Flustered, I simply gave up for a while, content to buy heavily overpriced manufactured goods when the hankering for hashbrowns hit, until recently when I learned of blanching.
Last night I had a go at blanching the potatoes prior to shredding them and introducing them to heated oil in the skillet at medium heat. Blanching, I was pleased to learn, is the act of partially cooking the potato in boiling water and fast cooling it in cold water prior to completing the cook through frying.
Last night, I overshot the initial precook by a factor of roughly 100%, blanching FULLY cooked potatoes, that essentially became MASHED potatoes at the shredding stage.
Happily, fried mashed potatoes, while a bit messy, taste really good too. Next attempt will limit the boil to five minutes with quartered russets prior to shred. I'll be sure to report my results.
In the meantime, please don't hesitate to bog this thread down with excellent potato recipes.
