Breakfast Recipe: Paleo Island Hash

What I wanted this morning was a potato hash. However, trying to be faithful to Paleolife, I've rid myself of all real potatoes, and am trying valiantly not to touch my olive oil unless it's an emergency. I did, however, have sweet potatoes, and onions, and was dying to experiment with the new coconut oil in the cabinet.

So, once I put my beef stock up and cleaned the crockpots, I washed and de-gutted a whole chicken and placed it in the large crock after rubbing it down with Penzey's Forward! spice (more on how this turns out later). The cutting board, chef's knife, and veggies came out, and this is how the Island hash got started.

What you'll need to start: a cutting board, your favorite chopping knife, a veggie peeler, and a decently big frying or chef's pan with a lid. Your ingredients are:

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 yellow onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large sweet potato, chopped coarse but fine
1 large honeycrisp apple chopped coarsely (save peel & core for chicken stock!)

1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch pepper to sprinkle in
1/4 can coconut milk

Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until translucent. (I figured, lots of normal recipes start that way, I can do this!) At this point I added the potatoes, afraid they'd take forever to cook. They weren't doing much frying - and perhaps that is because I didn't use enough coconut oil. (Because I'm not a coconut fan, and am new to the oil, I was afraid using too much of the fragrant stuff would put me off the dish). I added the apple simply because I had one around, and could tell that if I didn't want things to burn, I'd need more liquid in the dish.

Grumbling a bit about the loss of apple pie and all things processed and sweet, I thought that the apple and sweet potato might take well to a bit of cinnamon, so I added that. Still not happy with the dry texture, I added 1/3 can of coconut milk (regular, not 'lite'). Pop the cover on the pan, turn to low/low-medium, and let it simmer away for about 5-7 minutes with the occasional stir. I let mine go for about 7 minutes; if you prefer your potatoes with more crunch, you'll want to pull it off the heat a bit earlier.

I served this with a lamb chuck center cut chop/steak that had a light dusting of pepper on it. It was wonderful (and I remembered to bag and freeze the bones for next weekend's stock making). The slight gaminess of the lamb offsets the near-dessert sweetness of the hash nicely, and I would eat this again. I found the hash to be tasty and filling (if not quite the crispy fried hash texture I had initially intended) - about 3/4 cup ended up in my belly, and the rest of it should serve as breakfast for the next three or four days (fewer for those of you who are Big Breakfast Beasts - I tend to skip the morning meal altogether, so this is a step up for me). I figure that's not bad for something thrown together with nothing but a vague idea and some handy groceries!