For those of you who have ever gone to breakfast with me, then you will know that I loooooove Eggs Benedict, so this is a little bit of a riff on those: Open-faced Tomato + Fried Egg Sandwich with Hollandaise. No english muffins, instead a piece of Anadama Bread; yellow tomatoes instead of Canadian bacon: a fried egg instead of a poached one. Either way, hit the spot this morning half-way through the week.
Breakfast on a miserable, wet, depressing Friday morning: Puff Pastry Croque Madame! What is a Croque Madame? Well, a Croque Monsieur (literal translation from French: Mr. Crunchy) is a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. A Croque Madame (Mrs. Crunchy!) is a grilled cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top — so a double fancy grilled cheese. I decided to make these open-faced and with store bought puff pastry. And OMG are they good. Light, fluffy, flavorful, pretty in a messy kind of way. And this recipe feeds a crowd (makes 8 and one is really filling; note that the recipes can be halved). It might take a little longer than a grilled cheese, but definitely much much better. Not only breakfast food, this could be lunch with a light salad or part of a brunch spread.
I love Shakshuka. It’s a veggie heavy (onions, peppers, tomatoes), spicy, Middle Easter / North African dish that works well from breakfast to dinner. I’ve also made version with meat and seafood (shrimp/prawns) or spinach and/or zuccchini. You always poach eggs in the stew and add feta after it is out of the oven. Most of the recipes that I have found are “to feed a crowd” though, with 6 to 8 eggs, so I decided to make a version just for one, or possibly two people. Serve with crusty bread or pita.
Switching gears, it’s week two of my little “Ingredient game” to keep us motivated during the blah months and up this week as ingredient two is “Eggs”. Pretty broad topic and I promise not to just make breakfast food. Starting off, I made Bacon Ranch Deviled Eggs for lunch today. Just the right amount of ranch (though I’ve heard people say that you can never have enough) and bacon crumbles. Easy to make. Easy to double the recipe for a crowd or a party. Just plain easy.
I don’t actually know that I have ever had potato salad in Scandinavia before. I don’t think that I have, so I can’t really tell you if this is authentic or not, but the combination of sour cream, light vinegar and dill made me think of Scandinavia, so I went with the theme. It’s definitely not like my other potato salads, which lean toward the Southern German or French styles. Nevertheless, this was very yummy and light, not heavy on the mayo or greasy. And yes, even in a pandemic, you can splurge and have smoked salmon for lunch. On a Wednesday. Just because.