Something a little different..

I originally started this newsletter in self defense because I got really tired of answering so many individual requests for salsa recipes.  Because my restaurant has a salsa bar with 30 or 40 salsas every day, I got the reputation around Cabo as being the Salsa guy.  So for the first couple of years I did nothing but salsa recipes.  That led to a show on the food network where I was dubbed the ‘Salsa King’ by the celebrity chef du jour.  That led to appearances on TV in Reno where I demonstrated salsa making techniques in my disguise as ‘THE SALSA KING’.  Then someone at chile-pepper magazine decided to do a seven page article on me called ‘Meet the Salsa King’  I guess someone at ABC-TV in Chicago saw the article because they got in touch with me and came down and shot an interview that was shown in Chicago on Super Bowl Sunday.  I even get asked for my autograph occasionally.  So I may be the ‘Salsa King’ in Reno and Chicago but you guys know I’m just an old hippie who is a real good cook and has a no bullshit attitude about food.  Anyway, as I grew bored writing about salsas and got more and more inquiries about Mexican food in general, the newsletter seemed to evolve into nothing more than an occasional recipe and me attacking all those self-proclaimed ‘Celebrity’chefs and pushing my own cooking philosophy ……..“Cooking is fun and cooking is easy…………if it were difficult or took any brains at all, the human race would have died out centuries ago”

For most of my restaurant life I have had award winning breakfast restaurants. Mama’s Royal Café has won ‘Best Of’ awards in Marin County, Sonoma, Berkeley, and Julian California.  I was recently told by the lady who does the restaurant reviews for the prestigious Frommer’s guide that Mama’s in Cabo was in her estimation the best breakfast place in the whole country. The best place in a whole country—now that’s pretty cool.  Which leads us, in a round about way, to the subject of this newsletter.

My favorite breakfast

At Mama’s we’re pretty high-toned – serving 8 or 9 variations of eggs Benedict including one that uses crab cakes in place of English muffins.  We have crepes Florentine with hollandaise sauce, a jillion omelets, French toast stuffed with cream cheese and topped with mangoes and pecans flambé in orange liqueur – and if you feel like something Mexican we make Huevos Divorciados  or Encobijadas, Tortillas de huevo and a  raft of other regional dishes.  We squeeze all our own juices and grind our own coffee.   I do all that fancy stuff for you guys but my own favorite breakfast is plain simple hash and eggs with some home-fries and a well-toasted English muffin.  Imagine my shock and disappointment when I got to Mexico and discovered there isn’t even a word for ‘hash’ in Spanish.  What’s more there is no such thing as corned beef in Mexico.  After I’d been here for a few years, a local company started importing Corned beef from the US.  I was all over that in a hot New York minute.  In no time at all my menu featured  “THE ONLY HOME-MADE CORNED BEEF HASH IN THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY” Pretty cool, eh?  Then about a year or so ago you guys had a ‘Mad Cow’ scare and Mexico banned the import of US beef.  What a bummer!  I started making hash out of the pot roast we used for machaca.  It was good and is still on my menu but ‘Roast Beef Hash’ just doesn’t have the same customer appeal as the traditional ‘corned beef hash’ – although I still had the only hash in Cabo.  About a year later a local supermarket started selling those little cans of corned beef that you open with a key that’s stuck to the top of the can.   I figgered ‘what the hell’ and gave it a try.  For dinner or for hot sandwiches it wasn’t near as good as the real homemade but in my hash it was virtually indistinguishable from the real deal.  As a matter of fact I have had more requests for the recipe since I started using the canned. 

There are probably as many recipes for hash as there are people making hash.   I personally have made hash from corned beef, pastrami, pot roast, left over pork chops, chicken, turkey, fish, crab and my very favorite - ham.   I have an old friend who has a popular restaurant in Sonoma Calif.  His homemade corned beef hash features the meat and potatoes cut into large cubes (about the size of the dice in a monopoly game).  It’s good but I much prefer the meat to be chopped (or shredded and chopped) very fine and the potatoes also very fine (even coarsely mashed).  I use no herbs or weird spices in my hash.  I also don’t add onions or peppers, but I won’t object if you do.  I use just meat, potatoes, salt, black pepper and chopped parsley and I think it’s the best around.  I do use some garlic in the crab hash and a little chopped fresh basil in the chicken hash.  The following recipe is the way I’m now making it at the restaurant using canned corned beef.  So here’s how to make some great homemade corned beef hash without having to cook up a big old brisket – and you can make it on the spur of the moment (if you happen to have a leftover potato sitting around).

Quick and easy corned beef hash

Parts list


1 can of corned beef………………….I shred it with my fingers , then chop it pretty fine

Cooked potato…………………………You want the same amount of potatoes as meat At the restaurant I use the boiled potatoes I have on hand for home fries, but left over flaky baked potatoes are even better.  You can chop the potatoes into any size cube that pleases you, but I coarsely mash them leaving lots of lumps.

Chopped parsley…………………….... I don’t measure but I use a generous amount – at least a couple tablespoons,  Don’t be chintzy, this is not a garnish.  It is an important part of the recipe.

A little melted butter……………………fat is a very important ingredient in hash and it is not even mentioned in most hash recipes.  If you use real corned beef or ham the meat should be about 20% finely - very finely - chopped fat.  If I’m making chicken hash I skim the fat off the water I boiled the chicken in and add it to the mix.  Canned corn beef, fish and crab don’t have enough fat so I dribble in some melted butter…mmmm good.  I also fry my hash in butter and you should too.

Salt and pepper………………………… to taste.  If you’re using real corned beef or ham – taste it first because it may have enough salt.

Okay, let’s put it together

Just mix the meat, potatoes, parsley and melted butter in a bowl – taste it – and add salt and pepper.  Put a generous amount of butter in a skillet and get it hot over medium-high heat (or high-medium heat if you prefer) and add the hash.  You can add a little oil to the butter if you are scared of burnt butter.  Fry it until it’s nice and browned on the bottom and crispy around the edges.  Don’t pester it! If you keep moving it around and fooling with it - it ‘s not going to brown properly.  Oh, you can either cook it in one big batch or form it into patties --- your call.  When it’s browned and crisped to your liking turn it and do the other side.  Bing!! You just made some great hash.  Top it with a couple of poached or fried eggs and you have a world class breakfast.   Ooops, I almost forgot.  If you’re gonna use left over fish or crab you can mix a raw beaten egg into the mix – form it into patties and dip them in bread crumbs.  Call them ‘Alma’s Kountry Kitchen Kroquettes’ – they make a great and economical dinner dish.

Tell me how it turns out
Spencer