Kitchen Hash

What wonderful things come to mind when scrounging in the kitchen.

My grandmothers and theirs used to make their own hash, rather than
buying it pre-made from the grocery. The potatoes made leftover meat
go farther on a tight budget. I found what I needed in my own kitchen
one morning and whipped this little recipe up for breakfast.

Kitchen Hash

Sausage leftover from brats and saurkraut.

Ingredients:

Tbs minced garlic
1/4 white onion, minced
Leftover sausage or other broken meats
2 medium potatoes, cooked, chopped
1/4 tsp pink sea salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp parsley
Cheddar Jack cheese to taste

 

Directions:
Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil
Add meat, sauté until hot
Add potato and spices, stir until hot throughout
Serve with cheese

 

Garlic, onion, and sausage.

Directions:
Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil
Add meat, sauté until hot
Add potato and spices, stir until hot throughout
Serve with cheese

Potatoes added

 

I simply served on a plate with shredded cheese. You might toss some
of this hash into a tortilla for breakfast tacos, or pile some on a
split biscuit and serve it with gravy. The potential combinations are
limited only by your imagination, and may be served for breakfast,
lunch or even dinner.

– Chopped jalapenos will give it a bit of bite.
– Diced, pre-cooked carrots, turnips, and/or rutabagas might be used
with or instead of the potatoes.
– Any broken meat will work with this recipe, from chicken and turkey
to pork, beef, venison, goat or mutton.
– Any type of onions, shallots, or even leeks will offer a variety of
textures and flavors.

Give this hash a try at home, seasoned to suit your tastes, an leave
a note about how it turned out.

Enjoy!

— Ann Cathey

Emergency Lamb Loaf

While we were away at sea, our chest freezer finally gave up the ghost. family at home managed to save most of the contents, but a lot of it had been completely thawed and had to be cooked as soon as we got home.

Some of the items that had thawed out were 2 pounds of ground lamb and a 12 oz package of bacon. I decided to concoct a meatloaf out of them with assorted ingredients that I had on hand. Yes, I really do keep all these things on hand on a regular basis.

Lamb can be a very dry meat when used in meatloaf as the fluid it contains cooks off easily.  Wrapping the loaf in bacon not only adds flavor and helps to keep the loaf in shape, it adds some moisture to the loaf.

Lamb Loaf
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1-1/2 hours at 300F
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients
2 lb ground lamb
1/2 cup almond flour
3 large eggs
1 pk onion soup mix (already contains salt!)
1 tsp herbes de province (Dangold Gourmet Collection)
1 TBSP roasted garlic grapeseed oil (Wildtree)
1tp brown mustard
1TBSP Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp ground white pepper
12 oz hickory bacon

Mix meat, almond flour, onion soup mix thoroughly in a large bowl.

In separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, spices, and Worchestershire.

 

Add egg mixture to meat mixture and combine thoroughly. Cover with a cloth and allow to rest.

 

On parchment paper, lay out strips of bacon to wrap or weave around loaf. A simple over-under  weave produces a nice even outer coating of bacon that will not peel away from the loaf as it cooks.

 

Form loaf on top of bacon strips. Wrap bacon completely around the loaf, sealing the ends. Use parchment paper to firmly shape the bacon and lamb.

 

Spray loaf pan with olive oil. Distribute roasted garlic cloves evenly on bottom of pan.

 

 

Use parchment paper to transfer loaf to pan and tuck in. Remove parchment paper. Cover pan in foil to prevent spattering.

 

Place pan in a 300F oven to bake for one and a half hours., keeping an eye on the juices that will collect. If fluid becomes too deep, drain some off. A drip pan is advisable.

When pan is removed from the oven, allow the loaf to rest for 5 minutes or so before slicing and serving. This loaf turned out easily onto a plate.

 

We served with baked carrots and brown rice.

 

Enjoy!

— Ann Cathey

Broken Meats

What, you may ask, is a broken meat? This is what’s left over when you have roasted a turkey and served the bird, or cooked up a ham that you served sliced for game day, or what’s left after you had a dinner party and served a loin of beef. Typically, these leftover meats are “broken” or removed from the bone and wind up in slices, chunks, and shreds.

Broken meats can be used so many ways. They can be diced for salads, sliced or shredded for sandwiches or wraps, used in stews, soups or chili, and so on.

Turkey might wind up in a lettuce wrap with leftover cranberry sauce or a tablespoon of fruit salad. It can also be diced or shredded and used as the meat in a pot pie.

Any meat can be shredded and used in making tamales or chili. These two dishes were originally intended for “trash” meats, using tough cuts or leftover ends. Broken meats will make them incredible.

Toss broken meats into tortillas with a bit of refried beans, cheese and diced tomato for tacos, burritos or quesadillas. They can also be used as pizza toppings and lasagna fillings, and be tossed into salads for an extra jolt of protein.

Stews, soups and chowders all benefit from some extra meat. Beef, pork, and chicken are all good for these applications.

Ham, being very salty in general, and often having a sweet glaze applied, is great for dicing and scrambling in eggs for breakfast. It’s also good sliced or shredded for sandwiches, and even for tossing with diced yams (sweet or savory) for a new baked dish.

Pigs-in-blankets are great. Any leftover meat with a little bit of an appropriate cheese can be wrapped up in pre-made biscuit or croissant dough and baked up into a warm treat.

Leftover steak (like that ever happens!) can be sliced up and tossed into a stir-fry or served as a breakfast side. It can also become a new main dish when sauteed with onions and mushrooms to be served over noodles or rice.

Broken meats just require a little imagination to become interesting and tasty meals rather than just sitting in the fridge being forgotten.

Drop us a line and let us know how you use your broken meats!

–Ann Cathey

Not the Turkey You Were Looking For

For Thanksgiving this year, I was unfortunately unable to secure the turkey I was looking forward to cooking and consuming. Instead, I wound up scrounging in the kitchen to come up with a passable meal. I think this one counts as a win.
We had a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Wine for Dummies collection to start with, that my partner found in, of all places, a dollar store (but not for a buck). It had a lovely, dark color, a somewhat fruity nose, and a delightfully full-bodied tartness.

In the chest freezer I found a pound each of ground buffalo and lamb. When mixed with the right spices (onion, garlic, and white pepper) and with a bit of red wine, this became what is affectionately known as a BAM loaf. With all the ingredients thoroughly mixed by hand, it went into a 300F oven for about two hours.

Then there were the sweet potatoes. they were peeled and washed rather than simply baked whole. We played with spiral cutting them, the spirals becoming “butterflies” and the leftover chunks going into a pan to roast. We seasoned with garlic, cinnamon and seasoned salt. While the chunks cooked to a turn, the spiral butterflies did not bake so well. I think we will try deep frying them next time.

In a heating skillet we dropped some butter and minced garlic with white pepper. Once it was browned a bit in went some sliced crimini, fresh baby spinach leaves, and a couple of tablespoons of red wine. Stir, heat to wilting stage, and serve!

 

 

 

 
The plate turned out attractively, and everything passed the discriminating taste testing. Voila!

— Ann Cathey

Lamb Loaf – Off the Cuff

We’ve had another grand adventure in manager markdown shopping today. It has led to the creation of a stuffed meatloaf of a flavor you may not expect.

Several pounds of lamb and chicken tenders, fresh herbs, and lovely veggies were all available at the grocery today, much to my surprise. Of course, it all came home with me. The plan for how to combine the ingredients started forming in the aisle and was ready to execute by the time I got home.

Chicken Tenders and Ground Lamb

My partner in the kitchen and I set about to make something not just tasty, but rich and luscious for supper.

 

To start, 2 pounds of ground lamb were combined with a sprinkling of Herbes de Provence. This was flattened out across a square plate to form a nice base layer for our intended rolled loaf. The layer of lamb was lightly dusted with seasoned salt.

 

 

Rosemary, Thyme and Sage

The fresh herbs were stripped off the stems, then roughly chopped to release the flavorful oils they contain for easier infusion into the meat. This mixture of rosemary, thyme, and sage was then sprinkled evenly across the giant lamb patty.

 

 

Layers

Next came the chicken tenders. These were laid out across the lamb and herbs to form a second layer of meat. This layer was smaller than the lamb layer to allow the lamb to seal around the chicken when rolled.

 

Rolling the Loaf

The meat was then carefully rolled into a loaf. Lamb is very tender and the loaf threatened to split, so it was left on the plate to cross the room to the crock pot. There it was gently tipped into place. A little more seasoned salt was sprinkled across the top.

The roasted garlic came out right about now. I pushed about a dozen cloves into the top of the loaf, having forgotten to add them to the inside. Talk about a happy accident.

Loaf in Crock

Roasted Garlic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mint Mead

We broke with our common practice of cooking with a wine this time. All we had on hand were some heavy reds, so we took a chance on something much sweeter. We reasoned that mint and lamb go well together, and honey is good with chicken, so we went with Ursa Major’s Mint Mead*. A quarter cup was drizzled across the meat.

 

 

Some lovely organic carrots were cleaned and laid in place to either side of our savory loaf. Fingerling potatoes were washed and added across the top of everything. We sealed it up and gave ourselves over to patience for a few hours.

 

Loaf with Carrots nested

Fingerling Potatoes added

 

 

Two hours later, my kitchen is an olfactory wonderland. The mead, meat, and herbs are hot and perfuming the air. If the smell is any indicator, we will eat well tonight. The cooking process continues…

The power went out for about an hour, but our plucky crock-pot stayed hot and kept right on cooking. At the six-hour mark, it was time for the unveiling. We didn’t even have to open the pot for the savory aroma to tickle our nostrils. Once it was open, the sweet steamed up to tease us a bit more. It was admittedly difficult to wait long enough to take the remaining photos before tasting this dish!

Roasted Loaf with Veggies

The loaf was firm and lifted out of the pot fairly easily. Cutting it was easily accomplished, the meat being quite tender. The potatoes on top came out a touch dry, but the carrots had cooked well down into the mead and juices, and were falling apart as they were lifted to a plate.

Roasted Loaf

The top of the loaf, of course, took on the flavor of the roasted garlic most strongly, while the bottommost lamb absorbed the mead and offered a sweeter, lighter flavor. The chicken played up the fresh herbs delightfully, offering distinct flavors of rosemary and sage from bite to bite. Interestingly enough, it was the potatoes that attracted the thyme flavor.

First Cut in the Loaf

I did not have to add any extra salt or pepper, though some palates may prefer some. A pat of butter on the meat and veggies, however, added a very nice scent and flavor touch.

 

 

Emplated Meal

All in all, this experiment is a smashing success. It may be a bit expensive for weekly rotation, but is well worth the trouble for special occasions. Depending on how you slice the loaf, it will handily serve anywhere from 4 trenchermen to 8 portion-concious individuals.

 

— Ann Cathey

 

*Ursa Major is a small homebrew project that takes up a large portion of my kitchen. The mead and beer produced are hand constructed by my partner in the kitchen, Christopher. For information on his project, please see Ursa Major Beverages on Facebook.