Hurry up! The potatoes are shrivelling!

If you read the last post, you will have seen a picture of some of my poor little pathetic shriveled potatoes. I have about a bushel of them left from last year, and although I don't want to have potatoes at every meal, I think we will be eating them every day for a while. I hope not many of them will go to waste. If I couldn't afford to get new certified disease-free seed potatoes, I would definitely use a lot of these to plant this year, perhaps as early as St. Patrick's Day, if the weather cooperates. However, I will be buying new seed. It's safer, and I have the money set aside for that.

Today's potato feature is Hash Brown Potatoes. A lot of people buy "hash brown" potatoes, frozen in big bags, at the grocery store. Fine, but even though those are not very expensive, they still cost more than using fresh potatoes, and I believe that my homemade hash browns are more nutritious and safe to eat.

So, here we go!

Hash Brown Potatoes - 3 servings

1 pound of potatoes
3 T butter
Sea Salt (I use Realsalt)
freshly ground black pepper
ground cayenne pepper
paprika

As you can see, my potatoes are ready for spring!



I chose a few of them, about 1#, and scrubbed them well:



Next, partially fill a bowl with cold water. Grate the potatoes, and add them to the water. Do not let the grated potatoes sit out for long, as the oxidation will make them rather unattractive.



Start heating your skillet on medium/low heat. Just before you are going to add the grated potatoes, melt the butter in your skillet. A heavy skillet (I use cast iron) is necessary to prevent scorching.



Pour the grated potatoes into the colander, place the colander under cold running water in your sink and rinse and stir, rinsing very thoroughly to remove excess starch. Press out as much water as you can:



Then, put them onto a dish towel and press out more water:




Dump the grated potatoes into the heated skillet that contains the melted butter. Spread them out. Now you can season them. I use salt and pepper to taste, a tiny amount of ground cayenne and a nice sprinkling of paprika:



Let the potatoes cook for about 4 minutes and then start stirring them around every minute or two:



Continue to cook, moving them around frequently until they are nice and soft. Then, turn up the heat a little and press them down into the skillet. Cook until the underside is as brown as you like, and flip them over (it is not necessary to keep them all in one piece) and cook until the top is brown also.



We like to eat these with fried eggs. And of course, you have my permission to use ketchup. :D

This post is linked up with Friday Food Flicks!