Hash/Hachis etc (I mean food)

[Don Cuevas]

I had some leftover, boneless poached chicken, some sliced, boiled potatoes, celery, onion and a lot of seasonings and condiments. And some Granny Smith apples.

The chicken needed to be used, soon.

Solution: Chicken Hash.
I found a nice recipe on Epicurious.com, but I didn't have more than a cup and a half of chicken and no green pepper.
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fog-Style-Chicken-Hash-13258


So, instead of green pepper, I used green, Granny Smith apple, dced.

The rest was easy. Instead of chile powder, I used Pimentón Español Picante and Pimentón de la Vera Agri-dulce. I did have branch thyme.
Instead of cream or half and half, I used Crema Aguascalientes, an excellent brand.

Here, a pic of it cooking:



Here's a picture of the finished, plated dish:

[Deleted]

It looks pretty good, but my own use of "chicken flakes" is almost exclusively in soup. When meat isn't "meat" anymore, I have difficulty mixing it with 'normal' items.

[bixaorellana]

~?~     How is it not meat?

I do versions of hash all the time with leftover bits of meat -- they make great taco fillings.

I wouldn't have thought of using apples in that -- how did they work out?

For the record: "crema" is Crème fraîche.

[spindrift]

Don C....how do you cook the eggs like that?

[Don Cuevas]

Bixa:
"I wouldn't have thought of using apples in that -- how did they work out?"

It was very nice, and added a bit of semi-crunch. I was thinking of those Chicken and Apple Sausages that cost so much in the store.

Spindrift:
"Don C....how do you cook the eggs like that?"

I spray some custard cups with non-stick food spray. I get a small round sace pan going with simmering water. I crack one egg each into the custard cups, and immerse them up to their midlines. Then I partially cover the pan and lower the heat.

Despite the PAM spray, the eggs woldn't slip out, so we just spooned them out of the cups.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

[spindrift]

Don Cuevas - thank you. We don't have custard cups in my country...I must think of an alternative. I suppose we would call them 'coddled eggs'. I fear they have gone out of fashion here. I shall re-introduce the idea.

[bixaorellana]

No custard cups in England?! Now there's a cultural chasm.

None of these: or these: ?

What about egg poachers (no, not guys who sneak into the hen house): or ?

Spindrift, you could use Corning Ware tea/coffee cups if you have them, or any cup that would take setting in a bain marie.

[BigIain]

Oh Bixa... we Brits have ramekins for custard cups. much posher i think

www.decuisine.co.uk/cookshop/kitchen_tools_gadgets/large-porcelain-ramekins.html?ref=GA_RAMEKINS&kw=ramekins&gclid=CIjVydXJiJsCFUYA4woduTctpQ

[bixaorellana]

Posh, yes. Homey and lovable? Naaaaah.

I recently discovered that you are from Edinburgh (Bazfaz outed you). I guess that means you can't help yourself from doing things like putting paper frills on crown roast, or for preferring the fluuuuuuted ramekin over the cozy custard cup.

;D

[BigIain]

Hmmmm, the Fazster has a lot to answer for. I actually belong to Peebles, a beautiful market town 20 miles South of Edinburgh, my folks move to the big city ( well 400,000 is not small?)when I was 4 years old.
It means that I can not help but binge drink every two weeks or so and eat deep fried everything in actual fact.
I could put up some pics of Peebles tomorrow actually. Or be lazy and post a link?

www.peebles.info/

[bixaorellana]

If you put up pictures, you won't include the phrase "a day of pottering", will you?

Actually, I have been accumulating a stash of pics & info about my home town, another beautiful backwater. We probably need to share these gems with the rest of the world.

[Deleted]

I don't think I had ever before in my life even heard the term "chicken hash." I think that is what disturbs me.

[Don Cuevas]

Jun 15, 2009 19:58:32 GMT kerouac2 said:

I don't think I had ever before in my life even heard the term "chicken hash." I think that is what disturbs me.

What if it were called "Hachis de Poulet"? tinyurl.com/m3l6s2

[Deleted]

The New York Times had what I think is an interesting article today about the various forms of hash -- corned beef hash, lamb hash, pastrami hash... any kind of hash you can dream up.

After all, it is just a dish using leftover meat + leftover potatoes, or at least that's how it started.

The same goes for the French hachis parmentier, which is the same thing as hash but in two layers rather than mixed together (shepherd's pie, cottage pie...). I haven't looked it up, but I suspect that it is no accident that the two names are so similar. The French variations always use potatoes, but the other item can be duck, fish, chicken...

It is all definitely a comfort food, but some people try to make it fancy. I really don't think that is necessary.

Do you make this sort of thing yourself?

[tod2]

Very interesting....I printed out the Upside-down Caramel Apple Muffins. I will make it in one big dish for a Sunday dessert.
I have never made hash - it sounds as if you must have the right ingredients for it to be really good.
Using corned beef from a tin won't do it, I think.

[onlymark]

I make it quite regularly but not usually from leftovers, I tend not to have many anyway. I make it fresh depending on what I've got in at the time.
There is a dish called bubble and squeak that to me is the vegetarian version.

[Deleted]

I like your new Jordanian avatar, Mark.

Egyptians make hash, except they replace the potatoes with pasta and the meat with rice.

[onlymark]

Blasphemy K2, absolute blasphemy. You'll be taken out into the desert and shot.


I thought I'd get into the mood for the move with the Petra avatar.

[bixaorellana]

Jan 5, 2011 16:27:11 GMT tod2 said:

I printed out the Upside-down Caramel Apple Muffins.

Tod, do you know about this thread? It's stickied at the top of The Galley board and is something you'd probably enjoy.

[Deleted]

I make hashy type stuff from scratch, too, but I wonder what has gone wrong in our lives?

With my grandmother, we would grind up all sorts of leftovers in the grinder screwed to the edge of the table -- pieces of steak, chicken, leg of lamb, usually blended with crusts of bread, and then it would be turned into patties with egg or mixed with leftover potatoes, as it should be.

Why does that not exist in this day and age? Are we overeating to eliminate the scraps, or are we just throwing them away?

[lagatta]

I dunno. I remember that too. I think my one-person/one-cat household, both of us well into middle age, simply doesn't produce enough pieces of meat and potato. I do have a fair number of crusts of bread, but I toast them at low heat to make croûtons or chapelure.

I don't think hash or hachis should be fancy, but if not made right, they are disgusting and just get thrown in the rubbish, unless you are in post-earthquake Haiti. It takes a special genius to make memorable hash, hashis or patties.

[tod2]

Leftovers hardly ever appear in my refrigerator - I find it hard to cook for 2 but I do have a housemaid and gardener who enjoy their sample of my cooking.
Garden birds also love any kind of leftovers!

[Deleted]

Jan 6, 2011 1:46:33 GMT lagatta said:

I don't think hash or hachis should be fancy, but if not made right, they are disgusting and just get thrown in the rubbish, unless you are in post-earthquake Haiti. It takes a special genius to make memorable hash, hashis or patties.

One rule of thumb that I would certainly use is that the potato content must never fall below 50%.

[Don Cuevas]

I love properly made hash—without avant garde embellishments— but I usually make it only after I've cooked a corned beef. That isn't very often here in Mexico.

[lagatta]

I've discovered that our modern fear of potato carbs is detrimental to a number of traditional thrifty dishes, such as fishcakes, and pies made with tinned or leftover salmon. I never could get the flavour quite right, but it was because I was trying to use as little potato as possible.

I do like parsley, garlic, onions in such dishes though.

[Deleted]

I have always decided that all negative information about potatoes is invalid.

[bixaorellana]

I was told that potatoes give less bang for the buck nutrition-wise than other "starches". However, when not swimming in butter and cream, they're not all that caloric and are a good source of fiber, I'd think.

Okay, rather than keep babbling on about it, I looked it up. It seems I was fed a bum steer -- part of which could be made into hash -- about potatoes. They're a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese, for instance:
www.organicfacts.net/organic-vegetables/organic-potato/nutritional-value-of-potato.html
nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2770/2

[Deleted]

Take it to the potato thread!

[bixaorellana]

Go stuff your skins!

[bixaorellana]

Probably one of the most common hashes used to be roast beef and potatoes. However, maybe with smaller families and less eating of red meat, people don't make roast beef or pot roast the way they used to. Actually, when I think of meat/potato hash, I automatically associate it with roast beef rather than corned beef. When I think of corned beef hash, I think of the canned stuff.

(And, speaking of grandmothers and grinding, my grandmother would make really nice mixtures a la tuna salad, except with leftover beef or ham. Great sandwiches!)

I can't agree with LaGatta that any hash would be disgusting, although they're often not a particularly pretty dish.

Isn't FMT from Boston? Maybe he could tell us how true red flannel hash should be made. Here are a plain and a fancy version ~~
www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1926,146166-246206,00.html
www.dianaskitchen.com/page/meats/hash.htm