a hash-brown adventure

 Some time back, Cliff asked me a question out of the blue:  "Have you ever made hash browns?"

It seems like I had tried them from scratch one time long ago, and it was a waste of a good potato and my time.  So many steps to do it right.  Yes, I realize there are hash browns in the freezer section of every grocery store, and I think early in our marriage I might have used that kind.  Personally, I'd rather have plain old fried potatoes, and I don't do those much.  When I think of hash browns, I think of sausage gravy, but I don't need another skillet on the stove.  These days I usually eat my half-cup of Grape Nuts with milk most mornings, while Cliff will eat Mini-spooners, or an egg on toast, or applesauce on toast, or Cream of Wheat.  But his request for hash browns stayed in the back of my mind, and this morning I decided to make them for my husband.  All he wanted with it, he said, was an egg on top of the hash browns.

I warned him that the hash browns might not make it to his plate, because I had tried at least once in the past and ruined them.  He was fine with just knowing I had tried... and also knowing I could always buy the frozen ones once in awhile.

I surfed to Allrecipes.com, typed "hash browns" in the list, and read the first recipe that came up, which is this one.  I read some reviews and decided the recipe was probably as good as any.

First of all, I needed two medium potatoes; I think perhaps my two potatoes were bigger than what the author called "medium".  So that was likely my first mistake, because the mass shouldn't have one inch thick, which made it hard to handle. 

I peeled the potatoes, then grated them without grating any of my knuckles, for which I am grateful; it wasn't fun, though.  My arms aren't as strong as they used to be.  Also, some of the little potato gratings escaped onto the counter, so things got pretty messy.  Next, I had to put the grated potatoes into water, pour the water off, put them in clean water, do it again... until the water stayed clear when I put them in.  Between each water bath, I poured the whole mess through a large tea strainer to get the cloudy water out.  Whew.  

Then I had to take some clean tea towels and DRY the watery, tiny pieces of potatoes.  Before I did that, though, I put oil in a cast iron skillet and started it heating up.  The recipe says you can make several small hash brown patties or cover the whole bottom of the skillet; I chose the latter, which was my second mistake.

The burner was on pretty high heat, and I was to leave the mass of shredded potato alone to fry for five minutes, then turn it over; I did that, hoping they weren't burning; but they were nicely brown.  Then I realized I should have made the little patties instead of making them the size of the skillet, because a lot of the hash browns fell apart when I attempted turning that big mass.  I had another skillet sitting there warming up for Cliff's egg, so the big pieces of the hash browns that did stay together, I threw into the other skillet and left them there for five minutes.  I wish I had taken a picture, but alas, I had enough work to do.  

I was amazed, though, when I found out those taters were not only edible, but delicious!

When all was said and done, the hash browns were a hit.  Cliff got his egg on hash browns and then polished it off with a fresh tomato from the garden.

Next time I will cook individual servings so I can turn them, and I will try not to make them any thicker than 1/2 inch.  The five minutes on each side actually turned out right, so I guess my medium-high burner must have been correct.

Wait a minute,... forget that.  Next time I do it, I'll use the frozen ones, and that will probably be in the distant future.