Rösti

Name: Rösti
Yield: 1 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 250 g potatoes - preferably a kind like Charlotte that's good for boiling; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp milk; bacon, onions, cheese, tomatoes, fried egg etc. depending on the kind of Rösti you want

Bristol @bristol

Bristol, United Kingdom

This is really not hard to cook - basically, you just fry up some potatoes - but there's a thing or two you need to know before you can talk about rösti with Swiss people.

First of all, please don't call it the Swiss national dish. It's associated with the German-speaking part of the country, to the point that our main "competitors" the French-speaking Swiss are far less keen on it. The dividing line between the language regions is known as the "Rösti Ditch" and any Swiss-German politician talking about things like teaching English instead of French as the first foreign language will be accused of "digging the ditch".

It's pronounced r-uhhh-sti, with a long vowel, not "rusty".

In restaurants outside of Switzerland you might see it as a side, like chips. In Switzerland, it's a main dish and often fills your whole plate. It's not meant to be a fancy meal, it's what a farmer would eat in the evening after a long day's work, and it's among other things a way to use up left-over potatoes just like the English bubble&squeak - in fact, one Swiss recipe book I have describes the main ingredient as "left-over potatoes from yesterday evening"!

There are different variations associated with different cantons of Switzerland, for example:

Bern - with bacon
Zurich - with onions
Wallis - with tomato slices and raclette cheese
Appenzell - with Appenzeller cheese and herbs

Rösti with a fried egg on top is also popular throughout the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

This is really not hard to cook - basically, you just fry up some potatoes - but there's a thing or two you need to know before you can talk about rösti with Swiss people.

It's pronounced r-uhhh-sti, with a long vowel, not "rusty".

There are different variations associated with different cantons of Switzerland, for example:

Bern - with bacon
Zurich - with onions
Wallis - with tomato slices and raclette cheese
Appenzell - with Appenzeller cheese and herbs

Rösti with a fried egg on top is also popular throughout the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

Bristol @bristol

Bristol, United Kingdom

This is really not hard to cook - basically, you just fry up some potatoes - but there's a thing or two you need to know before you can talk about rösti with Swiss people.

It's pronounced r-uhhh-sti, with a long vowel, not "rusty".

There are different variations associated with different cantons of Switzerland, for example:

Bern - with bacon
Zurich - with onions
Wallis - with tomato slices and raclette cheese
Appenzell - with Appenzeller cheese and herbs

Rösti with a fried egg on top is also popular throughout the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

This is really not hard to cook - basically, you just fry up some potatoes - but there's a thing or two you need to know before you can talk about rösti with Swiss people.

It's pronounced r-uhhh-sti, with a long vowel, not "rusty".

There are different variations associated with different cantons of Switzerland, for example:

Bern - with bacon
Zurich - with onions
Wallis - with tomato slices and raclette cheese
Appenzell - with Appenzeller cheese and herbs

Rösti with a fried egg on top is also popular throughout the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

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Ingredients

1 servings

250 gpotatoes - preferably a kind like Charlotte that's good for boiling
1/2 tspsalt
1 tbspbutter
2 tbspmilk
bacon, onions, cheese, tomatoes, fried egg etc. depending on the kind of Rösti you want

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Steps

1

Boil the potatoes, ideally 1-2 days beforehand. Let them cool completely.
2

Peel and grate the potatoes. Mix in the salt.
3

Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan.
4

Add the potatoes and form a "cake". Sprinkle the milk on top.
5

Once the rösti starts sizzling, reduce to a low heat, cover with a lid and leave to cook for around half an hour. Ideally you want a golden brown crust to develop below with no burnt patches.
6

You can occasionally shake the pan to stop it sticking, but do not stir or turn the potatoes - you don't want to break up the rösti.
7

Gently loosen with a spatula if necessary, then place your plate upside-down on the pan and turn the whole thing round so the crust at the bottom ends up on top.