Butternut Squash Hash

Happy New Year, everyone!

So after some baked apples, and Mom’s peppermint bark candies, I did finally get in the Christmas spirit and really enjoyed the holidays.  I will confess though, I haven’t done much cooking since before Christmas.  I took advantage of all the family dinners and the leftovers that come with them!

But now that the holidays are over, it’s time to get back in my regular routine – and that includes cooking a real dinner after work (at least a couple of times a week!).  Before New Year’s, I had bought a couple of good steaks, fully intending to make a fancy New Year’s Eve dinner for Brian and myself.  Didn’t happen.  We lazed around the house watching movies all weekend, and cooking a fancy dinner was just too much work!  We ended up going out New Year’s Day for a late lunch.  I would have cooked, but since Brian suggested going out…well, I happily accepted!  (Now, I did make sauerkraut and sausages on New Year’s Day, but I used the slow cooker.  Nothing better than cooking and being lazy at the same time!)

However, that meant that I had some really nice cuts of meat that needed to be cooked.  All right, I’ll have a fancy weeknight dinner!  I also had a couple of squashes stashed away from my Fall CSA share that needed to be used up pretty soon.  What else…oooo, bacon!  And little gold potatoes, red onions…that works!  Butternut Squash Hash!

I didn’t have a recipe for this, and I’m terrible with measuring, but I’ll try to approximate amounts.  The hash made two hearty servings, which was perfect, since I was just cooking for me.   (I’ll probably take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow).

I diced about half of the small butternut squash and about the same amount of little gold Yukon potatoes.  I also diced up about a half cup of red onion and three strips of good, thick cut bacon.

I cooked the bacon in a flat sided pan until it was crispy, then pulled it and put it aside.  I had quite a bit of bacon grease in the pan, so I drained a little of it, but not all.  I turned the heat up to high and tossed in  the butternut squash and potatoes.  I added salt, fresh ground black pepper and a couple generous pinches of Chinese Five Spice.

I cooked this on high for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the squash and potatoes could get carmelized all over.  Then I turned the heat down to medium low and added the red onion.

I let this cook until the squash and potatoes were soft – about another 10 minutes.  I added the bacon bits back in just before I served it so they stayed crispy.

While this was going, I cooked the steaks in a skillet.  While the skillet was preheating on medium high, I seasoned the steaks with olive oil, salt and pepper.  I cooked the first side on medium high for about 5 minutes, then flipped and cooked the second side for another 5 minutes.  Because these were really thick pieces, I then turned the heat down and let them continue to cook for about another 10 minutes.  Perfect medium rare.  Awesome!

I topped the steak with some herb butter and served it with a big helping of the hash.  It was fantastic!  The hash had a deep, warm flavor from the five spice, and the herb butter was fresh and sweet.  It was a nice contrast and made for a happy belly!

While I was taking pictures, my big orange cat, Jake, sat down in the chair across from me.  I think he was wondering where his steak was – I know he didn’t want the butternut squash hash!

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