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Lyonnaise Potatoes
6 boiled potatoes 2 tablespoons butter 1 chopped onion 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon minced parsley Brown butter and onions in frying pan, add sliced potatoes and seasonings. Fry to nice brown. Garnish with parsley.
A short, workable formula for fried potatoes with onion. The whole result depends on the state of the potatoes before they hit the pan.
- Cook the potatoes aheadBoil them whole in their skins, then cool them completely — ideally refrigerated several hours or overnight. Warm, freshly boiled potatoes shed starch and break into mash when sliced and fried.
- Slice thicknessAbout 1/4 inch gives slices sturdy enough to turn and thin enough to brown through. Peel after boiling; the skins slip off cold potatoes easily.
- "Brown butter and onions"Two tablespoons of butter alone may scorch before the potatoes colour. Use butter plus a tablespoon of a neutral oil, or brown the onion in the butter over medium heat, remove it, and add it back at the end so it does not burn during the longer potato fry.
- Pan and heatA 10-inch heavy skillet, medium-high. Spread the slices in a single layer and leave them undisturbed three or four minutes at a time; constant stirring is what turns this dish into hash.
- TimingFigure 12 to 15 minutes total for a proper crust on both sides. The original "fry to nice brown" is the only doneness cue — there is nothing to cook through, only colour to build.
- SeasoningA teaspoon of salt for six potatoes is on the generous side if the potatoes were boiled in salted water. Salt at the end, after tasting.
- YieldSix medium potatoes serve four as a side dish.
The name means "in the manner of Lyon," the French city whose cooking is closely associated with onions — à la lyonnaise on a menu generally signals that onions are in the dish, whether with potatoes, tripe or eggs. In American cookbooks the term came to be used mostly for this one preparation of sliced boiled potatoes fried with onion, and by the early twentieth century it appears as ordinary household fare rather than anything French-restaurant about it. The recipe starts from potatoes already boiled, which fits comfortably with a menu plan organised around using up what an earlier meal left.