A recipe for potato hash instead of frittata
Among things I’m known for, one is absolutely having terrible taste in media—my sister once IDed it as me liking low and high brow things, but nothing in the middle. Depending on your perspective, a possible exception to this canon is the movie Morning Glory, starring Rachel McAdams and featuring, in what I find to be some of the best roles of their career, Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton.
I won’t look up Morning Glory’s Rotten Tomatoes rating to figure out how much people don’t like it, but as I’ve already written about at probably more length than necessary, a really key part of the movie centers around a dish I have mixed feelings about: the frittata. An ideal breakfast, or brunch, or lunch, or dinner meal, the frittata is essentially perfect: a way to scrounge up all the ends you have left in your fridge, quickly, and make something entirely new.
But there’s something about frittata that I just don’t love. Puzzling, because I’m obsessed with quiche, which is the same thing, just with a buttery crust that automatically makes it more annoying to make and fancier. (I think we’ve found why I prefer it.) But I also like a hash, or a lazy person’s frittata. And so, when faced with the prospect of making a frittata, I did as I usually do and didn’t bother to turn on the oven or beat the eggs, and made a hash.
The recipe is, in essence if not actuality, the same. This time I had a mix of things, particularly end-of-season produce: a sweet potato, lacinato kale that had been mutilated by cabbage worms and had to be carefully washed and picked over twice, cherry tomatoes going bad, the end of some parmesan cheese that hadn’t been wrapped properly, a variety of fresh herbs, half a semi-soft onion, garlic, and a few eggs. Truly the stuff magical evenings are made of.
Just as frittata is not a real recipe, hash isn’t either, which is great if you’re alone and need to feed yourself. I cut the potatoes up and cooked them for a bit in one of the (gulp) three cast irons I own (my preferred dish for hash making) first, because they take the longest, and put on the lid for a bit to get the insides of the potatoes soft once they had browned. I added the onion and garlic, then the chopped kale. Once that all started to take on some color, I added the tomatoes, which released water and stopped the garlic from burning. Also smattering of herbs—I chose rosemary and thyme, which, with the sweet potato, seemed very fall festive. (Typically, I do red or regular potatoes and parsley or cilantro as a garnish at the end.) Finally, some chopped parmesan because I was too lazy to grate it and a few eggs cracked on top. Then I covered it again for a few minutes until the eggs set; mine were more so because I felt the sudden urge to switch my laundry out in the middle of this process. I seasoned as I went along, of course.
The final result had a very “Thanksgiving for a one” vibe, in the least sad way possible. Of course, I added ketchup to mine, but for the non-heathens, hot sauce would be a great addition. Hash may not have the effervescence of the word frittata, but the flavor is undeniable.
Donations Time: Last month, $125 went to the Haitian Health Foundation. Next month, your money will go to Hot Bread Kitchen, which aims “to create economic mobility for individuals impacted by gender, racial, social, and/or economic inequality in New York City, historically using the vibrant potential of the food industry as a pathway forward.” Paid subscribers of this newsletter got my updated Hot Tomato Jam recipe, as well as early access to the jars I canned of this year’s batch. There are still a few left, so if you’d like one, I’m selling them for $15 and donating the proceeds to this month’s charity—just reply if you’re interested. And as usual, you can switch to paid by clicking this button right here.