Potato Hash | Basics with Babish

This episode is sponsored by The Botanist Islay Dry Gin: Wild, Foraged, Distilled. Order a bottle for home delivery on Drizly: http://bit.ly/TheBotanistGinDrizly

This week on Basics, we take a look at two easy one-pot potato hash recipes: a classic and a sweet potato. Also this week I made a simple sage gin & tonic, which pairs nicely with all of the flavors going on in the potato hash.

Recipe: https://basicswithbabish.co/basicsepisodes/potato-hash

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– [Babish] This episode is sponsored by The Botanist Gin. The Botanist is distilled from a unique combination of botanicals that have been hand foraged on the island of Islay, off the coast of Scotland. The Botanist encapsulates the flavors and essence of wild Islay. It’s beautifully complex and smooth.

Its unique flavor makes for an endlessly riffable gin and tonic, just the thing to pair with the subject of today’s episode, potato hash. Let’s get down to basics. So of The Botanist’s 22 unique botanicals, the one that plays nicest with potato hash because it compliments earthy notes is wild sage, which is gonna play real nice with me while I make some hash. To make a sage gin and tonic, we’re pretty much making a gin and tonic

And shoving some sage into it. Two ounces of The Botanist gin, pour it over ice, topped with the tonic of your taste, and functionally ornamented with a slice of lemon and a spring of sage. And a metal straw, because it’s 2020, come on, don’t be wasteful.

And we have the perfect cocktail to enjoy during the preparation of and alongside with our hash, the very bedrock of which is built upon the potatoes of your choice, which we ideally want to par-cook before they end up in our skillet. You could peel, chop these up, and boil them

For five minutes, but alternatively, do you have any leftover baked potatoes? Of course you do, you love baked potatoes, and leftover baked potatoes are perfect for hash because they’re effectively pre-cooked. So once we’ve peeled and chopped them into half-inch pieces, they are ready to hop right in the skillet, but potatoes alone

Do not a hash make. At the very least, we need a chopped onion of some kind and to bring a little extra color and flavor, a chopped red bell pepper is always a welcome guest. And that’s pretty much it. If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you’re off to the races,

But if you have a meat deficiency, you’re gonna want to bring some to the party. It can be virtually any meat of your choosing. The all-time greatest hits include but are not limited to bacon, ham, sausage, and corned beef. Bacon however presents a unique opportunity in that it generates its own delicious fat,

Which once the bacon is removed from the situation, can be used to cook our hash in. First we’re gonna toss in the onions and red pepper which we’re gonna saute over medium heat for about three to five minutes until softened, and the onions are starting to pick up some color.

And then it’s tater time, about two pounds worth of peeled and par-cooked russets or Yukon golds. First we’re gonna toss those around to ensure that everybody gets evenly coated in fat and then we’re gonna press everything down into an even layer and let it sit undisturbed over medium heat for about two minutes.

Then using a firm, sharp spatula, we’re going to dig under the potatoes and flip them, exposing their beautifully browned caramelized underbellies. Then we’re gonna pat them back down into another even layer and let them sit again for about two minutes, repeating the process about four times until everybody’s cooked

And crisp and browned all over. Before the final flip, we’re going to prepare our flavor finishers, some finely minced fresh sage and our chopped crispy bacon. Go ahead and stir those in for the final flip, give the potatoes a good rustling, so our herbs and bacon are gently kissed with heat,

And then our hash is pretty much done, or you can dig in four little divots, but what are those divots for? Well, my curious friend, they’re for eggs. Crack an egg into each divot, cover, and cook over medium low heat for four to five minutes until the whites are set

And the yolks are still runny. In addition to kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, we’re going to finish our hash with some fresh minced chives. And with that, our single pot, herby, flavorful, meaty, crispy, runny, hearty breakfast for dinner is served. Let’s make sure our egg is nice and runny

Which is especially important when you’re cooking on camera and dig into our hash, which is gonna pair perfectly with our sage gin and tonic. Sage has an earthy flavor and a slight mint freshness, perfect for both cooking and cocktails, and that, my friends, is sage advice. So that’s the basic hash equation.

Now let’s throw some creative spins on the formula. Let’s start by switching up the potatoes to sweet potatoes or yams, which is gonna play even nicer with our botanical of choice. As you can see, this is not a leftover baked sweet potato but a fresh sweet potato, so it must be par-cooked.

You could either boil it for five minutes or throw it in a bowl along with some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and a tablespoon of vegetable oil, mix to combine and then cover with plastic wrap or a plate, and microwave for five to six minutes, tossing once halfway through.

This par-cooking of the potatoes is essential so we can focus on crisping them up in the pan without worrying whether or not they’re still raw in the middle. For or onion element, I think we’ll stick with the same old onion, and I forgot to buy one,

But a Poblano pepper would be a most welcome addition to this situation, because instead of bacon, we’re gonna go with some smoked chorizo. We’re adding about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pot because the chorizo doesn’t have as much fat to render out, and we’re just kinda

Browning it up in the pan, so once those are nice and brown, go ahead and fish them out with a slotted spoon, and leave all that oil in the pan so we can saute our onion, and I think some chopped apple is gonna make a real nice autumnal addition.

Once we’ve sauteed those for about three minutes, we’re gonna add our drained sweet potatoes and then it’s the same deal as before: toss to coat in oil, pat it down and let it brown for about two minutes on medium heat, repeating as necessary until everybody is cooked and crisped all over.

As with the last batch, we’re gonna add our botanicals and meat before the final flip, just so they get a little bit of heat, we don’t want to burn the sage. Then optionally we can make our four little divots in the hash, crack some eggs in there,

Cover and cook over medium low heat until the whites are set but the yolks are runny. To serve, we are of course seasoning with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper but we’re also gonna top with some thinly sliced scallions, which like the sage is gonna bring both color and flavor.

And there you have it, two quick and easy but big, bold, and flavorful hashes that can be enjoyed for any meal of the day. Thank you again to The Botanist gin for sponsoring today’s episode. As someone who loves to pair a gin cocktail with a good meal, I really appreciate the uniqueness

Of The Botanist. The combination of hand-forged botanicals compliment almost any flavor profile, which is why I’ll be making a few dishes to pair with The Botanist cocktails over the next few weeks. Order a bottle of The Botanist on Drizzly, the link is in the video description, cheers.