Sweet Potato Hash

There's this restaurant a couple blocks away from my apartment called North Star Cafe and it's one of my favorite brunch places (not to be outshone by Katalina's Cafe Corner however). I dined there with a friend awhile back and ordered their sweet potato and turkey hash, which was amazing but also seemed super simple to reproduce at home. 

I frolicked around the internet for direction on how to reproduce this dish at home, and found simple steps from The Kitchn so I gave it a try, although I didn't follow their measurements. This is one of those recipes where you have to do lots of prep the evening before to make the hash, and then bake it with the eggs when it's food time. Also, I was trying to find sweet potatoes but they only had Japanese yams at my local Asian supermarket, which is why it looks like I'm cooking regular white potatoes when they are indeed sweet. I guess I could rename this Japanese yam hash, but it doesn't have the same ring to it.

SWEET POTATO (Japanese yam) HASH
Adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients

• 2 small/medium onions
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 3 small/medium sweet potatoes or yams I guess
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound of your favorite diced breakfasty protein - I used ham, but you can also do turkey or sausage or chorizo if you're feeling fancy
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• Pepper
• When ready to serve: eggs, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400F (I used 450F since the directions said so, but they came out more burned than I would've liked, so this adjustment is just my suggestion). Cut up onions in half, peel, and thinly slice into half moons. Melt the butter over medium-high heat, and when it begins to foam, add onions and sprinkle with a teeny bit of salt. Lower the heat slightly and cook onions down until caramelized, which should take ~30 minutes while stirring occasionally.

While the onions are cooking down, cube your unpeeled potatoes into 1/2" pieces.

Mince your garlic, toss in with the onions, and stir. Btw, the garlic press is my favorite kitchen tool of all time. I never realized that this is what has been missing from my life until we got one...

When you have about 5-10 minutes left (since you're cooking your onions for about 30 minutes), add your protein to the onions and cook for the remaining time. If you're using sausage pieces, make sure to remove from casing, break into small pieces, and brown with the onions. I used ham so I didn't worry about this. 

Toss your potatoes with rosemary and olive oil.

Mix everything together (potatoes with the sausage/onions) and remove from heat. You can do this in the bowl, but I used the wok cause my wok is enormous.

Line a cookie sheet with foil, grease, and transfer mixture in a thin layer to the lined cookie sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes until potatoes are softened and browned.

As I said earlier, I baked at 450F for 30 minutes so they came out more burned that I would've liked -- although still tasty, just more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than I would've preferred. So I recommend 400F for 30 minutes and checking occasionally, unless you like them this way.

Transfer to a tupperware and keep in fridge for up to 5 days until ready to use.

I did all the above steps the night before. On brunch mornings, preheat the oven to 400F when you wake up. Transfer a relatively thin layer of the hash mixture to a baking dish, and make wells to crack the eggs into. Sprinkle eggs with a bit of salt and pepper.

 Bake for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are hot and the eggs are baked through (I like mine a bit gooey). Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, which I forgot to do, and dig in :D

Ommm. I still have about two servings of hash left in the fridge for meals later on the week which I'm excited about.