A New Day & Isolation Hash

I woke up feeling a lot better today. At first, I thought I was going to have a ‘down’ day, crashed on the couch, recovering. But after a cup of tea, looking outside at the sunshine, I found myself wanting to more things.

I stuck a load of laundry in the machine, and started chopping onion for a hash. I remembered that I had a couple of bell peppers in the fridge, so I chopped up a yellow pepper. I used up some leftover boiled potatoes which I cubed up, and at the end I sprinkled over some pimentón and cumin. Recipe below. Had it with eggs and it was amazing.

I hung my washing outside to dry (it was cold but sunny and breezy!), and then got ready to take a walk.

And I couldn’t find my keys.

I spent over an hour looking every possible place, in my shoulder bag, in pockets, under the couch… nothing.

I think I might have thrown them out by mistake.

Oops.

By the time I got my neighbours to pop the spare through the mail slot, and I disinfected them, I didn’t have much time for a walk, but I made a start on weeding my front flower bed, where daffodils and grape hyacinths are starting to make an appearance.

The sun was out and today was good.

Recipe: Isolation Hash

Ingredients

1 large onion (I used a yellow onion, but you can use anything at hand)

1 bell pepper

6-8 boiled medium size potatoes

1 1/2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (Don’t have it? Use paprika– sweet is preferable to smoky)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt

Pepper

Vegetable Oil

Directions

1. If you don’t have any left over potatoes, boil some before you start the recipe. Put them in a pot, cover completely with cold water, cover, and bring to a boil. Boiling time will depend on the size of the potatoes. Make sure they are cooked completely through after boiling: when sliced in half, they should not have an “inner” and an “outer” ring, just a sort of starburst pattern in the middle. If they seem a lighter colour towards the outside, but a distinct ring with a darker colour on the interior, they aren’t cooked through. Keep boiling.
2. Chop the onion using a fairly small dice.
3. Heat a wide based pan on medium heat with a small amount of vegetable oil. Don’t use too much, we are trying to make things last until quarantine is over, after all.
4. Tip in the onions, and season with a few good grinds of salt and pepper. Stir, and let onions start to sweat.
5. Meanwhile, cut the bell pepper in half, de-seed, and then slice into very thin strips. Add to the pan, with a little more salt and pepper. Stir from time to time.
6. Slice the potatoes into quarters lengthwise, like batons, and then each baton into 4 pieces, roughly cubes.
7. Once the onion and pepper are showing nice colour, make a hole in the centre of the pan, pushing the onions and peppers toward the outside. Dump the cubed potatoes into the middle of the pan and season with salt and pepper. DO NOT STIR for at least a few minutes. Let the potatoes get a little bit brown and crisp on the bottom of the pan.
8. Once everything has some nice colour, stir everything up, and sprinkle the pimentón and cumin over the pan. Stir to distribute the spices, and let it all cook together for a moment or two more.
9. Serve piping hot, with eggs cooked to your liking, though I recommend two perfectly cooked sunny side up with the yolks still runny.