Homestead Homefries

Today on Homestead Homebodies we are showing you how we make our Homestead Home Fries.

Potatoes vary so much in price. Sometimes they are as low as 99 cents for 10 pounds, and other times they go for $4.99 for the same amount. We take advantage of the low prices by making home fries to freeze.

First they are scrubbed and sliced. We don't bother to peel them. Then the slices are cubed using this handy dicer, which, by the way, is really great for dicing lots of onions. After dicing, the potatoes go into cold water to rinse off some of the starch and keep them from turning colour.

A big pot of water is brought to a boil and the cubed potatoes go in for 5 minutes.
Then they are strained and placed into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. This is known as blanching.

After draining, the blanched potatoes are spread on wax-paper lined cookie sheets and placed into the freezer. Doing it this way prevents the potatoes from sticking together and makes it easy to take out exactly the amount you need.

When the potatoes are frozen, they are placed into freezer bags and kept frozen until needed.

To prepare, the frozen potato cubes are placed into a pan with some heated oil, seasoned, covered, and slowly cooked, stirring often until they are brown and crispy.

They are a perfect accompaniment to our farm fresh eggs for breakfast, as well as a quick and easy side dish for hamburgers or other meals.