Breakfast specialty: Louisville Lady Gourmet Eggs in a Basket!

The original Egg in a Basket

I can't believe I haven't written about this magnificent breakfast yet! I am pretty much known for my Eggs in a Basket. If you ever get to brunch at my house, it's either these babies or some form of pancake. This time we didn't have decent maple syrup in the house, so eggs in a basket it was.

I was originally inspired to try this out when I first saw V for Vendetta, way back in the day. I think perhaps it was the reaction of  Natalie Portman's character Evey, to that first breakfast with her kidnapper. She was overwhelmed with how delicious it was, and V quietly said that he had had plenty of time to master it. One of the true culinary-inspired scenes that stick out in my mind. I do think it is something to master...and I think I have, at least to my tastes.

To some, mastering might mean achieving perfection in one means of preparation, and the ability to replicate that one dish flawlessly for infinity. To me, mastering is being able to truly understand the dish and how its qualities can lead to constant, always delicious, evolution. I could crack and egg in the middle of some toast frying in a skillet any day...but can I transform that by adding ingredients and techniques to make the meal special and just as tasty every time? Yes, I think I can, and that is my goal in cooking. I clearly won't be making it to Le Cordon Bleu anytime soon :)

A seemingly simple breakfast: cutting a hole out of a piece of bread and frying an egg inside. But oh how many problems can arise, as well as many possibilities. You can have the heat too high and burn the bread before the egg is flippable, you can flip too soon and splatter egg all over the pan (easily redeemable, just cut around the toast and eat it as such), you can forget to season, and worst of all--you can have pale yellow yolked eggs...pure evil.

From my always optimistic point-of-view, you can turn this simple dish into something truly delicious.  The best way to accomplish this is to play with your seasonings. Curry and chili powder work amazing in eggs. Salt, white pepper, chili powder, and Hot Chili Sauce are incredible. Thyme, parsley, salt and black pepper work well with a squeeze of lemon. My recommendation is always going to be experimentation.

Also, I've never tried it, but I am sure that frying up some omelet ingredients and adding that to your egg in a basket is a fine idea--especially for those of the insatiable appetite quality. Now, something I have added that is pretty much common sense, is plenty of cheese. You can mix it in with the egg, sprinkle it on top, or fry it up in the pan...I would go with romano cheese or a nice shaving of parmesan.

Enough talk about your breadth of choices with this fine breakfast, let's get on with the recipe!

Eggs in a Basket

Eggs (one per slice of toast)

Hearty bread, preferably whole wheat or multi-grain

Real unsalted butter

Seasonings

Tools:

Whisk

Biscuit/cookie cutter or small glass

Spatula

Skillet

The idea is very simple, but I'm going to give you two specific variations on this, dependent on the form of the eggs. 

In any case, the first thing you're going to do is cut out the center of your bread so you have a hole, also known as the basket. You can use many tools for this project, the easiest being a biscuit cutter, but if you can't find yours for the love of god, like I can't, then you can use a small glass and press it into the bread until you can pop a circle out. I also got cute with this one and made a fleur de lis basket with our handy-dandy cookie cutter. It doesn't really show up after you cook it, but it looks adorable in the pan, and you fry up the fleur de lis you cut out anyway, so I just set that on top--so the happy diner would know that it was a fleur de lis cutout. Okay, enough of my kitchiness.

When you have cut the hole out of your bread, you need to take a moment to reflect on how you like your eggs. Here is where the two styles of preparation come in. Do you like the idea of a warm, silky flow of rich egg yolk bursting forth from the middle of your egg in a basket, just waiting to be sopped up by the surrounding buttery bread? Or would you prefer an evenly seasoned scrambled egg full of melted cheese and spices, and perhaps you're scared of the aforementioned yolk of my dreams? Those are your choices, friend.

The Louisville Egg in a Basket

If you want a full egg, you just crack the egg in the middle of the hole you made and go to town. If you prefer a scrambled egg, you can whisk the egg up and add cheese and salt--the other seasonings I would add while cooking in the pan for even distribution...spices tend to clump up and sink to the bottom with scrambled eggs. Then pour that mixture in the hole you made.

Your skillet should be heated pretty hot, but you will have to decrease the flame when you are cooking the egg, so as to not burn that side, and to cook the egg enough from the bottom up not to splatter it when you do decide to flip it. You can melt about a tablespoon or two of butter in the pan, and instead of buttering the other side of the bread, I just press the bread down into the butter and flip it over before adding the egg. That way, when you flip it, the other side of the bread will brown evenly and it saves on the amount of butter you need to use. If you're too scared to flip a piece of bread by hand in a hot skillet you can brush melted butter on it. Season the egg with your seasonings--remember to sprinkle high so that you get an even distribution of spices. You will know to flip the egg when the inside white is not so jiggly, then muster up some courage and flip it over!

If you are cooking with scrambled eggs, you will inevitably end up with more egg than fits in your basket. What I do in this case is take the hole that I cut out and soak that in the remaining egg mixture--then you have a french toast hole! It's going to be a thing...Finally, you can garnish with hot sauce and cheese and serve with a side of bacon or fresh cut fruit. I think this would be a nice side to salad too, especially in a brunch scenario.

So you can't tell it's a fleur de lis? Put the
bread on top of it while serving!

Yolk lava...mind-blowing!

Enjoy my favorite breakfast! ¡Buen provecho!

Quichetátatouille: Dishing up something new!

If you've read this title, you already know I've gone a little crazy with throwing things together. My kitchen was incompletely incomplete it seemed. I had the ingredients for a partial quiche, frittata, and ratatouille. The key ingredients I was missing were cheese and onion. So in an attempt to make up for a serious lack of some of the most important food staples, I upped the presence of veggies and threw in a crust. I actually found it quite delightful, and because I made an entire baking pan full of Quichetátatouille, I was thankful it turned out well because it was lunch and dinner for a few of days out.

I honestly don't know how I could ever run out of onions because I use them in every recipe (that's probably the reason right there). However, I was not disappointed in the outcome. I feel like the flavors balanced just fine, and onion usually acts as a balancing agent in most recipes. I upped the garlic for depth, plus you can never have too much garlic, and the farm fresh eggs with orange yolks that I threw in took care of the richness that cheese would usually have. Because of the warm mixture of traditional ratatouille veggies, the eggs and wealth of ingredients of a frittata, and the crust of a quiche, here is my Quichetátatouille. All in all, it was a win. So, here is my procedure.

Quichetátatouille

1 Pie crust, rolled out into a square baking dish

Olive oil

4 Cloves of garlic

1 Zucchini

2 Celery stalks

2 Carrots

4 Stewing tomatoes

2 Bell peppers

Salt

Black Pepper

Herbs de Provence

Heat the oven to 350º. The first step is to prepare the pie crust. Roll it out into a rectangular baking dish, big enough to fit all your ingredients. I baked it in the oven for about 8 minutes before I added the ingredients, you can prepare this as you would prepare a quiche crust, and that is weighted with dry beans or with a slightly smaller baking pan placed on top of the rolled out crust. This will prevent the crust from bubbling up in the center, and it will cook evenly.

I cut my ingredients into whatever shapes I thought would look cool layered in a baking pan, but you can just go for slicing or cubing at about an inch measurement. The only thing I would strictly recommend is slicing the tomatoes in half moons, so for every whole slice of a tomato, just cut that in half and you have your top layer. The tomatoes on the top really worked well in the oven, as they were still moist, but had that taste of oven-roasted happiness.

For the eggs, I chose to use 5, but you can increase and decrease at your discretion, it just depends on how fluffy you want this Quichetátatouille. Beat those eggs to oblivion with a whisk to ensure maximum fluffiness. You can also add heavy cream or milk at this point, as well as the seasonings to taste.

Distribute the veggies as you see fit inside the warm pie crust. I like to layer, as I would a ratatouille, but you can just throw them in there, as long as they are mixed up, because they'll be swimming in a sea of golden eggs in a minute. When the vegetables are all settled, distribute the egg mixture (with seasonings) evenly. Make sure that the seasonings haven't all settled at the bottom, so give it a good whisk before pouring it out. Alternatively, you can season each individual layer that you make, to ensure that all of your Quichetátatouille is seasoned. Now you are ready to pop it in the oven. It took about a half hour to get it to the softness and bubbly happiness I was aiming for. I would gauge the time by the doneness of the crust, if it is starting to get dangerously browned, it is probably time to take it out of the oven.

This dish is great with a side of cheese and crackers. I actually used it with a side of spreadable cheese, crackers, and my homemade tomato jam. Delicious! Then, I continued to heat it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a few consecutive days. It kept very well in the fridge! On top of all that, this meal is rather healthy considering that it lacks the weight of butter and cheese.

In addition to simple sides for a light meal like crackers, you can make it a side for a more complete meal. I think it would be wonderful aside a salmon fillet, tilapia with beurre blanc, roasted chicken, or warm brie and grapes MmmMmm! When in doubt, it does stand well on its own. Enjoy (for many days to come)!

Snack Attack! Charming Chicken Salad

I have been practicing up on meals that can spread out over a number of days, at least to cover lunches during the week. Obviously, one of those meals will be the staple chicken salad. My recipe is pretty basic, but I do home make everything in the recipe, there is no canned chicken or store-bought mayonnaise in this, and I think you'll agree that the taste is notably better. Plus, mayo is much easier to make than most people think...I'm starting a mayo revolution, so follow along below!

Learning to make a basic mayonnaise will change your life, you feel like a freaking kitchen rockstar after you make your first batch, and since it takes about 20 seconds to whip up, you go out and tell all of your friends. I encourage this behavior, because it means people are returning to the basics, becoming active in their kitchens, and in turn becoming more active in controlling the processed mess that most Americans unfortunately consume. Now, I won't continue on this diatribe, because we all know where I will end up, but I encourage you to keep on keepin' on when it comes to starting from scratch.

Today's delightful salad can be eaten inside a fluffy pita (I'm trying out a recipe for one of those soon, so keep a look out), between some happy whole grain bread, with slices of baguette, or on crackers. You could probably nest a scoop in a nice bed of fresh lettuce and raw veggies to make a one-bowl complete meal, just go for whatever makes you feel good, because that's what snacks are for!

Homemade Chicken Salad

2 Chicken breasts, washed and trimmed up

Red grapes, sliced in half

Celery, washed and chopped fine

Red onion, chopped fine (optional)

Eggs, hardboiled

1/2 C Flax seeds

Olive oil

Egg, uncooked

Salt

Black Pepper

Dash of chili powder

Start by poaching the chicken breasts in water and about a 1/2 cup of white wine, until they are cooked through. Take them out and set them aside to cool. When they are cool, chop them in small pieces. Place this in the bowl that you will store this lovely salad in. Then you add in the grapes, celery, and onions then give it a joyful toss. Peel the hardboiled eggs and chop fine, then throw it in the bowl, and add the flax seeds (you can also use almonds or pecans or whatever nut/seed piques your fancy). As for measurements, you can basically add as much as you have, or as much as you want--you know what a chicken salad looks like, so add as you need to.

Now it is time to make the Mayonnaise!!! That has a capital-M because it is going to start a revolution in your kitchen. Get ready! I use an immersion blender, which I think every cook should have in their kitchen, and it makes mayo in like 20-40 seconds. It is so easy, seriously go try it now. Crack an egg in the bottom of the blender cup, then add as much olive oil as you want mayonnaise. If you have a lemon, squeeze a little bit in there, if not, a dash of vinegar works fine too. Then you immerse the blender all the way to the bottom so that the blade covers the yolk and white, and then bzzzz away until you get mayonnaise. As the mayo forms, raise the blender up and up until you get the thickness you desire of mayonnaise. After this, all you do is add salt. Seriously easy and incredibly delicious. Homemade olive oil mayonnaise: if you're not having an epiphany right now, I don't know what will get you there.

Add that mayonnaise to the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and mix well. Then season with salt, black pepper, and chili powder to taste. Don't be afraid to experiment with this, you can throw in some golden raisins and curry, you can add carrots and ginger, you can go to the moon and back, so have fun with it!

Bon appetite!