The first time I had hash was when I visited an American Legion Post in Williamsburg, VA around the spring of 1996. I won the American Legion Americanism & Government Contest for that year and was invited to visit Washington D.C. and the surrounding area. Part of the trip was to visit some of the American Legion Post along the way. Those wonderful gentlemen prepared breakfast for us 18 kids from Ohio. They made hash for the cooks and offered us some. I think I was the only one to accept and I thought it was good.
When I got back to Ohio, I found that the ready made version of the hash didn’t quite taste as good. Therefore, I began work on my own version that used ingredients closer to what they served at the Post.
Ingredients:
- 16 ounces of frozen shredded potatoes
- 1 pound of spicy Italian sausage
- 2 TBSPs of brown sauce (I use HP)
- 1 TBSP of chai seeds
- 1 TBSP of wheat flax
- 2 TBSPs of balsamic vinegar
- 1 TBSP of agave
- 1/2 cup of ginger beer
- 1 cup of shredded Italian cheese
- 1 TBSP of olive oil (extra virgin if possible)
- 2 TBSPs of hot sauce
Spices:
- 2 TBSP of Italian seasoning
- 1 TBSP of dried onion flakes
- 1 TBSP of red pepper flakes
- ½ TBSP of dried chives
- 1 minced clove of garlic
Gear:
- Skillet
- Large wooden spoon (to stir sausage)
Directions:
- Lightly mix all the oil, vinegar, and half of the ginger beer into the skillet.
- Heat the stove top to medium high.
- Place the potatoes in the skillet and mix in the spices, hot sauce, and brown sauce. Make sure the potatoes soak up as much of the oil mixture as possible.
- Once the oil mixture has been stirred throughly in the potatoes and those potatoes are starting to become transparent, move the potatoes to one side of the skillet
- Add the sausage and agave to the other side of the skillet.
- Once the sausage is lightly brown, stir the potatoes and sausage together.
- After a couple of minutes, add the chai seeds and stir.
- When the potatoes are lightly brown, add the remaining ginger beer and stir.
- After a couple of minutes, add the flax and stir.
- After a couple of minutes, add the cheese and stir.
- Turn off stove when potatoes are browned and the cheese is melted into the hash.
This is a great hearty breakfast for a cold winter morning. I tend to like hash with some oatmeal or by itself.
