggle-meals, but with style and spice. We get it, cooking is hard. It’s like a chemistry lab, but if you mess up, instead of just “getting corrosive chemicals on your skin” or “breathing in toxic fumes,” you have to face much more dire consequences: being sad and ordering takeout. Cooking, especially if you have the free time of an engineer or the skills of a Rotman student, can be messy, stressful, dangerous, and slow. That’s where I come in. I, Yash Kumar Singhal, am here to teach you my best recipes for quick, easy, and healthy, vegetarian meals! Starting with the most important meal of the day: breakfast.

Introduction:

Cooking in the morning is especially hard when you’re not only late for class, but also rushing to complete those pre-class readings you forgot to do, all the while trying your very best to fight the urge to skip class altogether and just go back under the covers. Most mornings, I just layer some hummus on a piece of toast (yeah, fight me, it’s delicious and nutritious) to eat on my way to lecture. But, if by some strange miracle, I end up with an extra 20 minutes in the morning, I like to make myself a nice ‘Pistiroti’.

Pistiroti 

Pan-fried layered potato pancakes? 

Ingredients (for 2 pistirotis ‒ keeps one semi-hungry biology student full for around 2-3hrs):

• 2 potatoes (any kind)
• 1 adult carrot
• Fat (butter, oil, lard, petrol, whatever)
• Salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you like
• Cheese (if you want)

Equipment: 

• A pan (ideally non-stick so it is not a pain to clean)
• A stove (or other heat source)
• A way to boil potatoes (I just use my dorm MEeCRovaveY)
• A thing to flip stuff with (or you can just use your hands if you’re brave enough)
• A grater (or a combination of crazy incredible knife skills & unresolved anger issues)

Methods:

1. Wash the veggies, peel the carrot, and grate the carrot.
2. Cut each potato into 2 halves. Parboil the potatoes (I find it easiest to just put them in a microwavable bowl, cover with water, and bombard with radiation on high for 3-4 minutes).
3. Once parboiled, cool the potatoes down so as to not burn your hands. Then, grate the potatoes.
4. Put your pan on medium heat and throw in a bit of your fat
5. Take half a potato’s worth of grated potato and put it in the pan
6. Layer half your grated carrot and whatever seasonings your heart desires on top of the potato. Add the cheese (or any other toppings) and let the whole thing sizzle for a little bit. You can cover it with a lid to get the cheese nice and melty.
7. After about a minute or two, add the rest of your potato on top and use your spatula to pat the whole thing down (think of it like a grilled cheese but the bread is potato and the cheese is carrot). 
8. Now flip it! This is the hardest step to master but you can do it, I believe in you. Be brave, it’s just a leap of faith.
9. Add a little more fat around the sides and move the pan around slowly to get some under the pistiroti.
10. After a minute or two (or until there is a nice golden brown crust!), put it on a plate and enjoy hot! 

Repeat with leftover ingredients for a second.

Results:

It is very good.

Discussion

• Get your hands dirty, it is more fun this way and also one less utensil to wash.
• Add a fried egg on top to make the meal a little fancier and heartier.
• Add some baby spinach or other veggies (that you wouldn’t mind eating raw) when you add the carrot. #Health
• Play around with toppings and seasonings! I like mine with loads of black pepper, some chilly sauce, and kewpie mayo.
• Boil some potatoes on the weekend and keep them in a ziplock to use all week!
• You could also put this entire thing inside a tortilla wrap for the ultimate breakfast burrito.

References:

My mom, lol.