My Baby Mama was Jewish.
And I spent a decade surrounded by all the delightful foods one thinks of around the holidays and in general. Yes, I’m thinking: at one point we will even try a matzoh brei waffle. How could one go wrong with that?
One of my favorite things, for Hanukkah, was always the potato pancake. But since her family wasn’t really a cooking family so much as an eating family, the Italian boy got to do most of the latke frying.
Hash browns are amazing. It’s potato, so it’s 90% in my favor just coming out of the ground. And it’s potato that’s FRIED, so there’s the other 10%. But if you’re like my family and you enjoy a “Loaded Hash Brown” at a big breakfast, there’s all sorts of other stuff tossed in there: cheese, meats, sometimes chopped onions or peppers. Now we’re talking like TWO HUNDRED PERCENT lovable.
LOADED HASH BROWN WAFFLE (prepared and photographed by FDFoodie Kate Stutzel, Astoria, NY)
So latkes and hash browns. Let’s mix the two.
The problem with trying to make a hash brown on the waffle iron is the same one I’ve encountered with some other foodstuffs, like the sugar cookie dilemma: the body of certain ingredients  require they have some time to set up and cool before handling, and at the very least require a uniform, steady “lift” from beneath.
Have you been following along? By now you know you can get a fork under a waffle edge; you are NOT going to easily slide an entire spatula beneath the dimpled bottom of a waffle, especially when it’s tender and loose-bound and wants to be a pile or a puddle or a lump versus a waffle.
So here I’ve added, a la the holiday latke, some flour and some egg to the mix. My half-jewish son (my kids call themselves, by virtue of their Italian/Jewish lineage, “Pizza Bagels”) gave this a “thumbs-up” as he happily devoured a wedge. As they cool they firm up rather nicely and, whether eaten by hand or with fork and knife alongside other breakfast foods, these are a tasty way to get your USRDA of potato. And cheese. And more.
1 White potato, grated
2 Cups shredded cheddar
1 Cup diced ham (optional)
2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. Onion powder
1 tsp. Dried parsley
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 Large Egg
Waffle Iron Setting/Cook Time: HIGH
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add grated potato and blanche, 2 minutes. Drain, and transfer to mixing bowl.
Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Grease waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Spread potato batter over griddle, leaving a little room at edges for expansion. Cover and cook until deep golden brown and crispy.
Allow waffles to sit in open iron for a minute until firm enough to handle and remove without breaking. Transfer to plate and serve.
Could you substitute bacon for the ham?
The beauty of the loaded hash brown is, you can put whatever the heck you WANT in it! Just make sure not to overwhelm the potato with more than another cup of add-ins after the already-pushing-maximum-density 2 cups of cheese. And here’s a rule of thumb — and you may quote Food Daddy here — “you can substitute bacon for ANYTHING.” A.NY.THING. I ran out of Crest White Effects tooth paste last week and used bacon until I could get to the Duane Read for another tube. I would substitute bacon for toast. For pasta. For water. Go for it.
Okay. I’m home today and haven’t had breakfast yet. I’m trying these NOW!
Enjoy! I made my son take the rest back to his Mom’s because I kept ripping an edge off here and a chunk off there instead of just admitting I wanted to eat a whole damn bunch of them.
On #3 and it’s delicious.
To those of us who don’t have a fancy waffle iron (mine only has 2 settings…ON and OFF), I cooked for about 5 minutes and pressed down hard when closing. YUMMMM!
Jo, so happy you’re enjoying! And THANKS for the ON/OFF timing input — you did WONDERS to demystify the process for your fellow foodies (as I’ve said, it ain’t brain surgery and you’re all pretty damned smart to start with so I KNOW you can figure out when done is DONE). You prove, dear friend, the old adage: “It takes a Village to raise a Waffle…”
[...] right – potato and cheese! It was [...]
PHOTOS!!!! YAY! THE WAFFLES LOOK AS DELISH AS THEY READ! Fantastic! Question: What happens when the 30 days are up?
Not quite sure, but I’m thinking something along the lines of “30 salads to shed 5 pounds of frigging waffle weight”
Actually, the sad (or good) thing is my body, after YEARS of care and feeding, is rejecting waffles. I can taste; but past that my guts are saying “sorry, we don’t play this.” Also, we see where this blog goes, and I have some wonderful friends looking to help, shall we say, “shop concepts”…
Oh.em.gee!,I’m running out to register for a real waffle iron RIGHT NOW. My current on/off version is BS.
Go to it, Girl… and good luck!
OK – enought of these weak waffles.. How about a recipie with hot peppers and tabasco.. Nothing says “good morning” like Tabasco on something and coffee..
Choice of beverage is completely yours. You’ve not seen a SINGLE post that says “do NOT consume with coffee — try some weak tea instead.” So have at it! And as for the tobasco, you’re like me: I literally carry a bottle in my gym bag and find that with tobasco a dish often needs no other seasoning. Now, I would not recommend it on, say, the caramel pecan sticky bun; but on this hash brown? I say hose the bitch down with Red Hott and go to town. Just don’t blame anyone but yourself when you’re passing a burning rose bush a few hours later. But that’s just to remind you of how much you enjoyed it going in. Also… I will be featuring some more heat-friendly waffles down the road, and I’ll be sure to note that Red Devil and Pick-a-Peppa are ideal garnishes.
They say you eat with your eyes first, and the pictures definitely add to the appeal!
And something with some kick to it would be awesome! And something I would have to keep for myself since Little Feet does not like spicy food. It makes me wonder upon occasion if she really did come out of my body, especially since she demanded Frank’s Red Hot sauce for the first 3 months of my pregnancy, and I probably would have put it on the sticky bun waffles if I’d had the option.
You have that option in MY world, Erica! Maybe we can figure out some sort of hot/sweet combination… like a cinnamon red hot candy. I personally LOVE spicy and sweet. When I make candied nuts I often mix the two. There’s nothing like a sugary crunch with some heat in the after-bite. Chili and cayenne in brown sugar… mmm… but in a waffle? I’m working right now on a few corn bread waffle options, and wondering if it’s ok, instead of giving a frosting recipe, to say “top with canned chili.” But when I make corn bread — particularly in my cast iron johnny cakes skillet — I always add sweet corn, cheddar cheese and diced jalapenos. And when I tried taking the sugar down, in my “been making it from my head for so long I could do this in my sleep” recipe, I found the savory and hot ingredients suffered for it. They’re strong. They like a good fight. They didn’t want to be complemented, they wanted to be challenged. I just find that, Like reader Tom asked yesterday, “fiery” doesn’t have to be INHERENT it can be OPTIONAL. Think of it like coffee: I take mine black and plain, so if I followed a coffee recipe that called for cream and sugar I’d be unsatisfied. However my enjoying it black doesn’t diminish the rest of you from adding all the milk and Sweet and Low your hearts desire. So maybe I’ll figure out a breakfast waffle that has a sauce that can go as hot as the chef cares to kick it.
My brother in law Nicholas GRIMALDI makes the latkes in my family…. Just saying… Italians and Jews it’s a beautiful thIng
Jenn, I cherish this comment. I always felt in trying to satisfy my longing for family (and I’m blessed with a truly lovely one) that theology aside, the Guinea and the Jew are cut from the same pastry dough. I hear a lot outside my own experiences of other very intense “Pizza Bagel” pairings, and I look at it like this: when an Italian is known as the best kugel maker in the family — I was also THE guy who made the matzoh ball soup FROM A SOUP FOWL and with a strict ritual when it came to getting the perfect batch of balls — or when the Italian boy’s family comes to his house expecting his Shayna Maidela to serve up a lasagna that would make her Brooklyn Shiksa cousins fear they’ll die old maids for lack of true cooking skills, it’s because they are, true to the heart, “Culinary Drag Queens.” And that’s totally not a gay thing. It’s a tribute thing. Drag queens don’t make half-assed attempts at approximating female beauty; they study it, they perfect it for hours and hours in private, and then they unveil it when they’ve mastered it. They pay homage to it. They honor it. Their love and devotion is apparent in every arched eyebrow and perfectly contoured cheek bone. Those lips didn’t come out of a tube, they came off an artist’s palette. And the crispy edges on MY latkes and HER lasagna’s top layer came from hours of devoted study. When the audience files in, the food can’t lip-sync; it’s got to perform in full-on trumpet voice. And the Guinea/Jew family culinary persistence for excellence exemplifies this ethic. “The Guinea and the Jew” — I bet Fergie, or Julie Andrews, would get a real gas out of turning that into a childrens’ book. And coming to a cabaret near you, the vocal stylings of the newest drag sensation, Guineah Jewesse…
In the sorority house, we officially want our parlor fees to go first and foremost to a waffle iron, then to the air conditioning/heating bill, then to toilet paper.
Also, the Phi Sig gang sign has oft been replaced with the Pizza Bagel one: to initate, left thumb and pointer down in an upside-down L, right thumb and pointer make a semi circle. Connect with opposite of another Italian Jew. Works out perfect pizza slice and bagel.
So many reasons to love you, young lady. This is just the latest. I now want to join a JeWoppie sorority so I can spend the whole day going “heeeeeey, sister!” and doing the PizzaBagel HiSign. Though truth be told that’s how a lot of my friends seem to greet each other already, with some (ahem) modification of the accompanying finger gestures. And I’m glad that amidst all the chaos of running the sorority that you ladies have your priorities straight. I can help with the waffle iron; the heating and air conditioning bill is a good life management lesson best left to your own devices. The toilet paper dilemma, at 44, I haven’t mastered myself yet, so you’re on your own.