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.

---