Pan-Fried Potatoes with Pork and Onion Recipe

Step-by-step recipe

1. Fried potatoes are a simple and very common dish. Medium-sized potatoes work best for frying, since they are easy to cut into even slices that cook through well. At home we prefer white or yellowish potatoes, while many people like the “pink” varieties. It's a matter of taste, I'd say.
   
2. When I was little, at my grandmother's in the village, she mostly cooked potatoes with salo (cured pork fat). I confess I don't much like that version of the dish: it is very high in calories and a bit heavy on the stomach, though tasty. I prefer to fry potatoes in vegetable oil and, of course, with onion.
3. As a nice meaty bonus to pan-fried potatoes, I suggest adding a little pork belly, not the fattiest kind. You can always find lean sliced pork belly at a supermarket or a market.
   
4. Peel the potatoes. A very entertaining job, by the way. Wash them under cold running water. Drain the water and let the peeled potatoes dry off. With a sharp knife, cut each potato into narrow wedges. Ideally the pieces should be the size and shape of segments of a small peeled orange. Many people, by the way, prefer to fry fairly large chunks, while others fry very small pieces or even grated potato.
5. Put the cut potatoes into a deep bowl. Sprinkle with salt and season with freshly ground black pepper. Add 1-2 pinches of dried savory, a very fragrant spice that works wonderfully. With savory, fried potatoes
   turn out fragrant and tasty. Mix the potatoes thoroughly with the spices and set aside while the pork fries.
   
6. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep skillet. I remember that in the village they always used fresh, fragrant sunflower seed oil, whose flavor gave pan-fried potatoes a special charm. Cut the pork belly into strips and add it to the hot oil.
   
7. Important: the potatoes are fried without a lid and over fairly high heat, well above medium. This matters, because some ingredients may burn while others are still raw.
9. Since the pork belly is not the fattiest, very little pork fat will be added to the dish, as it simply won't render out. Fry the pork until lightly golden, stirring from time to time.
   
10. When the pork belly turns slightly golden, add all the prepared, cut potatoes with the spices. Stir thoroughly with a wooden spatula so the potato pieces are coated with oil. Fry the potatoes and pork, stirring often with the spatula. First, the potatoes must fry rather than stew, and second, they must on no account burn.
    
11. Peel the onion and cut it into thick strips. It is important to catch the right moment to add the onion. Prick the largest pieces of potato with the tip of a knife from time to time, and as soon as the knife goes through quite easily, add the onion right away. As an acquaintance of mine says, the potatoes should be “just a tiny bit more minutes” from done. Let's say the onion will fry in 5-6 mins, so aim for that time before the potatoes are ready.
    
12. Keep frying the potatoes, pork and onion, stirring often so the dish doesn't burn and browns evenly. As they fry, the potatoes change color and turn golden, with browned spots. The onion fries quickly and, notably, becomes a little sweet. This improves the flavor of the dish a lot.
13. As soon as the onion is done, the potatoes are done too. The total frying time for all the ingredients is over 30 mins, and after that it's up to you and your taste.
14. Serve the potatoes strictly hot. As they cool, any fried potatoes lose their flavor and become tough and dry.
    
15. Pan-fried potatoes go especially well with homemade sauerkraut. Well-made sauerkraut with thinly sliced red onion, dressed with fragrant vegetable oil, is perfect to serve with fried potatoes.
    
16. Put a mound of sauerkraut in the center of a large plate and arrange the fried potatoes, slices of pork belly and fried onion around it. That's really all, an excellent dinner is guaranteed.