Morel Mushroom Sweet Potato Hash
Coming of age in the kitchen while Portland, OR [PDX] was being salivated over for the foodie revolution in the late 1990s and 2000s, one could not miss the Danish-inspired brunch location Brüder at SE Clinton & 26th. Featuring individual skillets of hash with smoked trout, bacon, perfectly sunny side-up eggs, sourdough & homemade jams and home-churned butter became a weekly striving. And so it came to pass that I decided to create my own. Originally using duck confit and duck fat as the inspiration for this delicious technique, this version uses butter to highlight and boost the morel mushrooms as the primary ingredient to be show-cased. As a chef, morels fall into the family of flavors that include rich stocks, brandy or whiskey or bourbon, warming spices, animal fats and the complexities created by caramelization. This recipe gathers many of those things and combines them into an unctuous, next-level brunch dish (or dinner... in Portland, brunch is now any meal, plus eggs in some form and bloody marys/micheladas; don't blame the Oregonians... we just like it delicious).
Ingredients
Morel Mushroom Sweet Potato Hash Ingredients
- 1 oz morels dried
- 2 medium onion yellow, medium dice
- 4 oz butter 1 stick
- 1 large sweet potato about 20oz medium dice
- 1/4 c roasted garlic mashed
- 1/4 c brandy or whisky
- 1/2 c heavy cream
- 1 pinch salt and pepper blend to finish
- 1 tbsp parsley fresh, to garnish
Chef Zack's Roasted Garlic
- ½ cup olive oil to just cover in small sauce pan
- 40 cloves garlic
Chef Zack's Salt and Pepper Blend Ingredients
- 1 oz peppercorns black
- .2 oz peppercorns white
- .2 oz peppercorns pink
- .2 oz long pepper Balinese
- 1 lb Kosher salt
Instructions
Morel Mushroom Sweet Potato Hash
- Rehydrate morels in cold water ( about 10 minutes)
- Meanwhile, add butter and onions in a pan large enough to hold the whole recipe to caramelize
- Pour boiling water on the morels to rehydrate and cover tightly
- Continue caramelizing, using the morel water to loosen the fond and deglaze, allowing the water to evaporate fully each time
- Add the minced morels to the onions and continue to caramelize
- When you have achieved the flavor and color you desire, add your diced sweet potatoes and the remaining morel water, or extra water if necessary. This is a creamy fatty dish at the final product, so make sure you cook off all the water. Sweet potatoes tend to keep their form rather than mush up.
- At about 80% cooked, add your liquour and enjoy the flames if cooking with gas
- Add more water if your sweet potatoes are too al dente
- Finish with heavy cream, salt and pepper and parsley
- Eat as part of a brunch, or serve with over-easy fried eggs on top
Chef Zack's Roasted Garlic
- Cover a small sauce pan with olive oil, then add the garlic cloves.
- Heat on low heat for 30 minutes to several hours, depending on your heat control, until the cloves are all brown and soft and the smell of roast garlic is throughout your house.
Chef Zack's Salt and Pepper Blend
- Dry toast the spices in a skillet until fragrant
- Cool and grind in a spice grinder
- Mix the pepper blend roughly 10:1 with kosher salt
Notes
Yields 6-10 servings, depending on if it is the main dish (often eaten with eggs) or a side, say with cornbread and collard greens alongside some crispy fried chicken.
Nutrition
Calories: 313kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 4gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 171mgPotassium: 489mgFiber: 4gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 8861IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 75mgIron: 6mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!