Dee’s Leonard Cafe is one of many who serve potato klub
Tue, 01/29/2019 - 11:22am
admin
By:
Bonnie Kirchman
Starting in the fall and lasting through the winter months, fans of potato klub can enjoy this favorite dish on Thursdays at Dee’s Leonard Cafe. Deanna and Milo Durkin, who own the restaurant, Deanna’s brother Erick Colborn, and Angela Seyller are the early morning part of the team that create this dish and serve it to their eager customers.
Dee has been cooking since she was about nine years old. But potato klub isn’t really something she grew up eating or preparing. She added klub to her cooking repertoire when she worked at her family’s restaurant, the D and R Café in Bagley. There klub was made in big batches with many kettles on the stove. Milo used a drill to mix the large batches of dough. When she opened the restaurant in Leonard, making klub wasn’t necessarily in her plans. But Ritchie Langseth encouraged her to make klub like his mom, Betty Langseth. And Betty told Dee, “If you make potato klub with onions, the people will come.” That has proved to be true at the Leonard Café. Each week, during the fall and winter months, Dee and Angela Seyller make enough klub to satisfy 75 or more fans of this Norwegian dish.
A lot of labor goes into each batch of potato klub. Fifty to 75 pounds of potatoes need to be peeled and quartered. Onions are chopped. A large kettle of water flavored with ham is heated on the stove. Angela grinds the potatoes and onions together, then drains off any excess liquid. Flour, salt, and pepper are added and the dough is mixed by hand. Each klub is then formed, also by hand, around a good-sized chunk of ham. Next, the klub are placed in the large pot on the stove and cooked until they float. At this point, it’s time for the klub to come out of the water and they are kept warm until they are served. All this gets done while Erick prepares for lunch and cooks up breakfast orders for customers and Dee keeps an eye on a blueberry pie baking in the oven. Tables also have to be bussed and dishes washed.
Angela learned how to make the klub from Dee and has been making it for almost three years. The grinder is loud, so Angela completes the grinding in a back room. She and Dee do not use a recipe. They both know how much potato and flour to combine until the dough feels right. They know from experience how much salt and pepper to add. When it comes time to roll the klub dough into balls, Angela uses “about a palmful” to create each serving. Each week, Angela and Dee make one batch of klub without onion, but most customers prefer the onion-flavored version. Dee has found that Yukon potatoes produce a better colored klub as these do not turn gray in the cooking process.
Neither Dee nor Angela grew up eating potato klub. Dee and her brother Erick are originally from California. Although Angela grew up in the area, klub is not a traditional food for her either. But they understand how important it is to their customers. Erick said that some of their klub customers haven’t missed a single Thursday.
At the Leonard Café, customers enjoy the klub with their choice of bacon, side pork, or ham along with green beans and a dinner roll. Many take a couple of extra klub home to fry and eat the next day, often for breakfast. According to Milo, the leftover klub is sliced and fried like a potato. If someone isn’t in the mood for klub, they can also order from the regular menu on Thursday, but Dee says most customers choose klub.
The winter hours of Dee’s Leonard Café are from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. They are open every day except for Monday. In the spring, around April, they expand their hours to 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Dee is also having special meals, such as a walleye dinner and prime rib dinner that will be served on Friday, January 11, starting at 4:00 p.m. And of course, Thursdays are klub days. Dee said their klub season starts in October, a bit earlier than other restaurants in the area. They will continue making klub until the spring. Dee said, “When the snow goes, so does the klub”. So maybe long Minnesota winters aren’t such a bad thing for klub fans.