Corned Beef Hash

I think corned beef and cabbage is a great meal. It’s not something that is a staple, so it’s always a treat when someone cooks it up. But what really gets me going about corned beef and cabbage is that I get to make corned beef hash with the leftovers.

Corned beef hash is one of those things that you either love or hate. Especially at diners. At diners you generally get the canned stuff –

(Tangent)
Except this one time when Dan and I stopped for lunch at a diner in the Onondaga Reservation outside of Syracuse. I’m pretty sure it was made with straight up lard. It was one of the most delicious things ever.

So at diners you generally get the canned stuff that, let’s face it, looks like dog food. Only tasty dog food that makes you thirsty. I understand that not everyone can get past the aesthetics of this. However! If you ever have the opportunity of tasting fresh, homemade corned beef hash – be brave! Push the thoughts of little, minutely diced potatoes and mushy, pink, pulverized corned beef out of your mind.

This is completely different.

I never ordered cornbeef hash at a diner before, either. Mostly because it sounded like something that would look like dog food. My least-favorite-ex-boyfriend introduced me to corned beef hash while we were on vacation in Virginia Beach. He ordered it with his breakfast, I tasted it, and I never looked back.

Now, I will take corned beef hash over home fries any day. Especially lately, because I find homefries to be exceptionally lackluster everywhere I go.

My most recent Delicious Discovery involving corned beef hash was when we were visiting our friend Nicholas in Massachusestts this fall (for our annual brewfest). We went to a diner for breakfast the morning we were leaving and he told me that one of the best things to order is Irish Eggs Benedict.

Irish Eggs Benedict is two poached eggs, on top of corned beef hash, on top of an english muffin, covered in Hollandaise sauce. Hollondaise sauce.

Amazing.

So here is another completely delicious, incredibly unhealthy, but pure heaven recipe for homemade cornbeef hash.

RECIPE
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Corned Beef – roughly cubed
Use whatever hunk you have remaining from corned beef and cabbage or ask your deli to slice you a pound of  thickly sliced corned beef. (I will write about my corned beef and cabbage recipe the next time I make it, since it was the first time I made it I wanted to make sure my recipe worked out before sharing.)
4-5 red potatoes – peeled and cubed
Or yukon gold, I love yukon golds. It’s possible to make this without boiling any extra potatoes if you have enough leftover from the corned beef and cabbage (or whatever dish you made with your corned beef). I had some potatoes left, but not enough. So I boiled my extra potatoes in a mixture of leftover corned beef and cabbage broth, 1 cup chicken broth, and water. If you are using deli meat, boil your potatoes in 1 cup of chicken broth and enough water to cover the potatoes. Cook them until you can pierce them with a fork, drain, and set aside. Cube before you cook – it will make shorten the cooking time and save you the hassle of cutting soft potatoes.
1 medium yellow onion – diced
Optional: 1 bell pepper, diced
I didn’t have any peppers on hand, or I would have thrown one in. They add a nice sweet flavor.
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper
All to taste. You can leave the paprika out for a more traditional cornbeef hash. I like the smoky-spicy flavor you get from it, though.

• Add all of your potato cooking liquids to a cold saucepan. Add your potatoes as you cube them – this will keep them from discoloring.
• Bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes until you can pierce them with a fork. Drain and set aside.
• In a large skillet heat 2-3 Tbs olive oil.
• Add your onion and bell pepper (if you are using), some Kosher salt, a generous sprinkling of paprika (the onions will turn a nice orange color), and a dash or two of cayenne.
• Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
• Add your corned beef, stir, cook for 4-5 minutes, letting the fat render and the meat brown a little.
• Add your potatoes. Stir to coat and spread the mixture out in an even layer on your skillet. You might need to add some more olive oil to keep things from getting really sticky. It’s OK, this recipe wasn’t very good for you anyway.
• Let cook for about 5 minutes.Stir and create another even layer again, smoothing the top with a spatula or spoon.
• Cook for another 5-8 minutes until this layer begins to brown.
• Remove from heat and serve.

We ate ours au natural, but I would have loved some poached eggs and hollandaise sauce to really round out the meal. Serve it with your favorite kind of eggs or with a thick slice of crispy, fried toast.