We’ve detailed our love for Hoppel Poppel before, as it lends itself so beautifully to creativity, innovation, and the use of leftovers. The traditional recipe in diners across Wisconsin includes the use of diced leftover potatoes, with onions, salami, and topped with eggs and cheese.  A stop by the  Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market offered a unique substitution for the salami: Lakeview Buffalo Farms – Buffalo Summer Sausage.

This sausage has the tang and depth of flavor of really high quality raw beef. When added to the skillet, the diced sausage becomes chewy/crispy bites of delicious, adding a layer of flavor to the potatoes as they caramelize. We top them here with a soft egg and melted white cheddar.

We prepared the same dish on another day with a smaller dice of potatoes and sausage, and also added the Purple Haze carrots from the farmers market. Here the hash was molded in a a small tart pan then topped with the egg and cheese. The sweetness of the carrots were a nice complement to the saltiness of the sausage and cheese. We added a skillet-crisped slice of the buffalo summer sausage and a white cheddar crisp.

The dish could be even more successful by molding the hash to the tart pan and creating a depression for the egg.  The whole dish could then be baked and topped with the cheese in the final minutes and broiled.  The cheese oozing into the hash adds not only flavor, but a pleasant texture to the whole dish. Hoppel Poppel continues to be a favorite dish and a favorite way to play with new ingredients.