Winter hash served with a grilled brined pork chop from Village Butcher
Easily one of my favorite dishes to prepare whether it be for breakfast or dinner is hash– a delicious medley of bite-sized vegetables which when mixed together should create a flavour explosion greater than the sum of it’s parts! Maybe I’m making it sound complicated. Go to the market, buy some tasty veggies (working according to seasons usually works best), cook ’em together and voila!
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 rashers of bacon (a sweeter bacon works well such as maple glazed etc)
3 carrots roughly chopped into 1/2″ pieces
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut to 1/2″ cubes
1 very small butternut squash (any other squash will work just fine), peeled and cut to 1/2″ cubes
1 yellow onion diced
100g Chanterelle mushrooms cleaned with a damp cloth and chopped into large pieces.
3 Tbls duck fat (can get an most butchers or specialty stores) or olive oil
3 cloves of garlic smashed
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Salt
Pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F). If you have a roast setting even better.
Line a large baking sheet with tin foil.
In a small sauce pan on low heat add the duck fat and the garlic and cook until you begin to smell the aroma of the garlic. Remove from heat and set aside. Fry the bacon rashers in a separate frying pan until it just starts to crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan onto a chopping board. Place the onions in the same frying pan and cook on medium heat in the bacon fat. If there is not too much fat from the bacon add some butter or olive oil. Fry the onions until lightly brown then put into a large bowl. Chop the bacon into small pieces and add to the same bowl. Remove the garlic from the duck fat and add the fat to the onions and bacon. Then add the potatoes, the squash, the carrots, thyme, cayenne pepper, paprika, pepper and a generous amount of salt. Toss all the ingredients together very well and onto the baking sheet.
Bake or roast in the oven for 12 minutes.
Toss the chanterelles with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper then add to the rest of the ingredients on the baking sheet. Give it all a little toss and put back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and start to crisp.
Remove from the oven and toss with the fresh parsley and there you have it a delicious medley of winter vegetables that makes for a great side dish!
You can always customize this hash too with brussel sprouts or chopped kale. Just add the greens at the same time as the mushrooms.
