Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lemon-Parsley Potato Pie

Full disclosure—this is an accidental recipe; albeit an utterly delish one, but accidental nonetheless. It started off life as my regular skillet fried potato hash, which I serve more regularly as a side dish than for breakfast. Two summers ago, I absent-mindedly left the potato sitting in the skillet for an extra 5 minutes or so, and it started sticking to the bottom of the pan. In an effort to rescue the only starch I was serving at that meal, I spread out the potato evenly across the skillet surface, and pressed down. Lo and behold, it morphed from an unappetizing pile of overdone ‘taters, into a golden, wholly formed pie fit for a king!


Ingredients
5 lbs [2-1/4 kgs] Potatoes, peeled and cut in half
Salt (to taste)
4 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp Butter
Grated rind of ½ lemon
Juice of ½ Lemon
1 cup Parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp freshly ground Black Pepper
  1. Boil potatoes in a large pot of water over high heat. Drain the water and transfer potatoes to a storage container. Sprinkle with salt, gently toss to incorporate, and let cool thoroughly. You can prepare the potatoes up this point a day ahead and store in the fridge. 
  2. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or frying pan, over high heat. Using your hands, roughly crumble the potatoes directly into the pan, and stir briskly for 5 mins. Spread the potatoes out evenly to cover the entire surface of the pan, and press down with the back of your spoon. Let the potatoes sit untouched for about 3 mins, then stir, scraping all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Then spread the potatoes out again, and continue to repeat the scraping-spreading-pressing down process, until the potatoes are a deep golden yellow, generously flecked with dark brown bits. 
  3. Add butter, lemon rind, lemon juice, parsley and black pepper and stir to mix well. Spread out the potatoes one final time to form a solid round pie. Remove skillet from heat.  
  4. Invert skillet onto a large platter, garnish with any extra scrapings from the bottom of the skillet, and serve immediately.

1 comment:

  1. I can confess how wonderful this creation is. A winner. I plan on trying my hand at it this weekend. Our wonderful Shubhani has done it again!!!!!

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