Lets Hash It Over!

Lets hash it over, Christmas-dinner-leftover hash, that is. On the morning after Christmas, watching The Today Show, with coffee in hand, I saw a chef making roast beef hash. The beef was left over from his Christmas dinner as were the roasted potatoes. It looked good. I jotted down the recipe.

I have never had hash in my life. My family didn't eat it, I have never ordered it or prepared it. I have never given much thought to hash. Still..... I thought, what a good way to use up leftovers.

I didn't have a roast beef, but I did have a steak in the fridge, some roasted potatoes, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and wine. Maybe the steak would work. So I cut the steak in bite-sized pieces and sauteed in olive oil. The onions, peppers and mushrooms were sauteed also and combined with the steak. Everything was steamed until tender. Then, because the chef on TV had used it, I stirred in 2 large tablespoons full of sour cream and about 1/3 cup of white wine and salt and pepper. It smelled wonderful.

I was not sure if this hash was "hashy" enough and then remembered that one of the the key ingredients was the roasted potatoes but then thought how mushy they would be if I put them directly into the meat/sauce mixture. The chef had, but he was using stringy roast beef and I was not. So, I spooned the meat/vegie/ sauce over the hot roasted potatoes and served it to my husband. I waited for his response. He thought it was really good.

My husband grew up eating hash. His mother prepared it often. Roast beef, lots of potatoes and onions but he liked this version. I thought the meat/vegie/sauce would be better over noodles or rice, skipping the potatoes altogether, but that would make it sort of Stroganoff-ish.

I looked up hash in some cookbooks and found out that most people make hash for breakfast with baked eggs. There is ham and cheese hash, turkey or chicken hash, corned beef hash, pork hash or heavenly hash (which is something completely different.) The ingredient they all have in common, except for the heavenly hash, is potatoes. That is the part I would skip.

So, if I ever make hash again, and it is a great way to use up leftovers, I would make a Hashganoff. Half hash and half Stroganoff. Yum.