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How to cook the perfect rsti

It seems the Swiss reputation for secrecy extends to recipes: with
little by way of guidance on rstis, Felicity Cloake was compelled
to experiment

Felicity's perfect rsti. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

For a simple peasant dish with just two ingredients and humble ones at
that rsti is surprisingly dicult to pin down. In fact, it's almost as if the
Swiss want to keep the recipe secret, tucked away in a subterranean vault,
as establishing anything concrete about this Alpine favourite, from the type
of potatoes used to the cooking method, is a feat akin to scaling the north

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face of the Eiger. (In fact, it's even harder, because no one, as far as I can
tell, has come up with anything even vaguely resembling a denitive rsti
recipe.) The only thing I do work out during my initial research is that I've
been pronouncing it wrongly all these years: apparently it's reursch-ti
rather than row-sti. But frankly, that's the least of my troubles.
While many Swiss consider it their national dish, the world has taken a
shine to it too, and it's not as if I haven't eaten a few in my time (most
memorably one in the Himalayas that came with a teaspoon embedded in
the centre). That said, I was startled to read on one food blog that despite a
year-round average humidity of 84% "most restaurants ... in Singapore
serve rsti as a side". A taste for fried potato, it seems, is universal. All too
often, however, these globalised rstis have an unpleasantly starchy avour
and greasy, raw interior, which makes them a prospect even less appealing
than burger bar hash browns as far as I'm concerned.
Then, this summer, I spent a long weekend walking in the Alps, and I
realised that, while the Swiss are apparently incapable of producing even a
glass of water for less than a tenner, they do make the world's best rsti.
Crisp on the outside, soft and meltingly, well, potato-ey within, it was so
good it needed no other adornment although, of course, with mountains to
climb, I added liberal amounts of smoked ham and local cheese. But, when I
tried to nd a recipe to recreate it at home, I came up against a wall of
silence: and with no denitive way to cook a rsti, the only thing to do was
experiment.

In the raw
This, if you will, is the rsti equivalent of the cream-rst v jam-rst scone
war some people parboil the potatoes before grating, and others don't
bother. No-one online really seems too concerned about this divide they
acknowledge it, without going into the pros and cons of each approach. It
irks me though; which is more traditional? And, more importantly, which is
better?
The Oxford Companion to Food is uncharacteristically silent on the matter,
but, after a frustrating half hour trawling the endless regurgitation of the
internet, I nally discover that, according to a reliable sounding book called
the Culinary Arts & Traditions of Switzerland, raw potato is typical only in
the Zurich area the rest of the country insists upon parboiling them rst.

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Should I, as a non-partisan foreigner, back the bankers, or side with the

cowbell swingers? Only one way to nd out. Using the Leiths Cookery Bible
recipe as my template (which, in its original form, calls for boiled potato), I
make two dierent rstis. For the rst, I grate two large potatoes, wring
them out then press them into a at cake in a hot, well-buttered frying pan
and cook for 10 minutes on each side. For the other, I parboil two potatoes
until just tender; once they're cool enough to handle, they're grated and
cooked in exactly the same way.

A rsti cooked from raw potatoes. Photograph:

Felicity Cloake
The raw potato rsti looks far more like my image of the dish the strands
of potato are still distinct and it's ragged and strawlike around the edges,
but, although cooked through, it has a starchy avour, and oddly raw
texture that I recognise with dislike. The other reminds me more of a
bubble and squeak potato cake made with leftover mash; more to my taste,
admittedly, but I suspect it wouldn't pass the Swiss test.
I also try a trick suggested online by chef Patrick Williams; salting the
grated raw potatoes to "draw out" the excess water, a technique familiar to
me from coleslaw recipes, which makes the rsti crisper on the outside, but
does nothing for the starchy avour or crunchy interior.

Pre-chilled?

Chilled pre-boiled, peeled potato rsti.

Photograph: Felicity Cloake
For some Swiss, it's not enough to parboil the potatoes they must be done
a day in advance and chilled before grating. It certainly makes them easier
to grate, and they hold together better in the pan too, although I think a
couple of hours in the fridge would do the trick.

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Peeled or nay?
I'm pleased to see many recipes call for potatoes boiled in their skins
peeling is a small eort, admittedly, but every little helps. Conscience
dictates, however, that I try one with a naked potato too; but I'm astonished
at how much avour the skin gives the rsti; peeling, thank goodness, is
much more trouble than it's worth.

Playing a binder

Valentine Warner recipe rsti. Photograph:

Felicity Cloake
Some rsti chefs, daunted by the prospect of marshalling hundreds of
pieces of grated potato into a coherent cake, add extra ingredients to their
rsti to bind the pieces of potato together. Valentine Warner, for example,
pops in a hefty amount of claried butter and a tablespoon of our in the
recipe in his new book, The Good Table.
This rsti is very easy to ip, needing less prodding and agitation than
others, but I'm not convinced by the nished texture, which is slightly
grainy, or the rich, buttery avour, which seems to deny me the prospect of
any other toppings. (I love the idea of his distinctly un-Swiss
accompaniments though: salmon roe, sour cream, chopped onion and dill.
Nearly as good as smoked ham and Swiss cheese.)

Floury versus waxy

Floury potato rsti. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

I'm astounded to discover there's no clear consensus as to whether a oury
or a waxy potato is preferable for this dish. Mark Hix and Jane Clarke

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specify oury, Val Warner and Leiths go with waxy.

The oury versions are deliciously uy and well browned, but, when
parboiled, more like a mashed potato cake than a rsti. The individual
strands of waxy potato, meanwhile, retain their shape better once made into
a cake, and the nished rstis have a crunchier texture, even when made
from parboiled potatoes, which sets them apart from ordinary potato cakes.

Goose fat v butter

Nick Nairn fries his rsti in goose fat, which makes sense: if it can give
roast potatoes that glorious crisp nish, then perhaps it will work the same
magic on my rstis. Although I prefer the avour of butter with the potato,
I'm forced to admit that his are distinctly crunchier, so I decide to use a
mixture of both in my nal recipe.

Perfect potato rsti

Felicity's perfect
rsti. Photograph: Felicity Cloake
They're glorious plain, but a rsti can be made into a complete meal with
the addition of onion, bacon and nutty Alpine cheese. (Some areas even add
coee; those crazy Swiss, eh?). All you really need for a good rsti, however,
is some rm potatoes, parboiled to give a soft, melting interior, and fried in
plenty of hot butter and goose fat until crisp, and a few mountains to climb
to work up an appetite.
Serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main course
2 medium-sized waxy potatoes

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1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp goose fat
1. Parboil the potatoes in salted water until just tender, but not soft. Allow
to cool, and chill for at least a couple of hours.
2. Coarsely grate the potatoes and season. Heat half the fat in a small,
heavy-based frying pan until sizzling, and then add the grated potato, allow
to cook for a couple of minutes and then shape it into a at cake, pressing
down as lightly as possible. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes, then
gently shake the pan to loosen the potato.
3. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes until golden and crisp, then place
a plate on top of the pan and invert it so the cake sits, cooked-side up, on
the plate.
4. Add the rest of the butter and goose fat to the pan and, when hot, slide
the potato cake back into the pan the other way up. Cook for another 10
minutes, then serve.
Is a rsti nothing more than a hash brown with Alpine airs and graces, or a
distinctive national dish Switzerland should be proud of? What are your top
tips, and what other foods do you favour to keep o the mountain chill?
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