House-made Corned Beef Hash

Serves 2

A recipe in the making for decades - literally. After tinkering with making my own corned beef hash, I came upon a recipe elsewhere that clearly nailed all the techniques, and technique is critical when making this dish. But I wanted to craft it toward more healthy ingredients and knock it down to serve just two. It all comes together here. It's superior to anything you might buy in a can, both in flavor and quality.

The recipe is a tad time intensive between prep and cook times. This is better made on your day off, not when you have to dash out the door to work. Use the empty spaces in time to clean as you go. Better delis will have corned beef which can otherwise be hard to locate unless it's early March.

Ingredients

• ½ lb. purple potatoes, sliced into ¼" scallops, then diced ¼ inch in a vegetable chopper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 slices bacon, chopped fine
• ½ medium onion, chopped fine
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced
• ⅛ tsp dried thyme, soaked in 1 tsp water
• ½ lb corned beef, shredded in a food processor
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ⅛ tsp Tabasco sauce
• 2 large eggs
• Ground black pepper, salt to taste

Method

1. Bring diced potatoes, 5 cups water, and ½ teaspoon salt to boil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once boiling, cook potatoes for 4 minutes, then drain and set potatoes aside.
2. Cook bacon in medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add onion and cook until browned, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in corned beef. Mix in potatoes and lightly pack mixture with spatula. Reduce heat to medium and pour heavy cream and Tabasco sauce evenly over hash. Cook undisturbed for 4 minutes, then, with spatula, invert hash, one portion at a time, and fold browned bits back into hash. Lightly pack hash into pan. Repeat process every minute or two until potatoes are cooked, about 8 minutes longer.
3. Make two indentations equally spaced on surface of hash. Crack one egg into each indentation and sprinkle eggs with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pan, and cook until eggs are just set, about 6 minutes. Cut into two wedges, making sure each wedge contains one egg, and serve.

Notes

• A horizontal onion slicer/vegetable chopper is essential when it comes to dicing the onions and potatoes.
• Consider an add-on or two like green pepper, poblano chili, or Anaheim chili. All diced ¼ inch and added at the time of the onion.
• Other proteins can be subbed like deli ham, deli roast beef, or even seitan if you're vegan.

Tom Mehren/April 2022/October 2023