Monday's Food Tip: Best Fried Potatoes

In honor of Ivan Denisovich

On Monday’s when I have time I like to publish a recipe or a good food tip. Today in honor of Ivan Denisovich I offer a tip on frying potatoes, as I’d promised in last Friday’s post on Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Prize winning novel of life in a gulag. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

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Frying potatoes starts with boiling them first. I peel a few potatoes, put them into a pot large enough to cover them with 2 inches of cold water. Add a tablespoon of salt and put the pot on medium heat. Bring it to the boil and let boil for a few minutes. On heat time should be 15 - 20 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. They should still resist a thin parry knife when you remove them from the heat.

Why boil them first? The idea is to take the very large starch molecules in the raw potatoes and under heat convert them to small starch molecules. In the process the starch will absorb the water in the potato. Also when you break down the starch in the potato you make some of the starch into simple sugars. As a result, later when you cook the potatoes in fat, the potato will brown very well as the sugars caramelize. Two birds, one stone.

When the potatoes are still undercooked, drain and place on a kitchen towel to steam and cool.

When you can handle the potatoes by hand, you’re ready to grate them. You’ll notice that they shred very nicely and still sound a little undercooked on the grater. They are also sticky and dry, because again the heat has changed the starch.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet on medium heat, and add the the shredded potatoes in 3 layers, as below. Salt and pepper between the layers. Once you have all the potatoes in the pan, use a spatula to form the potatoes into a nice round ‘cake’ if you will, as below. It will take several minutes to brown the potatoes well.

Flipping the potato cake is not easy and for most home cooks I would suggest that you use a paper plate. Place the plate on top of the cake, then with an oven mitt on one hand and top of the plate, flip the whole thing over in one motion. Then add another tablespoon of butter to the pan in pieces and slide the cake back into the pan. Brown the second side. Each side should look like this. Total cooking time for the potato cake is about 15 minutes.

Crispy and delicious.

A Few Other Recipes:

1. Between the layers add minced garlic, and be liberal with the butter. The French call this Pommes Sarladaise.

2. Between the layers add grated gruyere cheese and leeks that have been stewed in butter until nice and soft. My sister Pat loves this recipe.

3. Add slices of ham or cooked bacon between the layers with a nice melting cheese of your choice.

4. Potato Pancakes: To the grated potatoes (for 4 potatoes) whisk together two large eggs and a tablespoon of sour cream, add salt and pepper to taste and stir into the potato shreds. Use a fork to add 2 tablespoons at a time of the potatoes to a skillet with hot veg oil. Use the fork to spread the potatoes out into a thin layer - if you like them crisp! Cook until golden brown on both sides.