SALMON HASH

Locked away for several years because an old ISP vanished in a puff of consolidation, I am what passes for pleased these days to announce that The World At Home is back. And it's going to stay back because I am going to have a brass plaque with the login information bolted to my forehead (I don't really approve of tattoos so this seems to be the next best option. Apropos of nothing whatsoever, I am including a photograph of a recent breakfast, salmon hash, just to prove the technology (that I can send a photo from my phone through a program that shows up on my computer where I can copy it and then save it, to be recalled as needed.) but in case you're wondering, here's how to make it: First, bake more potatoes than you need. Depending on the crowd at dinner, I generally bake either five pounds or ten pounds of russet potatoes. A fair bit is meant to be eaten at dinner, and a fair bit left over. Leftover baked potatoes are essential for making hash browns. I probably bake potatoes more on the Weber Grill than in the oven, and in case you are wondering, the target internal temperature for baked potatoes is 200F.

So there you have your cold, baked, potatoes. Get them out of the fridge and put your largest cast iron frying pan on the stove, with the gas on a sort of medium level. Peel the potatoes (always peel the potatoes. Unpeeled potatoes tell the people you're feeding them to that you don't really like them all that much) and dice rather small. You're looking for surface area. A quarter inch dice is probably too small, 3/8ths is fine, half is okay but getting a bit big. A mix is fine. Don't obsess. Speed is a good thing here, because your skillet is getting hotter. You should finish chopping the potatoes just a few seconds before the frying pan gets too hot. Add butter. Not oil, not margarine, and not too little butter. You have a big pile of potatoes, so you need a reasonable quotient of butter. If you think it might be too little, it is too little. There really isn't any such thing as too much. The butter sizzles and melts, and the moment it's all melted, you add the potatoes and spread them evenly across the surface of the pan. Then you turn the heat *up* and step back. It's hard. You *want* to flip the potatoes around, but you mustn't. The object is to get the surface of the potatoes crispy and, oh yeah, brown. So Leave Them Be. Eventually you'll sense that they are ready to be turned. It's cast iron-- they won't stick. Cast iron IS nonstick. Turn them over, and knock the heat down a bit. Remember, they're already cooked, this is all about surface quality. The more crispy--but not burnt-- surface, the better. Somewhere along the way, you have sprinkled freshly grated salt (not very fine, please!) and sweet, smoked, Spanish, paprika. If you want to add chopped corned beef or chopped, grilled, salmon, stir it in near the last-- it's already cooked, and you're not trying to alter the surface. You just want it mixed in and hot.