I’m surprised that, despite my love of breakfast, how many breakfast foods I’ve never made – or mastered – personally. Sure, I can make a mean bowl of cereal (it’s all in the pour), and my Eggs in a Nest are legendary. But there are a number of dishes I’ve been wanting to try. For instance, I’ve been attempting to poach eggs for years now. Can’t get it right. I’m looking to start trying hollandaise recipes. And I need to work on making pancakes. And then there’s potatoes.
Potatoes, in my mind, can make or break a good breakfast. Eggs, while versatile, are still eggs. They’re the lead singer of the band: dynamic and charismatic. The meat is your lead guitar. Toast is maybe the drummer (okay, this metaphor is getting thin). But good potatoes are like the bassist. They provide a good grounding to the whole band. If they mess up, you lose the beat, you can’t hear the harmonies, and people point and laugh.
This is all to say that I tried making hash browns for breakfast the other day. Never done it before. Figured it couldn’t be that difficult. I took five small potatoes, peeled them, shredded them with a cheese grater, threw some butter in a pan, dumped the potatoes in, and sprinkled pepper and kosher salt. I fried an egg and threw that on top when it was done. (See the bad pic above.)
A couple thoughts and questions:
1. Do I need to peel them?
2. Stupid me, I’ll shred them using the food processor next time.
3. They were surprisingly wet.
4. How can I get them more brown?
5. They were delicious and I’m going to try it again soon.
