Air-Fryer Breakfast Hash with Fried Egg

The breakfast hash is one of those dishes that's structurally simple and emotionally complicated. It's diner food, it's hangover food, it's the meal you have on Sunday morning when there's nothing in the house but two potatoes and an egg. The traditional version is made in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, which works but requires babysitting — you stand over the pan flipping potato cubes around for twenty minutes while the pepper softens and the egg cooks on a second burner. The air-fryer version makes all of that simultaneous and unattended.

The potatoes are the project. Baby potatoes (the small, golden, thin-skinned kind) work best — they're starchy enough to go fluffy inside but small enough to dice quickly. Quarter the small ones, sixteenth the bigger ones, you want roughly ½-inch chunks. Toss with the diced red pepper and a quarter of a yellow onion, add olive oil, smoked paprika, salt, garlic powder. Eighteen minutes in the basket at 400°F. By the time you've made the coffee they're done.

The egg is the easy part. Crack one into a small oiled ramekin or silicone mold, slide it into the basket for the last 4 minutes of the potato cook. Comes out white-set with a slightly runny yolk, ready to be tipped onto the hash. The photo is the assembled bowl: turquoise ceramic, golden hash with red pepper flecks underneath, the fried egg dominating the centre. A blue-and-white kitchen towel in the corner, a slight wood-grain background. Brunch.