What is This ForGreetings from the Colonies! I am hoping that someone in this newsgroup can identify a certain utensil that turns up in second-hand shops here with...
Hmm, did I put my foot in it? First, you have to make a New England boiled dinner. That consists of either US style corned beef-- there are recipes online for making it-- or a smoked shoulder. You put it into a big stock pot and cover it with cold water and throw in whole spices as are used in corning beef, like peppercorns, cloves, etc. Not too much as we speak of New England and not Mumbai. That simmer for many hours. When the meat is almost cooked to total tenderness, you add whole peeled onions, whole peeled potatoes--many more than you need-- peeled carrots and some celery legs. Simmer until these are almost done and then add large wedges of cabbage, again plan for leftovers of all these vegetables. Separately cook beets, never in the pot with the other stuff, because they will look vilely pink if you do. Remove the veg with a slotted spoon into a large bowl. Remove the meat to a platter. Add some vinegar to the simmering broth and pour some of the broith over the veg. Carve the meat. That's the first day. For the hash itself, you mince the leftover meat, or at least some of it, since some will have disappeared into sandwiches made with rye bread, mustard and maybe horseradish. Chop the leftover vegetables coarsely, icluding beets. If there isn't a lot of cabbage, I shred and cook up some more in the broth before making the hash. Chop some fresh raw onion. Put some (a lot) bacon fat into a really heavy large frying pan and toss in the onion. Brown that. Mix the (drained) meat and chopped veg together and throw onto the browned onion. Stir around a bit and let it cook slowly to develop a browned crust. Taste for salt and pepper and add just a little of the reserved broth. Stir the crust in a couple of times, then cover and let cook over a very very slow flame until there is a thick and quite browned crust, but be careful not to let it burn! Those sugary carrots and beets catch on easily. On occasions when there were more mouths than leftovers, my mother broke whole eggs into dents she made in the top a few minutes before it would be done. If I do that, I shake a little Tabasco onto each egg, and salt them a bit. Then recover so they poach on the hash.
