Friday, July 9, 2010

Hashbrowns - One and Done

I've seen a variety of recipes for hashbrowns, though there's not a lot of room for variation in the basic recipe as far as I can tell.  You're dealing with potatoes obviously, not much more. Regardless of the recipe however I have yet to be successful in the making of hashbrowns.

Once, I made potato crusted salmon which basically meant I coated the salmon with hashbrowns.  On that particular occasion, said browns turned out as expected.  Since then, whether making straight hashbrowns or making the same salmon recipe again, the hashbrowns have not turned out right.

The general technique I follow is based on recipes I've read online.  I grate a russet potato in a cheese grater.  After that I try to dry the result with towels since there's a lot of liquid in the potato which will cause it to basically steam or boil instead of fry if I don't get rid of it.  Finally I throw it into a pan with some oil and butter to fry it up.

It seems the primary problems arise in the drying process.  Typically this process is a mess.  Pressing paper towels into the grated potatoes in order to soak the liquid out takes at least 5 minutes and I have to deal with the potatoes getting stuck to the towels and visa versa.   Further, if the potatoes are grated too long before cooking, oxidation takes place making the potatoes red and just a mess after cooked.  Even when dried, I just don't get the fluff out of them post cooking that I would expect.

Open to any input on this front

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