The crowning achievement of this recipe is the addition of freshly grated cheese. The cheese just gives the dish this salty, slightly punchy weight to it. I can’t imagine serving this dish without cheese, it would not be the same. Although we see cheese as an accompaniment or topping to a dish, it’s only in the past couple years I’ve really seen cheese as the balance maker in many dishes I create at home or enjoy in restaurants.
I’m excited to announce I will be an ambassador for the Dairy Farmers of Canada this year and will be writing more about cheese on the blog! With that, I’d like to point your attention to that this post is indeed sponsored by the great people at Dairy Farmers of Canada.
One of the reasons I chose to take part in this ambassadorship is because I love supporting local businesses and makers. Also, I’d love for more people to know that Canada definitely holds it’s own when it comes to cheese. There are multiple award-winning cheeses that have come from our great country and one of the reasons Canadian cheese is so unique is that we’re not bound by traditions, so there is a lot of experimentation going on. More on cheese in a little bit, let’s get to the recipe!
Everything Breakfast Hash
Made for 2-3 (hungry!) people
Ingredients:
¼ cup grated Farm House Heidi cheese (the more the better in my opinion!)
1 small green bell pepper sliced
1 small red/orange bell pepper sliced
3-4 white mushrooms, sliced
4-6 medium red potatoes, chopped into cubes (a rule of thumb I use is 2-3 small-medium spuds per person)
½ small red onion, diced
6-8 sausage links, cooked and diced (optional)
2 eggs, over easy (optional)
1 fresh jalapeno, sliced (optional)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
paprika, to taste
Procedure:
- Prepare green and red peppers, mushrooms, onions and set aside.
- In a pan, follow cooking instructions for sausage links.
- Cut red potatoes into cubes and blanche in boiling hot water for 5-6 minutes (it shouldn’t be overcooked, but enough to be soft in the middle).
- In a pan or cast iron pan set on medium heat, heat a bit of oil.
- Place the red potatoes in the pan so they are all in one layer. Cook on one side for 5 minutes (do not mix!).
- Turn the potatoes over after 5 minutes and let sit again for another 5 minutes.
- At this point, you can add salt, pepper and paprika to your potatoes – but this is optional.
- Turn the potatoes over one last time and let crisp for another 5 minutes. Remove from the pan when done, but do not turn off heat.
- In the same pan, throw in onions, mushrooms and cooked sausage links and heat until onions and mushrooms are cooked.
- Throw in peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes (or until desired doneness).
- Add potatoes back into the pan and cook all ingredients until hot again.
- This is optional, but you can also cook up some eggs to add to the top of the hash to give it more weight.
- You can also add fresh jalapeno at this point to the hash.
- Using a grater, grate fresh cheese on top of your hash – I suggest being more heavy handed, you can never have too much cheese!
- Serve hot!
Just looking at these photos again is making me drool as I write this. I wanted to highlight the cheese of the month from one of my favourite local producers Farm House Natural Cheeses. The family-owned farm creates a variety of cheeses that are available throughout BC and online at farmhousecheeses.com.
Heidi, the cheese I used in this recipe is similar to gruyère in taste and flexibility. It’s a firm cheese that has a nice rich flavor to it. It’s aged for a minimum of eight months and is perfect for fondue, grilled cheese or on top of a lovely hash.
For more information on Canadian Cheese and to support local, be sure to check out the website here: http://canadiancheese.ca
