(Mis)adventures in Swiss Cooking

More than a week ago, I wrote about the Swiss cookbook that my cousin Brigitta sent me from Switzerland.  On Thursday I attempted one of the easier and best known recipes... "rösti"... which is basically like our hash browns.  (The cookbook says that the Americans took their recipe from the Swiss.)

It called for "waxy potatoes" which I read are new potatoes or fingerlings.  I couldn't find those at my grocery store, but I bought a bag of baby red potatoes and hoped that they would fit the bill.  (They did indeed turn out to be much less starchy than baking potatoes.)  Per the recipe, I cooked them in their skins the night before.

To fry the potatoes I needed to use clarified butter.  I had heard of clarified butter but had never made it before.  (I don't use much butter in cooking, and for frying I usually use olive oil.)  I had to research the process of clarifying butter on the internet.  The recipe did not tell me how much butter to use, so I put a couple of sticks in a kettle, and melted it over very low heat.  I then had to skim off all the foam at the top, and then strain it to remove all solids.  It was a very tedious process.

Then I peeled and grated the potatoes.  I chopped up some onion, sautéed that in the butter until it was translucent, and then added the potatoes.  After cooking and stirring the mixture for a few minutes, I then tamped it down with a spatula to form a giant pancake.  I let that cook undisturbed for fifteen minutes.

Then I was supposed to put a large plate over the frying pan, flip the "rösti", and slide it back into the pan and fry for another fifteen minutes so that the other side would brown.  When I flipped the "rösti" it did not come out like a pancake, but folded over like a omelet.  I put it back in the pan, formed it into a pancake again, and tried to flip it once again.  This time some of the butter, potatoes and onions spilled out onto the stovetop.  What a #!!*#* mess!
I just put the remaining mixture back into the pan and let it cook a while longer, and served it on a plate.

It was very tasty... but what a mess I had to clean up afterward!  If I ever make this again, I will do what I do when I make "tortilla española".  Instead of attempting to flip it, I will put it under the oven broiler for a few minutes to brown the top.

So that was my first experience with Swiss cooking.