CRISPY Home Fries With Garlic & Parmesan!

Got a craving for golden, crispy potato home fries? Try this recipe for incredible, crispy home fries! These pan fried potatoes have a wonderfully crispy edge to them and are seasoned with garlic and parmesan cheese. Learn how to make the best home fries - this is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

What are home fries? Home fries are cubed crispy potatoes cooked in a skillet. Unlike French fries that are long and skinny and deep fried, home fries are small cubes. Home fries are found all across America they're often served as breakfast potatoes. In Germany they call these Bratkartoffeln and usually involve the addition of green capsicum and bacon.

7 Tips for making the best, crispiest home fries:

1 - Use beef fat or duck fat. These fats work best for home fries and are better than butter as there is less water in beef fat or duck fat so the potatoes crisp up beautifully.

2 - You don't need to peel the potatoes so they are very easy to make and keeping the skin on adds texture when they crisp up.

3 - To hasten the cooking process, you cut up the potatoes into bite sized cubes and boil them for around 5 minutes before pan frying them.

4 - Home fries take a bit of time (around 20 minutes) but require very little attention. You pop them in the pan and then leave them for 5 minutes. Then turn and then leave them for another 5 minutes, then repeat until the fries are golden and crispy all over.

5 - Make sure to not overfill the pan or skillet with potatoes. Each "fry" needs to sit flat on the hot pan surface so that it browns. This quantity below fits a 24cm/9.5inch pan perfectly (but I double this quantity and made one lot after the other as they're SO good!).

6 - This recipe adds flavour with fried onion, garlic and parmesan cheese. The parmesan adds a crispiness and saltiness to them that makes them incredibly moreish! Plus it crisps up when the parmesan hits the pan!

7 - Other home fry flavours: chilli powder, smoked paprika, Old Bay seasoning. You can also add zucchini, capsicum or bacon to your home fries. To do this, cook these first in the skillet before adding the potatoes and then remove them from the pan and then add them back into the pan once the potatoes are cooked through.

I haven't been able to stop making these ever since I made these. Mr NQN wolfed these down and asks for seconds and I also serve them with lunch as a warm side. I also learned something interesting - did you know that today the 19th of August is International Potato Day?

That's right, it's a day to eat potatoes (not that we need any urging). But it also happened to be in a week where I had 4 kilos of potatoes in my pantry. First I made rosti stuffed with bacon and cheese, then I made L'aligot, then Joel Robuchon's Amazing Mashed Potatoes and Japanese Potato Salad as well as these home fries and another potato recipe that I'll share soon! And after that I think I'll be all potato'd out...

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever made a dish to celebrate an international food day? Have you ever tried Home Fries or Bratkartoffeln? What is your favourite potato dish?

Crispy Home Fries With Garlic & Parmesan

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves 2

• 500g/1.1lbs potatoes
• 2-3 tablespoons lard, duck fat or butter
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 red onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and diced
• 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• Pinch of sugar

Step 1 - Cut the potatoes into small bite sized pieces (you do not need to peel these). I used Royal Blue potatoes because they were flat and easy to cut up and are a good all rounder potato.

Step 2 - Place the potato pieces in a large pot of salted boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until the pieces float to the top. Be sure to watch this because you don't want them getting too soft. Drain.

Step 3 - Heat a skillet with the fat and the oil on medium high heat and add the drained potatoes making sure that they sit in a single layer on the pan. Do not touch these for 5-6 minutes. Then turn and add a bit more fat and oil and then leave for another 5 minutes, then repeat until the potatoes are crispy and golden all over.

Step 4 - Add the last of the fat and oil and add the onion and sauté tossing gently with the potatoes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add the cheese and toss and allow some of the cheese to become crispy and melt on the surface of the pan. Season with salt, pepper and sugar and serve hot. I added some fresh basil on top but parsley and rosemary also works.