The Most Important Meal of the Day
Good morning, foodies. Having the day off today, and still being up first thing in the morning, I decided to make myself a nice breakfast.
I recently discovered the secret to making the most delicious, knock-your-socks-off, amazing fried potatoes every time: It’s onion and garlic, which I guess isn’t that surprising in the grand scheme of things, but anyway… A couple of weeks ago I made breakfast for my brother, sister-in-law, and niece (who is, hands down, the smartest, most adorable child on the face of the earth) and decided (sort of on a whim) to sweat some onion and garlic in the pan before I cooked the potatoes. The effect is striking. It’s not just a matter of adding the flavor of onion and garlic to the flavor of the potato, they enhance the potato’s flavor as well.
This morning I added mushroom to the mix, and let me tell you, it was a good decision. The other thing I’ve started doing is using a mixture of butter and vegetable oil in which to fry the potatoes. Butter has a very low smoke point and burns easily, but by adding the vegetable oil (actually, I think we use corn oil) you raise the smoke point of the mixture. This allows you to cook hotter, so that you get nice, crispy potatoes and also the flavor of delicious, delicious (non-burnt) butter.
In the photo they sort of blend in with the plate, but I also made myself a couple of over-easy eggs. No magic here, except the aforementioned delicious, delicious butter.
Ok, here’s the thing: I have a somewhat frequent argument with a coworker about the proper cooking medium for eggs. See, he’s something of a health buff, and he uses cooking spray. When I tell him that I use real butter, he insists that I love it because it’s bad for me. This is not the case. To be fair, it’s not even entirely the (delicious, delicious) flavor. It’s about depth. If you’ve ever cooked eggs in cooking spray, you know what I’m talking about. The white of the egg comes out paper thin, and lacking the fantastic texture of which eggs are ultimately capable. If this is alright with you, then mazel tov, enjoy your cooking spray and absurdly thin eggs.
It’s not alright with me. When you come right down to it, it doesn’t matter what fat you use, as long as you use a fair amount of it. This is the part where I can hear Dave’s voice in the back of my head saying “See?!! Lot’s of fat! You like it because it’s bad for you!” No, Dave, that’s not why I like it. There is a textural component here that you just don’t achieve with cooking spray. I’m not talking about total immersion. You could use butter, vegetable oil, peanut oil, it really doesn’t matter, but there has to be some depth to whatever you use.
On the subject of total immersion, though, you can achieve almost the same textural goodness (albeit lacking a bit of the flavor) if you poach the eggs.
Anyway, back to breakfast… Top the thing off with some whole wheat toast (I admit I did use a buttery spread rather than real butter here) and a cup of coffee, and you end up with one very happy blogger.
Have a great day.
