I was hoping to be a bit more creative with the title of the post, but it is what it is. After posting a pic on the Facebook fan site asking everyone to guess what I had cooking on the stove, someone responded by saying it was corned beef hash. Rewind a few years back and we were on the Caribbean Princess cruise ship en route to Antigua when I had my first experience with corned beef hash.  Not until the person on Facebook said it looked like corned beef hash, did I clue in as to why I love it so much. I went every day after, up to the main buffet while on the cruise, hunting down corned beef hash. This fry aloo and corned beef was a hit of mine since I was a kid and that hash satisfied some serious craving.

Whenever my mom would have leftover corned beef from the day before, she would add it to the fry aloo the next morning for breakfast. I also recall she would add leftover, stew chicken, beef and/or pork… gosh those were some good days for sure!

With the leftover corned beef I saw sitting in the fridge, I knew the time was right to make this dish. For those of you who’ve been following my cooking exploits to date, will recall I did both at fry aloo and corned beef recipe a while back. And for those of you wondering what “aloo” is, it’s just another word for potato.

So here’s the Caribbean take on corned beef hash.

You’ll Need…

4 medium potatoes (I like using Yukon Gold to get that nice creamy texture)
1/2 onion sliced
2 cloves garlic (sliced thin)
dash black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 table spoons vegetable oil (olive oil works great – adds a nice flavour)
1/4 scotch bonnet pepper (or any pepper you like using) * Optional but really completes the dish)
1/2 cup left over fry corned beef (see link above for that recipe)

Note: If you don’t have any left over corned beef, use  1/3 can of a good canned corned beef. My fave is Hereford, as it’s the least fatty of the ones I’ve tried in the past. Simply empty it into the fried potato and mix it in. No need for the other ingredients I used in the normal corned beef recipe.

Peel, wash and slice the potato in somewhat thin slices. I usually cut each in half (long way), then slice.  Give it a quick rinse under cool water to remove some of the starch. Then heat the oil in a pan and add the sliced onion, garlic and hot pepper and allow that to cook for a few minutes on medium heat. Until you start seeing golden edges.

Drain off the potato if you had it sitting in water to prevent it from going discolored and add the slices to the pan. Give it a good stir so everything gets coated with the onion and garlic. Turn down the heat to medium / low, cover the pot and allow that to cook for about 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on this as it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan – that’s natural. So stir every 3-4 minutes and turn down the heat if you find that it’s sticking too much.

Those brown bits at the bottom of the pot is where the real flavor in this dish is. Trust me! After the 20 minutes or so, the potato should be falling apart and tender (see pic above). It’s time to add the left over corned beef, or a 1/3 of a new can. Give it a good stir and cook for another 5 minutes with the lid open. You don’t want this going overly soggy.

I can eat this all by itself, but it’s great with sada roti or fry bake , as a side for breakfast with eggs etc and you can always grab some bread (slice, hops, pita..etc) and make some sandwiches. Before you rush to the kitchen to whip up a batch of this, please leave me your comments below – even if it’s just to say hello. It’s appreciated!  Don’t forget to join the commess (chat) on facebook by clicking on the image on the right side (upper part of the page).

A combination of being tired, lazy and hungry forced me into our pantry to find something quick to eat with the leftover rice we had from the night before. I not much of a breakfast person, but when lunch time comes around I need to get some food in me. I work from home (have done so the past 11 years now) so I have the convenience of  eating well if I want to. Today all I wanted was something fast, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice on taste. There was Mr. Hereford corned beef staring at me, as if it was saying “I dare you”…

This dish takes me back to when we owned a “parlor” (like a variety store) in Trinidad and late at nights the local drunks and bachelors would come calling on us to sell them a can of corned beef or Vienna sausages so they could have a quick meal. Even though we had closed for business hours ago and were in bed (our house was at the back of the store). I still remember telling my brother to shut up and pretend we’re not hearing them.

You’ll Need…

1 can corned beef
1 medium tomato chopped
1 medium onion sliced
1 scallion sliced
1 hot pepper sliced (remove seeds to control heat) I used a habanero pepper
dash black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ketchup
1/4 bell pepper – optional (sliced thin)

Heat a pan on medium heat, then empty the contents of the can of corned beef into it and break it apart. The original way I’ve seen this done is to heat some oil in the pan first, but since I’m trying to get back in shape I’m holding off on amount of oil and fatty stuff I use.

The corned beef itself is very fatty, so basically there’s no real need for oil. The next step is to prepare the onion, pepper, tomato, scallion and bell pepper. Normally bell peppers and scallions are not used as this in it’s original form is very rustic. But not only do I like the added flavour, I like using up the stuff I have in the fridge when I cook, so it doesn’t waste. Then toss everything into the pan with the corned beef and hit it with a dash of black pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes. Don’t cover or you’ll risk everything going soggy and into a “mush”. BTW, this is cooked on a medium heat and is good 5-7 minutes after adding all the ingredients.

This dish is only complete for me with sliced cucumber on the side as in the pictures below. Besides rice, this can also be enjoyed on sandwiches, as a topping for crackers, roti, sliced bread.. even stuffed in pitas.

Do you have a different way of making this? Leave me your comments below as I’m always looking for different ways to prepare the dishes I grew up on and I’m sure everyone else would love to learn different techniques.

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happy cooking

chris…