Saint Patrick’s Day Corned Beef Hash

Younger people sometimes forget that not all of Ireland is green (Catholic) especially kids who like to pinch you if you aren't wearing green on Saint Patrick’s Day.  There is also the color orange in the Irish flag that represents the Protestants.   And the wide white stripe in the flag represents peace between the Catholics and Protestants (the Irish sometimes forget about that white stripe!)

In our household we have blended our religions.  I was raised Protestant and the LOML (Love of My Life) was raised Catholic.  So we are, in a fashion, Orange & Green “Irish” (neither of us has an ounce of Irish blood but on St. Paddy’s day everyone is Irish!).  Last year, the LOML had some extra time on St. Paddy’s day and came up with the following orange, green & white hash recipe using corned beef.   

Corned beef is very popular in Ireland (and England as well as other countries), it is beef (usually brisket) that is preserved by soaking in a brine often with additional herbs and spices (a brine is a mixture of salt and water).  You can make your own corned beef.  I've never done it but there are recipes available on the internet.  

By the way, hash is kind of like a dry stew – small pieces of meat usually mixed with potato.  If you prefer stew to hash, experiment and add some broth!

Freezing Stew

My favorite magazine – “Cook’s Illustrated” - is, of course, dedicated to cooking.  I really like how the authors write about how they go about developing a recipe.  Besides giving lots of good cooking tips, they also evaluate equipment and food products and since they don’t have advertisers or sponsors to answer to, I find their recommendations to be spot on.  They also give lots of good cooking tips.

One of their cooking tips caught my eye in the recent Sept/Oct 2013 issue (page 31) titled “Freezing Stew? Read This First” (not a MLA style citation but you've got all the information!).  I like to cook in quantity and freeze meal size portions for future lunches and dinners.  I have frozen plenty of stews so  I was surprised by the brief article (which I shall further condense) that not all cooked vegetables freeze well.  The author cooked and then froze a number of common stew vegetables including the following that I often add to my stews – squash; carrots; peas; sweet potatoes; and red, Yukon gold, and russet potatoes.  They found that the potatoes and squash were reduced to a watery mush after freezing.  Their advice was to cook the squash and potatoes on the side and add them in when reheating the stew.