Top breakfast: hash browns

However much fun you had last night, there’s no good reason to skip this breakfast. In fact, when you’re hungover, hash browns are guaranteed to save your day.

From fancy breakfast clubs to McDonald’s: in the United States, hash browns are on every menu. In the Netherlands, this ideal hangover breakfast is less well known.

Hash browns?
Hash browns are grated fried potatoes. Served as a side dish, but in the US they’re especially popular for breakfast. Some people compare them to rösti, but to the true hash brown lover, that’s a downright insult. Real hash browns are crispy, golden-brown and fried in clarified butter, made from carefully grated potatoes. There are even sources that claim they taste even better when all the grated potato strips are exactly the same length.

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Making hash browns yourself

Expecting a good morning for hash browns soon? With this recipe, you can make them the American way. A few tips to make them even tastier:

• Whether you fry grated potato or decide to cut it into small cubes (careful, don’t do this in front of Americans), make sure all the pieces are about the same size. This prevents undercooked chunks of potato in your breakfast.
• Grate the potato first and then wash the potato shavings. Don’t give your grated potato a shower under a pathetic trickle of water; give it a proper bath. This washes off the starch, which makes it easier to cook the pieces of potato all the way through in the pan afterwards.
• Before frying, pat the potato as dry as possible. Squeeze the grated potato out in a clean towel. This prevents you from ending up with a greasy, limp hash brown on your plate that most resembles a soggy frozen rösti.

Perfect hash browns really have only one downside: they’re best when prepared fresh. So there’s nothing else for it but to start frying with your hungover head. But seriously, it’s worth it. And so are you.