The whole dish turns on one thing: leave it alone. Hash goes wrong because people keep stirring it, and what you want is a crust, the bottom layer catching and browning while everything above steams.
Press it flat, walk away for four minutes, then turn it in large pieces rather than breaking it up.
- Drain the potatoes well and dry them as best you can. Wet potatoes steam instead of browning, and this is the step that decides the dish.
- Oil in the pan, hot. Dried onion for two or three minutes until it smells sweet rather than dusty, then the paprika for twenty seconds.
- Crush the potatoes into the pan with the back of a spoon, rough pieces, not mash. Press flat. Four minutes, no stirring.
- Turn in big pieces. Another three minutes flat.
- Break the corned beef into the pan in chunks. It is already cooked, so it wants heating through and catching at the edges, not cooking. Two minutes.
- Vinegar over the top off the heat.
Salt carefully and late. Corned beef is salty enough that most of these tins need none at all.
Serves 3. It is very good with something sharp alongside, pickled red cabbage, or a spoonful of the brine from the capers.