I love hash browns, crunchy and brown on the outside, soft in the center. It's the perfect weekend breakfast food. The good news is that tasty hash browns are SO EASY.
No, you don't buy a bag of frozen hash browns and follow the directions. Make 'em from scratch.
I started making hash browns this way when I was in culinary school in Dallas. I used a lattice of shredded potatoes (a really thin layer of hash browns) for a lamb dish for an exam. I got an A.
This recipe is all about process.
Hash Browns
Ingredients:
Potatoes, one medium per person
XVOO
Butter
Salt and pepper
Garnish: chives, sour cream, créme fraîche, spring onions
Equipment: patience, a box grater, colander, tea towel, spatula, and a good saute pan.
Grate one potato per person. I'm using a thin-skinned tuber. Shred with a box
grater.
Put grated potatoes in a colander and rinse under hot tap water.
--this begins the cooking process, you're rinsing off the extra starch, and pre-poaching the pots--
Drain well. Place in the tea towel, and squeeze to remove excess water. The potatoes should feel like warm, barely moist, potato shavings.
Now the fun part. Heat a good saute pan. Put about a teaspoon of oil per potato, as well as a 1/2 pat of butter in the pan. The pan should be on a medium heat. The hash browns will cook low-and-slow.
Sprinkle a thick (1/2 inch) layer of potatoes on top of the oil. Adjust the heat, you want it hot but not searingly hot.
Walk away for ten. OK Don't actually walk away, but ignore the pan for a solid ten minutes. Once you see brown bits around the edges, carefully turn the potatoes. Because of the differing starch and sugar content, thin-skinned potatoes will separate, russets tend to stick together.
So when you flip them, some potatoes will let loose in a lovely, round disc. Some will fall apart. Nothing wrong with either.
Brown the other side, again walking away for a solid ten minutes. I sprinkle chives or green onion on them and serve 'em up with sour cream, like they were potato pancakes.*
The finished product should look like this:
Brekkers (breakfast) rules!
Enjoy,
XOXO
Nancy
* Oooo. Potato pancakes. Hmmm, sounds like a future blog post.
