As a side dish, this recipe makes plenty for two.

Here’s what I used:

• 6 small potatoes, peeled and grated
• 1 red Gloster apple. peeled and grated
• 1 small onion, peeled and grated
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon potato starch
• 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried, crushed red chili
• 1/3 teaspoon (smoked) red paprika powder
• olive oil for frying

First I grated the potatoes and rinsed them in cold water to remove some of the starch – raw potatoes can have a little bit of a bitter taste, and this takes it away. Then I dried the grated potatos by spooning them on a layer of cheesecloth, placing another layer of cheesecloth over the potatoes, and pressing them lightly. (To make it quicker and easier, I’d skip the whole rinsing part, and just omit potato starch from the recipe.)

Now, I mixed all the ingredients in a small bowl, and heated two frying pans; one of them was my pancake pan that makes small pancakes with a diameter of about 8 cm, and the other a larger pan that had a diameter of about 15 cm. I poured some olive oil in the pans, and heated them on medium heat until hot.

When the pan was hot, I added about one tablespoon of the batter in each little compartment of my pancake pan, and about 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter to the larger pan, and then flattened the piles of potato to about 1/2 cm thick.

I fried my rösti for about 5-6 minutes on both sides, until they were golden brown. I find that medium or medium-high heat is best for this; on high heat the potatoes quickly burn before they’re done inside, and if the heat is too low, they won’t turn brown and get crispy.