Kogi Eggs Benedict
leftover chicken, pork, or beef, shredded
2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 slices of brioche, English muffin, or corn bread, toasted
green onions, chopped
4 eggs, fried

We are off to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon this morning for a camping trip, where we will be “laboring” over a campfire and portable stove after a days worth of hiking. I hope you find some time to labor in the kitchen over this holiday weekend!

The deal was that if you bought a sack they would roast them from free with the big chile gas burners in front of the store. When I saw the ad for the Hatch Chile Fest, I had no idea how big the sack was, but we love green chiles so we immediately knew that we wanted to get one. Turns out that I bought 1 1/8 bushels of Hatch green chiles, or basically a 30-lb burlap sack of freshly roasted green chiles for $28.99.

This photo is deceiving because it doesn’t illustrate just how many chiles we have. Obviously we had more than we could possibly eat this week, so Carlo and I decided to pack up the chiles in ziploc bags and freeze them in small batches, so we can have enough until next season.

We ended up filling 30 bags each with 6 chiles inside, equaling around 180 Hatch green chiles for us to eat. Unfortunately, the chiles have now overtaken our freezer.

Since it was still early after we bagged all the chiles, I decided to make some Hatch Huevos Rancheros for breakfast to make a dent in our bounty of chiles. These spicy eggs feed 4 people at $1.27 per serving.

Hatch Huevos Rancheros
10 to 15 Hatch chiles, stemmed and deseeded
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
salt and black pepper
8 eggs
8 corn tortillas
cilantro, chopped
4 tablespoons Mexican crema

Put the Hatch green chiles in a pan and cover them with water, although I threw in a chicken stock cube for some extra flavour. Simmer the chiles for around 30 minutes and then take them off the heat for a few minutes. Blend the chiles and liquid in a food processor until smooth.

Heat up some olive oil over a medium heat, and saut?© the onion and garlic. Once they have softened, add the chile puree and let everything simmer for 5 or so minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Toast your corn tortillas in either a toaster oven or frying pan. Place two tortillas on each plate and cover with a few scoops of Hatch green chile sauce. Drizzle some Mexican crema over the sauce and top with two fried eggs. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro over the eggs and enjoy.

By the way, this will probably be the first of many Hatch green chile posts over the next few months. Check your local grocery store to see if they are doing any special roasting events over the next couple of weeks. In case you can’t find any Hatch green chiles, you can used the canned version or roast fresh Anaheim chiles as a substitute.

Another word he thinks that I made up is clafoutis, and when I ordered one for desert at DB Brasserie a couple of years ago, he finally believed that it was a real word. Clafoutis is just as fun to eat as it is to say: Basically it is a French sweet omelet that is quite custard-y and filled with baked fruit.

Clafoutis are so easy to make and look quite spectacular when you serve them to guests. You can either bake one for dessert or for breakfast, with either occasion making for a delicious treat. This recipe for Plum Clafoutis makes enough for 6 people at 80 cents per serving.

Plum Clafoutis
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
7 ounces milk
2 ounces cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
just over 1 pound plums
3.5 ounces heavy cream
4 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

I bought these beautiful prune plums from the farmer’s market. They are smaller than red plums and have a yellow flesh that turns pink once they are cooked.

Preheat your oven to 410 degrees F. Wash the plums and slice them open to remove the stones.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan. Once the butter is melted, add the plums and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add the Gran Marnier. You can be super flashy and light the dish to burn off the alcohol, or you can just cook the plums for a few more minutes until the alcohol is cooked off.

Butter a large pie dish and sprinkle the inside with sugar.

In a small bowl, mix the cold milk together with the cornstarch. In a larger bowl, beat the eggs with the egg yolk, and then add the sugar and mix. Next add the cream and mix further. Lastly add the milk and cornstarch mixture and beat everything together.

Place the cooked plums in the pie dish, face up. Pour the batter over the plums and cook in the oven for about 30 min, until the top of the clafoutis is golden.

Remove the clafoutis from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle with a little sugar and eat the clafoutis lukewarm with a touch of fresh whipped cream.

These Sherried Mushrooms with Fried Eggs on Toast were definitely special and very delicious: thick crunchy bread topped with savory mushrooms and fried eggs. I know that hopefully sometime in the all not too far off future, I will return to the hot cereal at the desk and real breakfasts like this will be only weekend occasions, but for now, I’m enjoying my special breakfast treats. This breakfast recipe feeds 4 people at $1.17 a serving.

Sherried Mushrooms with Fried Eggs on Toast
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
3/4 pound mixed mushrooms, such as button and cremini, sliced 1/4 inch thick
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dry sherry, such as Oloroso, or you can use good Spanish sherry vinegar
Four 1/2-inch-thick slices of rustic white bread
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 large eggs
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Heat up the oil in a frying pan, and add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook them over a medium heat until they soften, around 4 minutes. Throw in the onion, and cover and cook the mixture until the onion has softened and the mushrooms are browned, around 3 minutes or so. Add the sherry or sherry vinegar and stir it in until it is almost evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, and remove the pan from the heat, and cover the mushrooms and onions to keep them warm.

Toast the bread slices. You can either do this in a 400 degree oven, or in a toaster oven. I rubbed some raw garlic on each toasted slice and then drizzled some olive oil over them. Delish!

Top the toast with the mushroom mixture and then fry up a couple of eggs per person. Place the eggs on top of the mushroom toast and sprinkle with some parsley.

I’ve been surprised to find that I like breakfast at home perhaps better than going out. I don’t have to get showered or changed, and you never have to wait for a table. This recipe for Huevos Divorciados, or Fried Eggs on Corn Tortillas with Two Salsas, is great, and if you are only cooking for two, you can make the full recipe and even have leftovers for Sunday. These eggs feed 4 people at $1.48 per serving.

Huevos Divorciados
1/2 lb plum tomatoes
1/2 lb fresh tomatillos, husks discarded and tomatillos rinsed
2 fresh jalape?±o chiles
1-inch wedge of large white onion
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
8 large eggs
8 (6- to 7-inch) corn tortillas

Heat a frying pan over moderate heat until a bead of water evaporates quickly on it, then roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, jalape?±os, and onion, turning each with tongs, until they are charred on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes. Core the roasted tomatoes, discard the stems from the jalape?±os, and discard half of the seeds from each chile.

For the red salsa: Coarsely pur?©e the tomatoes, 1 jalape?±o, 1 garlic clove, and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor, and then transfer the mixture to a bowl.

For the green salsa: Coarsely pur?©e the tomatillos, remaining jalape?±o, remaining garlic clove, remaining teaspoon salt, cilantro, and 1/4 cup water (add more if needed for desired consistency), and then transfer the salsa to a bowl.

Fry two eggs per person to your liking, and heat up the corn tortillas. You can fry them in a little bit of vegetable oil in a frying pan, or you can do what I normally do, and stick them in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes until they crisp up.

Place two tortillas on each place and top each of them with one fried egg. Spoon the green salsa over one tortilla and egg, and then spoon the red salsa over the other side.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Homemade Strawberry Jam, from Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton’s Preserved
6 1/2 lbs strawberries, hulled
juice of 2 lemons
5 1/2 lbs white sugar

Cut up your strawberries and chop off the stalks. Place them in a large pot along with the lemon juice and gently boil them for an hour or so until the volume has reduced by about 10%.

Once they look like this, add all of the sugar and continue to boil the mixture until the temperature rises to the setting point of 220 F degrees. We really had to crank up the heat on the burner to get the mixture up to this high of a temperature, but we eventually got there.

To see if your jam has reached its setting point, or the temperature when the sugar develops a new consistency, put a plate into the freezer for a few minutes. Take the plate out and pour a little of the jam’s syrup on to the plate. Let the syrup cool for a moment and then push a trail through the middle of the syrup with your finger. If the jam crinkles and the two halves remain separate, the jam has reached setting point. If the two sides of the syrup come back together, continue boiling the mixture for another five minutes and then try again.

Once the jam has reached setting point, skim any scum from the top and remove the pot from the heat. Leave the jam until a skin has formed on the surface. Stir the skin into the jam, and then pour the mixture into jars.

To sterilize your jars or bottles, wash them in soapy water, rinse them thoroughly, and then immerse them in boiling water for 10 minutes. Dry them in a cool or recently switched-off oven. Be sure to sterilize the lids, seals, and any funnels that you may use to put the jam in the jars.

Fill up the jars with jam while they are still hot from the sterilization process. Funnel the still-warm jam into the jar and fill to within a half-inch of the top of the jar. Wipe the jar rim and gently smooth a disc of waxed paper, cut to fit the aperture of the jar, onto the surface of the jam. Screw on the lid and your jam is ready!

Store the jam in a cool place and the jars will keep for at least a year.

Then you will get to enjoy delicious fresh made strawberry jam in the morning on your toast. The jam tasted incredible and I love the big chunks of strawberries in it. I thought it would be overly sweet from the huge amount of sugar that the recipe called for, but the end result was the perfect balance between being sweet and honoring the natural taste of the fruit.

We halved the recipe and filled up 2.5 pint jars with jam at a cost of 30 cents per ounce.

This Chilaquiles al Guajillo recipe is from Rick Bayless, who sure knows his Mexican food and is perhaps one of the most passionate food show hosts out there. The chilaquiles feed 4 people at $1.79 per serving.

Start the sauce for the chilaquiles by stemming and seeding around 2 ounces of dried guajillo chiles. You can find these chiles at most grocery stores in the Mexican aisle. The recipe calls for the chiles to be toasted, but we normally skip this step and head straight to tearing up the chiles. Even though these chiles are dried, they still pack a spicy punch, so be careful about rubbing your eyes after tearing them up with your hands!

Put the torn chiles in a bowl and pour enough hot water over them to cover. The chiles will need around 20 minute to rehydrate and plump up.

Transfer the rehydrated chiles to a food processor and add 1 cup of water, a can of diced tomatoes, and garlic. Whiz everything up until it becomes a nice smooth puree. Take the puree and press it through a sieve into a bowl. Be sure to press down hard on the puree to get every last bit of spicy goodness from the chiles.

After you strain the puree, you end up with a nice base for your chilaquile sauce. Heat the sauce up over a medium heat and stir constantly until it is reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, around 7 or so minutes. Add chicken broth, and let it simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Once it has simmered, stir in some sugar and salt to season.

The sauce is the most time consuming part of the recipe, and I know that when I want breakfast on a weekend morning, I don’t normally like to wait too long. To prevent a growling stomach, I usually make the sauce the night before, so the next morning all I have to do is reheat the sauce and only worry about frying some eggs.

Place some tortilla chips on each plate and then pour some of the chilaquile sauce over them. Fry up a couple of sunny side eggs and put them on top of the chips. Top with lots of thinly sliced red onions, cilantro, and Mexican crema. If you can’t find any crema or want a cheaper option, buy some sour cream and thin it out with a bit of milk to make a homemade crema–it tastes pretty much the same! Then sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

I love egg recipes because most of them are so simple and quick to make. This recipe is no exception. The “hardest” part of the recipe is to zest a lemon and mix it with the sour cream. We used one of the Meyer lemons that my brother-in-law had given us, but I think the sour cream would taste just as delightful with regular lemons. I ended up squeezing some lemon juice into the mix for an extra bit of tang.

Whisk the eggs and heavy whipping cream together. I made this recipe twice, once using 2% milk and the next time using cream. Both tasted good, but Carlo commented that the one made with cream was really good–even though he had no idea that I had used some leftover cream. As with pretty much any recipe, cream makes everything taste better.

Slice the leeks and saute them covered over low heat. Don’t rush this step because leeks taste a lot better when they have been delicately cooked rather than when they have been cooked at too high of a temperature and get crispy.

Increase the heat to medium-high and stir in the eggs. I was hesitant to cook the eggs at this high a temperature, but it made them fluffier. You just need to make sure that you stir like crazy and don’t let the egg mixture get stuck on the bottom of the pan.

Plate up the eggs and serve with a side of smoked salmon. Top everything off with a large dollop of Meyer lemon sour cream. Another way to serve this dish is to cut up the smoked salmon and throw it in the pan at the last minute and stir it into the eggs. Whatever way will taste great, it just depends on what tickles your fancy that morning.

This Pulled Baby-Back Ribs Eggs Benedict recipe serves two for breakfast and costs 59 cents per serving plus the cost of your pork rib leftovers.

Take a half a rack of pork rib leftovers and shred the meat off the bone. Make a bbq-hoisin sauce for the meat by mixing 2 parts bbq sauce with 1 part hoisin sauce, and add the rib meat. You want enough sauce for the meat to be nice and juicy, and then heat up the mixture in the microwave until it is warm.

I had never made cornbread until I made this recipe and I was shocked at how easy it was to make using the package of Jiffy mix from the grocery store. I normally make the corn bread the night before so we can eat breakfast sooner in the morning. You can cut the corn bread however you like to top with the pork ribs and egg, but I like using a cookie cutter to make it look like I’m eating in a fancy restaurant.

Poach two eggs by cracking them into a pot of simmering water with a couple of teaspoons of white vinegar. After about two minutes, take the eggs of the water and place an egg on top of the rib meat and corn bread. Top with some chopped green onions to finish off the dish.

This recipe is fanastic and tastes as good as it looks. If you have guests over to brunch, they will never know that you are using leftover ribs from a bbq take out or what you had made the night before. I think this recipe will also work great with left over pulled pork or even chopped up brisket–whatever is your favourite bbqed meat.

This time, I had some cherry tomatoes, asparagus, some bulb onions, and some awesome breakfast sausage from Zingerman’s. I tossed it in a skillet and cooked it up until the sausage was cooked through and the veggies mostly done.

Then toss in two beaten eggs per serving and mix it around. At this point, I also put in some kale. Greens like this make a nice addition, but don’t cook them too much, or they’ll turn to mush. Don’t mix the eggs around with the veggies too much, just let things cook until the eggs just start to set on top. Then put them in your preheated oven at about 350 or so.

It’s done when the eggs are totally set on top and cooked through. After that, flip the frittata out onto a plate and let it cool.

Then, if you have some of the Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes…

Cut a slice out and play Pac-Man.