Saturday Breakfast: Potato and Sausage Hash Topped with an Egg

...or "Put a Bird (Egg) on It"

Really, there's no egg theme here, nothing to look at, eh? - even though this is my second post in a row with an egg-topped dish. There will be more egg-topped food upcoming (Uovo in Purgatorio) but not right away.

Last Friday night we made chicken breasts stuffed with pancetta/tarragon chicken sausage, mushrooms, leeks, garlic and thyme. With some of the mixture left over it seemed like a good time to revisit breakfast hash on Saturday.

Yeah, the rolled-up stuffed chicken breasts were delicious, but we were cooking up a storm with no time for pictures. I'm not holding out on you. I wouldn't do that to the few people I know who read this plus the two people I don't know. Next time we'll document it.

Recipe: Potato and Sausage Hash Topped with an Egg

There are no hard and fast amounts of ingredients called-for. You can add herbs,garlic, roasted chiles, substitute green onion for onions, add-in some cheese at the end - it's up to you. The really important thing is that your diced potatoes are beautifully browned. Balance the heat so that you can spread them out and leave them alone for a few minutes before you turn them.

Serves 4

Equipment: A really big saute pan/skillet or two big pans - you want color on the potatoes and don't want them so deep in the pan that they steam to the point of collapse before they have browned.

Ingredients:

• 5 medium-sized russet potatoes diced (small, approximately 1/3"). Unpeeled is just fine (and preferred!) as long as you've thoroughly scrubbed them.
• Approximately 2 cups fresh sausage of choice (we used two sausages) removed from their casing.
• 1 small onion, diced
• Oil - neutral oil with a high smoke point (we used canola)
• 4 large eggs - fried or poached
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

• Place the diced potatoes in a microwave-safe glass bowl large enough to be able to stir them easily. Microwave on 50% power for about 5 minutes.  Stir and repeat - for 2 minutes. Set aside. You can skip this step - it will just take the potatoes longer to cook.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a saute pan or skillet in which you will ultimately be cooking the potatoes over medium/medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering and there are little wisps of smoke coming off the surface. Add the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon or heat-proof spatula but don't move it around so much it doesn't color.  You want to brown, not 'gray' the meat. Adjust the heat as necessary to keep it from burning. As the sausage browns, break it up to the extent that pleases you.
• When the sausage is browned and cooked through, take the pan off the heat, spoon out the sausage from the pan and drain. Pour the oil and left-over fat from the sausage into a heat-proof bowl and reserve - any solids will end up on the bottom of the bowl after a couple of minutes. Use a crumpled paper towel to thoroughly wipe out the pan. Replace the pan on the burner, add 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved fat in which you cooked the sausage and heat on medium until the oil shimmers. Add the diced onion and a dash of salt and pepper. 
• Cook the onion, adjusting the heat if necessary, until the dice is translucent and most of the edges are light brown. Scrape those out of the pan over top the sausage you cooked and drain. Again, pour the remaining oil/fat out of the pan and wipe it out thoroughly.
• Add enough oil to the pan to coat the bottom. Start with 2 tablespoons. Add potatoes to a depth of no more than 1/2". Toss to coat and then adjust the heat so that you can leave them for about 4-5 minutes at a time until you turn them with a wide spatula. Continue until the potato cubes are tender on the inside with a golden brown crust and then add the sausage and onions back into the pan to warm.
• Cook the eggs to order - fried or poached is best. Serve the hash topped with an egg.