The breakfast thread on Lace has gotten around to hash
browns. Which reminded me of my favorite lunch.
When you buy "hash browns" in a restaurant, or take pre-made
cakes out of the freezer case at the grocery, they are
really cartofflepooffer -- and it's no wonder they aren't
sold under that name! I calls 'em "potato pancakes" when
made at home -- but home-made ones come out pancake shaped
and crunchy instead of in the form of little cakes with
mealy interiors. It's a very simple -- but very
high-calorie -- dish: grate potatoes coarsely, you don't
even have to peel them first, then fry them in lots of oil
-- best in the still-molten grease from frying the bacon.
You'll have to add more oil for the second batch; the potato
shreds soak it up *fast*.
MMMMmmmm good! And not one molecule in it is on the South
Beach diet. Well, I think salt is allowed.
For a proper hash-brown potato, you peel and cube the
potatoes the night before, then soak the them in cold water
until morning to make them crisp and take the coating of
starch off. Be sure to use the soaking water in cooking,
because all the vitamins and minerals are in it. What hits
the skillet is pure starch. Drain well, rolling on a towel
if necessary. Fry until brown on most sides.
Needless to say, it is several decades since I have done this.
But I make a closely-allied dish for lunch -- at least I did
until Dr. Snider told me to swear off white potatoes.
{parenthesis}
Personally, I think the folks who say that sweet potatoes
are less glycemic than white potatoes are engaged in wishful
thinking: you can *taste* the sugar in sweet potatoes:
enough that I won't put gravy on them. But they are really
good cubed and fry-steamed even when I don't add spices or
butter. (Steaming them in their own vapors sort of
concentrates the sugar, so butter isn't required.) Spices
are free-choice, and cinnamon is on the "do eat" list. DH
also takes cinnamon in capsules, but after forgetting to go
to the pharmacy several days in a row, he has figured out
how to mix loose cinnamon with his calcium chews.
{/parenthesis}
I chop celery and put it in a skillet with sesame oil to
start cooking, then scrub and cube a potato. I don't peel
it unless the skin has more flaws than I care to cut out.
Nor do I wash off the coating of starch. Bell Pepper (sweet
capsicum) goes in next if I have it, then chopped onion.
Also anything else I find in the fridge. If there is
left-over meat, it goes in at the last moment so it can heat
without cooking more. The veggies are more steamed than fried.
But sweet potatoes cooked this way would get really sweet,
unfit to mix with meat and vegetable. I'll have to start
haunting La Surtidoria in hope of jicama, but it seems to be
seasonal, and I don't know when the season is.
--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
where the winter is wet, but half the strawberries have died
from the lack of snow. (Those in the lawn around the raised
bed are doing fine, but I can't keep weeds out of
ground-level strawberries.)
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