I read at night in bed, sometimes hours before I am ready to go to sleep. I like to read long magazine articles, especially in the New Yorker. I don’t read all the articles but I surely remember the cartoons. On one particular night I saw a cartoon about selling food that might have been in the freezer for a long time. I promised myself that I would check the big freezer in the garage the next day.

What I found were about three packages of skinless, boneless chicken breasts. They must have been on sale. I took a package and put it in the refrigerator. I found a recipe, yellowed in age, I used to make when we lived in Canterbury, maybe 25 years ago (not the chicken, just the recipe!) It is as delicious as I’d remembered. Feel free to use a bottled salsa, but the recipe below is my daughter’s recipe.

Ginger Chicken Hash

Probably from The New York Times, possibly the early 1990s

Yield: 2 servings

10 ounces skinless, bones chicken breast

2 cups low-sodium chicken stock to poach chicken breasts

1 large baking potato

1 medium red onion (6 tablespoons grated)

1 tablespoons ginger, coarsely grated

2 tablespoons flour

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black to taste

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

In a saucepan, add chicken breasts and stock. Bring to a boil, drop to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. Remove from the pan. You will not use the stock again.

Meanwhile, peel potato, cut into small chunks and place in food processor. Chop fine by pulsing; place potato in a dish towel and twist to squeeze out liquid; place in mixing bowl. In the same processor bowl, finely chopped onion, then stir into the potato mixture. Grate ginger and add flour, egg whites, salt and pepper into the bowl and stir. When chicken is cool, dice and stir into the mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat large nonstick pan until it is very hot; reduce heat to medium. Add oil; add chicken hash mixture. Cook, stirring often, until browned. Stir with salsa.

Salsa

From my daughter, Darcy White

½ onion (she uses yellow onion, I like sweet onions)

1/3 bunch cilantro

1 bunch scallions (green onions), green and white parts

4 to 5 Roma tomatoes (3 or 4 vine-ripened or 1 to 2 beefsteak tomatoes)

1 small can Rotel original canned tomatoes

1 jalapeno, seeded, or half a can El Patio Mexican hot-style tomato sauce

Coarsely chop onions, cilantro, scallions and fresh tomatoes. Place all ingredients except jalapeno or hot sauce into a food processor or blender and pulse to desired consistency. Place in a medium-sized bowl; stir in the jalapeno or hot sauce, to your own taste, and mix. Serve as a dip for chips, add ¼ cup into guacamole or use with the chicken hash recipe above.

Lee White lives in Groton and can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.