Sometimes simple things are really nice. Our schedules around here are often bizarre, given that Cat works nights, on weekends, and we’re homeschoolers. That means that meals here don’t always easily fit into the categories of “breakfast,” or “supper,” or whatever… so having breakfast foods for an early evening meal isn’t something we consider odd, or even rare. Sometimes, though, I’ll give “breakfast” little touches that hopefully make them special. In this case… herbs.

Here we have your basic fried eggs… over easy, as my husband & brother prefer them… with a light dusting of minced fresh sage, thyme, and rosemary sprinkled on just as they came out of the pan. The toast is made from our daily bread, and this light meal is rounded off by herbed hash brown potatoes. Since most folks can figure out how to make toast and fry eggs (although scrambling them seems to be a skill that may warrant attention at some point in the future,) I thought I’d talk a little about making the potatoes… which can be tricky to get right.

You can, of course, buy the pre-shredded potatoes in your local grocery store’s dairy case, and there are advantages to them. I suppose the convenience of not having to grate them yourself is a big one, but the really big one is that these pre-packaged grated taters are already nicely dried out. If you try to fry home-grated potatoes without making sure to get them to this stage, you’re going to wind up with a disgusting, gooey mess… and I have a hunch this is why so many people say they can’t make hash browns at home. The good news is, this step is not hard… it just takes a few minutes and some paper toweling.

Grate the potato, then sprinkle with salt. (If you salt them later, they’re just going to leak more water and you’ll wind up with goo again.) Let the potato sit for about 2-3 minutes, then proceed to squeeze and press, roll and sop with a couple of paper towels, till you wind up with nice, dry potato shreds. It may take several paper towels to accomplish this, but it’s definitely well worth the effort. Make sure that you check underneath the pile of potato, as moisture accumulates there. Once toweled sufficiently, set them aside for a few more minutes, preferably on a small plate as above so that you can easily transfer them to your skillet when it’s time to fry.

If you like your hash browns with onions, this is a good time to toss them in with the potato shreds. I like mine in very thin, 3/4″ long slices, but you can use diced onions if you prefer, of course. You can also toss in herbs here, if you so desire… again, I used thyme, rosemary, and sage. Garlic powder is another possibility, but I wouldn’t recommend using fresh garlic; the taters are going to need to fry too long, and garlic really does tend to get bitter when subjected to such treatment.

This is one application for which I am immensely grateful for a high-quality non-stick skillet! Here you see one medium potato, grated, which fits nicely into my 12″ pan. Heat about 2 tbsp. of oil until it’s hot, but not smoking, over medium-high heat. I preheated for about 2 minutes on my flat-top stove; I imagine a real stove (read: gas!) would get the job done more quickly. Transfer your dried, seasoned grated potato into the hot oil, move it around with a spatula until it’s got a nice round shape (if you care about such things,) then flatten it out so that the thickness is even all around… about 1/2 inch.

Now, as Alton Brown would say… just walk away! Resist the urge to pat, poke, prod, or peek at your taters until they begin to brown obviously around the edges. This requires patience and restraint, but it will be well rewarded. You’ll also have a prayer of getting the hash brown to lift and flip in one piece if a nice crust forms on the bottom. Flip once, then sprinkle with pepper, if you like. Continue to cook until the bottom is nicely browned as well. The whole thing takes maybe 6-7 minutes for a medium sized potato.