Dr Mobeus
Pan Haggerty
Pan haggerty is an old Northumberland and Tyneside dish that turns potatoes, onions and a tin of corned beef into a proper family dinner. It bakes slowly in the oven until the layers collapse into each other, with a cheese top that goes properly golden. It is the kind of food that was built around cheap ingredients and zero waste.
The whole dish costs about £3.45 to make and feeds six comfortably, which works out at roughly 58p a portion. A value bag of potatoes, one onion, one tin of corned beef and a handful of grated cheese is genuinely all it takes. If you cook for one, it reheats well the next day, and it freezes in portions too.
The trick with pan haggerty is slicing the potatoes thin, about the thickness of a pound coin, so they cook evenly in the stock. Take your time with the layers and the dish holds together when you cut it, more like a pie than a tray of potatoes.
Pan Haggerty
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan). Rub a medium baking dish with oil and set aside.
- Layer half the sliced potatoes over the base of the dish, overlapping the slices slightly like roof tiles. Scatter over half the onion and half the corned beef, then season with salt and pepper.
- Repeat the layers with the remaining potatoes, onion and corned beef, finishing with a tidy layer of potatoes on top.
- Pour the hot stock slowly over the layers so it seeps down through the dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife.
- Remove the foil, scatter over the grated cheese and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling.
- Let the dish rest for 5 minutes out of the oven before slicing into wedges and serving.
Tips and Variations
Swap the corned beef for sliced cooked sausages or leftover roast ham if you have it, and any melting cheese works on top. The dish also works with a tin of baked beans layered in the middle if you want to stretch the meat further. Leftovers are excellent fried the next day in a hot pan until the edges crisp up, and it freezes well in individual portions for up to three months.
