Finely julienned potatoes lightly seasoned then fried to a beautiful golden brown make for a great breakfast staple in the form of a hash brown, or potato fritter, the perfect partnership to eggs, sausages, bacon, and tomatoes. How you jazz it up, however, can transform the quintessential breakfast food into a dinner or even barbecue side, just like our chorizo, fresh corn and coriander, fetta and dill, and green olive and chilli variations.
Ingredients
- 5 medium (1 kg) sebago potatoes, peeled
- 1 medium (150 g) onion, chopped finely
- ½ cup (75 g) self-raising flour
- 2 eggs, beaten lightly
- 2 tsps fresh thyme or rosemary
- 1 cup (250 ml) extra virgin olive oil for frying, or as needed
- Avocado wedges, hot sauce, sour cream, optional, to serve
Steps
Grate the potatoes on the coarse side of a box grater. Immediately place into a large bowl of cold water as they will start to brown very quickly. Drain the grated potatoes through a strainer and rinse until water is clear; drain well. Add grated potato to a clean tea towel and squeeze to remove any excess water (the potato should loose and dry).
Place grated potato into a large bowl, stir in the onion, flour and egg; mix to combine. Stir in thyme or rosemary and season well with salt flakes and freshly ground pepper.
Heat enough of the olive oil to about 1.5 cm deep in a large heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, carefully drop ⅓ cup of potato mixture into the pan, leaving space between. Shallow fry in batches, for about 5 mins or until golden brown on the bottom. Turn and brown on the other side. It should take at least 5 mins per side.
Remove from pan, and drain on a rack. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately with avocado, hot sauce and sour cream, if desired. Suitable to freeze.
DIAL UP THE FLAVOURS
CHORIZO Add 2 crumbled and pan-fried smoked chorizo sausages to the potato mixture.
FRESH CORN & CORIANDER Add the kernels from 1 large cob of fresh corn, 1 clove crushed garlic and ½ cup fresh coriander leaves to the potato mixture.
FETTA & DILL Add ½ cup chopped dill and 150 g crumbled Greek fetta to the potato mixture.
GREEN OLIVE & CHILLI Add 90 g chopped green olives and 2 finely sliced long red chillies to the potato mixture.