People write all the time about their Italian Grandmother’s cooking or their Hungarian Grandfather baking, I am jealous.   It always seemed to me that so many have a food heritage that I don’t have.

 For years I have bemoaned the fact that we don’t have a recipe for Italian sauce handed down through the years or no German Grandmothers spatzle recipe. Oddly enough my Grandma’s father was from Italy and my Grandpa’s parents were from Germany!   Honestly I have always felt shortchanged in this matter. One day I realized I do have a food heritage, it is American.   To those who are proud of their food heritage you may look at this as not all that much and that is quite alright. My heritage is what it is and for that I am thankful. I have a rich line of cooks in my family, the kind of cooks that fed their families well during the Great Depression, the kind of cooks that took nothing and made it into a nourishing meal for their families. For this I am proud.

I feel privileged to be a part of them. No they were not all in paying jobs but they all were cooks and bakers and I do feel pride to be a part of that.   Our Grandma Olive was an excellent cook and baker, she taught me to believe in what I am doing, she made her pie crust from memory and feel.   She always had us in the kitchen, touching food, preparing food, not being afraid. I don’t remember rules from her, just cooking together even when I was too young to do any actually cooking. I would have been about 4 years old I remember her preparing dinner; she would set aside the trimmings, hand me a knife (I never cut myself either) and cutting board and let me play. It wasn’t really play though was it? Today they would call it a form of learning but so many of us today wouldn’t hand a four year old a knife and a cutting board for fear they would cut themselves, with our fear showing through it passes on to our child and the learning process ends because we never get that far. Was I any different? No, I didn’t hand any of my children a knife when they were 4! Do they cook and create in the kitchen today without fear; happily yes they can and do. I am not sure how or why but all the styles work, as long as there is love and hands on learning.

Another wonderful woman played a great role in my learning. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how much love she had bestowed upon me.   I was a young newlywed living in her home, married to one of her sons. Although I was too young, she never treated me differently for it. I was too young and needed her and she was there for me. I do not have many cooking memories with her; we were not in her home for a long enough time. What stayed with me was her love and her allowing me into her kitchen just as my beloved Grandmother did, without boundaries. If there were any I didn’t realize them, that’s a good thing for a learning cook; to fly like the bumble bee – they don’t know any better; no one ever told them they couldn’t and yet they fly.   Young people need to cook knowing a few basic safety guidelines but mainly they just need the freedom to do so.  Even though our food time together was short I have 2 very different and distinct cooking memories with her. The first was that I died her spoon red from Kool-Aid!
I realized then that people like to have their kitchen respected. The second is what I like to call Geri’s potatoes. Is there another name they go by? I’m quite sure there is but I hadn’t encountered it until recently.
 Geri’s potatoes are deceptively easy; their deliciousness goes with breakfast, lunch or dinner and are easily made by the novice.   Creamy soft on the inside much like freshly made hash browns, which I hope you have had. Homemade hash browns are creamy soft on the inside and crisp fried on the outside, usually made and served in a patty shape. Geri’s potatoes are cubed but other than that they are quite similar to the typical hash brown. Or is it typical only to me?  

 Wikipedia describes hash browns as such: Hash browns or hashed browns are a simple potato preparation in which potato pieces are pan- fried after being shredded, julienned, diced, or riced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_browns

 Geri’s potatoes fit the Wiki description which makes them a style of hash browned potatoes.

Here’s the way to make Geri’s potatoes (hash browns!):

Wash and peel enough potatoes per person, I usually figure 2 per person and one for the pot
Dice the potatoes, not too big and not too small

***This sounds simple and truly it is, don’t over think it, once you know the size its second nature, take a look at the picture. I would say the cubes need to be the size of a large pea or your pinkie nail. Yes that gives you some leeway, not too picky here just realize it gives you maximum crisp and creaminess at the same time***

Put your diced potatoes into a bowl and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a pinch of (this is my big secret to hash browns and fried spuds) paprika. It seems the potatoes brown up just right to me when you add just a pinch of paprika.   The paprika isn’t there to add a lot of flavor, just a little something.

Before you go any further make sure you have a lid that fits your skillet. This is important ; you must have a lid for the potatoes to turn out correctly. Heat a skillet on low while you are preparing your potatoes. I prefer a seasoned cast iron skillet. Before you’re ready to start cooking, turn the heat up to medium and add a full coating of oil. Not butter, not olive oil, nothing extra just any old cooking oil that you have on hand. You are not adding any flavor, this is about the potatoes. IF I remember correctly Geri used either Crisco shortening or oil.   You want your oil hot but not smoking. How much oil? Enough to coat the bottom of the pan but a bit more. This isn’t deep frying but you want enough oil to crisp those potatoes up real well.   As soon as your pan is hot pour your potatoes in. WARNING the pan is hot, the oil is hot and oil does splatter.
As you are pouring them in you start on one side of the pan and move to the other side, this is one quick motion but it serves to put the potatoes in an even layer. It is ok if the potatoes are not in one layer, they will all eventually touch the surface of the pan which is what you want for maximum crispness. Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down to medium low and walk away.   This is the type of cooking that gives you time to do something else, prepare your eggs or drink a cuppa joe or sit and read. Whatever you do doesn’t matter, learn the old adage a watched pot doesn’t boil.     From Bartleby; A watched pot never boils -
: Something we wait for with impatient attention seems to take forever.

WATCHED POT NEVER BOILS - ".A pot will, in fact, boil even if you watch, but it will SEEM to take forever, and that is really the point of this amusing proverb. So if you must wait for something to happen, take your mind off the waiting by doing something else. It's amazing how much faster 'the pot' seems to reach a boil. As for the saying itself, the English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell first rendered it in 'Mary Barton' (1848), giving the exact wording of the current version." From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

Give it about 15 minutes, take the lid off and start flipping the potatoes, don’t worry about how brown they are or are not as they all will get browned by the time you are done. The lid doesn’t need to go back on after this point. The lid caused the heat and steam to build up cooking your potatoes through the oil and hot pan give them the crispness.   All you’re doing now is flipping the potatoes every 5 minutes or so, do this until most if not all the potatoes are crispy coated.

Your potatoes will turn out to be a lovely crispy and creamy texture by the time you’re done. I hope you make these potatoes and add to your own family heritage.

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