the good old days

From 1967 (via Kitchen Retro) comes this week’s “exotic” recipe… Tijuana Hash.

1-1/2 cups Pillsbury’s Best All Purpose or Self-Rising Flour
3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Land o’ Lakes Butter, softened,
15-ounce can Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Combine flour, cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl; mix until a dough forms. Press into 12 greased and floured muffin cups. Combine remaining ingredients except cheese in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until heated through. Fill pastry. Bake at 425° for 12 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 2 minutes longer, until cheese melts.

I don’t have a can of hash on hand (when the nuclear apocalypse comes, I’m gonna starve), and substituted ground turkey. It’s a good thing I don’t hold to the particular brand demands of these recipes, because I honestly don’t think Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash is in grocery stores anymore. (But then, I don’t go looking for corned beef hash in cans, so what do I know?)

I also had to make my own chili sauce. And it’s a good thing Buzz looked this up for me, because I was just thinking “hot sauce” but couldn’t really reconcile “hot sauce” and “1/4 cup”… that just can’t be healthy.

Substitutions: 1 cup tomato sauce + 1/4 cup brown sugar + 2 tbsp vinegar + 1/4 tsp cinnamon + dash of ground cloves + dash of ground allspice = 1 cup chili sauce

It tastes good, although I wouldn’t call it “chili”. So I will use that substitution as a scapegoat if things go wrong. It’s totally the faux chili sauce’s fault, man!

Anyhoooo… Once the filling was mixed, my daughter took a picture of it going into the little pie crusts she had made in the muffin pan. (She also took a few dozen out-of-focus pictures of her socks, the cat, a light bulb, the refrigerator, and a spoon. Thank goodness for digital.)

And after a brief stint in the oven, they came out looking really delicious. (hehehe… they’re BAKED!)

This was the only point at which I ran into a snag — they didn’t really want to come out of the pan, despite adequate grease-and-flouring, and the crust was flaky and crumbled easily. On the left is what Pillsbury promises you’ll get, on the right picture is reality.

Actually, looking at them side by side, I’m in favor of mine. What did Pillsbury use for that crust, Play-Doh?

While there is merit to food’s visual appeal, I’m more interested in flavor — and this stuff tasted good. (I shouldn’t be surprised; this wasn’t created by a brand-name company’s Home Ec “expert”, it was sent in by a normal person.) I will absolutely make this again. The only change I could suggest is a firmer crust, or just foregoing the little pie shape altogether and serving it over rice (although teeny meat pies would be great for a potluck).

And we’ve got to do something about the name. “Little savory meat pies” and “Tijuana Hash” just aren’t logically compatible, are they?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 7:42 am and is filed under delicious, food, retro recipe attempt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.