valentine's day recipe:

potato rosti

ingredients

potatoes - large agria 1 pc

production

1. Wash, peel and wash the potato
2. Grate and place into a bowl of water until required : this will prevent the grated potato browning (via oxidation) and also allows the potato starch (essentially a type of fecule) to partially be extracted. This potato starch will been seen settling on the bottom of the bowl
3. When required, place the grated potato into a chinoise or similar and rinse thoroughly to remove any excess starch
4. Place into the centre of a tea towel, gather the tea towel up and squeeze dry
5. Place into a clean bowl and season well with salt and freshly milled pepper (freshly grated nutmeg may also be added)

to cook

1. Pre-heat a frying pan (straight sided) over a moderate flame
2. Add approximately 1cm of oil and allow to heat through (the potato should sizzle as soon as it goes into the pan) if the oil is not hot enough the potato will stick to the base of the pan
3. Place approximately 2-3 tablespoons of potato per roesti into the pan, quickly shape and ensure they are of an even thickness
4. Allow to fry gently for approx 5 minutes until golden brown
5. Carefully turn over using a palette knife or fish slice and allow to cook again until golden brown
6. Remove, place onto a tray to drain, keep warm until required (pre heat oven to 100°C)

chef notes:

Due to the small size, these roesti will tend to dry out excessively if
kept warm for more than 10 minutes.

Great care must be taken with heat control whilst cooking:

• too low and the potatoes will absorb the oil
• too high and they will brown/burn before the potato is fully cooked

Rosti potatoes are a Swiss speciality, variations of which can be found all around Europe (especially the Germanic countries). Some versions are made with raw potato, some with cooked (boiled potato), some have grated apple included, and some grated onion.

Rosti can also be made with kumara, sweet potatoes, etc.

Rosti may be cooked and served in many ways:

• as a large 'cake' and cut into individual wedges
• in rosti moulds
• or free form
• they may also be made using sweet potatoes or pumpkin

email chef@tallyrand.info