Brinner (Homemade Hash Browns)
Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 12:44PM The other morning, as I often do, I asked Mark what he wanted for dinner. "Breakfast!" "No, I mean for dinner." "Yeah." "Um, okay."
We both have wonderful parents. For Christmas, Mark's parents had sent us Vermont maple syrup and pancake mix, and he'd been thinking about it ever since. To go with our gift, we decided to cook up some hashbrowns, eggs and bacon. Mark took care of the pancakes, and the bacon and eggs were a piece of cake (Tip: crisp the bacon first, then fry the eggs in the bacon grease). But because somehow, that wasn't quite enough food for me, I decided to make hash browns from scratch. New Year's resolutions, what?!
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2 Russet potatoes
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1/4 cup all purpose flour
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1 egg
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Lots of pepper and some salt, maybe a tsp or so (more if you are just crisping the hash browns in a pan or on a griddle, less if you are frying them in bacon grease)
First, I peeled and grated the potatoes. I hate grating anything, honestly - it's just so awkward. But I couldn't see a way around it.
Next, I squeezed out all the moisture using my potato ricer, which is a trick I just learned from the Simply Recipes lady. One day I will meet that lady, and I will be forced to give her all of my money for all the help she's given me in the kitchen. If you don't have a ricer, you can squeeze out the moisture with a paper towel. But you should probably get a ricer.
I dumped the potato shreds into a bowl, and mixed them thoroughly (with my hands) with the flour, egg, pepper and salt.
Using the griddle on which I had cooked the bacon, which was still shiny with bacon grease, I spread out the potato mixture and cooked it over medium heat until crisp and golden, then flipped everything over (about 10 minutes per side). Obviously you can make this a vegetarian dish by simply cutting out the bacon grease and cooking the hash browns in oil. But that is NOT how we do things here.
If you really want to be decadent, you can pour the bacon grease into a frying pan and fry up the hash browns before serving. I didn't do this, because I love Mark a lot and don't want his heart to explode, given that we were also eating bacon, eggs fried in bacon grease, and pancakes drizzled with maple syrup. But that way also lies deliciousness (just fry for 3-5 minutes).
I'm not a huge fan of breakfast for breakfast, but this was really, really satisfying. I officially co-sign this brinner (or brupper, if you'd like) thing, and since we still have leftover pancake mix, it might be making a comeback in our apartment sooner rather than later. Especially since we didn't even get into the maple pork sausages I bought...
Breakfast, Vegetarian in Recipes: At Home
Reader Comments (4)
Ah ha ha, Brinner and Brupper, funny! I too love breakfast for dinner. Often on chilly evenings I want something warm like eggs and toast to eat instead of a heavy meat laden meal.
I am making chicken chile chowder in the crock pot now and it has hashbrowns in it. Yum!
Amy,
Ahhh, chicken chile chowder - that sounds just PERFECT for a winter Sunday.
I used to love it when we got breakfast for lunch (mostly badly apple blintz & brekkie sausage) during HS, so brinner must be superior.
BTW, I noticed the "larded" hash browns. Just pointing that out...
Brinner is awesome, and I would have loved to include some breakfast sausage, as it is one of my favorite things of all time.
And as for the larded hash browns...you caught me. Those went on my plate (not Mark's). I couldn't help myself.