#29. Herby Potato Rosti

This recipe comes from the Williams Sonoma book Easy Vegetarian (again). It is delicious and very simple (if you don't count grating the potatoes, which is difficult, but important to the texture and flavor of the dish). I tried this recipe once on a rainy morning when I didn't have any herbs (just potatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper) and it was good. I tried it later on a rainy afternoon when I'd just bought some sage and thyme plants, and it was even better.

The amounts of the ingredients are adjustable--only make as much as you can eat, because I doubt these would refrigerate well (or that you will even have leftovers to refrigerate). I used a few small white potatoes, a couple of sage leaves, some thyme stems, just enough oil to fry the potatoes, and salt and pepper. (Buy little herb plants instead of cut fresh herbs, because you will only use a small amount, and they cost about the same.)

Grate the potatoes and set them to dry on paper towels (or simply squeeze out the extra moisture). It helps to cut the potatoes into sticks (1" X 1" or so) first so that there is less surface area scraping against the grater--potatoes are quite dense. It doesn't matter if the grated bits are kind of short--if they are at least an inch long, the grated potato will hold together.

Mix the herbs and salt and pepper into the grated potato (just tear the sage leaves into little bits and strip the thyme leaves from the stems). Shape the potato/herb mixture into balls (a little bit bigger than a ping pong ball). Heat some olive oil (about 2 tbsp) in a skillet and press the potato balls down into the oil with a spatula (the pan should be hot enough that they hiss and sputter, but not so hot that you get stung with hot oil). After about 5 minutes, flip the potato patties and turn the heat down. Allow them to cook for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Here they are before turning (the little chunks between the patties are the ends of the potato sticks that were left after grating--they cooked up just fine):

And the final product:

I probably could have cooked these a little longer for crispier patties, but I enjoyed the soft starchiness of the undercooked centers.

I give this dish a solid A. It's simple (other than the grating, as I said before), flavorful, fun and quick. It's hot comfort food for a cold day, or a rainy day, or a cold, rainy day. Imagine McDonald's hash browns, only good.