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Hash Browns?


cakewench

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Alrightie. Back in Amsterdam after a weekend with the in-laws in Germany. I've had it up to here *gestures* with foreign-ity right now. When I get in these moods (rare, but powerful when they occur), only Comfort Foods can help.

I'm typing this up after a long, tedious car ride, and will be falling into bed shortly. I hope to wake up to find an answer or two to this question. Which is:

Any suggestions for hash brown preparation? The potato-and-onion sort. Minimal frills.

I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I think I've only made them myself once, a long time ago, and I don't recall what I did. For example, perhaps a question better suited to the 'stupid question' thread, but does one cook the potatoes first? ie, am I frying raw potato (okay, it already sounds wrong, somehow), or boiling/roasting beforehand?

Any other suggestions regarding nice, fried, breakfast-style potatoes are welcome, also. I'm picturing some nice over-easy eggs, toast, and hash browns on the menu tomorrow for lunch. (no, not breakfast. I might like the 'American breakfast', but it's a bit ...much... for actual breakfast. Unless I'm on vacation. Which I'm not. /sidetrack)

Thanks! :biggrin:

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Alrightie.  Back in Amsterdam after a weekend with the in-laws in Germany.  I've had it up to here *gestures* with foreign-ity right now.  When I get in these moods (rare, but powerful when they occur), only Comfort Foods can help.

I'm typing this up after a long, tedious car ride, and will be falling into bed shortly.  I hope to wake up to find an answer or two to this question.  Which is:

Any suggestions for hash brown preparation?  The potato-and-onion sort.  Minimal frills.

I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I think I've only made them myself once, a long time ago, and I don't recall what I did.  For example, perhaps a question better suited to the 'stupid question' thread, but does one cook the potatoes first?  ie, am I frying raw potato (okay, it already sounds wrong, somehow), or boiling/roasting beforehand?

Any other suggestions regarding nice, fried, breakfast-style potatoes are welcome, also.  I'm picturing some nice over-easy eggs, toast, and hash browns on the menu tomorrow for lunch.  (no, not breakfast.  I might like the 'American breakfast', but it's a bit ...much... for actual breakfast.  Unless I'm on vacation.  Which I'm not.  /sidetrack)

Thanks!  :biggrin:

I've had good luck when I've microwaved the potatoes just enough to get them soft, maybe 4 minutes or so. Then chop or grate, whichever way you prefer, saute chopped onion in an skillet with plenty of butter, and maybe a slice of bacon for added flavor. Add the potatoes, and let them sizzle away, stirring every so often over medium high heat, until they get to the desired crispness. I like them good and crunchy, so I'll let them sit longer, and stir less, so they get nice and brown.

Another thing I've gotten addicted to, thanks to someone posting here, is pressed potatoes. Take a cooked potato, slice in half add butter to a skillet and put the potato in skin side up. Take another heavy plate or skillet and press hard on the potato so it flattens out. I leave the other skillet on top, and throw the whole thing in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes or so, until the bottom is very crunchy brown. You end up with one, big giant hashbrown that fills an entire plate. Could add onions to the mess as it cooks too for added flavor, will try that next time.

Pam

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Here is what I do the few times that I do. That is usually when I have a bunch of hungry young people in the house. (I normally go find a good diner, but I doubt that you have that option.)

First, a terminology clarification. Here, we call the grated potato variety hashbrowns and the small cubes are called something like "home, country, cottage frys" or something else stupid. I much prefer the grated type to get the maximum brown surface.

I use the food processor but you could do this by hand. Peel the potatoes and grate on a coarse grater. Add a little grated onion, however much you want. (I don't use a lot, maybe a quarter of a medium onion to a big potato.) Dry the mixture a bit by wringing in a dishtowel. Add salt and pepper. Put some sort of cooking oil in a heavy skillet and heat. (Olive oil could get you linched in Texas.) Be a bit generous with the oil. Put the potatoes in the pan, even the layer out and smash down with a spatula. Cook on about a medium high setting until brown on the bottom. Turn to the other side. You won't be able to do this all at once but it doesn't matter. Brown the other side, adding more oil if necessary. The amount that you put in the skillet (depth of the potato) will determine your ratio of brown crispies to soft potato. I lean to the brown side. :biggrin:

When I get my griddle, I will do individual serving size plops on the griddle and wield my oil can with abandon, just like in the diners. I already bought the oil can. :laugh:

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Another thing I've gotten addicted to, thanks to someone posting here, is pressed potatoes. Take a cooked potato, slice in half add butter to a skillet and put the potato in skin side up. Take another heavy plate or skillet and press hard on the potato so it flattens out. I leave the other skillet on top, and throw the whole thing in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes or so, until the bottom is very crunchy brown. You end up with one, big giant hashbrown that fills an entire plate. Could add onions to the mess as it cooks too for added flavor, will try that next time.

Oooh, that pressed potato sounds good. I'm going to have to try that.

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Sometimes, I'll grate leftover baked potatoes after they've been refrigerated, mix that with onion, shape into a patty and return to the fridge. Then I fry the patty in shallow oil straight from the refrigerator. For whatever reason, I find chilling the patty first helps hold it together for turning. Maximum crispyness is a good thing.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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woodburner,

i do that for my version of potato pancakes (which is actually much like fifi's browns - just in small, roundish quanities). i think it removes any potential gumminess to do it that way.

from overheard in new york:

Kid #1: Paper beats rock. BAM! Your rock is blowed up!

Kid #2: "Bam" doesn't blow up, "bam" makes it spicy. Now I got a SPICY ROCK! You can't defeat that!

--6 Train

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A high school friend once showed me how to make homemade hash browns.

She started by frying up bacon in a cast iron skillet. While the bacon was frying she shredded a raw potato (no need to peel). She removed the bacon to drain, left the bacon fat in the pan and cranked the heat under the pan up to high. When the bacon fat was hot enough she dumped in the shredded potatoes. She flattened them out with a spatula and added salt & pepper.

When the bottom of the potatoes was brown and crispy, she easily flipped them over as one giant hash brown patty and fried the other side. They were crisp and crunchy on the outside and steamed potato-ey (from the high heat) on the inside.

It's fast and I've since learned there's a fine line between brown and crispy versus brown and burnt. :shock: I also add some diced onion, like fifi, to my own hash browns. The bacon fat adds a layer of flavor that Crisco (or what have you) doesn't provide.

As for "home fries" (didn't we have this discussion before?), leftover baked potatoes make the best. Just cube them up, peel and all, and brown them to your hearts desire. They're more "potato-ey" than hash browns and certainly have their place at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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I like this way. start with a cooked potato, thats cold from the fridge. chop it into chunks, however you like. butter in cast iron skillet, in go diced onion for about 6 mins on medium heat then some chopped garlic (no peppers!) crank up the heat to high and add the cold chopped potatoes and mantain them at medium high. dont flip them until they are brown on the bottom or you'll end up with mush, also make sure the heat is high enough and you have enough oil. if you like a little heat throw in some pepper flakes. S&P. also drain these on paper towels (It makes them much more healthy :biggrin: )

does this come in pork?

My name's Emma Feigenbaum.

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We can get a product here (I realize that's not going to help you much in Amsterdam) called 'Simply Potatoes'. They are grated potatoes and are found in the refigerated section - usually with the bacon/sausage or the eggs. They make terrific hash browns. Get the unflavored variety - they also come with peppers, etc, but the plain are best. Add your own onions.

Another tip - get you potatoes about half browned before you add the onions. The onions burn and are yukky if you add then too soon.

Make sure your fried eggs are still runny, as there is nothing better on hash browns than 'rooster juice'.

Stop Family Violence

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I make fried potatoes the same way my grandmother (and, I think, Ma Joad) did. I typically don't have anny cooked potato or a lot of time when I get the desire.

Cube the raw spuds (russets have more sugar and brown a little better, but I've used yellow potatoes, too), and keep the pieces on the smallish side (roughly half-inch).

Cook them in a cast iron or similarly heavy skillet in plenty of fat (usually olive oil for me, sometimes mixed with a little butter or bacon fat) over medium heat until they're done, usually about 30 minutes. Don't be too quick to turn them the first time...they need to develop a crust.

If there's too much fat left in the pan when the spuds get done, drain it off...then add onions if you want, or even better, cook them separately while the potatoes are cooking. If you mix them in, the potatoes lose some of their crisp.

Serve with a couple of fried eggs and ketchup (if you can get it in Amsterdam).

Jim

olive oil + salt

Real Good Food

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Another thing I've gotten addicted to, thanks to someone posting here, is pressed potatoes. Take a cooked potato, slice in half add butter to a skillet and put the potato in skin side up. Take another heavy plate or skillet and press hard on the potato so it flattens out. I leave the other skillet on top, and throw the whole thing in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes or so, until the bottom is very crunchy brown. You end up with one, big giant hashbrown that fills an entire plate. Could add onions to the mess as it cooks too for added flavor, will try that next time.

Oooh, that pressed potato sounds good. I'm going to have to try that.

OK, I made pressed potatoes last night. I did them simply. I baked some potatoes in the oven, then cut two in half. Added butter to a hot cast iron skillet, potatoes on top, cut side down. Cool cast iron grill pan (same size as skillet) pressed down on top of them (really hard), bung into oven for 20 minutes. Both the skin and the cut side crust were nice and crunchy, while the interior potato was still fluffy like a baked potato. These were Yukon Gold potatoes btw. An interesting variation on a baked potato, Jason and I felt, but not a replacement for a hashbrown.

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In the book Serious Pig, John Thorne states: "Hashed browns is the dish in whick to use leftover boiled potatoes..." The 1920s vintage recipe he gives cooks them on one side in a skillet (no stirring) with a plate over the top. To serve, invert onto the plate so the brown side is up.

In the same book, his description of 'Maine home fries' which are skillet fried potatoes that have been sliced and cooked entirely in a cast iron skillet, is what I use as a guide. The recommendation is to not soak the potatoes because the starch will help the potatoes to carmelize. The instructions are very specific (temperature determined by the look of the fat, turn only after 20 minutes and then after every 10 minutes and then every 5 minutes, cover pan, etc). His method works very well. They look and taste very much like the ones my grandmother was famous for making.

Not sure what you are looking to replicate. I like both the boiled/fried version and the fully pan-fried.

Stephen Bunge

St Paul, MN

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This is quite similiar to the Thorne recipe just mentioned. A college roomie from Blackfoot, Idaho (her family grows potatoes on a massive scale) taught me this method.

Boil potatoes the night before (if you don't have the presence of mind to do that - who normally does? - boil, ice bath and cool), grate by hand, toss in minced onion if desired, salt & pepper, heat cast iron skillet and add plenty of oil, put the potatoes in the pan, flatten and cook until very brown, loosen and slide out on plate, add more oil and return the potatoes to the pan with the brown side up. These always turn out perfect and it's one thing friends and family demand at gatherings which include breakfast.

"Eat it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." TMJ Jr. R.I.P.

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I dunno. I have never had enough cooked potatoes to work with. They always get gobbled up the night before. That is why the grated raw potatoes work for me.

I am intrigued with the pressed potatoes, however. I will have to try that.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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If we are baking potatoes, we throw in 2 or 3 extras to put in the fridge.

When ready, heat some bacon fat in a heavy skillet (or fry up some bacon and save the drippings) cut up the potatoes (make sure to leave the skin on) and fry until crisp.

There is nothing better than potato skins fried crispy!

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I make the pressed potatoes by pressing whole, just cooked potatoes (preferably small ones) between two plates until flat, then I bake them in the oven (drizzled with olive oil) until very crispy.

like this:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=5867&st=7920

Edited by Chufi (log)
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Alrightie.  Back in Amsterdam after a weekend with the in-laws in Germany.  I've had it up to here *gestures* with foreign-ity right now.  When I get in these moods (rare, but powerful when they occur), only Comfort Foods can help.

(((((Cakewench))))))

I just want to chime in here that I know how you feel, and I hope that your comfort food lunch turned out just like you like it. I have two potatoes sitting in a basket at the house waiting for me (I had initially thought I might incorporate them into a soup) and after seeing this thread, in fact I'm thinking I might just prepare bacon egg and hash browns for dinner tonight. It's been literally years since I've had anything close to hash browns. :biggrin:

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Too bad I'm at work-or maybe good since if I was home I'd be cooking potatoes.

In my family we start with sliced, raw potatoes layered with sliced onions, in a cast iron skillet greased with previously cooked bacon. Fry at med-high with a lid to get the cooking started and turning in sections as the bottom browns. Chop slightly to mix brown bits in and expose more bits that need browning. I do corned beef hash the same way crumbling the canned corned beef in between the layers. Lots of salt and pepper.

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Dinner:

I was just going to add the photo to the last post but I have to add the exchange that occurred at our house. I got home from work and made Toliver's high school lesson version after having slowly cooked the bacon which I sliced in chunks due to my laziness.

The potato was grated raw and unpeeled in the moulinex, and I cooked according to directions except that I covered the pan for a moment in order to allow the potatoes to steam a bit. It tasted great but it wasn't crispy enough.

Time comes to serve dinner and my husband comes in - I have said nothing. He asks - "in the mood for breakfast?" I said it's a good thing we live in France because nobody would ever know that these are breakfast foods in my home country. He laughed at me loud and hard. Too bad. We both loved the meal.

IMG_0096.JPG

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Lucy,

That looks fabulous! I am insanely hungry for breakfast now (where is that drool icon?!). That's a great photo of a very American classic. How is such a meal received by the French? Do they do something similar or is this totally foreign to them?

I am glad the hash browns worked out for you!

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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is there any difference between hash browns and rosti?

i've been knee-deep in patrick o'connell's "refined american cuisine" and made the rosti/scrambled egg dish....very similar to what is being described here except he instructs to steam the potato for 15 minutes, let cool, then grate, and to use clarified butter (which i did not, because i don't like butter).

cheers :)

hc

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I'm a hash brown fiend-I probably make them 3 times a week. Hash browns made with cooked potatoes taste wrong to me, and they don't have that nice shredded texture-they tend to get too mushy. Use raw grated potato, rinse in a colander until the water runs clear (to get the starch off so they don't stick), and use a HEAVY non stick (ie all clad or le crueset) or well seasoned cast iron pan to fry. Using a light non stick pan won't allow them to brown properly. Sometimes I add onions, and I always fry in canola because I don't like the taste of olive oil on my browns. Be sure to salt well and, like others said, wait until they are brown on the first side before flipping them once to brown on the other side.

Edited by kiliki (log)
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