From the Castle Kitchen: Easy Pan-Fried Hash Browns

By: Jamie Patterson Chojnacki

Growing up in North America, we were no stranger to ‘hash browns’ - a fried potato patty of savoury goodness that complements the diner and drive-thru breakfast culture well. 

After moving to Europe, we were introduced to similar dishes such as rösti, placki ziemniaczane,and latkes.  Here we discovered that though hash browns are often heavily-processed-deep-fried-patties back in Canada and The States – they needn’t be. 

In Europe, they are a much more honest and flexible dish. They persevere as traditional comfort food enjoyed with brunch at guest houses; as a snack (with apple sauce) during festivals; or for dinner at home, served alongside richer accompaniments like stewed bell pepper with cinnamon and paprika. And, regardless of where or how they are enjoyed, the tastiest recipes combine just a handful of fresh, quality ingredients – nothing more.

When the rain is pouring or it is a bit cooler out, we crave comfort food like this, and with free-range eggs and potatoes from the neighbouring farm on hand – we whip up a batch of European-style hash browns.

Here is our favorite way to prepare these for brunch without feeling heavy or guilty about it afterwards.

Easy Pan-Fried Hash Browns 

with a dollop of yogurt and lemon zest

Yields 8-10 Patties

Potato Patties

• 500 g of potatoes, peeled, washed and rough grated

• 1 pink onion, or 4 shallots, finely chopped (don’t grate these, too watery)

• 2 free-range, bio-eggs, whisked

• 2 liberal pinches of sea salt, we used Maldon flakes

• fresh cracked pepper

+ extra olive oil for frying pan

Garnish

• dollop of Greek yogurt per servings of 2-3 hash browns

• bio lemon, zested

Potatoes have excess water that you will need to drain for this recipe. Assuming you are without cheese-cloth or pantyhose, you can try the following…

Drape a clean, cotton kitchen towel over top of a medium bowl. Place the grated potatoes on top of the cloth and wring tight until water filters through the bottom of the cloth sack created.

Place wrung-out potatoes in mixing bowl. Add onion, eggs, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Stir to combine.

Beside the stove, place paper towel on a tray to wick-up excess oil after frying.

Add olive-oil to a heavy-bottomed until thoroughly coated (several tablespoons) and heat on high (for us, this is 8 or 9). Just before the oil starts to smoke, reduce heat slightly (for us, this is to 7). Scoop hash brown mix with soup spoon into skillet and flatten with back of spoon. Cook for about two minutes per side. You can use the back of a spatula to press down on the hash browns (until about 1 cm / ½inch thick) after the first minute or so of cooking.

Place onto tray with towel and let cool for 5 minutes.

When ready to serve, dollop with Greek yogurt and garnish with freshly grated lemon zest. In the spring, there are fruit and vegetable blossoms flourishing across the countryside, so we also added crape seed flowers to the garnish here. 

Did you try this recipe? Let us know how it turned out for you in the comments below.