Name: Leftovers: Cheesy Corned Beef Hash
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter, bacon fat, or olive/canola oil (I used bacon fat); 1 medium onion, chopped; 5 medium red potatoes, baked and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (or use leftovers from slow cooker corned beef and cabbage); 2 cups finely shredded cabbage or leftovers from from the slow cooker corned beef and cabbage (I used Fresh Express angel hair cole slaw); 2 cups leftover corned beef - cut into 1/2 inch cubes; salt and pepper; 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese; 4 fried or poached eggs (optional)

Cheesy Corned Beef Hash (Leftovers)

March 18, 2015

There is no better way to use up your St. Patrick’s Day corned beef than cheesy corned beef hash. Top it with a fried egg for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Who’s tired of me talking about corned beef (raises own hand)? Sorry. You can’t make corned beef without making corned beef hash, and aside from Reubens, I can’t think of any better way to use up St. Patrick’s Day leftovers than corned beef hash (well, these boxties were pretty good). There’s nothing better than the kind of leftovers that only get better the longer they sit in the fridge, and corned beef fits the bill.

I’m a big fan of making hashes of all sorts for dinner…leftover ham and sweet potatoes? Let’s make a hash out of it. Leftover roast beef and carrots? Um, hello, hash? Heck, even chicken and broccoli mix pretty fantastically into a hash. The truth is, if you cook up a little onion, some vegetables, and some meat in a pan and throw a runny egg on top, you really can’t go wrong.

I don’t always put cheese in my hash, but when I asked Philip if he thought I should put some cheese in this corned beef hash, he pointed out that cheese is never a bad thing. Well, rarely, anyway…I suppose there are some things you should probably leave cheese out of. But it was definitely a good idea here, especially with some rye toast. And you guys, we used up every single bit of our leftover corned beef, which is always a good thing. This meal came together in less than 30 minutes, not counting the time it took for the potatoes to cook in the microwave (you could definitely use the leftovers from the slow cooker corned beef and cabbage, but ours had been sitting the fridge for a few days and I hate the way potatoes taste after days in the refrigerator. By the way, if you hate cabbage, like I know a lot of people do, feel free to leave it out.

Do you like to use your leftovers to make hash? What are your favorite ingredients to use? If you have corned beef, do me a favor and make this cheesy corned beef hash!

Yield: 4 servings

Leftovers: Cheesy Corned Beef Hash

10 minPrep Time:

20 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, bacon fat, or olive/canola oil (I used bacon fat)
1 medium onion, chopped
5 medium red potatoes, baked and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (or use leftovers from slow cooker corned beef and cabbage)
2 cups finely shredded cabbage or leftovers from from the slow cooker corned beef and cabbage (I used Fresh Express angel hair cole slaw)
2 cups leftover corned beef - cut into 1/2 inch cubes
salt and pepper
4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
4 fried or poached eggs (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the butter, bacon fat, or oil over medium heat in a 12-inch skillet. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the potatoes and corned beef and stir to combine. Press the hash with a spatula and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes, until browned.
Carefully turn the hash over and press down again. Continue cooking and pressing until mostly browned, then stir in the cabbage and cook until softened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Top the hash with the cheese and allow to cook for a minute or two so the cheese begins to melt. Divide among 4 plates and top each plate with a fried or poached egg, if desired. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/leftovers-cheesy-corned-beef-hash/

Click here to print the recipe for cheesy corned beef hash!

Brewhaus Chattanooga-Revisit

March 9, 2015

Brewhaus Chattanooga is the Chattanooga North Shore’s homage to German pubs. They serve great food and great beer in a relaxed atmosphere.
I’ve blogged about BrewHaus before, back in 2012. We liked it a lot (except for the German potato salad….I did NOT like the German potato salad!). We were out enjoying the sunshine and relative warmth this past weekend, walking the bridge and welcoming Spring-like weather after three weeks of nastiness. Since BrewHaus just reopened last week following the fire in January that shut the restaurant down for several weeks, we decided to drop in and see how things were going.

The restaurant looks great…I don’t know how much the fire affected the seating area as it happened in the kitchen, but everything looks just as it did before. We like to sit on the balcony, so that’s what we did. The menu is relatively unchanged, though I was excited to see fried pickles and cannot remember for the life of me if they were there the last time I went. The fried pickles are chips (woohoo!), lightly breaded and served with a dressing that tasted like horseradish. The fried pickles were nicely seasoned and a little spicy, with the dip adding a little additional spice. They were not greasy at all. Definitely some of the best fried pickles around.

I decided to order the Hamburg cheeseburger with pimento cheese and potato cakes on the side. The burger was nicely griddled and served on a chewy bun with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. I really enjoyed the pimento cheese, which was melted a little on top, though I do think that pimento cheese burgers work better on a soft bun that doesn’t slide around as much. I had to be very careful while eating this burger so that my burger didn’t slide right out from underneath the bun top! All in all, though, a good burger. I really liked the potato cakes. They were a nice break from the usual fries, small patties of potatoes seasoned and fried till golden brown. Delicious.

Philip went for the chicken salad sandwich-chunks of white meat chicken with pecans, dried cherries, and mayonnaise served on toasted white bread. He liked the chicken salad, but he didn’t love the chicken salad. He ordered the spaetzle, German dumplings served in a cream sauce with mushrooms. The spaetzle was very good, creamy and well seasoned. He also had a Chattanooga Brewing Company Chestnut Street brown ale, which he thoroughly enjoyed. As you might expect from a restaurant named BrewHaus, they have a pretty nice beer list, with domestics, imports, and craft beers, and local beers…draughts, bottles, and cans.

While we were there, they were setting up for a parking lot party being held that evening to celebrate their reopening. All proceeds from the party were to go to charity. I overheard our server, David, telling the couple sitting next to us that because the community had been so supportive of them in their time of need, they wanted to give back. Other local restaurants and bars, including The Bitter Alibi, Root Kitchen, Chattanooga Brewing Company, and Mellow Mushroom hosted events benefiting BrewHaus and had the BrewHaus staff take over their establishments so that they could continue to pay their own bills. It’s very encouraging to see the restaurant community take care of each other!

We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at BrewHaus Chattanooga.

During the day, it’s a nice family-friendly environment. The menu is good, small enough to not be overwhelming but with enough variety that just about anyone can find something to order. I recommend BrewHaus! By the way, our order was about $30 pre-tip.

BrewHaus Chattanooga is located at 224 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37405. You can call them at 423-531-8490. You can visit the BrewHaus website and check out the BrewHaus menu. You can also like BrewHaus on Facebook and follow @BrewHausChatt on Twitter.

Easy Beef with Broccoli

March 4, 2015

Beef with broccoli is a recipe that my grandmother used to make. I’m sure it’s far from traditional, but it’s easy & delicious, and that’s all that matters!

Beef with broccoli is another dish that I remember from my childhood, something that my grandmother made fairly regularly. My friends thought that my family was a little odd considering the things that we ate, at least at my grandparents’ house (though, as I mentioned, I didn’t eat Chinese food until I was an adult so I didn’t actually eat this when she made it). I was pretty much the only kid at my rural elementary school who had Chinese food on my dinner table. Some of my friends even thought it bizarre that I ate asparagus on a regular basis.

I’ve mentioned before that my grandfather was in the Air Force, so of course the family did lots of traveling and lived in exotic places. No doubt my grandmother picked up a love of exotic foods and she decided to recreate them at home. Dishes like beef with broccoli and chop suey were regulars on the dinner table, and I remember stories about my dad and his sisters being a little self-conscious about her packing the leftovers in their lunch when their classmates were no doubt toting peanut butter on Wonder Bread.

The funny thing is that, as I peruse her recipe books, I find that most of these “exotic” recipes are newspaper or magazine clippings, usually ads published by food companies like La Choy. So the recipes really aren’t exotic at all…they’re just Americanized versions of exotic recipes. But that’s okay, because the only thing that matters is that the food is delicious.

This beef with broccoli, which I adapted a little bit from the recipe that my grandmother clipped from a newspaper recipe section many, many years ago, requires a little bit of prep beforehand. Stir-fries cook quickly so it’s important to have all of the ingredients ready before you start cooking…but once you get that done, you just fry it all up and don’t look back. Skirt steak or flank steak are perfect for this recipe, and freezing the meat for about 45 minutes will make it much easier to slice super-thinly.

This beef with broccoli is a quick and delicious meal-I doubled the recipe so we had lots of leftovers for lunch!

By the way, as I was cooking this meal, I couldn’t stop singing this song:

Yield: 4 servings

Beef with Broccoli

1 hr, 30 Prep Time:

15 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

1 pound boneless beef, trimmed of fat (flank steak or skirt steak are preferred)
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 pound broccoli, florets cut apart, stems quartered and cut into small pieces
1 red, yellow, or orange pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

Instructions

Place the beef onto a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 45 minutes. Remove from the freezer and slice the beef as thinly as possible against the grain. Place into a large bowl.
Stir together the chicken broth, soy sauce, sherry, cornstarch, and ginger until the cornstarch is dissolved. Pour 1/4 cup of the sauce over the beef and toss to coat. Let stand for 30 minutes.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Remove the beef from the marinade and cook until no longer pink. Remove from the skillet and set aside. Wipe out the skillet.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high in the skillet. Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds. Add the broccoli, water chestnuts, and the peppers and sauté until crisp-tender, stirring constantly. Add the remaining sauce and cook until thickened. Add the beef and the tomatoes and cook until heated through. Serve with rice or chow mein noodles.

Notes

Prep time includes inactive prep time to freeze and marinate the meat.

https://chattavore.com/beef-with-broccoli/

Click here to print the recipe for beef with broccoli!

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Pasta with Beans and Swiss Chard

March 2, 2015

One-pot pasta with beans and Swiss chard is a one-pot take on the Italian classic, pasta with beans & greens. It’s warm, soothing, and surprisingly simple.

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Pasta with beans and Swiss chard is the Cook’s Illustrated version of pasta with beans and greens, which is apparently a pretty ubiquitous Italian dish, though I’d never heard of it until recently. Apparently, it’s usually a sausage-laden affair, but I’m not really a fan of Italian sausage. Their version, though, with pancetta and Swiss chard, sounded pretty intriguing, so I decided that I’d have to try it out.

We’ve had quite a bit of cold weather and some snow, which is pretty rare for our area. You guys, I am not built for the cold. Now, if you are from the North, don’t go yapping at me about how it’s not really all that cold here. I am completely aware of that. I have lived in Tennessee for all of my thirty-six years, though, and temperatures in the twenties and below are enough to send me over the edge. Ever winter I complain incessantly about the cold, and every winter I pledge to never, ever complain when the summer heat causes the mercury to surge toward 100 degrees. And I never, ever do. I. Love. Summer.

Still, cold weather has its advantages. Few and far between they are, but such is life and we do need seasons . A few summers ago we had an extremely mild winter and our indoor cat somehow got fleas because apparently fleas kind of got out of control (but good grief, how did they get in my house????). And we spent two weeks living in hell. So I’ll deal with the winter. But besides controlling the flea population, another advantage that I have to admit to is that winter food wins.

I mean, there are the obvious holiday foods. Christmas food (prime rib! all the snacks ever! an excuse to bake with abandon!) is reason enough to love winter…but then there’s soup, which admittedly I eat year round, but in the winter you need soup. Braises with rich meats that are perfect served over creamy mashed potatoes and pasta dishes thick with tomato sauce and cheese just bring a certain level of comfort on those days that you just don’t want to step outside. And then there are one-pot meals, which is what I decided that this dish needed to be.

The original recipe from Cook’s Illustrated required the pasta to be cooked separately from the other components. I started thinking about this one-pot macaroni and cheese, where the pasta is boiled in the milk, which thickens up perfectly from the starch released into the liquid. Hmmmm…could I do this with the dish. Why yes, yes I could. The starch of the beans (especially since you don’t drain the beans) combined with the starch of the pasta thickens the liquid to make a rich sauce, to coat the hearty crunch of the chard stems and the tender bite of the chard leaves, the savory pancetta….it all works so perfectly together. And you only have a knife, a cutting board, a pot, and a spoon to wash.

So you should make this pasta with beans and Swiss chard…and make it snappy. Spring is just around the corner.

What dishes do you like to make to warm you in the winter?

Mary

Yield: 4-6 servings

Pasta with Beans and Swiss Chard

This recipe is adapted from Cook's Illustrated.

20 minPrep Time:

30 minCook Time:

50 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
3 ounces pancetta, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
10 ounces Swiss chard-stems finely diced, leaves coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
1 garlic clove, minced to a paste
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, with their liquid
1 15-ounce can pinto beans, with their liquid
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces (2 1/2 cups) fusilli or rotini
salt
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Parmesan cheese, for serving

Instructions

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until smoking. Add the pancetta and cook until it begins to brown. Add the onion the chard stems and cook until they begin to soften. Add one teaspoon of the rosemary, the garlic, and the red pepper flakes and cook for about 30 seconds.
Add the beans with their liquid and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the chard leaves and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the pasta is al dente and the chard leaves are tender.
Remove the pot from the heat. Add the remaining rosemary and the vinegar. Season to taste with salt. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese for topping.

https://chattavore.com/pasta-with-beans-and-swiss-chard/

Click here to print the recipe for One-Pot Pasta with Beans and Swiss Chard!

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Blue Cheese Fondue (FoodWorks Copycat)

February 27, 2015

Blue cheese fondue is a fabulously tasty and easy appetizer or snack that I based on my favorite appetizer from the Chattanooga restaurant FoodWorks!

Blue cheese fondue is a signature appetizer at Food Works, which for several years was our absolute favorite restaurant in Chattanooga. We visited there for multiple anniversaries, birthdays, and other occasions…and some non-occasions. In fact, I’d say that Food Works was the restaurant that shoved me out of being a pretty chain restaurant dependent person and into being a lover of local restaurants. Thanks for that, Food Works!

It’s been a while since I’ve been….I can’t even remember the last time, actually. However, while making a recipe for Whisk Magazine back in December, I whipped up a blue cheese sauce to combine with spaghetti squash and tasted it with some chips or crackers or something that I had in the cabinet. It struck me that it tasted a lot like what I remembered from Food Works…the warm, creamy fondue served with fresh, hot, housemade sweet potato chips. I could probably order those as my meal, and I could most certainly eat them until I was sick.

So, when I asked for suggestions on Facebook of what recipes from Chattanooga restaurants I could try to replicate here, I was glad when someone mentioned Food Works’ blue cheese fondue. I can’t guarantee that my fondue tastes exactly like theirs, but I can tell you that it has the qualities that make the blue cheese fondue at Food Works so endearing to me (as I mentioned before, it’s warm, creamy…and a little pungent with ripe, salty blue cheese, but not in an off-putting, over done way).

As for sweet potato chips, I haven’t perfected a recipe for those yet. I don’t love deep frying, so I try to avoid that when possible. I make awesome microwave potato chips (I need to rephotograph those soon) but when I tried using sweet potatoes in the same application they were soggy and floppy. So…I don’t bother. I’ve kind of become obsessed with these SimplyNature sweet potato chips from Aldi, though of course you could buy any brand of sweet potato or regular potato chips that you’d like (or make them yourself, of course). But if you like blue cheese, you should give this blue cheese fondue a try! And if you are a person who doesn’t like blue cheese (apparently, there are a lot of you), you could use a really sharp cheddar.

Just make this blue cheese fondue and share it with someone-or don’t share, your choice.

Mary

Yield: 4-8 servings

Blue Cheese Fondue

This recipe is adapted from foodnetwork.com.

10 minPrep Time:

10 minCook Time:

20 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 ounces crumbled blue cheese
salt, to taste
chips, crackers, or toasted bread slices for serving

Instructions

Melt butter in a large (10-12 inches) nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute.
Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until thickened. Add the cayenne, blue cheese, and salt to taste, stirring to completely combine. Serve immediately with sweet potato or regular potato chips, crackers, pita chips, or toasted bread slices/crostini.

https://chattavore.com/blue-cheese-fondue/

Click here to print the recipe for blue cheese fondue!

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