Haphazard Cooking

At 7pm this past Friday night, my roommate and I were starving. However, we were in a implacable and uninspired mood. There was no motivation to cook as we had nothing to eat. We hadn't been able to make a trip to the grocery store recently, so we were at the very end of our rope. Out of survival, we decided to pool our meager resources and come up with something simple and hearty - a hash.

Hashes are so versatile. A hash usually refers to a dish consisting of diced meat, potatoes, and spices, fried in a pan and often served with eggs and toast for breakfast. Ours ended up a bit different, but luckily in a delicious way.

Since I had sweet potatoes and she had regular potatoes, we chopped both kinds up and started frying them up in a pan of hot olive oil (~3 tbsp). As they sizzled, I chopped and onion and some garlic to add to the mix. In another smaller pan, we crisped up some leftover extra firm tofu (the only "meat" we had) that we had cubed and soaked most of the extra water from, seasoning with some salt and pepper.

Back in our hash pan, after about 8 minutes the potatoes seemed to get soft enough for us to add in some chopped baby corn (cornlettes) and torn (leftover and wilted) pieces of kale. While stirring the veggies in, we decided to add a shin ramyun (a very popular korean instant noodle soup) spice packet to the mix (our only available spice we had on hand). At first, I was very skeptical about it. Really? Spicy and sweet? But my roommate insisted. Shin ramyun makes everything taste better! Trust me. After adding shin ramyun, it then seemed only natural to add a tablespoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of sesame oil - comfortable Asian flavor building blocks.

Soon after the spice, we added the crisped up tofu, and let all the flavors meld for about 3 minutes. Next, we created 2 wells in the hash pan and cracked an egg in each well. We lowered the heat to medium-low and covered the pan up to allow the egg to steam itself (but also ensure the yolk inside was still runny). After about 3-4 minutes, we uncovered the pan, and voila! Our hash was ready.

We worked carefully to scoop up our hash first without disturbing the egg. We then picked up our egg and topped it off over the hash. It was marvelous. Even though we started off with zero motivation and a lackluster attitude, our enthusiasm grew along with the delicious aromas of our interesting asian-inspired-hash-creation.

The potatoes were just right - tender yet a bit crispy on the outside. The sweetness of the sweet potato was surprisingly well matched with the spice of the shin ramyun. All of the vegetables still had a bite to them and the tofu hadn't gotten soggy and disappeared into oblivion. And the runny egg yolk helped add some moisture and more flavor to the dish.

I guess it just goes to show you that sometimes the best cooking can be done with leftovers and an open mind. And to always believe in shin ramyun.