Monday, August 20, 2012

My Go-To Breakfast

Have you ever had guests come to visit, and been at a loss for what to make them for breakfast the next morning? This recipe will bring you out of that slump, I promise you that. It's delicious every time, it's easy, fast, and showcases your culinary expertise, even if you may think it's limited! This is something I found in the back section of my Food Network Favorites: Recipes from Our All-Star Chefs cookbook. I've used this book so much that all the pages have come away from the spine, and I'm about ready to hole-punch the pages and make a binder out of it!

It's called Baked Eggs with Farmhouse Cheddar and Potatoes, it uses a minimal amount of ingredients, and is a one-pot wonder! Less dishes = happy hostess, right? The majority of the prep time is taken up dicing the potatoes into pretty little squares. The recipe calls for red-skinned potatoes, and that makes for a very pretty dish, but I usually use whatever I have on hand, and everyone has potatoes on hand. This time around, I had some Yukon Golds to use up! If the potatoes are larger, I usually do 1 - 1 1/2 potatoes per person, if they are small, then I go with the weight measurement of about 1 1/2 pounds. I was feeding three of us this weekend, so I used about 5 medium-sized potatoes, and I've got a good trick for dicing them into lovely little squares! Cut the potato into thick slices and then split it in half and stack them with flat side down. Now you can cross-cut, horizontally and vertically, making beautiful, mostly symmetrical squares when the pieces fall apart!

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Once the potatoes are prepped, you can start cooking, and then prep the rest of the ingredients while the potatoes cook. It's best to use a cast iron skillet for this recipe as it gives nice color to the potatoes, and can also transfer to the oven when you're ready to use it. I melted some butter into the pan first, and foremost.

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Once the butter had melted, and I had spread it around the pan, I added the potatoes and left them to sizzle and brown, while I turned my attention back to my cutting board, where I had a few more things to chop. I chopped some parsley and a couple of garlic cloves, amidst intermittent potato-stirring. 

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I got the eggs out of the fridge, in preparation for the next stage in the process:

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...and shredded some sharp cheddar for the last step in the process.

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Now, let's check on those potatoes, shall we!? Once they were tender and cooked through, I stirred in the parsley and garlic, along with some salt and pepper and let everything meld together for another minute or two. Now, it's time to make the wells for the eggs. The amount of people you are feeding will determinehow many areas you need to clear. For three people, I made a kind of peace sign out of my cast iron skillet, with the potatoes. If you had four people, you could move things around a bit to accommodate that. More than four people, and I'd say it's time to use two pans. Once you have your wells made, you can break two eggs into each of them.

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At this point, the whole thing gets to go in the oven to bake! The recipe quotes times but I usually eyeball it, and move on to the next step once the whites of the eggs are stiff. That's the part that NEEDS to be cooked through. This time, I think I left them in a minute too long, and the yolks got a little overdone, but usually, they stay a little runny and ooze out into the potatoes when you cut into the whole thing!

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Once the whites are stiff, it's time for that last step! Sprinkle the shredded cheddar all over the top, and stick back in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, giving it time to get ooey, gooey and cheesy! It's a crowd-pleaser...every time, I guarantee it!

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