Saturday, February 12, 2011

Weekend Cooking...Corned Beef Hash

When I grew up, back in the dark ages of the 60's and 70's, many mothers, most mothers, were stay at home moms. And while my mother worked part time in the family business, the vast majority of time, when I got home from school, she would be there, in the kitchen. Very often planning dinner.
Yes folks, there was once a time when the entire family would sit down at the dinner table together and eat an evening meal that mom had made. And my mother was a dinner cooker. A very fine dinner cook.

Now, she was not a breakfast cooker. She was a night owl and would often stay awake into the wee hours of the morning. Reading. So, as I remember it, for breakfast, the Bro and I were on our own a lot of the time. I do remember my mother standing at the stove stirring the occasional bowl of cream of wheat...maybe the book was really bad that night before.

But dinner...oh, she excelled at dinner. All those homey favorites...meatloaf and baked chicken and pork chops and casseroles. Every Friday was mac and cheese, sometimes with fried flounder, sometimes with cold canned tuna. And most Sundays was something roasted or cooked in the big cast iron dutch oven. A chicken, a pork roast, prime rib, leg of lamb, a pot roast, some corned beef. Potatoes and vegetables on the side, all sort of vegetables. And when you cook a big dinner like that, you often have leftovers. One thing my mother did not do was waste leftovers. She had all sorts of plans for those leftovers. Yes, you might make a sandwich, maybe a hot sandwich that would appear on the next night's dinner table. Or you could make hash!

Take that meat and chop it finely. Add some left over potatoes if you have them, also cut up or throw a few in a pot to cook if you don't. Now, get a pan heating, with a bit of oil. Add some onions, maybe a cup, to saute and a clove or two or garlic would be nice. When they are soft, add the cut up potatoes, a couple of cups, and then the finely chopped up meat, again a couple of cups. Corned beef is the classic, but you can make it with roast beef or pork, or ham or chicken...whatever you happen to have. You can also add some veggies if you have them on hand and want to use them up. I added about a cup of sauteed peppers that I had left over, red and yellow, so in the pan they went. Lot of fresh pepper and some salt to taste.
Mix them all together in the pan and them press them down firmly, cover and turn the pan down to medium low and leave it alone! You want it to brown, to form a crust on the bottom. So after maybe 5-10 minutes, lift up part with a spatula and if you see brown, crusty bits, turn it all over in sections. Again, press down, cover and let continue to cook. Since all the ingredients are already cooked, you are just heating and browning.  Browning is important.
Because everyone knows the brown, crusty bit are the best!

You can eat for lunch or dinner, but in my neck of the woods, hash, especially corned beef hash, is a breakfast dish, served with a nice egg and some buttered toast maybe.




This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.


20 comments:

  1. Is there any relation between hash and spam? I know your pictures *look* better but I'm wondering about the ingredients.

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  2. Your mom sounds a lot like my mom, except that my mom was a breakfast cooker. No one (and I mean no one) leaves her house without a home cooked breakfast in the morning. I haven't had corned beef hash in years, but your post sure did bring back memories.

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  3. Caite, I love the way you tell your food memories. You make me hungry and I can visualize your mom and her kitchen. Your hash looks and sound delicious. Now, of course, I have to get some corned beef and give it a try.

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  4. Sounds a lot like my family.

    Hash .... Ahhhhhh. Is there anything better for breakfast or for dinner? Or for brunch. Or well, any ole time?

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  5. Enjoyed reading this.
    I think in the good old days, the lady of the house used to slog it out in the kitchen, and like you said "planning it out"

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  6. Your post brought back lots of great memories of my mom in the kitchen when I was growing up.

    LOVE corned beef hash by the way! Yummy, but not so healthy so I don't eat it often and have never had it like this. I'll try it soon.

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  7. I am not sure how unhealthy it really is..depends on how much oil you use, maybe how much salt you add. But no worse than many other breakfast foods in the breakfast meat category. Certainly that corned beef was totally lean..unlike say, my beloved bacon.

    Spam...Oh, I will have to post about that another day. Spam is a processed pork product...no relation to my all natural hash.
    You know, the state with the greatest consumption of Spam is Hawaii.

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  8. I've only associated hash with corned beef. This sounds like a good idea. Will definitely have to try it next time I have leftovers. oh yes, the brown tasty bits will be included. Thanks.

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  9. That looks like a great way to use up leftovers! Yummy!

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  10. What a great way to use leftover bits. I'll have to give this a try some lazy Saturday morning.

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  11. Great post, Caite! One of my grandmothers was Irish and made hash, but the other was Italian and made pasta and sauce. Nothing like family dinners...

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  12. We had this all the time. (Well, not all the time but enough that I have very fond memories of it.) My mom would make a little hole in the middle of the hash and put an egg in it to cook and then we'd eat it with ketchup. YUM! (My husband thinks it is horrible.)

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  13. umm, hash and eggs is one of my favorite meals, including dinner. This recipe sounds so good, and nice and easy, I will have to try it.

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  14. you know, yesterday I forgot the ketchup! But not this morning....

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  15. Wow, your Mom and my Mom could have been sisters ( but with a big age difference) My mother wasted nothing, absolutely nothing! Your picture of the cast iron fry pan with the hash took me back umpteen years except my mother used a grinder for the meat. She clamped it to the counter and turned the handle to operate it. I kind of wish I had that thing now mainly for the memories. Yes, we had fried flounder a lot on Friday night because my father fished about every weekend. Happy Sunday and Valentines day tomorrow!

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  16. Ah....the memories!! and funny you should mention this one-- I just had CBH for breakfast at the hotel last week...it was actually pretty good. I'm just not sure why they felt they had to serve hash brown along with the hash.

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  17. Kaye, my mother had one of those hand grinder too! She did not use it for the CBH...I like it roughly chopped better, but she did use it to grind chicken or turkey or ham to make croquettes. I wonder what happen to that grinder. Her cast iron pans I have..see next week.

    Tina, no, no need for hash browns with CBH...the taters are already there.

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  18. I too grew up in the "dark ages", probably even a bit darker than yours...LOL, but my mom worked fulltime...no June Cleaver world for us.

    Seriously, this hash recipe looks and sounds yummy as hash is a favorite of my husbands, especially when it is nice and crispy. Thanks Caite.

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  19. My 'dark ages' were ten years earlier than yours, and my mother was also always there when I got home. As I was when my kids came home. We don't have much money, but I've never regretted for a minute being home.

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  20. Ooh, that looks and sounds delicious! I grew up in the '90s with two working parents, so most of our dinners consisted of take-out or something my dad, a former line cook, would rustle up. I have very fond memories of those meals, though!

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