Sunday, September 29, 2013

Roast Pork Hash!

     I'd been wanting to try it ever since Fresh Market started selling little, cooked, hot pork loins; while it's not quite as good as an old-fashioned pork roast that spends all afternoon grumbling in the oven, eventually acquiring a retinue of potatoes, celery and carrots (etc.*), it's pretty darned good.

     So-- you buy one, have a bit for supper, put the rest in the fridge and then the next morning...!  Cube it up like you would for corned beef hash; dice potato likewise, and using either some fat sliced from the pork (best) or a slice+ of bacon (not too shabby, either), get some grease sizzling in the skillet or wok.  Fry the potatoes, adding whatever suits your fancy (I went with some mushrooms and tiny onions, plus a little diced carrot and radish, reserving half the latter uncooked for a topping), add the pre-cooked pork as the vegetabled begin to brown, heat through, and if you are so minded, push it all to the sides and scramble an egg or two in the center.  Yum!

     Sprinkled with fresh diced radish, it wants very little additional seasoning. I added a dew drops of Cholula because, hey, Cholula.

     Roast Pork Hash.  Give it a try!

     (On a sad note, my second-best non-stick wok got itself demoted to fourth-best this morning and the #2 and #3 spots are open.  No matter what I do, the stickingness of it is worse for frying tatties than a plain, stainless-steel skillet.  Grr.  Time for a heavy cast-iron wok?)
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* Let me just point out the Oven Court of the Pork Roast is a place where mushrooms and the humbler root vegetables -- turnips, rutabagas, parsnips -- can absolutely shine. Srsly.  This being pork, even an apple can make a nice addition and one has to wonder -- a pear?  Perhaps.  But that's a feast for another day.

8 comments:

Bob said...

Ever heard of South Carolina BBQ Hash, Bobbie?

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Go cast iron, never look back.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

"Oh no! My non stick cast iron cooking thing is sticking after inadvertent abuse. I know. I'll make it non-stick again myself with a relatively simple procedure."

That's the way.

JohninMd.(too late?!??) said...

No such animal as a "nonstick" pan. Woks are usually carbon steel, season it by deep frying in it, ( fish, chicken or spuds, your choice) and go to town w/ it. Other than that, cast iron all the way.

Anonymous said...

Traditionally, a wok is not non-stick, so one may pull items out of the oil intermittently in the cooking process, resting it on the side above the oil.
Get a nice carbon steel one!
:-)

gfa

Roberta X said...

Bob: splendid!

NJT: I know, I know -- I am, alas, seduced by being able to pop dirty dishes in the dishwasher; scrubbing out a cast-iron pan with elbow grease, olive oil and a spot of salt for the worst areas is way too much like work. ;)

Stranger said...

Traditionally, neither water nor soap should touch a seasoned cast iron cook pot. Or any other porous metal utensil. Water rusts and soap - look up scours sometime.

The traditional way, used by cooks at least since the Romans, is river sand, a small quantity of elbow grease, and a small brush.

Since river sand is as polluted as the river, stop by the big box store and get bag of sandblasting medium. Stick some in the oven to sterilize it, and the sharp sand will make short work of grunge.

And the whisk will make short work of the sand.

And, depending on the wok's problem, sand might well cure its ailments as well.

Stranger

Roberta X said...

Stranger, I have a cast-iron griddle now and have owned cast-iron skillets in the past. Olive oil and salt do fine, and I actually rinse with water, then pop it straight on the fire and add a bit more oil, wiping up the excess (if any). Never rusts.

Neat trick: you can bake chocolate-chip cookie dough in a cast-ion skillet for wonderful blondie-type treats. The extremely even heat dispersion avoids the usual problem of a burned outer and undercooked center.