Utah · Side
Utah Funeral Potatoes
- Easy
- 75 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 1kg frozen shredded hash browns, thawed
- 55g butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 55g flour
- 500ml milk
- 250ml sour cream
- 300g cheddar, grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- For topping: 100g crushed cornflakes, 3 tbsp melted butter
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Sweat the onion in the butter, stir in the flour, and cook 2 min. Whisk in the milk and simmer to a sauce. 2 min
- Off the heat stir in the sour cream and two-thirds of the cheese, then season.
- Fold in the hash browns and turn into a buttered dish. Top with the rest of the cheese.
- Toss the crushed cornflakes with melted butter and scatter over.
- Bake at 180C for 40-45 min until bubbling and the cornflake top is golden. 45 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
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