Thursday, September 17, 2009

What's cheap for dinner? Roast beef dinner, next day hash!

How about roast beef dinner and next-day hash? No, not the nasty stuff in a can but real hash.

When I was a child, we would have roast beef with carrots and potatoes cooked around the meat. We would heat up our large, heavy, flat-bottomed aluminum roasting pan. Place some oil in the bottom and fry the meat on all sides. While that was frying, mom or I would peel and quarter potatoes, peel and cut into 3 pieces large carrots and set them aside. When the meat was done, it was removed from the pan and set aside. We then fried the potatoes in some oil in that pan. When they were nicely browned, but not necessarily cooked through, the meat was added back while the potatoes were scooted to the sides (so the meat was on the bottom of the pan), and the carrots were placed with the potatoes surrounding the meat. My dad didn't eat onions or garlic, so mom had to sneak onion and garlic powder onto the meat. She then poured about a cup or cup and a half of water over the meat, put the lid on and placed it in a 350 oven. We'd be gone to church for about 3 hours. When we arrived home, the meal was ready. All mom had to do was make the gravy from the pan drippings.

We were free to eat all the potatoes and carrots in the pan, but a portion of the meat was reserved for another meal a couple of days later. If we were still hungry, we were free to have bread, butter, and usually with gravy over it.

A day or two later, the left over meat was made into hash for another dinner.

Chunk/cube up some raw, peeled potatoes and start them frying in a little fat of your choice. Cover potatoes with a lid. While the potatoes are frying, chunk/cube up some left over roast beef. As the potatoes start to brown and cook, you can add the meat and warm it up. (If you don't keep stirring the potatoes every few minutes, they will brown better and have more flavor. Let them sit for 5-8 mins per "side" to brown them up.) After letting the meat heat up - 5 mins or so, sprinkle a handful or two of flour over the meat/potato mix and stir it in. Season with salt, onion powder (unless you use onions in it - we never did), garlic powder, Adobo - whatever floats your boat!) Add enough water to cover mixture. Stir it well and when it gets to a boil, lower heat to simmer, and put lid back on. Let simmer until potatoes are tender. Takes about 30 mins to make this. I never tried it with precooked potatoes, we always just used raw, probably because we'd have eaten all the potatoes and carrots that were cooked with the roast.

This hash is lovely with some buttered bread dipped in the gravy! mmmmmm...mmmmmm

4 comments:

MyBulletinBoard said...

This sounds wonderful. I've never had homemade hash. I cooked up something similar one time, but not quite this way.

I asked DH just the other day why he liked hash from the can. He said it was the texture. Just once in a while.. . . . . Well, it's so greasy. Takes five or six towels to soak the grease off the stuff.

Just pulled a roast out of the freezer, so I'm going to plan this for meal #2. Thanks a million. Liz

Darlene said...

You're welcome. Please season it however your family likes it. It would probably be good with onions in it, but no one at my house - dad & sibs or here my - kids will eat onions. Also, we don't use black pepper, so that's missing from the list. I don't cook with much salt either. lol

This is not greasy at all! Well, I guess it would be if you ADD a bunch of grease to it. Oh, I fry the potatoes up in bacon grease or olive oil. Growing up, it was just plain Crisco oil that was used.

Cheryl Anderson (SwineInsanity) said...

Makes good sandwiches too... Haven't tried it in hash. Sounds yummy!

MyBulletinBoard said...

Hey! That works. Thanks. I should have taken home ec. . . . .The house smells like lard now. Gave up on skillet seasoning for the day. The dog came in with his nose in the air trying to find the lard. . . . . . .I'll look for the everlasting yeast deal.