In North America, we have McCain hashbrowns that are tiny cubed potatoes you find in the freezer aisle. In Australia, hashbrowns are hashbrowns patties, and we don’t have the cubes. I haven’t been able to find them anywhere.
I was hit with nostalgia this morning, so I made hashbrowns. Just cut up whatever potatoes I had in to 0.5cm cubes and fried them up in the pan. Fried some onions and capsicum on the side and then added together.
Usually I put in a bit of bacon or sausage, but we’re going to a German restaurant for dinner tonight, so I’m saving my fatty meat allocation for later.
Seasoned with Hy’s seasoning salt.
You just need some fat in the pan-butter, olive oil, etc. I recommend a little of both as the butter adds more flavor while the oil keeps the butter from burning. Just don’t use extra virgin, it burns easier than plain olive oil.
I did use quite a bit of oil (canola), but I think my fatal mistake was frying onions in the pan first. Should have used a clean pan for the potatoes. :(
Or just add more oil before doing the potatoes. You could also oil the veg before putting it in the pan, then the pan just needs enough oil to coat it. Personally, I would just do the potatoes and onions at the same time, depending on the size of my equipment and how much I need to make.
Yeah, my pan wasn’t big enough for the amount of potatoes I had. I’ll keep your tip in mind for next time when I make just one serving, thank you!
The other common trap you might be hitting is trying to turn them too early.
Once most foods (but potatoes especially) sear properly, they’ll release their hold on the pan and you won’t lose the skins/outer layer quite as easily.
I tried that, actually… It was the burning smell that alerted me that something was wrong 😬 So perhaps it is that I fried onions in the pan just prior, or I haven’t prepped the potatoes properly. I ended up with a lot of forbidden potato in the sink drain, lol (?).