What kind of food blogger would I be without feeding you? It is Sunday morning and time for brunch so let’s begin with that… You’ll be seeing brunch in many upcoming posts; it is by far one of my most rewarding meals to cook. Sometimes it ends up being my large snack before preparing dinner!

When my husband and I were first dating, he requested hash browns for breakfast. I had never made hash browns and was unsure how to even deal with the potatoes. I tried several methods of cutting the potatoes, shredding and chopping; I precooked the potatoes and sautéed them raw. I never really achieved his interpretation of hash browns (although the potato cakes rosti come very close) but this is the version of potato that we use most often at breakfast and I do believe they are his favorite. These work equally well for dinner and are especially good with the addition of herbs, garlic or both. They do okay sitting for an hour or so but the longer they sit before being heated to serve, the more soggy they will become (this is not a bad thing but I don’t recommend trying to heat them longer than needed or they will become burnt, rather than crisp, on the outside and dry, rather than soft, in the middle). I find it best to make them in advance of your egg dish (or whatever they are accompanying) and keep them warm on your lowest heat setting on the stove; I keep mine on simmer and it keeps it just warm but not continuing to cook faster than I can prepare the rest on the meal.

PREP
USING 1 medium sized Yukon gold potato per person CUT INTO ¼” SLICES then each slice into ¼” julienne and then into ¼” cube.

PUT THESE CUBES into a saucepan of salted water and bring to just a boil.

REMOVE FROM HEAT AND STRAIN shaking out excess water.

THIS CAN BE DONE SEVERAL HOURS IN ADVANCE (if you have a doggie in the house, this is a healthy snack to offer them – no butter yet- just fresh, par-boiled potatoes. Ginger and Buddy know that I always save a few cubes for them to snack on before brunch).

COOK

MELT a good knob of butter (approx 1 TB per each two-three medium potatoes; more or less depending on the condition of your heart and your affinity for butter) over high heat until the butter stops bubbling. Add the potatoes and give the pan a shake to coat them all with a little of the butter. TURN DOWN THE HEAT TO MEDIUM.

COOK STIRRING EVERY ONCE AND AGAIN but leave them to sit alone undisturbed for several minutes at a time; this allows them to brown. You will eventually turn the heat down to low, depending on how hot your stove is. Once they have browned you want them to cook slowly so that the inside can soften nicely without burning the outside. On my stove, this occurs typically 5 minutes into the sauté and takes, on average, another 10 minutes or so to achieve the degree of doneness I desire. As I mentioned above, toward the end of the cooking, I turn my stove to simmer and let them finish off very slowly while I get the rest of my meal together; this buys me about 20 more minutes to round everything up. ALTERNATIVELY, you could serve right away or if still prepping other things, take them from the heat completely for an hour or so and reheat in a 400 degree oven or on the stove top on med high heat; again, the fresher served the better.

Mine are almost ready so I’m off to cook my eggs…