My Mum's Tater Ash (potato hash)
This is, as my Mum puts it, a really affordable way of feeding a family. Tater Ash seems to have lots of variations, and I find no two families cook it the same. If you're not from the north of England then you might not know what it is. Think, a delicious bowl of stew but with potatoes that fall and thicken the gravy. Onions that melt to nothing and carrots deeply flavoured by the long, slow cook. Some people use corned beef, which makes this meal cheaper still. But we always use stewing steak to make ours.Although this is slow cooked food you can also cook tater ash in your poressure cooker - if you have one. Mum and I have used our electric pressure cookers for this dish many times. We just add roughly 1/3 of the liquid advised below. I have happy memories from childhood watching my Mum use her old school pressure cooker to bring this meal to the table within the hour. In this recipe we chose to show you how to make tater ash with nothing more than a pan and a stove.
Ingredients
- 680 g stewing steak diced
- 2 kg potatoes cubed - 1/4 of them small (1 cm) 3/4 of them large (2-3 cm)
- 1 kg carrots sliced 1 cm thick
- 600 g swead 1 cm cubed
- 3 onions sliced
- 4 OXO Beef Stock Cubes Disolved in 2 pints of boiled water
- 2 pints boiled water
- Salt and Pepper To taste
- 5 tbsp Heinz Tomato Ketchup
- 5 tbsp HP Sauce
pastry
- 340 g self raising flour
- 170 g butter
- pinch of salt
- cold tap water you will add as you go a little at a time until the pastry comes together
Instructions
Prepare your veg and seal your meat
- Dice your potatoes. Around 1/4 of them should be roughly 1cm and the rest should be roughly 1 inch
- Slice carrots 1 cm thick
- Dice Swede roughly 1 cm
- Slice onions lengthways
- Get a large pan on a high heat and add olive oil. When the pan is searing hot add 1/2 of your stewing steak and allow it to brown on all sides. Once it is evenly browned remove from the pan and rest in a bowl. Meanwhile add your second half and brown that.You will start to see the base of pan turning a brown colour. This is great for flavour!
Cooking the Tater Ash
- With your pan on a medium heat add all of your meat back into the pan, including any juices
- Add all of the veg to the pan. In lots of stews you would seal all the onions and maybe even the veg too. But in our tater ash everything goes in raw and is immediately covered with stock.
- Add 2 pints of beef stock. In this recipe we use OXO cubes because that what my Nana did and it is full of comfort and convenience too!
- Add enough boiled water to cover. I used about 2 pints
- Add pepper to taste. You can add more later so don’t go over the top at this stage
- Put a lid on the pan and let it cook on a medium heat for the next 2.5 - 3 hours
- When you return and take the lid off you will be greeted by an amazing transformation. The gravy should be rich and mahogany coloured. The potatoes will have dropped and the meat should be tender. The smell will be incredible. If yours needs a bit longer then leave it to do its thing. If it's looking dry add a bit of boiled water.
Season the Tater Ash
- Add 5 tbsp of Heinz Tomato Ketchup and 5 tbsp of HP sauce to the pan
- Add salt and pepper to taste and stir
- Leave it to cook for another 20-30 minutes with the lid off. You can serve as soon as it has reduced a little.At this stage you are looking to reduce the tater ash to thicken it a bit. You don’t want it too thick. The gravy is lovely mopped up with crusty bread and butter or if you are making tater ash pie the juice is important or it will be too dry. Think gravy/sauce not juice/runny!
To Make the Pie - This is enough pastry to cover a 12-10'" baking dish
- In a bowl add your flour, butter and salt. Using the tips of your fingers rub the mix together until you get a fully incorporated breadcrumb effect. In the video we make double to quantity as we are making a number of smaller pies too.
- Add your cold tap water a table spoon at a time -using a spatulo stir the mixture to combine
- You are looking to acheive a sticky but formed texture. It shouldn't crumble apart, if it does add a little more water. If it's sloppy you need to add more flour
- Flour a clean work surface then using a rolling pin start to roll your pastry out to the size and shape of your dish.You don't want paper thin pastry because it will be dry and crisp. You also don't want thick pastry or it wont be cooked in the middle by the time the edges are done. Aim for somewhere inetween. Around 1.5cm thick
- Flour your pastry again and roll it over the rolling pin toward yourself (see the video)
- Fill your baking dish with hot tater ash
- Place the baking dish infront of the pastry and carefully unroll the pastry covering the dish
- Trim the edges with a knife. You can make jam tarts with the left over pastry
- Pinch the edges of the pie and baste with an egg wash
- Cook the pie on the middle shelf at 160ºC fan/Gas mark 4 for 25 mins. It will take longer if your pastry is thicker
- You can check your pastry by inserting a skewer in the the centre. If it comes out clean you are good to go. Otherwise leave it in and check it periodically.
- We serve this with pickled red cabbage and beetroot - it is delicious!