When I was in college some of my girlfriends and I would drive around on Sundays and try out new breakfast spots in the area. We each had a dish that we tended to gravitate towards, I loved eggs benedict, one of my friends was a waffles girl, and the other was obsessed with corn beef and hash. Honestly I didn’t really get it. What could be better than drowning your food in hollandaise or maple syrup and butter? Why instead eat a hot pile of meat fragments and soggy potatoes? Who knows.
One day at this friends urging we decided to visit a rinky-dink hole in the wall type breakfast spot, in the middle of nowhere Connecticut called Grandma’s Comfort Foods, because quote “it has the best corned beef hash ever” end quote. As we pulled up to the spot I grew immediately skeptical. Sort of floating in the middle of a very large abandoned looking dirt and stone parking lot, with only one other car as an occupant, was this tiny run down house. If it weren’t for the large sign overhead letting you know that you were at Grandma’s Comfort Foods, you would absolutely have had no idea that this was a restaurant and not just someone’s residence… or an abandoned house. In fact I had driven past it for years having no idea that it even existed.
As sketchy as the place looked, I swallowed my concern and followed my friends through the beat up front door. To my chagrin, it was even smaller and more run down inside, and I was no longer looking forward to the experience. However my friend excitedly plopped down at our table, eagerly picked up a slightly sticky menu, tossed it back down on to the table a few seconds later and declared loudly. “I’m getting the Corned beef and hash, you have to try it too!” Totally defeated at this point I decided to blindly follow her exuberance and ordered the corned beef hash, a cup of coffee, and some rye toast.
Well I’ll be damned if that wasn’t one of the better breakfasts of my life.
Unlike the other corned beef hash experiences I had watched my friend consume with vigor, this corned beef and hash came out on small hot cast iron skillets, and the corned beef and potatoes each held their own space on the plate instead of just being tossed and mashed together like some sort of sad hot potato salad. Also, the corned beef looked almost shredded…. Nothing like those little cubes of ham I had seen floating around on plates of the past. My appetite came back immediately and I took my first bite. Woah. Crispy on the outside and soft in the center, salty and savory, and the potatoes were the same! My plate was quickly emptied and I had to talk myself out of ordering it a second time. Instead I chewed on my rye and sipped on my coffee, and admitted to my friend that she was right… yet again.
It’s a meal I certainly think back on sometimes, and I feel a definite ping of sadness that as a plant only person now I won’t ever eat there again, but then I remember that I run a pretty cool vegan jerky company, and also that I’m a pretty good cook, so I roll up my sleeves and get to work recreating this dish of the past…. Vegan!
To make this dish it helps to have a cast iron skillet because they can really hold their heat, and when well seasoned are also very non-stick. But you can use pretty much any pan as long as you grease it up first. When I rehydrate my jerky for this recipe, I use a little less water than normal, and cook it until there’s really no extra liquid floating around that hasn’t been absorbed by the jackfruit. You want your jerky to be rehydrated before cooking it on the skillet, because it should be soft enough to be able to eat it with a fork, but you also want it to be as ‘dry’ as possible so that when it hits the hot greasy skillet it crisps up nicely. If there’s too much liquid, the liquid will have to cook off before the pan can crisp the bottom, and extra liquid also increases the chances of the jerky sticking to the pan. Flipping your ‘corned beef’ to crisp on both sides is definitely important for the culinary experience of this dish!
As for the potatoes! They key to getting really crispy potatoes is first boiling them in heavily salted water and a touch of vinegar before finishing them in the oven or a hot pan. When the edges are slightly broken down it really creates lots of extra surface area for golden crispy goodness. But, if you’re lazy like me, and I really do love a shortcut, you can always bake them until they are cooked through, and then finish them off in a super hot very greasy pan with some caramelized onions and garlic. The key to getting them crispy golden there is to rough them up quite a bit in the pan, so that at least a few potatoes get totally broken apart, and then making sure to let them sit a few minutes in between each toss to really get them golden brown on the sides exposed to the heat. Yum. Potatoes and onions and garlic and rosemary are already vegan, so nothing even has to be modified for this half of the recipe. Lucky us!
Are you hungry yet, because I’m getting hungry writing this blog post. To make this recipe at home you just need some Sassy Birch ‘Not Just’ Jerky, potatoes, onions, garlic, salt, and oil. Easy, super delicious. Try it out for yourself! Recipe below:
Sassy Birch Corned Beef Hash
Ingredients:
- 3oz, Sassy Birch 'Not Just' Jerky (Maple, Cracked Black Pepper, or BBQ are good for this recipe)
- 3/4 Cup, water
- 1 Large, Russet Potato (1/2"Diced)
- 1 Small, Sweet Potato (1/2" Diced)
- 1 Small, White Onion (1/2" Diced)
- 2 Cloves, Garlic (Minced)
- 1/4 Cup, Neutral Flavored Oil
- 1 Tbs, Rosemary (dried)
- Salt to Taste
- Pepper to Taste
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss your diced potatoes with a couple Tbs of oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Spread out the potatoes in a single layer on a lined sheet pan, and bake in the oven on a center rack until cooked through and starting to brown. ~ 20-30 minutes. In the meantime, sautee your diced small onion and 3 Tbs oil in a large skillet on medium heat until translucent and starting to brown, add the garlic and continue to cook until fragrant.
- Remove the potatoes from the oven, turn up the heat in your skillet, add another drizzle of oil and then toss in your potatoes. You can be mean to your potato, garlic and onion mixture. It helps make things more crispy by beating it up and breaking a few of the pieces apart. Be sure to let the potatoes sit for a minute or two in between stirs/tosses so that they really crisp up. Set aside or turn the heat to low while you make the 'Corned Beef' part of the hash.
- First, cook your 'Not Just' Jerky and water in a small saucepan until most of the water is reabsorbed, by first bringing to a boil and then reducing to a simmer for several minutes. I recommend Maple or Cracked Black Pepper for this particular recipe, although BBQ is good too. Once your jackfruit has reached its desired consistency you can heat up a second skillet and get it ready to go.
- While on a medium high to high heat, add a few tablespoons of oil to this nonstick or well seasoned cast iron skillet. Once it's hot, add the cooked jerky to the pan, and spread into a relatively thin layer ~ ¼ inch thick. Cook over medium high heat until browned, flip and cook on other side for a few minutes util done.
- You can serve your meal in the same pan you cooked it in, or you can plate it. I like to scootch over my 'Corned Beef' and stuff the potatoes into the other side of the hot pan before chowing down. But it's up to you!
