CHOPPED!

As you all know...I like to do fridge clean up meals usually resulting in a quiche, soup or salad... If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, last night you saw me open up the kitchen lab to utilize the following "basket" ingredients in a Food Network Chopped fashion:

Arugula
Uncured Beef Sausages
Fuji apples
Dried Mushrooms

...and I present to you...

Apple Sausage Hash with Sauteed Garlicky Arugula topped with a Poached Egg

So where did everything go?? I diced the apples and sausage added onion and some seasonings. If I had fresh fennel that would have been wonderful! But I only had dried fennel so I added that and cooked until the apples were soft. I parboiled some potatoes and when they were fork tender sauteed them in the fat rendered from the sausage and the apples. 

While the potatoes were crisping, I took some of the boiling water and poured that in a glass over the dried mushrooms to re-hydrate them. Once they were soft I roughly chopped them and waited until the potatoes were crispy. I put the hash in a bowl to the side and added olive oil to the already hot pan with crispy bits on the bottom...If I were thinking more thoroughly I would have sauteed the mushrooms until they were bacon like crispy but alas I didn't I added the arugula and a heaping 2 tbsp of garlic and sauteed until the arugula wilted, adding the mushroom water to  deglaze  or remove the good seasoned bits from the pan. Once that was done I removed the arugula from the heat and worked on my egg....

I used the same water that I boiled the potatoes in I added a bit of apple cider vinegar and allowed that to come to a boil. Using a whisk I whisked the hot water/vinegar mixture until I created a water tornado...then dropped my raw egg in and let it do it's do...for about a minute or 2. 

Then I assembled and finished with some smoked salt and pepper.

Judging

Presentation- I like the colors in the dish but the hash looks pasty like I didn't have enough oil to prevent sticking

Taste- It needed more salt! I added salt to the dish afterwards, which I don't mind doing because everyone's sodium tolerance is different. I personally prefer my arugula raw...Cooking the arugula exaggerated the bitterness of the greens but when eaten with an apple from the hash it was delightful

Creativity- You be the judge of that...I don't know how creative it was...