ZUCCHINI HASH

BLAINE'S ZUCCHINI HASH
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup ham, diced, 5 ounces
16 ounces zucchini, peeled and chopped, 3 medium
4 ounces onion, chopped, 1 medium
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika, to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet. Brown the ham over medium-low heat 2-3 minutes. Add the zucchini, onion and remaining butter. Cook on medium-high heat 8-10 minutes or until well browned. Season to taste.

Makes 4-6 servings
Do not freeze

Per 1/4 Recipe: 176 Calories; 15g Fat; 6g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs
Per 1/6 Recipe: 118 Calories; 10g Fat; 4g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

This came from Blaine's Low Carb Kitchen cooking show. It sure looked good when he made it on TV, but I had a very interesting time preparing this dish. If you use ham that has water added, as most does, it will explode and fly out of the frying pan as it cooks! I had butter, zucchini and ham cubes all over the place. You really need the high heat to get the onions and zucchini nicely browned, but as soon as you turn the heat up, the ham starts popping again.

Blaine said to peel the zucchini, but I think it might have been better not to and maybe it wouldn't have gotten quite as watery that way. I had quite a dilemma -- if I turned the heat up to evaporate the liquid, the ham would explode. If I turned the heat down, nothing browned. The 4 tablespoons of butter was way too much. I think that 1-2 tablespoons would have been plenty and there might have been a better chance for browning the zucchini with less butter in the pan.

If I were to try this again, I'd use bacon instead of ham. I think it would make less mess all over the kitchen and taste better too. Blaine's recipe said to use 2 medium zucchini, but that would never make 6 servings. Even using 3 zucchini, it made closer to 4 servings.

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