Smothered, Covered, Peppered Hash Browns

“I want you smothered, want you covered, like my Waffle House hash browns”

Until January of this year, that line from the famous Bloodhound Gang song was the depth of my knowledge of Waffle House.

One grey and gloomy morning at Scott’s parents’ house in St. Louis, after we had realised we had nothing in the house for breakfast, Scott suggested we should take a trip to Waffle House.

To say that I was overwhelmed by their breakfast menu would be an understatement.

To my detriment, I didn’t order a waffle (on any of the three occasions I visited), but I did get to sample some of Scott’s (my right as a girlfriend, surely?) I was more drawn to the hash brown menu and the many different ways in which you could order your hash browns. Covered, peppered, smothered, diced….the list goes on.

I have been dreaming about those hash browns ever since. I know it may seem sad, but they were damn tasty, especially because you could create your own.

When Scott suggested that maybe we could try making our own hash browns while in Mexico, I was skeptical. Mainly because I doubted that the kind of potatoes we could get our hands on would be any good for grating.

But they actually turned out ok. What I did find was that I had to thoroughly squeeze the liquid out of the grated potato using a muslin cloth, otherwise it would become far too starchy when you started to cook it.

You can, of course, include your own additions, such as diced tomatoes, chunks of ham, or even a topping of chilli (if that’s your usual Waffle House order). The recipe is very flexible. But for now, I’m going to show you my favourite – smothered (chopped onion), covered (melted cheese) and peppered (jalapeno peppers).

Smothered, Covered, Peppered Hash Browns

Recipe by Julia

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 3 medium white potatoes

• 1/2 white onion, diced

• 4 tbsp jalapeno peppers

• 1/2 cup grated cheese (any kind that melts)

• Salt and pepper

• Oil for frying

Directions

• Grate the potatoes (skin and all) onto a muslin cloth or tea towel. Twist the top of the cloth closed and then squeeze out as much of the excess liquid from the potato as you can.
• Put the grated potato into a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Pour in the chopped onion and jalapeno and combine well.
• Get a frying pan or griddle and heat on high. Pour a good glug of your chosen oil into the pan and once hot, gently tip in your potato mixture.
• Flatten the potato mixture across the base of the pan and flip when browned and crispy on the bottom. Don’t worry if your mixture doesn’t flip in one, you can easily make it into individual patties.