My Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe for zharenaya kartoshka s gribami makes my take on a comfort food classic my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother often made on a quiet weekend at home. Serve this fried potato dish as part of a shared family meal or as a vegetable side — or tuck into a bowl on the couch on a cold evening. However you serve the dish, shower it with fresh parsley or dill, dollop on sour cream, and eat with zingy pickles.
If you’re in need of hugs and hearty comfort food as much as I am, try this fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe for zharenaya kartoshka s gribami. My take on one of our family favourites, the recipe makes a traditional comfort food dish baboushka made for a casual meal when I stayed with my grandparents and it was just the three of us eating together. It’s one of our best potato recipes and potato side recipes.
You might have the impression from my stories that baboushka always cooked the kind of lavish family feasts she made for Orthodox Easter and Christmas and the languorous Sunday lunches that evolved into dinner. But during my first year at uni, before I began working full-time and doing evening classes, when I’d visit my grandparents and stay the night, baba made a simple rustic dish to share, the kind of comforting home-cooked food I’m craving right now.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like the year is getting away from me and I’m chasing time. We’re two months in, I’ve not even achieved a fraction of the things I scheduled, I’m struggling to catch up, my elderly mum isn’t well (being a full-time carer is challenging!), it’s been over two years since I left Cambodia for a two month trip to Australia, and I’m desperately missing Terence and our crazy black cat Pepper. All I’m cooking is comfort food.
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Fried Potatoes with Mushrooms and Bacon Recipe
Do try my Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe if you’re craving comfort food right now — whether it’s cost-of-living crisis pressures, you’re chasing your own tail like I am, or the state of the world is getting you down. It’s getting me down. We lived in and travelled the Middle East for the best part of a decade, have a strong connection and enormous affection for the region, and we have dear friends living there.
My former students in Abu Dhabi have been messaging me about the missiles raining overhead. A Lebanese friend is distraught at the forced displacements and bombing of Beirut. An Iranian filmmaker friend told me he can’t stop crying over the deaths of 165 little school girls (aged just 7-12!) and their teachers. And Russia continues to bomb Ukraine, a war that breaks my heart.
I grew up listening to late-night post-dinner war stories recounted by my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents around the dining table that mum and I continue to sit at every day. Every family recipe I cook and meal I serve at that table is a reminder of those stories, which, due to current world events, have never resonated more. It’s difficult for me to disassociate the food I cook and we eat from the history, politics and culture.
But that same food, the rustic home-cooked dishes of my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother is the salve I need right now. The combination of fried potatoes and bacon excel at assuaging anxiety and providing consolation. This potato and bacon broth and this hearty soup inspired by baked potatoes topped with crispy bacon are similarly comforting.
Now, if you’re one of the increasing number of food lovers obsessed with crisp and crunch, and prefer crunchier potatoes, I’ve provided a couple of alternative methods for cooking the potatoes below. I’m providing those options because everyone seems a little fanatical about creating super-crunchy spuds at the moment. Apparently it’s a thing.
Yet I have to say that there are few things as deliciously addictive as these fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon after they’ve been reheated the day after they’ve spent a night in the fridge when they’re soft and have mushed and melded into each other. Personally, I think those tender leftovers have even more powers to console.
Do let us know how you’re doing. If you need a chat, the comments are always open to readers, not only for recipe feedback. Just a few tips to making my Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe.
Tips to Making this Russian Fried Potatoes with Mushrooms and Bacon Recipe
Here are some tips to making my Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe.
Ingredients
Let’s start with the ingredients.
Potatoes
For this hearty dish of Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon, I use all purpose potatoes. I love the pink-skinned Desiree potatoes, which have both waxy and floury or starchy characteristics, and will give you a nice tender-soft interior and crispy exterior after frying.
Also great are Sebago potatoes, which Terence uses for his hand-cut potato chips recipe, and chef Joseph Abboud uses for this recipe for Rumi’s famous Lebanese spicy potatoes, batata harra, as a Sebago will also remain soft and fluffy inside and give you a crunchy exterior.
Mushrooms
Whenever my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother made this dish, she’d recount tales of foraging for wild mushrooms in the forest as a child (and that time she saw her a bear and thought she’d die). Mushroom foraging was one of her favourite things to do, alongside foraging for berries, and wild mushrooms were used in this dish.
As I sadly can’t get wild mushrooms here, or much of a variety of mushrooms at all, I’ve been using what are called ‘white cup mushrooms’ here in Australia, and are essentially a medium to large-sized white button mushroom – which are essentially the same as a cremini mushroom or portobello mushroom, they’re just picked at different sizes.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to source a range of mushrooms, try a mix of mushrooms for texture and flavour. I love the combination of chanterelles and porcini with button mushrooms, for instance.
Bacon
You want good old-fashioned rashers of proper bacon, which are bleeping hard to find here in supermarkets in Australia. Just as most Australians no longer like skin on their chicken, they obviously don’t like fat on their bacon either. The pigs must be on diets, as I’ve never seen such lean fat-free bacon before.
In the Cambodian countryside, where every villager and farmer seems to have an enormous pig the size of a small cow lolling about in mud, munching on the family’s leftovers from the night before, the pork tastes like the pork of my childhood growing up in Australia: delicious, full of flavour, with fat on it.
Because the bacon sold in supermarkets here in Australia is so lean and mostly sold as ‘middle bacon’ without fat, I have go to a butcher’s or deli to get proper bacon rashers. When I can’t, I have to use olive oil to fry the bacon in, which I wouldn’t do in Cambodia, where the pork has enough fat of its own to cook in. So treat the olive oil for frying the bacon as optional.
Cooking Oil
My Russian-Ukrainian grandmother always had bottles of sunflower oil and vegetable oil beside the stove, which she used for most of her cooking. They’re considered to be ‘neutral oils’, as they’re very mild in flavour, have very little aroma, and have a high smoke point so they’re good for frying.
For frying, I prefer to use a classic olive oil, as it’s healthier. While olive oil doesn’t have as high a smoke point as sunflower oil or vegetable oil, the lower smoke point is still perfectly fine for most frying in a home kitchen, including cooking this Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe.
It’s a myth that olive oil can’t be used for frying. Cooks in Mediterranean countries have long used olive oil for frying and cooking on high heat, and even extra virgin olive oil, although the best stuff is saved for salads and drizzling on dishes for flavour and fragrance.
Step-By-Step Process
Here’s a step-by-step guide to making this Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe with some additional tips for those of you who like them, otherwise, scroll down directly to the recipe.
Prep the Oven
You don’t want to go to the trouble of cooking each ingredient separately and then dish it up and find the bacon is cold, the mushrooms room temperature, and the potatoes are hot. So set your own to the ‘warm’ setting or turn it on to low or around 75-90°C or 170-195°F, depending on your oven. Prep an oven tray: brush it with olive oil and have some foil ready to cover it completely.
Fry the Bacon
To a large frying pan or round flat-bottomed wok over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil, heat, and fry the diced bacon until cooked to your liking. Transfer to the oven tray and cover with foil. Remember: as per my note above, you only need the olive oil if you buy bacon without fat, as it’s mostly sold in Australia; in Cambodia I wouldn’t need to fry bacon in oil.
Fry the Mushrooms
To the same pan or wok over medium, heat another tablespoon of olive oil and the butter, add the mushroom slices, stir so they’re coated both sides in oil and butter, leave the mushrooms alone until they release then reabsorb their liquid and brown, around 5 minutes or so.
Use a spatula to turn the mushrooms to brown the other side, for another few minutes or so. Give them a gentle stir, then transfer the mushrooms to the tray.
Depending on the size of your wok/pan, you may have to do the mushrooms in two batches. As cooked, transfer them to the oven tray and cover with foil to keep warm. When done, wipe the pan or wok with a paper kitchen towel.
Fry the Potatoes
As this Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe makes a dish my baboushka made frequently, which turned out perfectly every time, who am I to mess too much with a grandmother’s classic? Having said that, if you have time, I’m sharing an alternative method of prepping the potatoes below that gives you an even fluffier interior and crunchier exterior for even more texture. But keep in mind, the potatoes will soften when combined with the mushrooms and bacon.
Quick and Easy Method
For this Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe, I wash, peel and dice the potatoes into 3cm cubes, and pat the diced potatoes dry with paper kitchen towels before frying, so they don’t splatter, as that’s all my grandmother did.
Simply add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan (or wok), heat, add the diced potatoes, shake the pan or use a spatula or tongs to turn the potatoes so they’re completely coated with oil, then leave them to cook over medium heat for five minutes or so to let them start to colour until golden-brown.
Turn the potatoes then leave them for another five minutes or so to colour. Repeat until the potatoes are cooked through, golden brown on all sides, and crispy and dark-brown on the edges, around 10-15 minutes or so. If the potatoes stick to the pan, scrape those stuck bits off; they’ll brown and crisp up and add crunchy texture to the dish.
Alternative Methods If You Have More Time
If you have more time and you’re fanatical about getting fried potatoes with super-crispy exteriors and fluffy interiors, there are a few other methods you can use to cook the potatoes, but keep in mind that once you combine the potatoes with the mushrooms and bacon, the potatoes will soften a little, and this is part of the comforting appeal of the dish.
Overnight Soak in Water and Deep-Fry Method
If you’re not cooking this fried potatoes and mushroom dish spontaneously and are planning a day ahead, another way of cooking potatoes that results in the crispiest exterior and softest interior which I often use is this method that Terence developed for his hand cut potato chips recipe, which is a combination of two chef recipes.
You need to start prep the day before, however: place the peeled diced potatoes in a large bowl and wash them under running water, swirling the potato cubes around. Drain the diced potatoes, transfer them to a large plastic container, fill it with water, and refrigerate the diced potatoes for 24 hours. This removes a lot of the starch, resulting in a crispier potato.
You can then still fry the potatoes in the pan according to my recipe below, or, if you have more time, you could twice-cook and deep fry the diced potatoes as Terence does above in his hand cut potato chips recipe, above, for super crispy diced potatoes with a soft, fluffy interior.
Boil and Deep-Fry Method
Another option for the crispy potato obsessive, is to do as Joseph Abboud does with Rumi’s famous Lebanese spicy potatoes: put the diced potatoes in a large pot of water, add a teaspoon of salt, bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-low and simmer. When the potatoes are done, drain them in a colander and spread them out on a cutting board to completely cool down and dry out.
When the potatoes have dried out, deep fry them: pour enough oil for deep-frying into a deep pan, deep fryer or sauce pan, heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F, using a kitchen thermometer to check the temperature. Transfer the potatoes to the hot oil and fry the potatoes (in batches if needed) for around 3-5 minutes per batch until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the fried potatoes to a wire rack to drain.
But do remember: when you combine the potatoes with the mushrooms and bacon the crisp exteriors will soften a little and this texture is desirable in this home-cooked dish. But if you’re fanatical about super-crunchy potatoes, as I know many of you are these days, by all means try these methods.
Combine the Lot
When the potatoes are done and are tender-soft inside and golden-brown and crispy on the outside, slide the tray out of the oven, add the potatoes to the mushrooms and bacon, use a spatula or spoon to gently combine the lot, cover with foil and slide the tray back into the oven to stay warm until you’re ready to serve.
Season and Garnish
When you’re ready to serve, grind on some freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle on the optional salt (if your doctor hasn’t told you you’re a walking time bomb and don’t have hypertension, as I do), shower with half the chopped parsley (and/or dill), fold in gently, and scatter a little more parsley on top. Sometimes I’ll even drizzle on a little extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle my own plate with chilli flakes.
Serve the Dish
This recipe for Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon makes 100% pure comfort food. So it wasn’t uncommon for my baboushka to make a big pan of the stuff on a quiet evening in when it was just baba, papa and myself, and serve it with a simple garden salad.
So you could distribute the fried potatoes between bowls, adding toppings at the kitchen counter, and tuck into a bowl in your pyjamas on the sofa — or serve it as a hearty potato side dish to succulent roast chicken, juicy pork chops, baked salmon, tender meatballs, or a great hunk of steak.
Make sure to serve with dishes of dill pickles for a tangy-sour contrast, wholegrain mustard for some zing and pop, sour cream for dolloping on top, and more finely chopped fresh parsley or fresh dill, so guests can adjust it to their liking. Baba also served bread on the table: black rye or crusty sourdough.
Russian Fried Potatoes with Mushrooms and Bacon Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil - divided, good stuff as flavour matters
- 2 bacon rashers - diced
- 2 tbsp butter - unsalted
- 300 g mushrooms - white cup or mixed mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp cloth, thinly sliced,
- 4 potatoes - all-purpose potatoes such as Desiree or floury such as Sebago, washed and diced
- 1 cup fresh parsley - finely chopped
- 1 pinch black pepper - or grind on freshly ground peppercorns to taste
- 1 pinch sea salt - optional
Instructions
- Prep the oven: set to the ‘warm’ setting or heat to low or around 75-90°C or 170-195°F, depending on your oven. Prep an oven tray: brush it with olive oil and have some foil ready to cover it completely.
- Fry the bacon: to a large frying pan or round flat-bottomed wok over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil, heat, and fry the diced bacon until cooked to your liking. Transfer to the oven tray.
- Fry the mushrooms: to the same pan or wok over medium, heat another tablespoon of olive oil and the butter, add the mushroom slices, stir so they’re coated both sides in oil and butter, leave the mushrooms alone until they release then reabsorb their liquid and brown, around 5 minutes or so.
- Use a spatula to turn the mushrooms to brown the other side, for another few minutes or so. Give them a gentle stir, then transfer the mushrooms to the tray with the bacon. Depending on the size of your wok/pan, you may have to do the mushrooms in two batches. As cooked, transfer them to the oven tray to keep warm. When done, wipe the pan or wok with a paper kitchen towel.
- Cook the potatoes: add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan (or wok), heat, add the diced potatoes, use the spatula or tongs to turn the potatoes so they’re completely coated with oil, then leave them to cook over medium heat for five minutes or so to let them start to colour until golden-brown.
- Turn the potatoes then leave them for another five minutes or so to colour. Repeat until the potatoes are cooked through, golden brown on all sides, and crispy and dark-brown on the edges, around 10-15 minutes or so. If the potatoes stick to the pan, scrape those stuck bits off; they’ll brown and crisp up and add crunchy texture to the dish.
- Combine the lot: when the potatoes are done and are tender-soft inside and golden-brown and crispy on the outside, slide the tray out of the oven, add the potatoes to the mushrooms and bacon, use a spatula or spoon to gently combine the lot, cover with foil and slide the tray back into the oven until ready to serve.
- Season and garnish: when you’re ready to serve, grind on some freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle on the optional salt (if your doctor hasn’t told you you’re a walking time bomb and don’t have hypertension, as I do), shower with half the chopped parsley (and/or dill), fold in gently, and scatter a little more parsley on top.
- Serve: distribute between bowls and eat the potatoes on their own in your pyjamas on the sofa — or serve as a hearty, comforting side dish to roast chicken, juicy sausages, or a great steak.
- Serve with dishes of dill pickles to provide a tangy-sour contrast, wholegrain mustard for some zing and pop, sour cream for dolloping on top, and more finely chopped fresh parsley or fresh dill, so guests can adjust to their liking.
Notes
- For frying the bacon, you only need the olive oil if you buy bacon without fat, as it’s mostly sold in Australia; in Cambodia I wouldn’t need to fry bacon in oil.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our Russian fried potatoes with mushrooms and bacon recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you. Feel free to share your own recipe tweaks and feedback in the comments below. We love to hear from readers.
