Guest Blogger Louisa Edwards Steams Up the Kitchen!

UPDATE: The winner of Louisa's A RECIPE FOR LOVE cookbook giveaway is fleur! Please email your physical addy to contests @ knightagency.net (remove spaces). Thank you to everyone who participated :)!!!

Hi, Everyone! It's so nice to be hear at the Knight Agency blog. Thank you for having me as a guest!

I was raised in the South, where it's considered bad manners to show up at someone's house empty-handed, and since CAN'T STAND THE HEAT is all about fabulous food, I've brought a recipe for you all! We're going to make lamb hash. I don't know about where you live, but up here in northern Ohio where I am now, it's already getting chilly. This old-fashioned hash is a perfect early fall dinner--hearty enough to be comforting on a cold day, but not so heavy that you feel like hibernating after!

The concept of a hash was originally intended as a delicious way of repurposing leftovers. In this case, the original recipe calls for 3 cups of cooked lamb, chopped. With just my husband and me, I don't often find myself roasting a leg of lamb and needing to deal with the surplus. However, I love hash so much that I think it's an end in and of itself, so I adapted the recipe for ground lamb, which is readily available at a lot of grocery stores.

Lamb Hash (Adapted from THE NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK by Craig Claiborne)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

1 large onion, minced

2 tbsp chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley

2 slices bacon, cooked till crisp, then cooled and chopped

1 1/2 lbs ground lamb

1 cup canned beef broth

1/2 canned tomato sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup heavy cream, approximately

2 tbsp finely grated sharp cheese, like Parmesan or Gruyere

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Heat a large, heavy skillet (one that has a lid and is safe for both stovetop and oven) over medium high heat until the pan is almost smoking, then add the ground lamb. Stir the lamb with a wooden spoon to break it up, add salt and pepper to taste, then cook until all pink is gone. You'll get better color and caramelization if you don't stir the lamb too much, and if your skillet is large enough to give the meat plenty of room to sear rather than steam.

Remove the lamb from the pan and drain on paper towels. Allow to cool.

Wipe out the skillet and return to stovetop. Add the butter and melt over medium heat until the foam has subsided. Then add the minced onion, garlic, and chopped bacon. Stir it around to coat everything in the melted butter, then add the lamb, beef broth, and tomato sauce. Salt and pepper the whole thing, cover the skillet, and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning.

*The recipe can be completed up to 1 day ahead of time up to this point, then the hash can be brought to room temperature and then refrigerated. To reheat, bring the hash back up to room temperature and preheat the broiler before continuing.*

Lightly butter 6-8 ramekins (depending on their size) and portion the cooked hash into them. Cover each portion with a tablespoon of cream and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Brown under a preheated broiler.

Served with a simple green salad and a good vinaigrette, this hash makes a lovely lunch or light supper. And the individual portions make it attractive enough to serve to guests. We drank an Oregon Pinot Noir with it, which was delicious.

Enjoy! You'll find more recipes like this in the back of my debut book, CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, and at my website, www.louisaedwards.com, where you'll also find excerpts, deleted scenes, and a free short story! Come visit me anytime.

Bon appétit,

Louisa Edwards

LOUISA'S COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY!!!: To win a cookbook filled with Louisa's scrumptious recipes, along with those of some of today's top chefs, leave your name in the comments section. This special contest will be open all weekend! The winner will be announced Tuesday morning, September 8th.