A few weeks ago I was browsing Sam Sifton’s (NY Times Restaurant critic) best dishes that he ate in 2010. It’s a fun little interactive piece. It has sound but if you have a few minutes and want to get really hungry, you can check it out here.

Some of the dishes are pretty complicated and would be really hard to reproduce at home (hence their greatness), but one dish jumped out at me as completely make-able. So make it I did!

The dish is an interesting twist on potato hash that includes some tangy apples and sweet honey. It’s just as easy to make as normal hash really but the flavors are way more complex and delicious.

Sweet Apple Hash

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Russet potatoes, diced (you could use any potato really)
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
4 ounces bacon, cubed
2-3 Tablespoons good quality honey
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Prepare all ingredients. Cook bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat to slowly render out fat. Remove bacon and save for later once it's crispy, about 10 minutes.

2) Add diced potatoes to skillet with bacon fat and cook over medium-high heat until browned and almost cooked, maybe 8 minutes.

3) Once browned, add apples and bacon to pan and heat for another minute.

4) Drizzle honey over hash and stir to combine and coat hash.

5) Serve immediately with eggs.

Adapted from a Vandaag recipe.

The restaurant that Mr. Sifton went to charges $8 for this dish which honestly sounds like a heck of a deal to me. I thought it would be at least double digits.

It only has a few ingredients really. Try to use good honey and bacon if you can. That makes a huge difference.

Of course, I have no idea how the restaurant actually prepares this dish, so I just kind of winged it. I decided it would be a good idea to fry up everything in bacon grease since I was making bacon anyway.

When is it not a good idea to fry stuff in bacon grease?!

I think the most annoying part of this recipe is dealing with the apples. It’s just kind of a pain peeling, coring, and chopping apples.

But you can do it. I have faith in you. Toss in a bit of lemon juice with your apples to make sure they don’t turn brown.

In your favorite skillet (I recommend cast iron or non-stick), add your bacon and cook on medium-low so the fat gently renders out.

After a few minutes this should leave you with a Tablespoon or two of bacon grease and some really crispy bacon which you can scoop out of the skillet and reserve for later.

Then add your potatoes to the skillet and cook them over medium-high heat until they start to brown nicely. This will take maybe 8 minutes.

You don’t want them cooked completely, but almost if that makes sense.

Then add the apples and bacon back to the dish. Toss a few times and hit the whole things with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook for another minute or so just to heat everything and blend all the flavors. Be sure not to over cook it at this point or the apples will get soggy.

The Best Part

Once your dish is practically done, drizzle in a few tablespoons of honey.

This really sends the dish over the top.

Toss the dish one more time to heat up the honey and create a glaze over the hash.

As with any hash, I served this with some really runny over-easy eggs.

This was one of the best hashes I’ve ever had without a question.

So, if you happen to live in New York and can stop by Vandaag for brunch, more power to you.

For everyone else, I highly recommend this stuff. I think it’s going to become my default hash. The salty and sweet combo is just out of this world.