Jessica Koslow’s Recipe for Brown Butter Roasted Potato Hash

Jessica Koslow’s Recipe for Brown Butter Roasted Potato Hash

This recipe from Sqirl in Los Angeles takes potato hash to the next level with crisp-roasted spuds, eggs and scallions tossed in rich, nutty brown butter

EVERYDAY MAGIC | Cooked until the milk solids darken and develop a nutty aroma and complex caramel notes, brown butter transforms this simple hash. Armando Rafael for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Heather Meldrom, Prop Styling by Stephanie Hanes

The Chef: Jessica Koslow

What She’s Known For: Taking an off-the-beaten-track cafe to talk-of-the-town status in what seemed like no time. Turning homey staples into stunners.

BEFORE THERE WAS the cafe—and a line of customers snaking out the door and down the block it stands on in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood—Sqirl began as a jam-making business. Once the kitchen started turning out meals as well as fruit preserves, it just made sense to owner Jessica Koslow to focus on breakfast and lunch. “What I found is that there is an unyielding desire for bacon and potatoes,” she said. Hence this hearty hash, her final Slow Food Fast contribution, which satisfies the potato requirement with characteristic Koslowian finesse.

Halved potatoes roast in a hot oven until they are brown and crisp on the outside, soft, sweet and starchy within. Garnishes of chopped egg and scallion lend layers of texture and flavor. But it’s the brown butter—cooked gently until its milk solids caramelize—that takes this dish over the top. “Roasting concentrates the potatoes’ flavor, and the butter adds a nutty richness that works well with their earthiness,” Ms. Koslow said. A splash of lemon juice cuts through the richness and brightens the flavor just enough.

A notch above your average hash, this nevertheless makes a comforting, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast or lunch. And Ms. Koslow sees no reason it wouldn’t hold its own on the dinner table, too. At Sqirl, the cooking is no less painstaking and imaginative simply because it happens earlier in the day. “Chefs tend to treat dinner differently than daytime meals,” she said. “We don’t do that.”

—Kitty Greenwald

Brown Butter Roasted Potato Hash

Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 4

• 2 pounds small potatoes (such as baby whites or reds)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring a large pot, filled halfway with salted water, to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, add potatoes and cook until almost tender, about 15 minutes. Strain potatoes, halve them and place on a baking sheet.

2. Toss potatoes with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, then spread them out in a single layer. Place in oven and roast, flipping potatoes once halfway through, until browned and crisp, about 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, fill a medium lidded pot of water with cold water. Add eggs to pot, place over high heat and bring to a full boil. Cover pot, remove from heat and let sit 12 minutes. Strain eggs. Once cool enough to handle, peel warm eggs and roughly chop. Set aside.

4. Make brown butter: In a medium sauté pan, melt butter over medium heat and cook gently until it turns brown and aromatic, about 5 minutes. (Monitor butter carefully to prevent it from blackening.)

5. In a large bowl, toss roasted potatoes with brown butter, lemon juice and scallions. Season with extra salt and pepper to taste. Scatter crumbled egg over potatoes and serve immediately.