Main plate Breakfast potatoes (and eggs) for 1

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ian

ian

Refined, yet toothy
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This is my favorite thing to cook. Much simpler than most things I make, but it's a weekly standard. I write "for 1" in the title because I've never been very successful in scaling it up for brunch parties. In theory, one could do it in the oven on a sheet pan, but it never comes out as well for me. Probably it could serve 2, but not when I'm one of the breakfasters, since I'm unwilling to share. The microwaving is essential. Don't skip it.

Ingredients

1 large or 2 small russet potatoes
salt
olive oil

eggs
ketchup (not optional)
hot sauce

Very Complete Directions

Spend a few minutes organizing your mise.

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Cut a flat surface onto the bottoms of the potatoes, then slice thinly.

first cut.jpg


Cut into long matchsticks.

all cut.jpg


Sprinkle some water on top (1/2 cup?).

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Pour off the excess, washing off some starch in the process. Salt the potatoes.

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Put in the microwave. I usually do 2:30 at `normal', whatever that is, but my microwave's pretty weak, so less might work.

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Dump everything into a bowl, and stir it around to get the gelatinized starch to uniformly coat the potatoes.

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Microwave again, maybe a little less time. (2 min for me)

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Put a fair amount of oil in a medium hot 12'' skillet.

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Put in the potatoes, evenly distributing them. Smash 'em down just a little.

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Fry for a while (10 min?) until golden brown on bottom. Then flip with a spatula. It should hold together. Make sure to splatter yourself with oil. Pants not recommended.

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Fry until the second side is golden brown. While you're doing this, prep your eggs for poaching. If you strain them briefly, they'll be shaped better and the pan will be easier to clean. Don't leave them in the strainer too long, though, or they'll stick to it when you dump them in the water.

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Add the eggs to the (plain) hot water, a bit under a boil. (A shell fragment pierced the white of one of mine, which is why it looks worse than the others. Too much attention paid to photography, not enough to the eggs.)

eggs in water.jpg


When the potatoes are done (hopefully just before the eggs are done), flip them once more to recrisp the first side, then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to blot any excess oil.

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Fold over, then cut into pieces with shears
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.
 
Remove the eggs from the water, put them briefly on the greasy paper towels to dry, then put them on the plate next to the potatoes, and top with salt and pepper. Squirt some ketchup next to them, then top with hot sauce.

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Eat all of it. (Why do most recipes skip this step? It seems like the most important part.)

eat.jpg
 
labor of love said:
I’d love to place the poached egg over those hash but form the hash like a muffin top w hollandaise and eat it like a Benedict.
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Yea, that would be awesome too. I cut it as pictured because it's pretty crispy the way I make it (maybe 2/3 of it is crispy, with 1/3 of it a non-crispy middle) and I like to eat the hash with my hands and dip it in the sauce.

MrHiggins said:
I'm glad to see this recipe. Not only is the post well composed, it's for simple, good food. One concern of mine when I saw the recipe sub-forum suggestion was that it would quickly devolve into a game of culinary one-upsmanship. Nice work keeping the proletariat fed!
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It took me a while to come up with this particular recipe, too. I always found it a bit tricky to get the perfect amount of crisp vs soft inside, and the double microwaving with stirring in between really does it.
 
Yum!!!

Thanks for the write up! Where would we be without the humble potato?
 
This is reminiscent of Rösti (and a number of similar potato dishes, such as hash browns and German Kartoffelpuffer, among others). The egg and potato combination is an all-time favourite. I like the microwave technique and the fine julienne. Things will get to the cooked stage a lot quicker that way. Thanks for writing this up!

PS: Are you sure you knew what you were doing when you mentioned the ketchup? ;)
 
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Michi said:
Things will get to the cooked stage a lot quicker that way.
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There’s also a different quality to the microwave cooking. It’s more like steaming without adding extra water, and encourages the starch to gelatinize, so that it can eventually crisp up in the hot oil. That’s why I’m using the microwave, although it’s also nice that it cuts down on cooking time.
 
ian said:
It’s more like steaming without adding extra water, and encourages the starch to gelatinize, so that it can eventually crisp up in the hot oil.
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Good point, I hadn't thought of that. With the potato cut up that small, I'd also expect some water to leave as steam while in the microwave, so the potatoes should be dryer.

I'll give this a try, thanks!
 
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We used to make these potatoes for a salmon side dish. Take one potato galette, spread with a truffle and black pepper goat cheese, top with second potato galette and cut in quarters. So good.
 
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Good for reheating frozen meals and maybe steaming some raw veggies quickly so they retain more nutrients, but not good for much else, in my opinion. I don't think they can be used for "cooking" as such.

Good for parboiling potato julienne though, it seems :)
 
Love me some good hash browns, eggs, ketchup and hot sauce. Yellowbird is a great choice, although I've never tried the ghost pepper.
 
Michi said:
Good for reheating frozen meals and maybe steaming some raw veggies quickly so they retain more nutrients, but not good for much else, in my opinion. I don't think they can be used for "cooking" as such.

Good for parboiling potato julienne though, it seems :)
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Yea, you could also do the parcooking of these potatoes in a pan with a bit of water, or even just put them in the pan with the oil on a bit lower heat and cover them so they steam. But I found these methods much less consistent... sometimes they’d be too gummy, sometimes not crispy enough. It’s all about starch control. Also, the microwave is really easy.


erickso1 said:
Love me some good hash browns, eggs, ketchup and hot sauce. Yellowbird is a great choice, although I've never tried the ghost pepper.
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Yea, I’m a fan. I alternate between that and the habanero one. About the same level of heat. The habanero’s brighter and cleaner, the ghost pepper deeper and more complex.
 
ChefShramrock said:
We used to make these potatoes for a salmon side dish. Take one potato galette, spread with a truffle and black pepper goat cheese, top with second potato galette and cut in quarters. So good.
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How did you make the galette? That is, how did your method differ from the one above?

I would like to figure out how to scale this recipe up at some point, but I only try it out on friends like once a year, and by then I always forget what I did the previous time so it’s never as good as when I make it for myself. I’ve mostly tried doing the microwaving in batches, and then cooking everything on a sheet pan in the oven, but the results from the oven were never as uniformly crispy. Maybe it’s as simple as not using enough oil, though. I probably don’t scale the oil up accurately because as a home cook I feel weird about using like 2 cups of oil when I’m not deep frying.

Gotta throw a breakfast party and try (fail) again!
 
I love this, and I can't say I ever eat potato for breakfast so this will be a nice change.
 
Cool, although I wouldn’t expect it to work at all similarly with sweet potatoes. I always find them easier to scorch and they never get as crispy for me. Might have to add extra starch. But if you do try it, let us know how it works out!
 
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