Hash Browns

Have I ever told you what my weakness for breakfast is (besides coffee)?   I’ll give you a hint! They’re crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy in the inside, and it goes hand-in-hand with ketchup.  One look at the picture below and you will have guessed….

Hash browns!!!

I love ’em freshly grated too, not previously frozen.  There is a difference my friends!

When I first moved out of my parents house and started cooking on my own, my hash browns used to come out gray and soggy.  It was so discouraging to make them at home because I could never get them to come out just the way I liked them — crispy outside, soft inside.  That to me is the perfect hash brown.  Sounds easy, but it wasn’t at first.  It took me years to figure out how to get them that way, and without the potato inside turning gray.

Keep reading and I’ll show you how I do it.

You’ll need…

Salad spinner (filled halfway with water)
Potato peeler
Cheese grater
salt or garlic salt
russet potatoes
vegetable oil
lemon

Start by squeezing some lemon juice (about 1 teaspoon) into the water.   This will help keep the potatoes from turning pink.  The water will still change color, but it won’t be so bad.

After each grated potato, add it to the water until you are done grating all the potatoes.  I can typically fit about 4 potatoes comfortably in my salad spinner, but today I’m only using two.

When thinking about how many potatoes to peel and grate, you can easily feed up to five people with four large russet potatoes.

When all the potatoes are grated and have been sitting in the water, give it all a gentle swirl with your hand to let any starch particles that are sitting between the grated potatoes to fall to the bottom of the bowl.  Removing the starch helps eliminate some of the mushy texture when they cook.

Remove the basket and discard the water into the sink.  Place the basket with potatoes back into the bowl.

Spin the grated potatoes in the salad spinner to get as much of the excess water out of them as possible to keep them from getting soggy.  See the leftover water in the bowl?!  That was left in the potatoes after having removed them from the water.  The salad spinner helps remove even more water out of the potatoes.  After you have done this, rinse the bowl to remove the starch at the bottom and dry the bowl.If you’re using more potatoes, and find that your salad spinner isn’t large enough, use a different (larger) bowl with water for the grated potatoes and spin them in two or three batches.

Return the grated potatoes to the clean (and dry) bowl.  Add the garlic salt and any other seasonings you like.  Sometimes I will add a tablespoon of grated onion.

In a large non-stick pan, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil on medium heat.

Once the pan is hot, lay a handful of grated potatoes on the pan.  Spread them to create a thin, large, pancake shaped hash brown.Cook the first side until you see the edges start turning a golden (almost dark golden) brown and become crispy.  This should take about 8-10 minutes.Break the hash brown pancake into four pieces by cutting it with your spatula straight through the middle vertically and horizontally.  This will make it easier to flip the hash browns.

I typically use the sides of the pan to help me flip each portion.

Serve immediately. If you are making a large batch, you can keep them in a 200 degree warm oven to keep them warm and crispy until all the hash browns have been cooked.

• theKitchn.com
• IdahoPotato.com
• potatogoodness.com
• USDA.gov

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you enjoy these with your next breakfast!!