The following post is from an article I wrote for a local magazine, in Spring 2015.
Hope you enjoy.
Carolina on my mind.
On the Outer Banks.
While going through a family album, I found this yellowed
envelope, addressed to me, from my father.
1971.
So many memories tumble out.
And a few tears.
It’s amazing what a simple stimulus elicits.
The fact that it leads me to food is my comforting
homecoming and safe harbor.
I lived in London for 2 months during the summer of 1971. I ate at the University cafeteria during that
time. There was always a tray of oval, dark
brown blobs, the size of a large tennis ball.
They were served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This was the “Scotch Egg.” The Scotch Egg was a rock-hard, over-boiled
egg, encased in sausage, heavily battered, and deep-fried. The egg itself had been cooked beyond
recognition and edibility. The sausage
was likely from a goat. It was a horrid
concoction. I detested the Scotch Egg.
I thought I’d put that Scotch Egg out of my head for good;
but, no. It raised its ugly head again
when I received an email featuring the Scotch Egg. Just reading those two words made my stomach
lurch a bit, but I opened up the email in spite of that.
The first thing I see
is the chef plating his Scotch Eggs and these eggs are nothing like the eggs I
had in London. These eggs look wonderfully,
incredibly, edible. These were soft-boiled eggs with an oozy yolk, marinated in
a Teriyaki-like sauce, encased in sausage, lightly fried to a lovely golden
brown in panko breadcrumbs, and served on a bed of Napa cabbage salad.
I must give the Scotch Egg another chance.
I’m glad I did. It was fantastic. Then I started thinking, which can be a scary
thing, about the Scotch Egg. What if I
took the basic Scotch Egg idea and put a Northeastern North Carolina spin on
it? And that, my friends, is how I ended
up with a spring breakfast column featuring my Carolina Blue Eggs – Carolina
Blue for our Blue Sky and Blue for our Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, our “beautiful swimmer.”
I’ll also be
presenting two other eggceptional breakfast dishes for your gustatory pleasure
– Eggs Hawthorne and Oeufs Mollet à la Florentine. Take time, when you can, to prepare a special,
leisurely breakfast. It’s the nicest
thing you can do for yourself and your family.
Rosie’s Carolina Blue Eggs
Serves 6-8.
8 oz. crab meat
1 egg, beaten
1 heaping tsp minced celery
1 heaping tsp minced red onion
1 heaping tsp minced red bell pepper
1 heaping TB chopped parsley
1 TB mayonnaise
½ tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 tsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
3 cups Napa cabbage, shredded
2 TB lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 eggs
1 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
Combine first nine ingredients. Refrigerate.
Mix cabbage with lemon juice. Season to taste. Refrigerate.
With a pushpin, prick a small hole in the large end of each
egg to keep them from cracking while cooking.
Fill a medium sauce pan with water.
Bring to a boil. Carefully transfer the eggs to the boiling
water. Cook for 5 minutes and 15
seconds. Transfer eggs to a bowl of ice
water and chill completely.
Carefully peel the eggs.
Using ¼ of the crab mixture, pat it out in a thin layer on your hand. Place an egg in your crab-covered hand and
gently wrap crab mixture around the egg. Eggs can be prepared ahead of time to this
point. Wrap each egg in plastic wrap and
refrigerate until you’re ready to fry. At fry time, roll each egg in flour, dip in
egg wash, then roll in the panko.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pour 2 inches of peanut oil into a heavy-bottomed pot. Heat over medium until temperature reaches 375°. Working in two batches, fry the eggs until
they are golden brown, 2-3 minutes. Using
a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.
Divide cabbage among 4 plates. Cut each egg lengthwise and place on
cabbage. Drizzle with Hollandaise sauce.
Hollandaise sauce is one of five mother sauces of French
cuisine and it’s one of the most finicky.
You need to baby sit it. The
final viscosity of your sauce is determined by how much fat (butter) is
emulsified in and the degree to which the yolks are cooked. The more the egg is cooked, the thicker the
Hollandaise, but you also risk the chance of ending up with scrambled eggs
instead of sauce. The more butter
whisked in, the more you risk curdling and having your sauce separate.
My first recipe for Hollandaise is for the classic French
sauce, made using a double boiler. My
second Hollandaise recipe is made in a blender and it’s much more user friendly
than the classic recipe.
Classic Hollandaise
Sauce
2 egg yolks
1 TB lemon juice
½ stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pats
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Vigorously whisk the yolks and lemon juice together in a
round-bottomed bowl until mixture thickens and increases in volume. Hollandaise can be a finicky sauce, so if
you’re inexperienced in making it, I’d recommend using a double boiler. Place your bowl over a pot of simmering
water. You want to gently heat the
eggs, not scramble them. Constantly
whisk the yolks over indirect heat until light colored, thickened, and creamy. With the first wisp of steam, start adding
the butter, one pat at a time, whisking until the fat is incorporated. Keep whisking until your sauce is like
thickened cream. When you get more
comfortable doing this, you can hover the pan over your heat source and not
bother using the double boiler.
What can go wrong with hollandaise? If the heat is too hot, you’ll end up with
scrambled eggs and there’s no fixing this. If you add too much butter or add the
butter too fast, the emulsion will break down, causing the sauce to
separate. Not to worry. You can fix this. Simply whisk in an ice cube and the sauce
becomes smooth once again.
Eggs Hawthorne is my version of Eggs Benedict. I lightly butter and toast English muffin
slices, add a slice of grilled ham, a nest
of sautéed spinach, and a lightly poached egg, and top it off with a luxurious
Hollandaise sauce. This time, I’m making
Hollandaise in a blender, not on the stove top, and I’ll be using browned
butter to give it extra nutty flavor.
Eggs Hawthorne
Serves 4.
2 English muffins, sliced in half
Unsalted butter
8-oz. package of fresh spinach or a bunch of spring
asparagus spears
Freshly grated nutmeg
4 slices grilled ham
4 poached eggs
Blender Hollandaise sauce
Cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Lightly butter and toast the muffin slices.
In a small saucepan, melt a tablespoon of butter, add
spinach, and cook until wilted. Season
to taste with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
Set aside.
Melt two tablespoons butter in a ribbed iron skillet and
sauté, turning the ham slices so that you have criss-cross grill marks. Set aside.
Blender Hollandaise
sauce:
2 egg yolks
1 TB lemon juice
½ stick melted, unsalted butter
Cayenne pepper
Place half a stick of unsalted butter in a small sauce pan
and heat over medium low until you start to get little brown specks in the
butter. Remove from heat.
Put the egg yolks and lemon juice in your blender and
process for about 30 seconds.
Slowly pour in the browned butter while the blender is
running, incorporating it into the yolks.
Leave the brown bits and the foamy milk solids in the pan.
To poach an egg, bring a small sauce pan of water to a
boil. Add in a tablespoon distilled
white vinegar. This helps the whites to
coagulate and hold together. I stir the
water to make a vortex, crack the egg, and drop it in. Cook for 2 minutes 15 seconds for a nice,
loose yolk. Cook a bit longer if you
like a tighter yolk. Remove egg and let
drain.
To assemble, place a slice of ham on the toasted muffin,
make a nest of spinach, and gently place the egg on the spinach. Spoon the Hollandaise sauce over top. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper if desired.
Blanched spring asparagus spears could be substituted for
the green here. Simply bend the end of
each spear until it snaps naturally, add the asparagus to a pan of boiling
water, and cook for about 2 minutes, until just tender. Plunge the spears in a bowl of ice water to
stop the cooking and set the bright green color.
My last breakfast offering for you is Oeufs Mollet à la
Florentine, or soft eggs with spinach.
Baby bella mushrooms are sautéed in butter and placed on top of a bed of
spinach. Sautéed mushrooms are spread
over the spinach, and then eggs are soft-cooked, peeled, and placed on
top. Mornay sauce, another classic
French sauce, is poured over, and the whole is sprinkled with grated Parmesan
cheese. After a quick trip under the
broiler to lightly brown the cheese, breakfast is ready.
Oeufs Mollet à la
Florentine
Serves 4.
8 eggs
In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Again, pin-prick the large end. Gently lower the eggs into the water, bring
to a simmer, and cook about 6 minutes.
Pour water out and shake the pan to crack the shells. Cool completely, then shell eggs under cold
running water.
Spinach Mushroom
Mixture
1 pound fresh spinach, stems discarded, and chopped
8 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
4 TB unsalted butter
½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 TB grated Gruyère cheese
Melt 2 TB butter over medium high heat in saucepan. Cook spinach until wilted, about 2
minutes. Add salt, pepper, and
nutmeg. Arrange spinach in ovenproof
dish large enough to accommodate 2 eggs.
Melt remaining butter over medium high heat in
saucepan. Sauté mushrooms until nicely
browned. Season to taste with salt. Spread mushrooms over spinach.
Add two eggs per serving.
Top with Mornay Sauce.
Mornay Sauce
1 TB unsalted butter
1 TB flour
¼ cup skim milk
¾ cup heavy cream
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
2 TB grated Gruyère cheese
1 large egg yolk
2 TB freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Melt butter in saucepan. Add flour.
Stir constantly for about a minute.
Do not brown. Add milk and cream,
whisking constantly, and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper, and Gruyère and
whisk over low heat for one minute.
Remove from heat and whisk egg yolk into the sauce.
Coat eggs with sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan, and place under broiler
for about 5 minutes or until nicely browned.
Serve immediately.
With power breakfasts like these, you’re ready to take on the world.
