Everybody Loves Hashbrowns

I come from a potato lovin' family (must be those Eastern European roots). In fact, my parents literally cannot make less than 5 lbs. of potatoes at a time -- be it mashed, scalloped, in salad or baked. Growing up, the one way we did not prepare potatoes was fried. Oh, sure, we had home fries (what do you think we did with all of the leftover baked potatoes?) but never crispy fried potatoes in oil. "Deep" fried potatoes were left to the experts (a.k.a. McDonald's). But I've learned it's very easy to whip up hash browns at home that are so much better than the "puck" served at the golden arches (and that's saying something because fast food hash browns are still pretty darn good). All of the main elements can be found at your local farmer's market, and you probably already have the rest in your kitchen.

Zucchini and Potato Hash Browns

I don't like using a lot of oil, so I fried these in a small, non-stick stir fry pan. The sloped slides also make for easy scooping/flipping. Since these are best hot from the pan, it's a perfect treat when cooking breakfast for one (half recipe) or two.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, coarsely shredded

Salt

8 oz. potato, peeled and coarsely shredded (I used the last of what I bought from Paffenroth Gardens at the greenmarket a few weeks ago)

1 shallot, minced

1 egg white or 2 T. liquid egg white

1-2 T. Bisquick or flour (to bind)

Black pepper

Canola oil

Method

Mix shredded zucchini with a few dashes of salt; place in colander and drain for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix salted zucchini and shredded potato.

Add egg, Bisquick/flour and black pepper, mix well.

Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of canola oil in a small pan over medium heat.

When oil is hot, add hash brown batter in heaping tablespoons, taking care not to crowd the pan. Flip when edges begin to brown, adding more oil as needed.

Drain briefly on a paper towel.

Sprinkle with extra salt as desired.