Cajun Ham Hash Recipes

POTATO AND HAM HASH

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
• When the butter has melted and has stopped foaming, add the diced potatoes, onion, bell pepper, and ham. Mix well.
• Cook the hash until well browned, stirring and turning frequently. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste, and add the crumbled dried thyme.

SPICY HAM HASH

Steps:

• Heat 3 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 cups green onions, ham, and bell pepper. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add potatoes, thyme, and Cajun seasoning; stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook 8 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until potatoes are tender and crusty, occasionally scraping up browned bits, adding more oil by tablespoonfuls if potatoes are sticking, about 7 minutes longer. Mix in remaining 1/2 cup green onions. Season with salt and pepper.

EASY HAM HASH

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine ham and onion. Shred potatoes and add to ham mixture. Stir in the butter, Parmesan cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and pepper. , Spoon into a greased 11x7-in. baking dish, pressing down firmly. Combine cheeses; sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted.

CAJUN GLAZED HAM

Steps:

• Trim ham of all fat and pierce ham all over and score surface.
• In a small bowl combine brown sugar, jalapenos, garlic, vinegar, mustard, paprike, pepper, cayenne, thyme and oregano.
• Place ham on foil-lined baking sheet and spread 1/3 of the glaze over ham.
• Bake in a preheated oven 350 F for 20 minutes.
• Baste with 1/3 of the remaining glaze and bake for another 20 minutes.
• Repeat, total cooking time should be 1 to 1 1/2 hours . Baste often.
• Allow to rest 15 minutes before carving.

COUNTRY HAM AND HOMINY HASH

Steps:

• Place the ham in a pot with the bay leaf and peppercorns. Cover with water and simmer for about 1 hour, until the ham is fork-tender (see Know-how, page 172). Add the potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes more, until the potatoes are just beginning to get tender. Strain the ham and potatoes from the pot, reserving about 1/4 cup of the liquid, removing and discarding the bay leaf, and set aside.
• Using two forks, shred the ham into bite-size pieces and place in a large bowl. Add the potatoes, hominy, and onion. Stir in the reserved cooking liquid and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. (Country ham is salty, so be sure to taste before adding any extra salt.)
• Heat the olive oil and butter in a large nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the ham-potato mixture and spread into a flat cake. Cover with a splatter screen or lid and cook until crispy, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip and re-form the cake. Cover and cook, adding a little more oil if needed, until crispy on the other side. Remove from the heat and cover.
• Fill a large skillet with water about 2 inches deep and bring to a boil. Add the vinegar and salt and reduce the heat to a simmer.
• Add the eggs one at a time and poach for 2 to 3 minutes, until the whites set and a thin, translucent film forms over the yolks (see Know-how, page 86). Use a slotted spoon to gently transfer the eggs to a paper towel-lined platter to drain.
• Divide the hash evenly between individual serving plates, place 1 or 2 eggs on top of each, and serve hot.
• For a more rustic interpretation of this dish, make a hole in the hash, crack the eggs in the hole, and cover to fry, rather than poach, to your liking. For a sweet-and-savory combination, substitute sweet potatoes for the russets, and for a crispy finish, scatter fried oysters on top. Or, make a cheesy variation by layering the hash mixture with Gruyère cheese in a skillet to form one large cake and sauté until brown and crispy. Slide the cake out of the skillet and cut into 4 to 6 wedges, then assemble the dish as for the main recipe.
• Hominy is the name for corn kernels that have been hulled to remove the bran and germ. Lye hominy is hulled by soaking the corn kernels in a weak lye solution-a very traditional, centuries-old Native American method-and pearl hominy is hulled mechanically. It is then dried and either ground to make our beloved hominy grits or boiled whole to make what New Orleansians call "big hominy." You can buy hominy canned, meaning precooked, or dried, in which case it will need to be presoaked and boiled in the same manner as dried beans.