Breakfast Potatoes

What's better than a homemade brunch on a Sunday afternoon?  Not much, that's for sure.  This weekend was a lot of fun.  Since moving to San Antonio we are constantly busy - there's just so much to do.  This week was Fiesta.  For those not from around these parts it's basically an 11 day long festival all over town complete with parades, block parties, concerts, and food trucks.  It has been a long week of late nights with friends and drinks in the perfect spring time weather.  With the festivities ending on Saturday night we decided to have ourselves a regular old lazy Sunday.  Complete with breakfast potatoes!

After heading down to one of our favorite local coffee shops for a latte we came home and made breakfast.  One of our favorite breakfast side dishes is crispy potatoes.  If you can believe it, though, I have never actually made these.  They are one of the things I order every time I go out for brunch but figured was a little too difficult to make at home.  Man was I wrong!

These have the perfect crunch without being deep fried in oil or being greasy.  The addition of the red pepper and cayenne pepper give it a nice bit of added heat and the onion and garlic round out the flavor.  These are easy to make but you have to follow the instructions carefully.  Soaking the potatoes before cooking them allows some of the starch to breakdown in the water and gives you soft crispy potatoes. If you don't soak them you'll end up with sticky gummy potatoes instead.

This was the perfect breakfast for us to have before we went out this afternoon on our bike ride.  We live right by a bike trail that goes for miles and thought it was time we went on a few rides and enjoyed the lovely scenery.  So we went to the Bike Shop and got Nick a brand new bike (there's something about a new bike that makes you feel like a kid again!) and road down the trails this afternoon.  It was great fun :)

Not feeling like potatoes.  Try out some of these other breakfast foods :)

Peanut Butter Banana Granola

Bacon Cheddar Date Scones

Eclairs

Breakfast Potatoes

Ingredients

yields 4 servings

3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2 in pieces

2 T. olive oil

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves

1/4 t. cayenne pepper (more if you like it hot)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1) Soak the potatoes in cold water for 20 minutes.  Drain, rinse, and pat dry.  If you want you can cut them and soak them overnight in the refrigerator so you don't have to wait so long in the morning for your food :)

2) Over medium heat add the oil and the potatoes.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until potatoes begin to soften and crisp up on the outside.  You don't need to stir a lot.  Once every 2-3 minutes is plenty - you want to leave them in the oil to develop their crispy skin.

3) Add the onion and bell pepper and continue to cook until they soften, about an additional 10-12 minutes.

4) Add the garlic cloves, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to the pan and cook 2 minutes longer or until the garlic softens.

5) Pour out over a paper towel to drain and serve immediately.