Fancy Brunch?

     No, it's not fancy.  But it's darned good.  I have always kept a little canned meat in the panty, and from early in the pandemic, I made a point of maintaining several cans of chicken, tuna, corned beef and Spam®  on the shelf.

     They last a long time, but not forever.  You have to rotate the stock.  I've got more Spam® than anything and I've been thinking about what it might go with.  "Breakfast hash" with potatoes, eggs and diced canned meat is always good, but this morning I realized I'm down to one (1) egg.

     What I did have -- and I've been pondering it for a while -- was a microwavable pouch of "Tasty Bite"* brand Bombay potatoes.  This is good old ordinary diced potatoes in a mildly-spicy tomato sauce, with interesting chickpeas for good measure. The flavor palette is somewhere not quite between regular (mild) chili and Cincinnati chili, and I thought it would play well with Spam®.

     I diced and browned the canned meat, with a dash of McCormick* curry powder so it could learn the role, microwaved the Bombay potatoes, and mixed them in the skillet, using a tablespoonful of water to rinse out the bag.

     It smelled wonderful.  I scooped some into a bowl and had a taste: even better!  I invited Tam to have some "experimental brunch," and she arrived in the kitchen wondering.
     "What's in it?"
     "Spam, potatoes, tomato sauce..."
     "Any beans?"
     Those green chickpeas are impossible to deny. "Some chickpeas."
     "I'll have a little."
     She took her bowl and wandered off.  I added more to my bowl, covered the skillet and followed her to the office.  "So, is that stuff any good?"
     "It's tasty!  Is there any more?"
     There was, and between us, we nearly polished it off.

     Next time, I might soak and rinse the canned meat or use the low-sodium version.  I might also scramble a couple of eggs and mix them in.  It's plenty good made as described -- and given that the usual microwave pouch and can of meat have "best by" dates a year or more in the future, it'll keep for a rainy day treat.

     If you want it hotter, you could try the Hot & Spicy Spam® variant, or use hot curry powder.  You can even serve it over rice, rice and potatoes being a pretty common encounter in Indian food.
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* Why the brand names?  Spam's sui generis.  India's a big place, and has an amazing variety of cuisines. Indian foods sold in the U. S. are often adjusted to American preferences.  "Curry powder" in particular is highly variable from one brand to another, and pretty much an invention mimicking the mix of spices a skilled Indian cook might choose.  So here are the specific kinds I used, and you may find something else that suits you better.