Corned Beef Hash

I'd been meaning to make this for ages. When I moved out to America I found a can of it in our pantry that Glen had bought. Personally I'm not too keen on corned beef, but Glen is, and my opinion is that fresh is better, why it took me so long to get round to it, is anyones guess. I can only assume, it's one of those subconscious things, I don't like it so I will put it off for as long as possible. Well that's just selfish isn't it?

I don't know what it was about this recipe that I liked but I did like it. Minimal fuss, the original recipe said to use four large potatoes - it makes four servings - this suggested to me that it was one potato per person, so I only used two - it was also raw potatoes, peeled and diced, I didn't think the recipe allowed enough time to cook the potatoes. Anyway I put a little fore thought into this for a change and cooked a couple of extra potatoes the night before. Meaning I cooked with day old potatoes instead - wow because I needed to explain that.

I suppose you could par-boil the potatoes to lower cooking time, but my logic was that I wanted a relatively no fuss meal, par-boiling would have meant using an extra saucepan. Lazy? Absolutely - but every now and again never hurt anyone... Besides despite my love of all things kitchen, if you aren't in the right frame of mind, you won't enjoy the cooking experience but more to the point less likely to produce something really good. Better to have a night off and either get a take out, or stick to a no fuss dinner.

Corned Beef Hash

serves 2

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1/2 large chopped onion

2 large, cooked day old potatoes, finely diced

1/2 can of corned beef, diced

200g of baked beans

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp brown table sauce

salt and pepper

served with crusty bread and green salad

1. In a large skillet heat the oil, add the onions and potatoes and cook, over a fairly high heat, continuously stirring for a couple minutes, cover the skillet with a lid and turn the heat down to a low setting and cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring every now and again.

2 Add the remaining ingredients and whilst continuously stirring, cook for 5 minutes, press down the hash down into the skillet, cooking until crispy and golden underneath, this should take about 5 minutes or so. Prepare the salad and crusty bread.

3. Serve the hash straight from the pan with the crusty bread and the salad.