Hash browns!!

[Rich Engelhardt]

The garden is in full swing as is the produce market!

- Three or four good sized spuds. Wash them off and leave the skins on.
Slice and dice them by hand w/a good sharp knife.

- A handfull of fresh Jalepeano peppers fresh off the vine. Slice them into small rounds.

- A few green onions. Slice them as far up as you prefer. I like to use the whole thing - "greens" included.

- A celery stock. Sliced into small pieces.

- One whole Vidallia - has to be Vidallia - onion. Sliced diced or just plain peeled.

- Anything else you want to toss in, have at it. Black olives are good, green ones are not so good....
Any and all peppers are good...
'Shrooms = good too!

Take a skillet and melt some butter - real butter - in it. Toss in the peppers, onion and celery and brown it a bit.

Don't do the mushrooms just yet if you're using them.
After browning, remove and set them aside.

Pour off the melted butter mess and save it.

If you're using 'shrooms, add some butter and brown them at this point, then set them aside.

Next - take a cast iron skillet - has to be cast iron and heat some peanut oil in it on high heat.

Shake some crushed red peppers into the hot oil.
Add the mess of diced taters and brown them.

When the taters are just about done, toss in the other fixings and stir it all together.

Salt to taste while it's in the oil.

Scoop it all out, pile it on a plate and pour on some of the melted butter mess from above.

Gobble it all down :D

*sigh* Hog heaven!!

[Ted Calver]

You had me at 'real butter' :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rich.......sounds delicious but you forgot to add "See you cardiologist on Monday"........:rolleyes:

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'll take a pound.... Ooooops, make that .5 litre.
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[jerry nazard]

Dat's how to do it!
Yum, yum.....

[Mike Langford]

Sounds De-Lishious! :D ....but I thought you folks up North called them "Home Fries" (my wife is from Bellevue, Ohio)

South of the Mason-Dixon, "Hashbrowns" for us are shredded taters! ;)

157276

I usually order mine from the Waffle House...."scattered", "smothered", and "covered" (scattered on the grill - smothered in onions - covered in cheese)

Different styles but it's ALL GOOD!
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[Dan Hintz]

Home fries and hash browns are (or at least should be) two totally different things... home fries are potato chunks, hash browns are like mini shoe strings. I find very few shops can make a good hash brown... they are either too busy to take it off of the grill in time (and it takes a hydraulic press to chew), or they take it off too soon (at which point I might as well ask for a raw potato and s knife).

[Jim Koepke]

I do like mine crisp and with onions and all the other stuff.

Many different ways to make them and they all can be good.

You did forget one thing:

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jim

[Gene Howe]

And two eggs. Sunnyside up.
No Ketchup...Hot verde salsa, instead.
The salsa counteracts the butter. No need for a cardiologist.;)

[ray hampton]

WHAT, no bacon or sausage ?

[Jim Koepke]

And two eggs. Sunnyside up.

This is how mine are done all the time.

So far it is far and few between on the restaurants that can get this done right.

Almost every place I have eaten that serves eggs has a great picture of eggs sunny side up in the menu. Ask for them sunny side up and you get something with half the whites uncooked, solid yolks or one place served me blackened eggs. Turns out the cook went out for a smoke while cooking my order. Had to send them back twice on that one and the third time they still weren't right, but they were at least edible. Needless to say, we did not go back to that place for breakfast much after that. Though they did make a good hamburger.

jim

[Gene Howe]

WHAT, no bacon or sausage ?

Well now Ray, hash browns and eggs is a snack. When you add meat, it's a MEAL.:D

Anybody for Scrapple? Or, as it's been called L.O.P. (Left Over Pig):):)

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Sounds good Rich. Printed it for LOML. :D

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Sounds De-Lishious! :D ....but I thought you folks up North called them "Home Fries" (my wife is from Bellevue, Ohio)

South of the Mason-Dixon, "Hashbrowns" for us are shredded taters! ;)

157276

I usually order mine from the Waffle House...."scattered", "smothered", and "covered" (scattered on the grill - smothered in onions - covered in cheese)

Different styles but it's ALL GOOD!
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.
.
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Hashbrowns are shredded here too. I agree, eating at the Waffle House is worth the trip to the south. While I'm there I'll want some Sonny's BBQ. Home fries are chunks or slices of spuds. Sliced spuds are sometimes called American fries.

[Belinda Barfield]

First, Rich, are you married?

Second, if not, do you want to be? LOL . . .

If you go to the grocery store around here Ore Ida offers two varities of hash browns, chunks or shredded. I had breakfast at the Omelet House this morning on my way to work. Hash browns were shredded and all individually brown and crispy - I don't know how they do that. My favorite breakfast destination is Perkin's and they serve "country potatoes" which are cubed and floured then fried. Then see your cardiologist on Monday.

I'm curious though, Rich. There wasn't a step in there to blot the potatoes between paper towels. I've always had a moisture issue with hash browns if I don't "dry" the potatoes.

Best breakfast ever when I was growing up. Prepare your cubed hash browns, then pour two scrambled eggs over the potatoes and stir until the eggs are done. Add a pound of bacon and I'm in heaven. Second best, brown sausage patties and scramble eggs in the same pan.

[Dan Hintz]

Eggs over easy, never sunny side up... something wrong with any of the whites being uncooked. Over easy, smashed with a fork to mix the cooked whites and yolk, then placed bite by bite on white toast. Just a pinch of salt over home fries, and (for me, at least) a bit of mustard (yeah, I'm a bit off like that).

[ray hampton]

Well now Ray, hash browns and eggs is a snack. When you add meat, it's a MEAL.:D

Anybody for Scrapple? Or, as it's been called L.O.P. (Left Over Pig):):)


well then,eggs & potatoes are my favorite snack

[Jim Koepke]

Just a pinch of salt over home fries, and (for me, at least) a bit of mustard (yeah, I'm a bit off like that).


Actually, there are a lot of folks who like mustard on potatoes. I am one of them.

When I have French fries, I will usually mix a little mustard in with the ketchup.

jim

[Jim Koepke]

This is almost like potato salad. With potato salad it is darn near impossible to find two people who make it the same way.

With fried potatoes at breakfast, there are a lot of varieties and the names that are given don't seem to mean a thing. Most of the time, hash browns are shredded and then fried. One place on U.S. 101 in Coos Bay, OR serves them up the best I have ever had. The things are actually crisp and crunch when you bite them.

My mom often used to make extra mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner then on Monday she would make potato patties, brown them on the griddle and we would have those with eggs and left over ham for breakfast. Sometimes we would be lucky and she would feel like making pan gravy. To this day, hers is the only pan gravy that I have ever liked.

There was a restaurant many years ago where Betty the owner/cook would bake potatoes the day before and then use those to make home fries for breakfast. Onions were available on request. Hers were good sized chunks. That was a long time ago. I recall the last time I ate there before the IRS shut her down, a ham & cheese omelet with home fries and toast including the coffee was $2.72 with the tax. She gave away too many meals on credit or charity and could not pay the tax man. Sad...

I have also had what some call country potatoes, which are often the same but some places serve up sliced potatoes. Kind of like thick potato chips, warm but not crisp. Other places call those cottage fries.

When I am in a restaurant for the first time, it is my habit to look around and see what is on folk's plates at the tables. If we get in at an odd time, then it is take a chance.

I like my breakfast potatoes just about any way but cold. Usually they will have onions in them.

Gosh, now I am hungry. I think the LOML is fixing potatoes au gratin with dinner tonight.

jim

[Rich Engelhardt]

First, Rich, are you married?

Second, if not, do you want to be? LOL . . .

LOL!
It was the mention of Vidallia's that did it right?
They're not only good, but, pheromones too!

(& yes - happily married for 29 years - however - my wife won't touch my hash browns!)

Re: Blotting. Sometimes I do/sometimes I don't.
Most times I do though. I didn't blot the last batch (the one that inspired the post) because the paper towel rack was empty! :D

If you catch the oil at just the right temperature it's hot enough to brown the taters, but, not so hot that it "spits" when the moist taters hit it.

Getting all of the all nice and brown a crispy is fairly easy. Just use more oil and fewer taters.
Since I reheat mine - after tossing in all the other "fixin's" - I just whip up a few smaller batches instead of doing them all at once.

Slicing the spuds by hand is also a key.
I've tried using one of those super slicer gizmos, but, it shreds more than dices.

Frozen hash browns come pre cooked to some degree and they never seem to brown just right either.

The oil in the cast iron skillet should cover the taters on three sides. Only the tops should be out of it.


I did leave out one step though - draining the oil.
I just set the skillet half on/half off the burner and let the oil drain to one side.

Speaking of oil...

Personally, I prefer to fry up a mess of bacon and drain the grease, then use that to make the taters. That's a tad too artery clogging for most though. :D. Myself included as i've gotten older! :D I only do that once or so times a year anymore - usually on a "snow day" - one of those nasty days we have up North here where the whole world shuts down for the day when it snows heavy!

Peanut oil is my second choice, since it has such a yummy flavor when you hit the taters w/just a touch of vinegar.

Corn oil is on the bottom of my list,,,but,,since that's what's usually on the shelf, I probably use it the most.

"Best" eatery hash browns I ever had were at this little diner in Lakewood, Ohio. It was an old street car that was converted into a diner. They had a flat grill that they use to cook everything on. To "clean it" for the next batch of food, they just used the spatula to scrape away the last batch of whatever!
The mix of flavors was to die for! (hehe :0 no pun intended)

[Mike Wilkins]

I'll be back in a couple of hours. Going to the Waffle House.