Roesti — Swiss-style Potato Cake

Ingredients

• •1 3/4 pound potatoes
• •3 ounces butter, lard or bacon fat
• •1 1/2 tablespoons water or milk

Directions

1. 1The potatoes should be boiled in their jackets the day before. These should be waxy potatoes of the potato-salad kind.
2. 2The next day, peel them and grate them on the coarsest blade of the grater.
3. 3Heat a large heavy frying pan, and let the fat get hot: then put in the potatoes, sprinkle with salt, and fry, turning them constantly. When they have soaked up the butter or whatever, add more.
4. 4Now form a cake by pushing the potatoes from the edges of the pan into the middle and flattening down the top.
5. 5Sprinkle with the water or milk, reduce heat, and cover with a lid or inverted dish. Shake the covered pan occasionally to keep the potatoes from burning, and leave on low heat for at least 15 minutes. The potatoes must stick together, but not to the bottom of the pan.
6. 6When cooked, turn the cake out onto a plate, bottom side up, and serve.