Today's Celebration of Fried Potatoes: Hash Browns

As my friend Karen has noted, I typically exhibit a penchant for celebrating the weird and bizarre of the produce world. But that doesn't mean in real life I neglect the world's most popular produce: potato, fried.

 
Yes, I have previously celebrated French fries and roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic, the latter not technically fried, but bathed in so much oil it might as well be. But another tribute is certainly due. Today's honoree: hash browns.

Zillions of Americans love going to the Waffle House, a big restaurant chain based mainly in the South that is especially well known for its hash browns. The Waffle House has over 2,100 branches, but none in New York. The New Yorkers I know who hail from the South or have discovered the Waffle House while traveling mostly observe a "Don't ask, don't tell" or ""What happens in Georgia stays in Georgia"  stance in their enjoyment of the hash browns. Those who think too much about their pleasure at the Waffle House seem a bit afraid of what they might learn.

Take this question to the official Idaho potato website: 

Q. Dr. Potato, why do I love Waffle House-style hash browns more than ones I make at home? What do they do to the food service version that makes them so good? Are they partially dehydrated? Or maybe seasoned with some kind of chemical? I mean the shredded kind that come in boxes, not the deep-fried QSR formed hash brown.

Here's the answer:

A. Waffle House does use a dehydrated potato (very similar to what you can buy in the stores in the center of the aisle from Idahoan or Basic American) and they use a butter style oil. One of the tricks you can do at home is to lightly oil the surface of the pan, heat it up, and then place the re-hydrated potatoes into the pan, resist turning right away till they start to caramelize. Flip, wait for the potatoes to turn a golden color and then remove and serve.

The website provided a link to a supermarket "premium" hash brown mix that I checked out. Here are its ingredients: IDAHO® POTATOES, VEGETABLE OIL (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: CANOLA, SOYBEAN, COTTONSEED, SUNFLOWER), SALT, DEXTROSE, ONION POWDER, MONOGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE (PRESERVE FRESHNESS) AND SODIUM BISULFITE (PRESERVE FRESHNESS). CONTAINS: SOY.

You know what I'm going to say next. You can do better. Here's how.

First, and most important: use actual potatoes. Russet potatoes are a good choice.

Wash them. I suggest not peeling the potatoes. (Of course I'd say that.) Oh, all right, you can peel them if you want to.


Spread a thin film of oil on a griddle or cast iron skillet. Turn on the flame to a moderate heat.


Take a clean white cloth (or in the alternative, a cloth that was once white, but then got stained from many rounds of potato juice) and spread it out over a clean counter or big cutting board. 

Using a box grater, grate the potatoes - one big potato makes a nice hash brown; two potatoes make two hash browns, even nicer.
 

I find grating by hand boring, so I recommend listening to some good music while you toil. Take care not to skin your knuckles. You can also use a food processor to grate the potatoes. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the pile of grated potato.
  

 

The next step is key: Squeeze out the potatoes' liquid. The goal is to dehydrate your potatoes so they get a chance to caramelize on the griddle. Roll up your white cloth and squeeze as hard as you can.


Yeah, wring it out some more.


I like to mix in some pepper and paprika in at this point. You can add whatever seasonings you like, just distribute them evenly.




Grab a pile of "dry" grated potatoes, dump them on the grill and flatten them into a patty. Use a double grill or a second skillet if you're doubling your portion.


 

Here's the hard bit. Don't touch the has browns for 15 minutes. Set the timer and mosey off to do something else.


When your timer rings, give the hash browns a flip and - you guessed it - leave them alone for another 15 minutes.

Your home should have a rich, potatoey aroma by now. And beautifully lacy, caramelized potato shreds for your other senses.

You'll just have to make do without the calcium stearoyl lactylate, sodium acid pyrophosphate and the sodium bisulfite.

In Praise of the Simple Baked Potato

So you know what to do with bad produce.

Now let's take a moment to talk about good produce. Really good produce.

 

 

I bought some beautiful carola potatoes at the Union Square Green Market over the weekend. I pricked a few holes in the potatoes with a fork, set them directly on the oven racks and baked them for about an hour and a half at what might have been 400 degrees in my somewhat iffy oven.

They were just heavenly.

My family enjoyed the potatoes with salt and pepper, but of course you could add butter, creme fraiche, yogurt, sour cream, chives, parsley, etc.

Some basic tips:

1) Choose great potatoes. The wrinkled, eye-sprouting spud at the bottom of the 5 lb. sack might not be a good candidate for this minimalist treatment.

2) Look beyond the "Idaho" or russet potato for baking options. Carolas are a very creamy, thin-skinned potato variety, which for many people suggests boiling and only boiling. Your loss!

2) Fer god's sake, do not confuse microwaving with baking.They are not the same operation. A microwaved potato is a shrunken, wizened potato. No delectable crackling skin (yes, another shout-out to the potato skin), no sweetened flesh. A big mistake.

3) Don't stint on the baking time. 20 minutes of unwatched, undemanding baking time could mean the difference between a fully realized baked potato and an inedible horror. Don't even bother checking on the potato for doneness until at least an hour has passed.

Buy good stuff when you can. Cook it long enough. Eat the peel. Yum. 

Potato Recidivism - This Time With Garlic & Rosemary

How could I possibly guess the recipe for Roasted Potatoes with Garlic & Rosemary?

Several years ago my friend Andy came to visit me in New York.

Andy wasn't much of a cook. "Oh, you didn't need to cook for me!" she said when I served her a plate of melon in the summer. Another time she mentioned that she loved cucumbers. "Uh, I don't think I've ever seen you eat cucumber," I said. "That's because it's so much work," she said. 

So I didn't know what to expect when she told me that she was very disappointed that the restaurant she had made a special trip to visit had stopped selling her favorite dish. "And now I'll never get a chance to have it!" she added dramatically. 

Trying to be a good host, I asked her for more information about the dish. Perhaps I could come up with a plausible substitute. I wasn't too hopeful: Andy was from Southern California and enjoyed a wide range of Asian and Asian-fusion dishes that hadn't made their way to the East Coast yet. 

"It's roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary," she replied. I could make that, I told her. "How is that possible? You don't have the recipe," she said. Was there anything unusual about the spicing? Were there any secret ingredients? I asked her. "No, maybe some salt," she guessed.

Some people are a little hard to cook for. Maybe they're picky. Maybe they don't know what they like. Maybe their standards are unrealistically high. On the other hand are people who think you're a genius because you figure out the recipe of a dish whose name is the recipe. You must admit that you're no genius. You could, however, be a savant.

After that first time - successful! - of making Roasted Potatoes With Garlic & Rosemary, I made it many, many times. I once served it to friends from London who were visiting New York. "This must be your speciality," Jo said. I hadn't had a speciality before! How could I not pass this recipe on?


General notes: Do not underestimate the roasting time involved. Under-baked potatoes are a crime.  Prep time might run you about 10 minutes but roasting time is more like an hour and fifteen minutes or even more. You will need to mix your potatoes in the middle of cooking, possibly move the pan within the oven and test for doneness before you can declare the potatoes fully cooked.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs (or so) potatoes, medium diced. Are you shocked to learn that I'm going to suggest that you choose excellent potatoes; use a mix of different potatoes; and keep their skins on? Oh, I am way too predictable. Keep the size of the dice uniform for best results.

Great potatoes, skins on,  in a medium dice

• One head of garlic, cloves peeled and cut in half if large. Crushing them in the process is fine.
• Olive oil, around 1/4 cup or more as needed. If you want to divide your prep work, you could store the peeled garlic cloves in the oil and store covered in the refrigerator for several hours. This will also flavor the oil nicely. 
• Dried rosemary - several good shakes of the canister. You could use fresh rosemary, but if you do, use only a few needles or the taste will become overpowering.
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

Garlic cloves in olive oil

• Preheat your oven to 400 or so. My oven has about 5 different climatic zones. The lower right hand corner is about 200 degrees hotter than the upper left corner. If you're cooking another dish in the oven at the same time you can set the temperature to the other dish's, but be prepared to adjust roasting time accordingly and test the potatoes for doneness.
• Wash your hands very thoroughly. You'll be using them as your mixing tool.
• Dump all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and, using your hands, mix thoroughly. Transfer contents into a shallow baking dish or two (I use a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish) and roast in the pre-heated oven. After twenty-five minutes, remove the dish from the oven, stir the potatoes - with a big mixing spoon; your hands have retired as mixing tools - and spices, scraping the pan if necessary to release any potato crust (aka "the best part"). Return to oven.
• While the potatoes are roasting, add a handful of kosher salt to your hands and give yourself a Softening Antioxidant Massage by rubbing your hands together briskly. Contemplate the well known health benefits of garlic, rosemary and olive oil, which have now entered your body and begun their healing work. Close your eyes and imagine that you are at a pricey spa as you inhale the rosemary's piney scent. Feel the olive oil soften your skin and repair your ragged cuticles. Open your eyes, wash off the gunk and stir the potatoes again. Move the baking dish to a different location in the oven - to the bottom if it had been on the top shelf, to the top if it had been on the bottom. (Your hands really will be softer, by the way.)
• When the potatoes have been in the oven for about an hour, try testing a potato cube to see if it's fully cooked. If so, remove and serve. If not, try testing again every 5 minutes. Do not serve under-baked potatoes!

And they reheat pretty well!

If any of the garlic cloves have gotten burned in the process, discard before serving or tip off your guests to avoid them. They can taste a bit bitter. But those cloves that have been thoroughly roasted but not burnt will have a marvelous creamy texture. One friend ate so many cloves of the garlic that he began doing a "Puff the Magic Dragon" routine and exhaling onto all the other guests. We discovered that he smelled like pure garlic, rather than garlic breath. And there were no vampires at the party! Coincidence? I'll leave it to you to decide.

Even Better Fries

French fries might be the work of the devil - I've heard, but haven't wanted to confirm, that most of the potato's vitamins are fat-soluble and get left behind in the frying pan - but ooh la la! We pan fry potatoes at least once a week. Here are our secrets.

1) Choose good potatoes. (You knew I was going to say that, right?) Okay, okay, frying is the most forgiving way to prepare bad potatoes, especially if you add spices and salt, but it's worth it to use the good stuff.
2) A range of colors is nice. 

Lookin' gorgeous at the farmers' market and even better on your plate.

Purple Peruvians, Purple Majesty, Adirondack Red and other potatoes stay vibrant throughout the cooking process - and like any fruit or veg this color, they're loaded with anti-oxidants. 

In the photo below, we have Yukon Gold, Russet, Purple Majesty and another kind of potato - think of it as a meeting-halfway potato - with purple skin and white flesh. I wondered what it could be, so I googled "Potato purple skin white flesh." According to the Washington State University Extension website, it could be a Blue Mac.  Another candidate is the more memorably named La Crotte D'ours, or Bear Poop.

3) Don't bother to peel! As you've no doubt heard, the skin is particularly nutritious. It's also very tasty! Slice them up and soak 'em for a minute in a bowl of water to rinse off the starch. Then pat them dry with a paper towel. (What's left behind is potato starch, which is kind of fun to play with, but that's another story.)

Yukon Golds, Purple Majesties and others en route to full glory.

4) Fry 'em up! Give yourself more time than you think you'll need. Crusts are nice and underdone potatoes are not.

Getting that nice crust

5) Season liberally! If you start out with good potatoes, salt alone will do the trick, but here are some other good choices:

Paprika and smoked paprika
Crushed rosemary 
Rubs for steak and other meat
Indian spice packages (for tandoori chicken, rogan josh - anything really)
Chopped garlic and parsley (fried parsley is also tasty)
Lots of black pepper

I once improvised a spice blend of garlic powder, crumbled rosemary, salt, smoked paprika and ground chipotle. 

Let your imagination be your guide! There are few dishes in which your success would be likelier.