Opa's Corned Beef Hash

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite dishes and favorite recipes ever. I just made it tonight so I thought I'd share it.

The Story Behind It
The story goes that Opa, my German grandfather, learned this recipe while a soldier in the Kaiser's army in WWI. He was drafted at around 16 and served for a year or two until he took some gas, which fortunately didn't maim him for life but did get him out of the war. Anyway, later on, when he got married, this is what he would cook when his wife, who normally did all the cooking, was out of town or sick. My mom loved this stuff as a kid and then years later, when she had her own kids, she made this too -- especially during camping trips. Because there are no fresh ingredients and it can be made with instant potatoes, it's perfect for camping. It doesn't -look- pretty but practically everybody loves it.

Pic!

I know it looks unappetizing but it's good, I swear!

Ingredients
I make it using these ingredients. None of it is very exact and you can substitute real potatoes for fake of course.

1 box (1 lb.)  instant mashed potatoes
for instant  mashed potatoes: milk, butter/margarine, salt, water, as directed on package
1 small can (1 cup) plain tomato sauce
1 can corned beef
1 bottle (1 1/2 cup) sweet gherkins (pickles), chopped
sweet gherkin -juice-

Directions
1) Make the mashed potatoes.
2) Stir in the tomato sauce.
3) Crumble in the corned beef and stir. Leaving it kind of lumpy is OK.
4) Chop up all the gherkins (save the juice) and stir in.
5) Stir in gherkin juice to taste. (I usually use -all- of it.)

Tada!

Tips
Salt, pepper and/or ketchup can be added.