Hash browns

If we’re having a cooked breakfast, then a must-have is home-made hash browns. They’re very simple to make and there’s no excuse for buying the frozen supermarket briquettes that masquerade as hash browns. Take half a dozen waxy potatoes, give them a scrub with a nail brush and grate them with the skins still on. I use the food processor when doing a complicated cooked breakfast, a hand grater when doing a simple one.

Put the grated potatoes in a large pan of boiling water, cooking them hard and fast - three minutes for finely grated potatoes from the food processor; four to five minutes for coarse hand-grated potatoes. Drain off the water, rinse briefly with cold water (you want the potatoes warm with some starch left to hold the hash browns together) and then press the water out of the grated potatoes. I place them in a large colander, invert a small plate over the top, and then push down hard on the plate.

Take a tablespoon of grated potato at a time and form into oblong patties. Cook them in batches in a heavy frying pan or on a griddle, lightly greased with pork lard (best) or vegetable oil. The hash browns are less likely to stick if you first heat the pan over a high heat, than lower it to a moderate heat just before you put them in the pan. Cook the hash browns until golden brown on both sides and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.