# Home Fries



## Nicholas Mosher (Aug 17, 2007)

My favorite breakfast and late night snack food.

How do you make yours?  I'm curious about how others make this dish.
What kind of pan, potatoes, fats, spices/herbs, etc.?  Are you a boil first kinda person?  How do you make yours?

Can't wait to hear from y'all...


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## kadesma (Aug 17, 2007)

Most of the time I use leftover boiled potatoes, but have used raw..When I use pre-cooked, I get my skillet pretty hot, add evoo, then sliced up potatoes, let sit in hot oil til starting to get brown and crispy, then add on top some diced onion, chopped parsley, salt and pepper..and some crumbled bacon, turn, let other side get brown and crispy, plate, top with several eggs with runny yolk and serve..DH's favorite..My dad loved them this way, but wanted a little red bell pepper mixed in.I use a large cast iron skillet and yukon gold for this.

kadesma


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## amber (Aug 17, 2007)

My favorite breakfast food too.  If I have some leftover boiled potatoes then I just simply fry them up in a bit of canola oil, add some onions of course, paprika for color, black pepper, sometimes cayenne, and occassionally fresh parsley.  If I dont have a boiled potatoe on hand, I small diced potatoes ( I leave the skin on) and pretty much add the same as above to the potatoes.  Sometimes adding scallions, tomatoes, cheddar.  Gotta love home fries.  Oh and onion powder add a nice flavor is you dont have fresh onions or scallions.  Mushrooms are good too!  I love veggies.


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## jpmcgrew (Aug 17, 2007)

I also like par boiled or leftover potatoes because you dont have all that water that is in a raw potato which just soaks up alot of fat when cooking and cooking an already cooked potato just does not need as much grease and will crisp up very nice.Cook with a medium heat and take your time


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## Dave Hutchins (Aug 17, 2007)

If I have a hankerin for home fries I take severl Idaho russet potatoes and bake them let them cool and slice them and fry at a hot temp in a CAST IRON SKILLETwith bacon drippens and a pat or two of butter great way to go onions are just fine after you brown one side. As far as herbs let you imagination just go wild there all good, I like a little celery salt and a pinch of old bay seasoning or cajan seasoning inmine


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## Uncle Bob (Aug 18, 2007)

Baked russets, just barely done, maybe even a little crisp. I always use a cast iron pan, with mostly peanut oil. Seasonings can be a wide range. Mostly on the Cajun/Creole side for me. Hot Sauce sometimes too!


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## Nicholas Mosher (Aug 18, 2007)

Man oh man I want some home fries now!

I peel/dice some yukon golds into 3/4" cubes, parboil them in well-salted water, and then dry them on a non-stick cookie sheet in a 300ºF oven until they stop steaming.  Then I let them cool off on top of the stove (usually with my kicthen fan pointed on them) before pouring them into a large container lined with papertowels.  I tend to do a few pounds at a time and then use them over the course of a week.  The oven drying method I picked up from the CIA textbook and it really helps with developing that über-crisp crust.

Then I use an appropriately sized cast-iron skillet.  If I have rendered bacon-fat I'll use that, but if not it's typically vegetable oil that goes in (maybe 1/8" in the bottom of the pan).  Heat it up around 375ºF over medium-high heat, add a single layer of the taters, and immediately drop the heat to medium.  As someone else mentioned, I take it slow - waiting a bit for the crust to develop on each face before turning them.

Just before they finish, I toss in some minced chives and freshly ground black pepper.  I usually don't have to salt them, as the salt from the liquid they were parboiled in fully penetrates and seasons the potatoes throughout.  Then it's onto a plate.  I love them with scrambled eggs, peppers, onions, and tomato concasse.  Bit of ketchup never hurt either...

But recently I've been trying to explore other versions.  The family of the girl I'm seeing boasts and drools over "home fries" that her grandmother used to make.  Apparently the potatoes are thinly sliced, super-crispy, and seasoned with caraway (she's from Germany I believe).  I'm trying to experiment and come up with something.

But now I need to refill the potato container on the bottom shelf of my 'fridge.


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## VeraBlue (Aug 18, 2007)

My mom always made magnificent home fries!  I'll have to call her now to tell her I was thinking of them.

She used regular idaho potatoes.  Back in the 60s and 70s, there wasn't much else available, other than red bliss.  She'd peel them, halve them, and then slice them, quarter inch thick.

She'd put vegetable oil in a large skillet, and then add the potatoes.  She'd only turn them around a few times.  They'd get crisp on the outside, but stay moist and tender on the inside.  After then, she'd simply place them on a platter and add salt and pepper.

Something so simple was easily her signature dish.  I make mine the same way, today.

She makes a pretty mean potato salad, too!


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## YT2095 (Aug 18, 2007)

I didn`t know they were called that, in fact I make them here too in the UK, and didn`t have a name for it until now 

I do mine very similar to Kadesma, only I do them in the bacon fat instead of evoo.
probably just as well we don`t have it too often


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## Nicholas Mosher (Aug 20, 2007)

VeraBlue - That makes me think of a DVD I have of Anthony Bourdain where he visits Paris.  There is some kitchen footage of an old woman dicing potatoes with an old knife into a pan of hot duck/goose fat.  Then some salt and thats it.  They come out to the table in these luscious hunks of browned and re-browned lumps of love.

I've been thinking of how I cook plantains - frying, pressing/mashing, and refrying them.  Having that fluffy slightly-overcooked exterior (or warm potatoes)  makes more surface area to crisp up.  Bacon/animal fats definitely taste best to me, but one of the people I'm adapting this recipe for is a vegetarian - so that limits me to perhaps crisco for that mouthfeel (kinda like the mouthfeel of a crisp fried chicken crust).  I find butter develops too much of a nutty flavor that overpowers the delicate potato's.

YT - I only make an 8" cast iron frypans worth at a time.  I can easily eat a 12" frypans worth if they're sitting there in front of me.  One of my weaknesses since I was a child...  

Spoke with my girlfriend again this weekend about them, and she said her grandmother used raw red potatoes with vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet, and seasoned them with caraway seed, salt, black pepper, and paprika (most likely for color).  Although I suspect that smoked paprika may be at work as one of the "mysterious secrets" that makes these potatoes so talked about. - It may also be a touch of that magical grandmother fairy dust that only grandmothers have... 

EDIT:

Oh, baking instead of boiling totally makes sense!  My next batch will feature this for sure - Thanks!


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## VeraBlue (Aug 20, 2007)

Nicholas, my mother also has just one knife...and she uses it for everything from slicing bread to slicing cucumbers to slicing meat....


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## elaine l (Aug 20, 2007)

I make homefries from baked potatoes.  I sometimes use raw if I haven't planned ahead.  I add diced onion, fry in butter with s&p.  When I am lazy and don't care to stand at the stove, I put them (same way as above) in a baking dish and bake.


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## Barb L. (Aug 20, 2007)

I like to fry raw potatoes, sliced thin then place in cold water till ready to fry, drain, blot with paper towel good and fry in bacon grease with onions - brown bottom, flip potatoes/ cover till almost tender, take off lid,  and brown the other side.    Yum - lol, now I am having them tonight !


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## Nicholas Mosher (Aug 22, 2007)

Well I did some experimenting with some of the ideas posted here, my old standby recipe, and the description given to me by my GF.

First off, I have to say that baking the potatoes will be my new way of making homefries from now on.  No more drying them on sheet pans or trying to get the water out from having boiled them.  Bake, cool, dice... that simple.  I cut the potatoes in discs as was described by my GF.  Personally I grew up with skinned cubes, but I'll bend here... 

I used my big-ole' cast iron pan as I usually do, and heated up 1/8" or so of canola oil over medium-high heat.  In went the potatoes, and then I immediately turned the heat down to medium.  Kosher salt, black pepper, and caraway seeds went in next.  Slowly browned them up (waiting a while before the first turn), and then removed the pan from the heat.  Tossed in a handful of minced chives and a few liberal dashes of smoked paprika.  Tossed the potatoes a few times, and dumped them on a warm plate.

Gonna' whip some up this weekend for my GF to try.


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## BBQ Mikey (Aug 22, 2007)

My take is the simplest thus far.

RAW russet/idaho, even white or red work in times of struggle.

Wash thoroughly, Dice w/ skin. I also dice an onion as well. When served with dinner, Ill mince garlic, for breakfast, not usually, sometimes I even remove onion. 

I use about 1-2 Tbsp. of olive or peanut oil, and equal part unsalted butter. It depends on how much potato I work with.

After they start to cook, when the onions become soft, I season with salt, lots of pepper, a bit of paprika, pinch of sugar and some dry parsley flakes.

I start on high for a few minutes, then once I add the seasonings, on medium to low heat for up to 20-25 minutes if I have time.

They come out wonderful.


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## applesauce (Aug 24, 2007)

I make mine very similar to Mikey.  I usually keep a lid on the potatoes for the first 10 minutes, then take it off for the last 20 (or so) minutes.  I've never made them with precooked potatoes, but HELLO that makes perfect sense, I'll have to try.


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## BrazenAmateur (Aug 27, 2007)

I boil mine first, as I like them when they start to break apart and become something between "home fries" and mashed potato.

At any rate, I boil, let cool (and dry), slice (leave skin on), and then I fry in duck fat.  I tend to add fresh green onion at the end.

A tiny bite of this with a tiny dollop of caviar (I prefer trout roe, actually) makes for a nice amuse bouche in a hearty winter meal.  This would literally only be a spoonful of food.  The briny saltiness of the roe cuts through the duck fat fried potatoes deliciously.


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## LadyCook61 (Feb 6, 2008)

hubby likes his home fries the way I cook them.  Raw potato , sliced thin, cooked in olive oil, with onions.  I add salt and pepper and garlic powder .


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