One potato, two potato, Sweet potato and more...

So a couple of weeks ago when I ventured back in to the pintrest realm and found the cauliflower crust to satiate my pizza craving, I stumbled upon a pin for sweet potato hash. I love sweet potatoes! And I don't mean that in the sense that I loved Bon Jovi, Nelson and dare I say it, NKOTB, as a pre-teen and teenager. You know the kind of love I mean, where you profess undying love and then it sours after a week or two. I would honestly take a naked, baked sweet potato over its fully loaded cousin, smothered in butter, sour cream and chives any day of the week.  I will even eat potato chips again, so long as it is the Covered Bridge Sweet Potato chip from New Brunswick. I don't remember not liking sweet potatoes, so when I found this recipe for sweet potato hash I knew that I needed to try it.

I did not follow the recipe, I'll admit it. If there is one thing that my mother dislikes the most about when I cook, it is that I don't always follow a recipe. Sometimes I see multiple ideas and I combine them in my head and then make them and they turn out beautifully. The trouble is though, that if I did not write it down or make notations somewhere then I cannot repeat it or tell people what I have done. I like experimenting though and not having to follow a recipe all the time.

I had a few sweet potatoes from Elmridge Farm in my fridge and since I do not have a food processor, I decided to use my little Kitchen Aid food chopper to chop up the potato. No way was I about to risk my knuckles and bits of skin grating the dense little suckers. So I chopped up two small potatoes and roughly a quarter of  a white onion and I let it sit in the fridge for a bit. I did not use any salt on this and this was my first mistake. I rarely cook with salt. The only time I use salt on anything is if it is for a recipe and a chemical reaction is required. Beyond that I rarely use salt. When it came time to cook it, I heated my pan for the hash and my grandmother's little cast iron pan; perfect for one egg. I added a little olive oil to my big pan and dumped the contents of my chopped sweet potato and onion into the hot pain and listened to it sizzle while I checked the heat on the other pan. I then added some extra spicy Mrs. Dash to the sweet potato mixture, and that was mistake number two. I then cracked the egg into the other pan and sprinkled a little Mrs. Dash there too. I like spicy and I thought it would pair well with the sweetness of the potato; it usually does when I roast veggies in the oven. I did not use my universal lid on my frying pan to allow the sweet potatoes to steam a bit, that was mistake three. I ended up undercooking the sweet potato and it did not brown up as much as I thought it would. So my first attempt at it was not a flaming success but it was not an unmitigated disaster either. It just required a few minor adjustments to the process.

Tonight I decided to try again. I went to the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market today and invested in some more Sweet Potatoes and this time around I decided to add some bacon from Sweet Williams to the mix. Unusual choice for me since I spent most of my childhood avoiding the bacon and egg brunches we would have at least one Sunday a month growing up. The only egg I liked was scrambled and unrecognizable with ham, peppers, onions and cheese added to it. The smell of bacon used to repulse me. However I have grown a new appreciation for bacon and even eggs. It is ironic that the things that I avoided as a kid are now the "safest" things for me to eat. Mind you, it doesn't mean that I gorge myself on them, it just means that I have grown to appreciate them and don't shy away from them as much anymore. Anyhow, tonight's hash was prepared slightly differently. I chopped it the same and added onion but this time I ground a little pink crystal salt and fresh black pepper into the mix before placing in to the fridge. When it was time to cook the mix, I heated the pan a little more because I had to cook the bacon first. I diced it, cooked it, drained the fat and let it rest on paper towel while I cooked the sweet potatoes. I added regular Mrs. Dash to the preparation this time. Much better option as it was not overpowering. I used my lid to allow the sweet potatoes to soften further. It steamed them nicely and I had more browning to the pan. I added the bacon back in towards the end of the cooking time and blended it well. I cooked my egg the same as before but used the regular Mrs. Dash on it as well. It gave it all a much nicer flavour. To top it off, I had some Schoolhouse Gluten Free Bakery English muffins in the freezer, so I toasted one and topped it with Thompson's Strawberry Jam.

I felt bad about not participating in I Love Local Halifax's City Harvest today, but I was not sure who had gluten free options and did not have the heart to traipse around only to be disappointed. So I did my own City Harvest meal today and it was worth it! Will definitely be making it again!

Attempt #1--Good but needed some adjustments

Attempt #2--Far superior!