Hearty veggie hash rendered indulgent

Once the holidays hit, no matter how exhausted I may be from a year of nonstop cooking, I get an 11thhour wind to cook even more. But instead of my usual meals for one or two, I like to invite friends over for late, lazy breakfasts. And just because Christmas and Thanksgiving are over doesn’t mean I’ve switched into new year diet mode yet. I like to take this last week of the year to indulge myself in hearty fare one last time. This year, I’m striking a balance between both customs by making a veggie-heavy breakfast hash that makes enough for a crowd but is just as easy as cooking for one. Oh, and it just so happens to be bathed in bacon fat.

Now I know some of you may be turned off by that, but my years raised in the South left an indelible taste for bacon fat-coated vegetables. While you can use butter or olive oil, the distinctive taste of bacon works particularly well with these root vegetables: creamy, robust rutabaga and sharp, fresh celery root, both plentiful in markets now.

The genius of this hash though is that it is fully cooked in the oven. The veggies get steamed to get them tender before getting blanketed with thick-cut bacon, which bastes the vegetables in their fat as they cook. A final blast of heat gets the edges crisp.

I stir in baby greens in the end and serve the whole melange with a fried egg on top and pickled onions. It’s a hearty breakfast to end the year on, one that satisfies my need to cook just one more big meal in bold fashion while retaining the ease necessary for this brief respite before the new year and new work gear up.