Culinary Rhapsodies: Bacon Potato Hash Browns

23 Dec 2012

Sometimes I have a craving for comfort foods, soul food, ribs, chicken and waffles…and hash browns. I grew up with mom cooking this for us every once in awhile. I still remember when she made it for dinner and it was like having pancakes for dinner. A real treat! It was something I enjoyed having but we rarely had (once or twice a year). After baking the bacon and spinach quiche the other night, I had some bacon left. The next morning, I decided to use the remainder of the bacon we had to make my hubby his first bacon potato hash brown! My mom’s made this recipe either with the potatoes being on the softer side or crunchy. Since my husband enjoys crispy things (it’s yummy he says) and I enjoy not too crispy, so I made it in between. He says it’s a wonderful combination of bacon and potatoes. And it’s quite easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes

• 5 slices of bacon

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Wash, peel and slice the potato. We usually use a mandoline slicer to make it easier and faster. You can do it by hand but it’ll take painstakingly long. Don’t rinse the potatoes once you slice it because you want it to be starchy for this recipe. Keep it to the side.
  2. Take the bacon and cut each slice into about 10 – 12 pieces. You can use a knife to do this or we recommend getting a pair of kitchen scissors and using that to cut it. Much faster!
3. Heat a frying pan on high. The bacon itself gives off a lot of oil so you don’t need to place oil on the pan. Once the pan is heated, put the bacon on it and cook it on low to medium heat and cook until it changes color. Make sure that you don’t cook the bacon completely at this stage but only until it’s not raw anymore. Add the potato slices into the frying pan and using a wooden spatula, mix the slices so that it is covered in the bacon oil and the bacon is spread throughout. Once the potato starts becoming a bit translucent, stop mixing it and bring the heat up to medium high. This will help the potatoes to crisp and because of the starch in the potatoes, it should hold together a bit. Keep an eye out on it and when the potatoes seem browned on one side, flip it and do the same for the other side. It should take about 3 – 5 minutes each side, but it really depends on your stove top. Take a peek under it once in awhile if you’re afraid of it being too crispy. If you have a plate large enough, you can slide it off once both sides are done. I didn’t happen to have a plate large enough so I put it into a mound next to some spinach which I heated the same way I did for the quiche (step one). Bon appetit!

Culinary Rhapsodies: Bacon Potato Hash Browns

23 Dec 2012

Sometimes I have a craving for comfort foods, soul food, ribs, chicken and waffles…and hash browns. I grew up with mom cooking this for us every once in awhile. I still remember when she made it for dinner and it was like having pancakes for dinner. A real treat! It was something I enjoyed having but we rarely had (once or twice a year). After baking the bacon and spinach quiche the other night, I had some bacon left. The next morning, I decided to use the remainder of the bacon we had to make my hubby his first bacon potato hash brown! My mom’s made this recipe either with the potatoes being on the softer side or crunchy. Since my husband enjoys crispy things (it’s yummy he says) and I enjoy not too crispy, so I made it in between. He says it’s a wonderful combination of bacon and potatoes. And it’s quite easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes

• 5 slices of bacon

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Wash, peel and slice the potato. We usually use a mandoline slicer to make it easier and faster. You can do it by hand but it’ll take painstakingly long. Don’t rinse the potatoes once you slice it because you want it to be starchy for this recipe. Keep it to the side.
  2. Take the bacon and cut each slice into about 10 – 12 pieces. You can use a knife to do this or we recommend getting a pair of kitchen scissors and using that to cut it. Much faster!
3. Heat a frying pan on high. The bacon itself gives off a lot of oil so you don’t need to place oil on the pan. Once the pan is heated, put the bacon on it and cook it on low to medium heat and cook until it changes color. Make sure that you don’t cook the bacon completely at this stage but only until it’s not raw anymore. Add the potato slices into the frying pan and using a wooden spatula, mix the slices so that it is covered in the bacon oil and the bacon is spread throughout. Once the potato starts becoming a bit translucent, stop mixing it and bring the heat up to medium high. This will help the potatoes to crisp and because of the starch in the potatoes, it should hold together a bit. Keep an eye out on it and when the potatoes seem browned on one side, flip it and do the same for the other side. It should take about 3 – 5 minutes each side, but it really depends on your stove top. Take a peek under it once in awhile if you’re afraid of it being too crispy. If you have a plate large enough, you can slide it off once both sides are done. I didn’t happen to have a plate large enough so I put it into a mound next to some spinach which I heated the same way I did for the quiche (step one). Bon appetit!