Homemade Beef Hash with a Fried Egg and Horseradish Sauce

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. No really it is. While in California recently I had homemade real roast beef hash and I was reminded how good this can be. It was made with the crusty bits from the Prime rib the restaurant serves and came with eggs and a delicious hollandaise that was amazing.

My home version of this can be made with any scraps of beef that you might have. Left over steak, Roast Beef, even Short Ribs which is what I used. The key is to have shredded potatoes which you can make easily with a grater or buy in a bag. And the other key is to flavor the beef and potato mixture with lots of garlic and thyme and seasoning salt really well. I returned from my European vacation with a bottle of Maggi seasoning in tow. It's a flavoring salt that adds a depth of flavor to all sorts of things. It's really good.

I also skipped the hollandaise and opted for a sour cream based horseradish sauce that just really amped up the dish. Below is the recipe. Go crazy!!

Homemade Beef Hash and Eggs

4 eggs which you will fry sunny-side up or use a ring mold like I did and cook to fit directly on the stack of hash you will make.

2 cups potatoes shredded
1 cup really finely diced onions
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 /2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Maggi or Season salt
1 few shakes of worchestershire sauce
1 1/2 cup chopped left over beef

Fry potatoes and onions till crispy and brown
Add beef and seasonings
mix well.
When heated through and ready to serve press mixture into 4, 4 inch ring molds set on 4 plates
Top with the fried eggs
Garnish with paprika and chopped parsley
Serve with horseradish sauce
( note you can just served this on a plate without a ring mold works just fine)

Horseradish Sauce

1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons drained prepared horseradish
Salt and pepper to taste

Avocado 12 Grain Toast ,Fried Egg and Bacon

Ok these days every place in New York with Brunch Menus trying to ride the edge of cool is putting an avocado toast on their menu.

And why not the simplicity and rich taste combinations you get from humble ingredients make for a delicious and hearty brunch or breakfast dish.

I offer up my version of this dish as an homage to all the delicious egg dishes being prepared by chefs in brunch establishments all over the country. It's an easy homemade dish as well and will thrill kids and adults alike. Plus it's pretty healthy minus the bacon. Avocado is a good source of protein and healthy fats. However to achieve a really good avocado toast I find it's really about layering flavors down to seasoning the toast that achieves a really great version of this dish. Let me break it down for you.

Bacon:

Take two pieces thick cut bacon and bake at 400 degrees till done about 10 mins. Cook till desired doneness

Toast:

Generously Butter 2 pieces of 12 grain bread and season with herb seasoning salt (there are several of these you can buy on the market. I use an Italian version with thyme and rosemary in it)
Turn on pan and grill the bread over medium heat till toasted and golden brown.  Hold warm

Egg:

Fry an egg sunny side up (I used a metal mold to make the shape more concentrated) Salt and pepper the egg before assembling.

Avocado:

Mash 1 ripe avocado with 2 tablespoons sour cream (can leave out) and season well with sea salt (Maldon), and red pepper flakes to taste

To assemble cut one toast in half and palce on plate on either side of the full piece of toast to form a nice shape. Spoon Avocado mixture onto each piece of bread

Top with Egg in the center and garnish with the two bacon strips criss crossed like the picture above to one side of the yolk.

This makes one serving

Enjoy Ya'll!

BBQ Chillequilles Benedict with BBQ Beef, Poached Eggs, and Smoked Cheddar Hollandaise

I realize that it's a little past Cinco de Mayo but here's my Mexican recipe for the holiday week!
And again I am going to reference Snooze. Yes the San Diego eatery I was able to patronize twice while visiting that fair city. Last time I talked about the breakfast potpie. This time I am taking it South of the Border!

On the menu along with various "Benedict" dishes was a dish called "Chillequilles Benedict". Now chillequilles are a Mexican food which has it's roots in the street foods of that country. It's a very popular dish there, however, here in the states it's only widely known in California and some parts of the west and as of late also here in New York.

Essentially Chillequilles are a form of nachos. They are chips over which a green creamy sauce is poured and the dish is normally topped with a fried egg and maybe some meat. Like say chorizo sausage or something along those lines. They are quite good but the Snooze folks took this idea and took it a step further.

To make the Chillequilles Benedict they took tortillas, cut them into small rounds about the size of an english muffin. Dipped them in green sauce and stacked and baked them. Topped them with a pulled beef with Mexican spices and a poached egg. Then to finish it they pour a smoked gouda hollandaise over them and serve it with fresh salsa and some feta cheese. Oh my is it good.

To make this at home I changed it up a little bit. I wanted to combine mexican flavors and southern BBQ and make BBQ Chillequilles. The results were awesome. The rich flavors of chilles mixing with the deep smoke of both the BBQ and the cheddar was wonderful. SO here's the recipe, give it a try for brunch one day when you are up for a challenge. I kept is pretty simple using mostly premade foods which while not ideal makes for an easy as Sunday morning prep on this one. The hardest thing is poaching the eggs if you are near a Trader's Joes. (which is where I sourced all my stuff!) Enjoy!


BBQ Chillequilles Benedict with BBQ Beef, Poached Eggs, and Smoked Cheddar Hollandaise

*So you can start with large corn tortilla's and cut them with a ring mold of some kind or if your store has them you can use little mini tortillas.

Ingredients:

5 mini or cut tortillas per stack 2 stacks per person
1 jar or green salsa from trader joes and one can of green enchilada sauce combined
1 package of fresh salsa
3 onces of crumbled feta cheese
8 eggs
1 package of trader joe's hollandaise
6 oz shredded smoked cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons mayo
8 oz of BBQ beef brisket pre done or purchased

To Assemble:

Take the green sauce and place into a shallow dish
Dip each tortilla lightly in the sauce and on a baking sheet make 8 stacks of the moist tortillas
Top each stack with room temp BBQ beef
Place the stacks in a warm oven 300 degrees and start poaching the eggs
Add the hollandaise the cheese and the mayo to a small sauce pot and heat slowly till combined and creamy. If not fluid enough add a little water till desired consistency is achieved.
To prepare place the tortilla and beef stacks on plates.
Top with an egg and cover with a blanket of sauce
Serve with a dallop of Salsa and sprinkle with the feta. Serve with the hash browns from my blog about breakfast pot pie! Enjoy!

Breakfast Pot Pie a New Twist on Biscuits and Gravy

So my first entry about some of the exciting and fun foods that I saw and tasted in San Diego will start with this dish Breakfast Pot Pie. And why not, it's the first meal of the day so it's just seems fitting to start with it.

Now I LOVE biscuits and gravy. And as many who have had mine will tell you, I make a mean version. However, while in San Diego my friends Tom and George with whom I was staying took me out to one of their favorite places for breakfast and brunch. Snooze, the place is called, and is an interesting concept restaurant based in Denver that focuses on only Breakfast and Brunch foods and drinks served in a casual, yet very cool environment. We went twice to this place and each time we did it was packed and the wait was at least 40 minutes. I mean that's a buzz and success that most places ( including the not very busy one's surrounding Snooze) want to have.

Now let's be clear these people did not reinvent the wheel when it comes to breakfast foods, and in fact while the menu is interesting it does not step much out of the box in terms of foods that one would traditionally expect to find on a menu like this. It's more the manner in which the dishes are presented or the way that flavors are layered to give the overall dish a really great flavor effect. I mean let's face it there are only so many ways to fix eggs and pancakes but what you put on them or in them can take them from "Ordinary" to "Eggtraordinary", sorry couldn't resist that!

So to this dish. Now I have a real love for creamy delicious gravy based foods. Nope not apologizing! So when I saw this on the menu I knew I had to try it. Basically it's a portion of hash browned potatoes with a puff pasty raft tilted on it covered in a cream gravy flavored with sausage and rosemary and bits of carrots, celery, leeks and onion floating in it, topped with a sunny side up egg. Yum!

So while this seems and looks kinda complicated it is so not and if you want to impress your friends and family one morning with a breakfast or brunch dish that is different and delish this would be one to try. So here's the recipe as nearly as I can figure it. Enjoy ya'll!

Breakfast Pot Pie ala Snooze in San Diego

First thing you need is the gravy (makes about four cups)

For the Sausage Gravy:

Heat up 1 quart whole milk 

2 cloves minced garlic
2 leeks, cleaned and chopped (discarding leaves)
2 celery stalks (chopped)
1 sprig of rosemary (finely chopped)
1 lb. bulk breakfast sausage (browned and drained)
3 Tbs. unsalted butter
½ c parmesan cheese (grated)
½ c all purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste 

Melt butter in a large heavy bottomed pot (Dutch oven or stock pot) over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, and rosemary and sauté until vegetables soften (about 10 min.). Stir in flour and continue to cook until the flour is well incorporated. At this point, stir in the cooked sausage, milk and parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and allow to simmer (stirring occasionally) until the gravy thickens (about 10-15 min.). Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

For the Hash Browned Potatoes: 

Saute an onion in a good amount of oil and add 1 bag thawed shredded hash brown potatoes to the pan stir and cook then let the bottom brown to golden. Using a ring mold cut the potatoes into circles and using a spatula place on the plate.

For the Pastry: 

1 Sheet puff pastry rolled out to 1/4 of inch and then cut into 4 by 6 inch squares brush with egg wash place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees till puffed and slightly browned. 

To assemble: 

Place a scoop or shaped round of hash browns on the plate, cook eggs sunny side up and place a pasty puff on each plate divide the gravy and top with the egg and garnish with a little paprika, Enjoy Ya'll! 

Easter Brunch, A Metaphor for Renewal

So Easter has come and gone. Easter has over my short adult awareness lifetime lost most of the clout it held as a holiday for us as Americans. I can chalk this up to various socializing and cultural factors as well as a decline in Christian Churches playing a healthy role in our societal fabric, without the Brew ha ha of many of today's Evangelical faiths and the polarizing effect they have had on the church as well as the way we view church and want to be associated or disassociated with it.

In any event the food heritage of this greatest of Christian holidays is much overlooked and forgotten as Christmastide takes over as the key holiday we celebrate and feast at. I mean Passover dinner will always be passover dinner. But Easter dinner has never been a meal which had a direct multi-international food connection in that each culture drew upon it's own traditions in finding a food with which to lift up the day. In the US this has centered around three main meats. Ham, Lamb, and Chicken or Duck, aka Poultry. It is a meal which celebrates the breaking of the chains of death by recognizing the breaking of winters grip on the world and celebrating the birth of a new spring season of foods.

Easter dinner is always a lighter meal than say Thanksgiving or Christmas with heavy laden dishes such as stuffing and candied sweet potatoes. It is a livelier meal and one generally celebrated after the traditional Church going time. Fresh green peas and ramps taking the places of root veggies and dried grains and roasting giving way to simmering and sautes. It is in essence a food metaphor for the change in the world both spiritual and physical. It is in short one of the great meals of the year.

So this year I contemplated how I would bring in the season.  What would I do to celebrate this day we remember renewal and rebirth. I thought long and hard about it and I decided to forego the big meal. I would instead prepare a simple brunch for me and mine. I decided to base in on the heritage of my Mother's family from Norway. And I would make it simple and easy. Smoked Salmon would be placed open faced on dark Euro rye with horseradish chive cream cheese and red onion and fresh dill leaves. Sardines would be served in the tin with fine cold french butter and toast points. Potatoes would be cut and baked with butter and jarlsberg to make hasselback potatoes. Cucumbers given a quick pickle in white vinegar and dill. And for the main dish Baked Eggs in Brioche with ramps and cream and gruyere cheese. A simple yet  complex meal bridging the flavors of the continent yet based in the idea that simple can be delicious. And it could all be made before church and the potatoes and eggs baked off while we sat contemplating the service and drinking mimosas!

While the other items definitely were Norwegian in origin the baked eggs needed a little something special so I decided to ramp them up ( no pun intended) with the spring onions and the swiss cheese. Everything came out well and I would recommend this as a go to egg dish from now on for company. It's impressive, very tasty, and its so easy it's crazy. Give it a try and Happy belated Easter everyone, here's to renewal and rebirth!! Enjoy Ya'll!!

Baked Eggs with Spring Onions and Gruyere in Brioche 
( This is so easy and so delicious!!!)
(Can be made ahead till the baking up to 1 hour before baking  and held in the fridge)

Ingredients:

6 small Brioche rolls or Brioche unsliced hamburger buns or dinner rolls or your choice with the  very tippy tops cut off and insides carefully removed ( use a small paring knife and your fingers)
6 eggs
1/4 cup cream
6 spring onions or two leeks whites only sliced and sauted with butter till soft
1 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere divided into two 3/4 cups portions
1 teaspoon dried Thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place Rolls on greased baking sheet
Divide Onion or Leeks up between rolls
Divide one portion of the cheese and top the onions in each roll
Break an egg into each roll
sprinkle with a little thyme and S&P
Fill remaining cavities with the cream
Top with the remaining cheese and remaining thyme

Bake for 15 mins at 350 degrees till eggs are a little set and cheese is melty

Serve! Enjoy!