This recipe is for my dad who misses the rostis my mum used to make but has so far been unsuccessful in his attempts to recreate them. There are many ways to rosti a potato - purists would have you boil them first and leave to rest overnight before peeling and grating; others would urge you to add egg or flour to bind the mixture; and one website even manages to suggest a Salmon Rosti without once making a cheap pun about ‘The Satanic Verses’. Incredible.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Skill level: easy
Ingredients
- starchy potatoes - 1 kg
- butter - 100g
- s & p
Coarsely grate the potatoes and place in the centre of a (preferably clean) tea towel.
Bring together the corners of the tea towel and twist as tightly as you can to remove all the water possible. Repeat this squeezing with a second dry tea towel.
Place in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper.
(At this stage you could add grated onion and/or fresh herbs)
Now to the most important decision - whether to make one big fat rosti, or several smaller, thinner ones. Childhood rostis were the latter, so that’s what we’ll be doing here.
Melt some of the butter in a large heavy frying pan and once the buttery foam has subsided spoon in the potato to form several cakes - use those fancy metal rings if you are feeling chefy. Compact each rosti with the back of a spatula.
Cook on a lowish heat for 7-10 minutes or until the underside is golden brown and crispy. Flip over (add more butter if necessary) and repeat for a further 7-10 minutes.
Serve with what ever takes your fancy.
If making one big fat rosti use a 9 inch diameter pan and cook for a bit longer.
Verdict: Just like dear ol’ mum used to make.
Drink: Hmm, our first night off the booze since the pre-Christmas warm up sometime back in November.
Entertainment: MASTERCHEF IS BACK!!!!
3 responses so far ↓
1 Zucchini Breath // Jan 8, 2009 at 7:32 pm
“…without once making a cheap pun about ‘The Satanic Verses’.”
That is incredible.
That photo of potato pancake slapped me in the face and made me groan aloud with lust for fried foods.
Truly food porn in it’s purest form.
*Bows* Thank you…
2 Foodista // Jan 10, 2009 at 3:21 am
That sounds so good! Thanks for the recipe! Will make this one tonight
I’d like to invite you to take some time to drop by at Foodista and share your delicious recipe with us. We have launched an online food and cooking encyclopedia ala wikipedia.
3 Muz // Mar 17, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Hi. I couldn’t remember how these were made for some reason so did a quick Google and yours was the first site I found. Thank you very much.
I shall be serving these with Muzzy’s Marvellous Marmite and Mustard Marinated Monkey which, unfortunately for anyone reading this, is a secret recipe which has been passed down over several… erm… months. In fact it hasn’t been passed down at all. It’s my recipe.
Anyway. Rostis. Thanks :o)
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