You just can’t beat the ultimate hash brown

Look at her – she’s stunning. I fully believe that every breakfast should include a hash brown, and I’m not sorry. Avocado toast? Hash brown. Full English? Atleast 1, maybe 2 hash browns. Bowl of sugar puffs? Why not, it’s delicious. And this is the ultimate hash brown recipe, that has taken me years to get perfect.

One of the best things about this recipe is that it is so simple. It’s only 3 ingredients, plus some oil, salt and pepper. Spuds, cornflour and onion – all things you’ve probably got in the kitchen already! Follow my new Youtube channel for a video for this golden brown spud.

Cook your potatoes

Grab yourself 3 Maris Pipers (russets or Yukon golds for those of you in the US) and get them peeled and cut in half. Pop them in a saucepan of cold water and heavily season it with salt. Potatoes will pick up any flavours that you give them, so get it in there! Bring it to the boil and cook for around 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender, but not falling apart. While your potatoes are cooking, finely dice 1 white or brown onion into small cubes and fry it off in a frying pan over a medium heat with a glug of oil and pinch of salt and pepper. Fry until light golden in colour and set aside to cool slightly.

Drain off the spuds into a colander and leave to steam dry for 10 minutes. Set aside 1/3rd of the potatoes to mash up, and get to chopping the rest. They need to be cut into small cubes, around 4-5mm, so they mix in well. Use the back of a fork to mash the remaining potatoes in a bowl, and then mix in 1-2 tbsp cornflour, the cooled fried onion and all of the cubed potatoes. If your mixture is looking a bit wet, just chuck in a bit more cornflour until it turns into a bit of a dough. Make sure to season your spuds well with salt and pepper. If you wanted to, at this stage you can start to add some different flavours into your dough. Chilli flakes, curry powder, Cheese 5 spice, Bacon Hash Browns – the world is your oyster. But maybe don’t add oysters, that might be a bit grim.

Shape ’em up

Another chance for your imagination to come out; shape your hash browns however you like! Did anyone else have those alphabet shaped hash browns as a kid? They were the best – especially when you could spell out a swear word without your mom seeing. I usually try to recreate my favourite fast food hash brown which is an oval shape, but of course you can do the more traditional triangles, or round ones to use in place of an English muffins for that brunch eggs Benny. For shaping into ovals, I like to rest the hash brown in one palm and use a curved finger from the other hand to round out the edges. You just want to make sure they’re an even thickness all over so you don’t end up with thin burnt patches. When they’re all shaped, place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and pop them in the fridge to firm up for atleast 1 hour. If you’re making these ahead of time, get them to this stage and they can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Get those hash browns golden

When you’re ready to get frying, you have a few options. By now, you all know how much I love a deep fryer so that is definitely the best way to cook these little beauties, but if you don’t fancy it then you can also get a large frying pan with a good layer of natural oil (e.g. vegetable, sunflower, canola) over a medium high heat. There needs to be enough oil in the pan to go halfway up the hash browns, so you don’t end up with a ring of unfried potato around the middle. Fry your hash browns in batches for a few minutes on each side, and use a spoon to carefully baste the hot oil over any bits that could use a little more colour. When the hash browns are golden brown and crispy all over, drain them on a tray lined with kitchen paper before sprinkling over flaky salt and serving up your ultimate hash browns.