Although St. Pat's Day is the traditional time to consume large quantities of corned beef, I always wanted to try my hand at making my own hash. I never even considered it until I had some real homemade hash at the local breakfast place. So much better than canned, it was on a totally different level. I'm sure it would take me many trials before I could even come close to the quality, but even if it came out badly, it would still beat anything from a can. So here's what I did for my first attempt.
Prep
First I gather my basic ingredients; obviously, the beef, which was leftover from my post-St. Pat's weekly shopping when the corned beef was on sale. I cooked it as I usually do, on the grill with offset heat. I saved the equivalent of about 2 1/2 cups aside for this recipe and chopped it into cubes. You may prefer to shred or even blend yours into a different or finer consistency, but that's your call. You could even use slabs of beef if you want, it's your recipe!
First, take and peel then chop a medium white onion, about 1 cup, more or less to taste. Heat up your skillet and melt a couple of pats of butter and cook the onions over medium heat until cooked through.
You should almost be able to see through the onion when it's cooked.
Peel and cut 2-3 medium potatoes. I had some russets but some prefer the Yukon gold variety.
Add your potatoes to boiling salted water and cook them almost through.
Remove some fat then chop the beef whatever way you like.
I then finish cooking the potatoes until they brown.
You can leave them in or cook them separately from the onion.
Now add the beef, mix lightly then press with your spatula, and the remaining fats will render into the potato-onion mixture, cooking to your version of perfection.
Once you start to hear sizzling, use your spatula to press the mixture harder into the bottom of the pan.
