Fried Prosciutto ham with hash browns

 Prosciutto ham is dry-cured, so there is no need to cook it. But it is delicious with some delicate cooking, till on the edge of being crispy. The hash-browns were cooked in a separate pan at a medium heat until slightly browned. The prosciutto ham was cooked with the red pepper slices  (added much later). 

Smoked Haddock with Hash Browns

Steamed skinless haddock, served with garden peas and hash browns, along with a dusting of freshly ground black pepper.
 

Pork Shoulder Steak, with Green Beans

Pork Shoulder steak, cooked at a medium heat for twelve minutes on each side. Served with hash browns (ten minutes on each side), and green beans, boiled under glass for seven minutes. Topped with chunks of pineapple.

Hash Browns, Bacon and Beans

Great bacon breakfast with hash browns, and three strips of smoked bacon. The hash browns were cooked slowly in a skillet, as was the bacon. Dressed in black pepper on serving. The hash browns took about twenty minutes as a low heat, and so did the bacon (in a separate pan). If you prefer your bacon crispy, you need a higher heat. 

 

Bacon, Egg and Hash Browns

Simple and delicious brunch, with pan fried hash browns, fried bacon, and fried eggs, served with black pepper, a pinch of salt, and American mustard. 

The hash browns were cooked in a small pan for twenty five minutes at a low to medium heat, in sunflower oil. Watch carefully, and turn occasionally. 

The bacon came from a pack of cooking bacon. Normally these consist of rashers which didn't quite make the aesthetic grade, but what I was working with was a solid block of bacon. I cut it up with a serrated knife. Fried slowly for half an hour, the last fifteen minutes of which were under glass. 

Eggs cooked for five minutes at a lowish heat in the bacon fat, and dosed with a pinch of salt. 

 

Lorne Sausage, with Beans and Hash Browns

A simple dish of square lorne sausage, with baked beans, chopped cherry tomato, spinach, and diced spring onion. Served with slices of fried potato (hash browns).

The best way to cook lorne sausage is slowly, and under glass. Otherwise it tends to buckle. Cooked for ten minutes altogether, five minutes on each side (then drain the fat). A delicious and satisfying meal.

The cherry tomatoes, spinach and spring onion were cooked first, and then supplemented by the baked beans. The hash browns were cooked slowly in another pan, in some sunflower oil, again under glass.  Dress in dried basil or oregano, according to choice.

Lorne Sausage with Sweet Potato and Hash Browns

Lorne sausage is often served as part of a formulaic breakfast menu, but it is much more versatile than that! Here it is served with hash browns, spiralised sweet potato, and spring onions.

The sausage cooks fairly quickly, so it makes sense to begin cooking the hash browns first. They will be done in around fifteen to twenty minutes, in a little sunflower oil. The sausage will be cooked in around twelve minutes, at a medium heat.

The spiralised sweet potato and spring onion will be cooked in ten minutes or so in a steamer.

Served with a dressing of black pepper, and a serving of American mustard.

Chorizo Sausage with Baked Beans and Hash Browns

A fabulous breakfast. The potato slices were cooked in a pan with sunflower oil. Ready in around 18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the slices. If the potato pieces are cooked with the chorizo, then you require very little sunflower oil.

The beans were prepared in a separate pan, and dressed with some basil and black pepper.

Done in twenty minutes.

Haggis, Hash Browns, and Caramelised Spring Onion

Deeper into heresy! Slices of haggis served with hash browns and caramelised spring onions.

All three components were cooked in a large and glass-lidded flat pan. I started with the flat cut hash browns, because they would take up to twenty minutes to cook. The hob was set to a high heat and a drizzle of sunflower oil was added. Once the potato started to sizzle, I added the diced spring onions after that, followed by the slices of haggis.

Once the haggis began to brown, the heat was turned down to a low heat, and the ingredients were cooked under glass for ten minutes. The potato pieces were turned over, and the haggis slices, and the spring onions were given a stir occasionally.

The final five minutes of cooking were at a medium heat with the lid removed.

Served with tomato ketchup and a little ground white pepper. 

Lorne Sausage with Caramelised Onion

A simple but delicious Sunday breakfast. Two pieces of square Lorne sausage, cooked slowly in their own fat under glass, plus red and white diced onion caramelised in a little sunflower oil (or butter, if you don't mind the calories).

Served with two flat cut hash brown potatoes, some ketchup and freshly ground black pepper.

I generally cook Lorne sausage for about seven minutes each side under glass. The onions were cooked in an unlidded omelette pan for fifteen minutes, and stirred about once per minute.

Lorne sausage is made of finely ground beef (hence the description 'steak Lorne'), mixed with flour, herbs and spices, including in most cases, juniper. You can make your own, but these came ready-made from the Co-op.

Beefburgers with Fried Onions and Hash Browns

A long day, with a lot of travelling. I took the beefburgers out of the freezer, and put them into a bowl to defrost before I left.

On returning, the preparation was relatively quick (chopping the onion, and flat-cutting the potato). I heated a flat-lidded pan with sunflower oil, and placed the vegetables in the pan.

Then I added the defrosted beefburgers, and cooked them at a high heat for five minutes. After that the beefburgers were turned, along with the potato and onion, and then they were further cooked for fifteen minutes under glass. Occasionally the potatoes were turned along with the onion.

The beefburgers were turned again, and cooked at a high heat for a further five or ten minutes or so (judge by eye).

The burgers, potato, and onions, were decanted on to a serving plate dressed with black pepper, and then slathered with some tomato ketchup. Quick and delicious!

Pork and Chestnut Meatloaf, with Hash Browns

400g of finely ground pork sausage meat from Sainsbury's prompted the making of this dish. I chopped up two small white onions, about 100g of Merchant Gourmet chestnuts (chopped), two handfuls of porridge oats, and a level dessert spoonful of cornmeal. Mixed together by hand in a glass bowl for about ten minutes. I added a little salt and a pinch of oregano. You can add a beaten egg to make sure the resulting loaf stays together, but it should be fine without it.

Place the sausage meat into a bread baking tray. I used a silicon bread tray since it is so easy to get the contents out, and to clean it. Texture the surface with a fork, and sprinkle a little paprika on the surface. Cook in the preheated oven for between fifty minutes and an hour at about 180 to 190 deg C. Check frequently toward the end of the cooking process.

The hash browns were leftover potato pieces from an earlier dish. Cooked and browned in an omelette pan. The sauce was made with onion, celery, yellow pepper and tomato puree in a small saucepan. The vegetables were stir-fried first until tender. Add a third of a vegetable stock cube and water, plus some oregano and rosemary. Simmer for twenty minutes.

Reheating the slices of meatloaf is easy in a flat lidded pan. Cook at a low heat under glass for at least fifteen minutes.

Ham and Eggs, with Hash Browns

A guilty pleasure. Breaded ham trimmings bought from Aldi, with hash browns made from flat cut raw potato, fried in a little sunflower oil under glass.

Normally hash browns are made from potatoes which have been boiled previously. Which means they are already cooked, and it is a matter of heating and browning. Cooking the raw potato from scratch can take up to twenty minutes at a medium heat. So start with those before beginning to fry the eggs. Turn the potato pieces a couple of times.

The ham was served cold. The ham was taken from the fridge a couple of hours before the meal was prepared, and allowed to reach room temperature.

Serve with black pepper and mustard according to taste.

This works as well with poached or scrambled eggs.

Lamb Steak with Mushrooms and Hash Browns

Two lamb leg-steaks, pan-fried for around 25-30 minutes at a low to medium heat, after searing at a high heat for three minutes or so each side. The steaks were turned frequently with tongs. They were under glass for the last ten minutes. They can be served as they are, or with a lamb and onion gravy.

The preboiled potatoes were added after about ten minutes, and also turned occasionally, until browned.

The mushrooms were prepared in a separate pan, and cooked in a little butter for about ten minutes.

Serve with black pepper.

Full English Breakfast, with Chestnut Mushrooms

Smoked bacon and hash browns, served with fried tomatoes, chestnut mushrooms, toasted potato bread, and one fried egg, sunny side up. Add black pepper and tomato ketchup (or mustard, according to taste).

The mushrooms were cooked in butter in a separate pan, followed by the egg. Everything else was cooked in a medium sized skillet. The bacon was cooked first, and at a medium heat, then the chunks of boiled potato, and the tomato quarters.

An English breakfast now sometimes includes baked beans or tinned tomatoes, depending on where you are. The bacon sometimes is replaced with pork sausages.

Poached Egg with Black Pudding

A simple breakfast with black pudding (aka 'blood pudding'), poached egg, hash browns, chopped fried onion and two peeled tomatoes.

The onion, hash browns and the black pudding were all cooked in a large saute pan for twenty minutes at a medium heat. The black pudding and the hash browns were turned three times during the process, and the onions were stirred around also. The pot was lidded, but at a slight angle, to allow moisture and steam to escape.

The tinned tomatoes were heated slowly for the twenty minutes. The heat was turned up to medium, and the egg (in a silicon poacher) was placed in the middle of the tomatoes during the last five minutes, with the pot completely lidded.

Garnished with some leaves, and served with black pepper.

Pork and Beans

Referred to in a song by Jim Morrison and the Doors ('Back Door Man', written by Willie Dixon), which didn't make much sense to a Brit on first listening. After the start of WW2 baked beans in Britain became just that: baked beans. Before the war tins of beans in the UK were like those in the US - a mixture of pork and beans. The excuse was saving money and making beans cheaper in straightened times. But in Britain we never went back to pork and beans, and plain baked beans has been ever since an important component of the British diet. I always have about eight tins of beans in my kitchen cupboard. 

So I reconstructed pork and beans with some sliced roast pork. A delicious combination. What would you serve it with? Potatoes are the obvious option, which may have been served with the pork and beans on the cattle herding trail in the old West. Boiled, roasted, or even plain hash browns, cooked on the fire. Excellent with black pepper. 

Pork and Beans

Salami Breakfast with Hash Browns

Roughly cut sections of Wild Boar Salami, stir-fried with white or chestnut mushrooms, flat-cut potato, and a salad tomato cut into eight pieces. The potato was cooked first in a little sunflower oil until soft and browned, then the other ingredients. Stir-fry for around ten minutes, judging the progress by eye, and then leave under glass at a low heat for another seven minutes, to ensure thorough heating. Stir occasionally. 

The egg can be prepared in a separate pan, to prevent any discolouration from the paprika in the salami. 

Salami Breakfast with Hash Browns

Black Pudding with Cinnamon

Sunday breakfast. Scottish black pudding from Simon Howie, flavoured with cinnamon, cooked in a skillet for seven minutes each side at a medium heat, reduced towards the end of the process. Best cooked slowly rather than quickly. Cooked along with the quartered tomatoes. 

Two onions were chopped into thin strips and stir-fried in sunflower oil in a saute pan, until partially caramelised. A high heat to start with, and then reduced to a medium heat, stirring frequently. The hash browns were cooked in the same pan. All ready to serve after fifteen to twenty minutes of cooking. Requires no condiments, but German or Dijon mustard is recommended.

Black Pudding with Cinnamon

Bacon and Potato Hash

Some cooking bacon to be used up, and some leftover boiled potato? A bacon and potato hash is in order! So, halve the boiled potatoes, halve about a dozen cherry tomatoes, chop up two spring onions, and cut the bacon into thin strips. Stir fry in a saute pan, with a little salted butter, for ten to fifteen minutes, depending on the heat and how brown you want your bacon. The photograph shows the dish midway through the fry.

For really crispy bacon, fry the bacon first before adding the other ingredients. Serve as it is, or with a fried or poached egg, with mustard on the side and black pepper. 

Bacon and Potato Hash