Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Cheesy potatoes

One of our favorite family recipes is cheesy potatoes. Here are the steps for the perfect version.

I recommend a nonstick pan.


Start with potatoes. How many? That depends on your pan size, how many people you’re feeding, and how hungry everyone is. Three medium potatoes usually fills our particular pan.


Peel the potatoes, then grate them.


Then – and this is a critically important step – squeeze the juice out of the potatoes before putting the shredded mix in a bowl.


Next, grate some cheese. How much? That depends on how much cheese you like. (Despite the vagueness of these measurements, you’ll learn how much cheese you prefer through experience.)


Mix the grated cheese and the grated potatoes together.


Melt some butter in your pan.


Pack the potatoes into the pan, pressing down to make everything compact. Add salt and pepper to taste. Do not cover the pan.


Now here’s the hard part: Cook the potatoes on LOW heat. It takes something like 15 minutes to cook one side, but if you turn up the heat the potatoes will get too dark while leaving the inner parts uncooked. Be patient!

When the potatoes are browned on one side to your satisfaction, it’s time to flip them.


I slide the half-cooked potatoes onto a plate and add a touch more butter to the pan.


Then I flip the potatoes and let the other side cook. This takes a bit less time, perhaps 10 minutes. Don’t forget to salt and pepper (to taste) the second side.


The result is a delicious, crisp, cheesy plate of potato goodness.


A friend with many children who uses this recipe modifies it a bit. She has a griddle on her stove, and spreads a lot of grated potato/cheese mix across the griddle. This way she can feed all her kids at once.

However you cook it, enjoy!

8 comments:

  1. I will definitely try this one, my husband is an anything potatoes guy.

    BTW, did you take down your post about your new membership blog? I hope that the Antichrist commentator had nothing to do with it, the Bible does say that we are to get paid for our labors.
    Rita Miller

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  2. I do kind of similar -- shred potatoes, rinse lightly and drain well. Add well stirred egg and cheese. Add finely minced green onion (mostly green parts). Salt and pepper to taste. Fry in butter as hamburger-sized flattened scoops, or call it patties if you like.

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  3. Yum,
    It looks like easy to fix comfort food for a snowy winter day. We'll try it soon. Thanks for the recipe .
    Bluesman

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  4. I make my cheesy potatoes by baking them in the oven first . Then open up the potatoes and empty them in to a 9x13 pan that has been greased or sprayed.
    Then add a some milk and put cheese on the potatoes, sliced or shredded. Add pats of butter here and there and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minute.
    andy

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  5. Smashbrowns: Baby potatoes, thumb sized, microwaved 60-90 seconds to make them soft. Smash them down with a flat bottomed glass to a disk about 1/4" thick.
    Toss into a heated and greased/buttered skillet. Brown on both sides (approx 3-4 minutes).


    Steve Davis
    Anchorage, Alaska

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  6. Egad! What a "all killer, no filler" concept. Opens a whole new dimension in breakfast potatoes, as last night's boiled reds can easily be "pressed" into action.

    Only downside is that it is too easy to make, putting a real strain on the old belt buckle.

    Thanks for the recipe, Patrice.

    Mike
    Great WET Pacific Northwest

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