alpharaposa | Adventures in Cooking: Hash

I tweeted about hash, and got some confusion. It's easy to forget that other people aren't familiar with your native cuisine!

Hash is American food, and is one of the best ways to use up leftovers. For the record, this can mean leftovers as in "something cooked and not yet eaten" but also leftovers as in "the one leek I had left after using up the other two in that stew". It's a great way to go through the fridge and clean out some stuff. We cook up a mess of hash every once in a while to use up those odds and ends that would otherwise rot or wilt and go to waste.

You will need:
Aromatics. Leeks, onions, celery, etc. They can be raw or already cooked.
Bulk. Carrots, turnips, potatoes, corn (chopped off the cob if it was cooked on it), basically any nice, hearty veggies or starches to fill in the flavors.
Protein. Leftover chicken, leftover turkey (always great after Thanksgiving), bacon, already cooked beans.
A little fat or broth.
Raw eggs.
Salt and pepper.
A pan and lid or foil.

Chop up everything that's not already in pieces. You don't have to get everything exactly even, but you want to be able to mix it all together to get a nice cross section on a forkful.

Put in the fat or broth. If you have raw bacon, that'll do to throw in first. Otherwise, a pat or two of butter or a couple tablespoons of chicken broth will do nicely. You're just looking for a little juice to cook any raw items so they don't dry out. Don't do too much or you'll have soggy hash!

Add any raw ingredients. Cook until almost done.
Add cooked ingredients. Stir until everything is mixed together.
Flatten the mixture out in the pan and make some shallow depressions. Crack as many eggs into the depressions as you want and your pan will fit. Most pans will fit 3-5 eggs. Large electric skillets will easily do five.
Cover and let cook until the eggs are cooked through. Do not scramble the eggs. The veggies and bulk will brown on the bottom, and some of the egg white will creep through to bind sections together, providing a good serving size. (One egg plus the immediately surrounding hash.)

Salt and pepper to taste.

And that's hash. Tonight's hash was leeks, celery, bacon, potatoes, turnip, baked chicken, and eggs.