By LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER
Scripps Howard News Service Dear Lynne: I've eaten really delicious home fries at restaurants, but when I try to make them at home, they fall flat. Do you have some tips for home fries? The kind I mean are cut into squares, are very crusty and have onions in them. Thanks. -- Anne in Baltimore
Dear Anne: The secrets to great home fries are the right potatoes and precooking them. Home fries came about from using leftover cooked potatoes, and the potatoes that hold their shape best are boiling potatoes, the kind you'd use for potato salad -- for instance, the easy-to-find red skins.
Here's a recipe that will tell you all you need to know. This becomes a great hash when you add chopped vegetables and any leftover meat or poultry to the mix. Of course, herbs and spices you like are good here, too.
Good to have: A big cast-iron skillet or 12-inch straight-sided saute pan is a big help here because to get the potatoes to crisp, you need to spread them out in the pan so a good crust can form and so they don't steam.
DOWN-HOME CRISPED HOME FRIES
Serves 3 to 4
Potatoes could be precooked a day ahead. Use organic ingredients if possible.
You could hold the finished recipe in a 300-degree oven for about 30 minutes.
Hash browns are a big treat at our house, so we have them as a main course with a tart green salad for contrast. If you feel a need for protein, fruit and cheese make a great dessert.
2 to 2-1/2 pounds small red-skin potatoes (ideally, all about the same size for even cooking)
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil, or a mix of olive oil and bacon fat
1/2 medium to large onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 to 4 branches fresh thyme (optional)
Simmer the unpeeled potatoes in water to cover for 10 minutes, or until barely tender when pierced with a knife. Drain and rinse with cold water. Cool completely and slip off skins. Cut the potatoes into 1/2-inch dice.
Generously film the bottom of a heavy 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a 12-inch straight-sided saute pan with the olive oil. Set over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and the onions (and thyme branches, if using), sprinkling them with salt and pepper. Lower heat a bit and let cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are golden brown and crusty on the bottom. Do not stir them, but do check for burning and adjust heat as needed.
Slip a metal spatula under the potatoes and lift them without losing their crusts and turn them over. Continue cooking, adjusting heat so they don't burn, but develop another rich golden brown crust. Taste for seasoning and serve hot.
Dear Lynne: Our dorm floor is pitching in on going vegetarian. Cooking competitions began last year in the building's redone kitchen; it's like a chef's palace down there. Now we've got a major case of recipe betrayal. We assumed so many didn't work because we were rookies. Then, listening to your show, we thought maybe they weren't tested. So would you please give us a short list of good vegetarian cookbooks with tested recipes that work? Thanks. -- Future Foodies on the Fourth Floor
Dear Foodies: A short list is coming up after I have my say because recipe betrayal is rampant. Talk about a way to kill off your confidence and waste your money.
Beware of the recipe with short instructions that don't tell you what kind and size of pot to use, what level of heat to have, what to look and listen for to know each step of the recipe is working and the recipe that doesn't tell you if you can do it ahead, how long it keeps and what it needs to be safe.
Vegetarian books I've liked to work with include Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen" and her "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," "Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, "Passionate Vegetarian" by Crescent Dragonwagon, and Annie Somerville's "Everyday Greens." Many of the recipes in Raghavan Iyer's book, "660 Curries," carry on India's 3,000 years of vegetarian traditions. Other favorites: "Super Natural Cooking" by Heidi Swanson and Bryant Terry's "Vegan Soul Kitchen."
Fourth floor, you're going to eat very well this year.
(Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts "The Splendid Table," American Public Media's weekly national show for people who love to eat, and is the co-author of "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opin ions." Ask questions and find Lynne, recipes and station listings at www.splendidtable.org or (800) 537-5252.)
THE SPLENDID TABLE(R)'S HOW TO EAT SUPPER
