I YAM Excited for Breakfast - Sweet Potato Hash

Do you ever feel like there aren't enough days to try all the recipes you see or come up with? When I feel like that, I will start meal planning around events with friends or family so that I can try a new recipe each time. Who doesn’t want a free home cooked meal?

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make a breakfast of champions for my Smalls and G Smalls (sorority sisters in my lineage for those non Greek Life individuals). I planned on making homemade sweet potato hash accompanied by eggs and bacon. What more could you want, especially after a night of enjoying some libations?

When you start your day right with a big breakfast, you are just happier

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes, washed

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

3 tbsp olive oil

dried thyme, salt, black pepper, and Adobo seasoning (I put this ish on everything) to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

2. Dice the sweet potatoes into half inch cubes and place onto a baking sheet (you may need to use two to ensure the sweet potatoes are in one layer). Toss on oil, and seasoning. If I had to guesstimate the seasoning amounts, it'd be 3 tsp of dried thyme, 2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of black pepper, and 2 tsp of Adobo seasoning.

3. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes or until sweet potatoes are crisping up (you'll want to stir the potatoes halfway through the baking process)

4. While potatoes are in the oven, place a medium saucepan on medium heat. Drizzle in 1 tbsp olive oil and butter.

5. Once the butter is melted, add in onions, stir to coat in oil/butter mixture, and cover with a lid

6. Since we are caramelizing the onions, just leave it alone to do its' thing. Stir every once in a while to ensure it is not burning.

7. Once the sweet potatoes are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside (it should be easy to poke through the sweet potato with a knife or fork) and the onions are caramelized, carefully remove the baking sheet(s) and add the sweet potatoes into the caramelized onions.

8. Cook to combine the flavors together and taste to check the seasonings. Add more as necessary.

Serve and enjoy! This dish refrigerates well, just crisp up the sweet potato hash on the stove or in the oven to warm.

Leftovers crisped up well on the stove

Baleadas

Pictured from left to right: Diana, JP, and Digna

Recently, I went to Honduras and was able to meet up with a few friends! I cannot thank them enough for spending the weekend with me exploring caves, taking nature walks, and showing me the foods to eat like a local.

Panorama view from one of the restaurants we visited

Since not too many places were open on a Sunday night after 9PM, we went to Baleadas Express. Typically a dish served for breakfast, a Baleada is composed of a flour tortilla folded in half and stuffed with refried black beans and a white queso. However, the fillings can be anywhere from scrambled eggs, chorizo, chicken, or anything your heart desires.

First Baleadas Express experience with JP and Liscien!

Since I was missing the warm weather in Honduras, my friends there, and the delicious food, I made Baleadas to temporarily bring me back.

Looking at various recipes for flour tortillas, I adapted the recipe from City Wife Country Life to what I needed:
http://www.citywifecountrylife.com/2010/11/5-tips-for-perfect-homemade-flour.html

Ingredients
Flour Tortillas:
3.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of crisco
2 cups of boiling water
Unsalted Butter

Fillings:
15.5 oz can of black beans, drained
Guacamole (feel free to use your favorite recipe)
I used cheddar cheese but if you can use Honduran Cheese, such as queso duro, all the better!
Sliced medium rare steak (optional)

Instructions
1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and crisco in a large bowl without mixing
2. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon to get the dry mixture to come together. Add more water as needed until the mixture combines into a ball
3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes (to work the gluten!)
4. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest for 15-30 minutes.

Now would be a good time to prepare whatever you wanted to fill the tortillas with. I fried up some steak and had help making guacamole (shout out to IG Koleridav for making the guac!).

No wine was harmed in the making of flour tortillas.

Once your dough has rested, divide the dough into golf sized balls and roll it out as thin as possible (no floured counter needed). In case you do not have a roller, I made an impromptu roller by wrapping a wine bottle in saran wrap (worked out decently).











In a pan on medium heat, butter the pan and place the tortilla on it. Fry for about 2 minutes (or until golden brown) and flip the tortilla. Fry for another minute or so. To keep them warm, place in a tortilla warmer or in a clean kitchen towel and place in oven set at Warm. Continue until all the dough has been cooked.

Assembly
Take one tortilla and on one half of it, add 1-2 tbsp of black beans, 2 tbsp of guacamole, 3 thin slices of steak, and top with shredded cheese. Fold over and enjoy!

Starting the Hangry Chef Blog!

Everyone has a story to tell, they just do so in different ways. Some express themselves through photography, others through music, or the arts. My story is about satisfying the hangry in me through my love of travelling, eating, and cooking.

Although my passion started when I had an EZ Bake oven as a youngin', my skills truly came to the forefront in college. Having a busy schedule and a limited budget forced me to meal prep on Sundays in order to avoid having to buy quick and typically unhealthy meals.

My college apartment kitchen became my haven as I gave my brain a break and let my soul do the cooking. Whenever I was stressed out, I would cook a meal and share it with my friends (aka free taste testers). After three years of cooking for myself and almost everyone at WPI, I thought it'd be a great idea to open a food truck and serve other hangry people such as myself.

Although I will wait until I pay off my student loans (and save some money) to open the food truck, it doesn't mean I can't start cooking and documenting my food adventure now. Fortunately, a good friend of mine shared an article that shed insight into using your 9-5 job as the means to fund your passion (for those of you interested you can find the link to the article here: http://liveyourlegend.net/the-art-of-transitioning-within-why-your-9-5-could-be-your-greatest-asset-in-living-out-your-passion/). Thus begins my adventure to test out different recipes for my food truck and just enjoy some good food with good company along the way.

Welcome to my life as the hangry chef.

Instagram account: @hangry_chef