Sheila Lukins' Roast Beef and Vegetable Hash Recipe
Today
is Chewing the Fat's 5th Birthday! Five years ago this very day we
published our very first post! We've been hard at ever since. Now,
526 posts and almost 900,000 (!) page views later, we are celebrating this
milestone with a request: Will you please go to the bottom of this page and
tell us what you'd like to see more of, what you'd like to hear less of, and
what we can do to make you want to come back time after time. We really
appreciated your viewership and we'd really appreciate hearing from you! Happy Birthday!
It may come as a huge surprise to you,
as it did to me, to know that the #1 most viewed recipe on Chewing the Fat is one for James Beard’s Roast Beef Hash. (See http://www.chewingthefat.us.com/2012/01/james-beards-roast-beef-hash.htm) With 16,439 page views, this recipe continues to be searched for on a daily basis. To me this says three things: 1. Great
recipes never die with the Chef who created them. 2. There is clearly an extraordinary
amount of leftover roast beef in this county at any given moment. 3. And despite the fact that the finished
dish is almost impossible to photograph looking appetizing, its looks are no
barrier to its popularity.
With such a huge success on our hands, you’d
think I would have abandoned any thought of trying to find another hash recipe
at all. However, I considered it a challenge to try to top or at least
equal James Beard’s version. That and the fact I too had a lot of roast
beef leftover from a Prime Rib. Besides, Andrew positively loves hash.
Then I found a recipe from the late, great Sheila Lukins and gave it a go. The
results were another hash that was in many ways as good as Beard’s and, with
its colorful vegetables, a good deal more photogenic.
Sheila
Lukins will always occupy a place in my heart if only for the fact that she
lived about 4 blocks from where I do in New York City. She was a resident
of The Dakota, a fabled New York apartment building that also has the unfortunate
distinction of being the place where John Lennon, who also lived there, was
shot at its front door. The Dakota got its name because when it was built, it was so far north of the city center, it might as well have been in the Dakotas.
Early
in James Beard’s career, he capitalized on the Cocktail Party craze by starting
a company called “Hors d’oeuvres Inc.”.
Sheila Lukins capitalized on her understanding that the increasing number of women in the work
force needed a hand in the kitchen. With
a partner called Julee Rossi, she opened a take-out shop right near her home on
the Upper West Side called “The Silver Palate”. There she sold very boldly seasoned food to
an audience, which, in the 1970s was in the throes of a health-food movement
devoid of the rich flavors Ms. Lukins and Ms. Rossi had on offer. The pair also wrote cookbooks, which sold more
than seven million copies. A feud ended
the partnership and the store was first sold and then closed in 1993. Having suffered a debilitating stroke in
1991, tragically, Ms. Lukins was stricken with brain cancer in 2009 and died
two months later at age 66. Her recipes
survive and her cookbook is still one of my go-to sources for great home
cooking.
Sheila Lukins’ Roast Beef and Vegetable Hash is
one of those recipes. Here she combines russet potatoes, bacon, onion,
red and green peppers with leftover roast beef. The ingredient I did not
expect to find was Orange Zest but that may very well be the flavor note that
‘makes’ the dish. There’s a great deal of chopping involved here and if
you are lucky enough to have a sous-chef on hand, you will be grateful for
their participation. If not, it’s not an impossible task but everything
is diced in ¼ to ½ inch pieces. Topped with a poached egg, it’s a
wonderful supper for six, although since we are only two, I had leftovers,
which I served for brunch a few days after our dinner.
Recipe for Sheila Lukins’ Roast
Beef and Vegetable Hash
Prep
Time 20 minutes. Cooking Time 20 minutes. Serves 6.
- 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut
- into 1/2-inch dice
- 1/2-pound leftover roast beef/ cut into
- 1/4-inch dice
- 1/4-pound thick-sliced bacon, cut into
- 1/4-inch dice
- 1 each red and green bell pepper, seeded
- and cut into 1/4-inch dice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 6 poached eggs, for serving
- 1. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender, 8
minutes. Drain and place in a large bowl with the beef.
2. Cook the bacon over medium heat to render the fat, 5 minutes.
Add the onion and bell peppers; cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove with a
slotted spoon and add to the potatoes and roast beef, along with the nutmeg,
salt, pepper, orange zest and 2 tablespoons of the parsley. Toss.
3. Spread the hash mixture evenly in the skillet and weigh it down with
something heavy, like a smaller skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until
golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Turn the hash over with a spatula
and cook until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes.
4. Spoon the hash onto six plates;
top each with a poached egg and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of
parsley. Serve immediately.