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Full disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of dill. I like pickles quite a bit, and I like fresh dill in salads, but beyond that, dill hasn’t exactly played a big part in my cooking. So, since I decided not to go the pickle route for this challenge, I had some difficulty coming up with something to make.

My first thought was to modify my favorite recipe for cheese-filled turkey burgers, subbing dill and havarti for the standard cheddar. The original recipe is really fantastic–the burgers aren’t bland or dry, like so many turkey burgers, due to a healthy dose of minced shallots mixed into the ground turkey, and the cheese, of course. And they have their own built-in timer–since, unlike with beef burgers, you want these to be well-done through and through, you just wait for the inevitable bit of melted cheese to start leaking out the side, and you’re done! Well, I ended up mixing the dill into the ground turkey along with the shallots, and made up a mustard-dill sauce (using this recipe, but I can’t say I recommend it, at least not for this) to try to increase the dill usage. David liked them, and I could at least taste the dill, but I think in the future I’ll stick to the original recipe, thank you.

Pretty, but meh.

Okay–on to the second recipe. After last month’s first dismal failure, I figured I’d browse the web for another dill recipe to try, just in case. There were, of course, tons of variations on the above-mentioned mustard-dill sauce, generally paired with salmon, and pickle recipes galore, but not a whole lot else. Finally, though, I came across something promising: a “traditional” Kerala egg salad recipe. Now, I don’t know whether there really is any such thing as traditional egg salad in Kerala (which is in the southern part of India, by the way), but the recipe sounded interesting–a little like deviled eggs, and what’s not to like about that? Here’s the original recipe, but what I ended up doing was sort of a hybrid of that and the plain-jane Joy of Cooking egg salad recipe I’ve been making for years. Basically, I wasn’t happy with the ratio of mayo and mustard to egg, so I kept adding both in about a 2 to 1 ratio until I got what I wanted. The addition of the dill, paprika and red onion was brilliant, though–this definitely is my new go-to egg salad recipe.

Yummy even without the bread!

I feel like there’s been some topic drift in this blog since I started it. Not that it’s obvious from its name what it’s about (I’m sure most people who come across it think it’s some sort of radical granny group’s mouthpiece–the Million Granny March!). Still, since I’ve always been a stick-to-the-recipe kind of cook, it never occurred to me that I might just suddenly start cooking off-the-cuff as much as I have been lately, letting go of Grandma’s apron strings, as it were.

Oh well, things change, and I’m kind of proud of some of the stuff I’ve come up with–like this dish. David’s co-worker Josh gave him a bit of the pork that he’d smoked over the weekend (which was absolutely fabulous–I snuck a bit while I was chopping it up), and since I’ve been cutting back on carbs lately, and as a result have been thinking a lot about variations on the poached egg over veggies (Momofuku’s egg over asparagus with miso butter has been a big hit with us), I thought, why not make a hash out of the pork with some sweet potatoes and top that with a poached or fried egg, and maybe drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle a bit of ancho chile powder on top?

Voila!

Three minutes after I’d finished the last bite I was already thinking, “I need to make this again.” Sadly, I’d used up all the smoked pork, and even if I were game to try smoking my own, I don’t think the neighbors would appreciate being smoked out of their condos (despite the fantastic smell). I suppose I could use lardons of bacon, or maybe caramelized onions. (Or go for broke and use both–mmm.)

Smoked Pork-Sweet Potato Hash

Serves 2

1 largish sweet potato (about two cups chopped into small dice)

1 cup diced smoked pork shoulder

1 large eggs

Olive oil (for frying and drizzling over top)

Ancho chile powder

Salt and pepper to taste

With olive oil coat the bottom of a large frying pan (I used non-stick, for insurance) preheated over a medium to medium-high burner. Add sweet potato and about a half cup of water, put the lid on and let steam-sauté, until water has cooked off and the sweet potato is starting to sizzle (about 5 to 10 minutes). Keep sautéing the potato cubes, stirring occasionally, til they’re starting to get browned (about another 5 minutes or so), then add the pork. Cook and stir for a few minutes more, adding salt and pepper to taste, till the kitchen is full of the wonderful scent of smoky pork goodness, then remove from the heat and divide the hash between two bowls. Drop the burner down to medium to medium-low (you might also want to leave the pan off the heat a minute or two, so you don’t incinerate your eggs), film the pan with olive oil again, crack the two eggs into it and fry them. I basically give them maybe 30 seconds on the first side, until more than half of the white is set, then (carefully) flip them over and give them another 15-20 seconds–you want the whites to cook but leave the yolk liquid, so it will ooze out over the hash when you cut into it (yum). Top each bowl of hash with a fried egg, drizzle some more olive oil over it all, sprinkle on a bit of ancho chile powder, and devour immediately.