Corned Beef Hash Recipe
Hedy Khoo | The New Paper ( Singapore ) | Wed Jan 4 2012
Singapore, January 4, 2012
If you are nursing a New Year's eve party hangover, corned beef hash is British comfort food at its simplest and best.
"It's a recipe that will make you feel better and take the edge off the festivities," says Mr Stuart Wadsworth, 35, who originally hails from Manchester and is now a permanent resident here.
"But maybe I'm just speaking for the British. Typically, we don't feel so good on New Year's day.
"People tend to party hard on New Year's eve, so this dish will make them feel good."
There are no hard and fast rules for this dish, which his mother used to cook for him when he was little.
"Just chuck a load of stuff into a pan and cook it up," he says.
Mr Wadsworth explains that he learnt how to cook it from his mother and he picked up the recipe because it's very easy.
But it turns out to be not as simple as it looks - especially when it's time to flip the hash over.
I used a 20cm frying pan.
The amount of ingredients I have listed will yield two rounds of corned beef hash.
Since I do not have goose fat on hand, I use vegetable oil, which works just as well.
I also cook an egg into the hash by making a well in the middle and cracking the egg into it.
Mr Wadsworth cooks the hash for his family about once a month or when he wants a quick and filling dinner.
For those who do not eat corned beef, he suggests substituting it with luncheon meat.
Today's Chef
Mr Stuart Wadsworth has been living in Singapore with his wife for the last 12 years.
They have two daughters, aged four and one .
Mr Wadsworth, a 35-year-old Briton who is a head of conference sales at a global media company, picked up cooking when he moved out of the family home at the age of 18.
He says: "I started with big and cheap meals with lots of pasta and vegetables."
From there, his love for cooking developed and when he bought his new home, the bulk of the renovation works was in the kitchen as that's where he spends his weekends whipping up family meals.
One of the dishes he cooks is his wife's favourite: salmon in a champagne dill sauce.
For his four-year-old daughter Alex, he sometimes does fish fillet in tomato sauce with pasta.
Says Mr Wadsworth: "The children love eating chips, but I don't make that often as it's unhealthy.
"British food used to be quite simple, but it has become sophisticated with many influences from other cultures."
He says a typical British family meal on Sundays is a roast dinner - usually beef, with sides like Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, and carrot-and-swede (a root vegetable) mash.
For lunch, Mr Wadsworth usually eats around the Chinatown area where his office is located.
His favourite local dishes are bak kut teh and murtabak. And he loves roast pork.
Says Mr Wadsworth: "I don't even bother with the rice and I'd just order a plate of the crispy roast pork."
When he cooks on weekends, he enjoys going to the Bedok South Market to pick up fresh produce.
Sometimes Alex tags along - to his benefit.
Says Mr Wadsworth, smiling: "She can speak a little Mandarin and sometimes the stallholders give me a discount."
Corned Beef Hash Recipe
Ingredients
6 potatoes, cubed
1 can of corned beef, cubed
3 tbsp goose fat
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp HP sauce
1 can of baked beans
2 eggs
Method
Boil potatoes until tender and drain.
In a skillet, heat the goose fat and fry the onions until soft.
Mix in the garlic, corned beef, potato and HP sauce and flatten the
mixture with the back of a wooden spoon or spatula.
Cover the skillet with a plate and cook for 10 minutes.
Flip the skillet over so that the corned beef hash goes onto the plate, then slide the hash back into the skillet to brown the other side for another 10 minutes.
In the meantime, heat the baked beans in a saucepan and add the Worcestershire sauce to it.
Fry the eggs.
Serve the corned beef hash with the fried egg and baked beans on the side.
Hed Chef's special seasoning added to the corned beef hash
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp rubbed sage
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground all spice
Plenty of black pepper
Pinch of salt