Rösti is originally a Swiss dish made from grated potatoes. It is fried in a large skillet until it forms a large, crispy cake.
Rösti is traditionally baked in lard and can be filled with onion, herbs, bacon and cheese. You will also come across recipes with sweet ingredients, such as apples.
In the United States and Great Britain they have their own derivation and they call it hash browns, which are the same rösti, but much smaller and served at breakfast.
How do you make rosti?
You make rösti by first cleaning the potatoes very well. Then finely grate the potatoes. You then mix the grated potatoes with egg, shallot and herbs. Season it with some salt and pepper.
Then it’s time to bake round heaps of the potato mixture in a pan. Crush the mixture with a spatula and shape it if necessary, so it becomes nice and round. Fry the rösti at medium heat until brown on both sides.
Rösti is often served combined with meat dishes or as a main dish with the addition of cheese, bacon or other ingredients. For example, we serve it with round steak:
Make your own rösti
Ingredients
- 600 gr potatoes waxy
- 2 eggs medium
- 2 shallots
- 1 tbsp chives finely chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley finely chopped
- splash sunflower oil
- lump butter
- salt
- black pepper freshly grounded
Instructions
- Brush the potatoes very well. Grate them finely with a block grater. Make sure they are not grated too coarsely. If so it will last too long before the rösti is done.
- Do not wash the potatoes at all now. The starch present is responsible for binding in the rösti.
- Clean the shallots and finely chop.
- Mix the potatoes with the eggs, shallot and green herbs. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all very well.
- Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a wide non-stick pan and add nice heaps of the potato mixture. Flatten slightly with the back of a spoon and shape if necessary to create round mounds.
- Do not set the heat too high, the rösti should not only change colour, but also be cooked.
- Once nicely coloured, turn with a spatula and let the other side fry on a low heat. Add a knob of butter and fry until both sides are golden brown and the rösti is cooked through. Count on a total of about 10 to 12 minutes for baking, depending on the thickness of the rösti.
- If the rösti has a nice colour already, but is not yet cooked on the inside, you can always continue to cook it in the moderately hot oven.
