Breakfast of Champions: Eggs in Green Salsa with Epazote

I’ve been in Mexico working on a project and this dish stood out. Scrambled eggs cooked separately and then drowned in tomatillo salsa, topped with a handful of chopped epazote.

I love epazote. You might know how well it works with beans, black beans in particular, but it’s also terrific in a quesadilla. It likes cheese a lot. Mushrooms and octopus, too. It turns out eggs are also a natural partner.

Simple and perfect. Don’t forget the tortillas.

A Simple Soup with Bean Broth

I’m so glad to have chickens again!

You just can’t beat fresh eggs. I get a wee bit frustrated by the prices at the farmers markets here in the Bay Area but in the end, I think it’s worth the extra money. But it’s also worth the hassle to have a flock if you have the space and the inclination.

I poached an egg and added it to a simple soup of chicken broth, bean broth, Oregano Indio and cooked nopales. If the broth is good and the eggs are fresh, you can’t beat this simplicity.

 

Beans for Breakfast (with Mushrooms, Ricotta and Good Olive Oil)

A few leftovers and some milk that was about to expire led to this really fine breakfast.

Ayocote beans are runner bean. Phaseolus coccineus. This family includes Scarlet Runners and Royal Corona. They tend to be big and go from starchy to creamy. They don’t mind a little rough handling, which makes them great for salads but Ayocote Negros (which I used here) have a really beefy broth that’s excellent on its own. Ayocote Morado are the purple version but once cooked, they’re pretty interchangeable.

If your milk is about to go, heat it to 180F and then add some acid, like lemon or our Pineapple Vinegar with a pinch of salt. Leave it for 10 minutes and then strain it through cheesecloth. It’s good! And it beats wasting milk. There are many recipes and techniques on the web but we like this version from The Kitchn best.

Also on hand were a batch of Paula Wolfert’s great and easy Sandpot Mushrooms.

The mushrooms met the beans and a little thyme and some Anson Mills Carolina Gold rice. The whole mess was topped off with a healthy dose of The Olive Queen’s very limited Olio Nuovo and all was right in the world.

Leftover Strategies: Grits with Black Eyed Peas and Bacon

Earlier, I wrote about cooking on my wood-burning stove and the success I had making grits. It was simple and fun but even having given away a lot to my mother, there was still plenty left.

This morning, I gently heated the grits with a little chicken stock. Meanwhile, I sauteed some chopped bacon pieces, drained the excess fat and then stirred in some leftover Black Eyed Peas. I made a bed for the pea mixture and yes, it was ugly but so delicious that I can’t wait to make it again. It fills you up and I felt I should go build a pyramid or a freeway or something. This is the perfect cold weather breakfast for playing or working outside.

Not being a Southerner, I don’t know if I’ve done something offensive or not. I based this on a recipe for polenta and Cranberry beans from my first book. Please forgive me if I have made a blunder.

A vegetarian option would be to replace the bacon with my mushroom carnitas recipe. You could also do it with just the peas and polenta but I think you deserve better.

A New Happy Addiction: Deep Fried Capers

A present of a jar of salt-packed capers from Sicily made my breakfast this morning happily insane. No Cheerios for me. My friend Lisa Minucci of Heritage Artifacts always finds the coolest things, both vintage and new, and this jar of capers was no exception.

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This may turn you off them but you do need to soak them for about four hours and changing the water occasionally is recommended. But you can soak a few days worth and then let them sit in olive oil and no one will complain.

A normal person would use them at this point and be very happy indeed.

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I deep-fried them in olive oil.

Wow. Friends, this was a treat like no other. And you really taste the caper in a way you don’t with simple brined capers.

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Taking this all the way home, I topped a fried egg with the capers and had a mighty fine breakfast.

Locally here in the Bay Area, you can find the capers at The Fatted Calf in Napa and San Francisco. You can read more about Lisa at her Heritage Artifacts site and don’t forget to sign up for her infrequent but cherished newsletter while you’re there.

 

More Leftover Strategies: Egg in Bean Broth with Sausage and Mozzarella

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This was about as happy as I can get in the morning.
Leftover Ayocote Negro (but Ayocote Morado or Scarlet Runners would be excellent as well), bean broth, chicken broth, cooked sausage and then an egg to poach in all the goodness. Then fresh mozzarella. Buttered toast.

Rancho Gordo heirloom beans with poached egg and sausages

It was a fine morning.

Chia. No Jokes, Please

I’ve been drinking chia water for some time. It’s weird. The seeds are added to liquid and like oatmeal or flax, the exude a goo and it’s supposed to be very healthy. In Mexico, it’s normally a limeade plus the chia seeds and they go pretty light.

Chia seeds in action

I’ve asked some friends if there are health benefits to letting the water saturate the seeds. My instincts tell me yes, the seeds should rest in water for about 15 minutes before consumption but the answers I received were all over the map. Some said not to do this, others said it’s better ground up and mixed into something else.

I got a lot of suggestions for yogurt or pudding. I’ve tried them but I’m not trying to mask a healthy food into something else. I find the gooey seeds rather pleasant and just slightly sweet. I take a tall glass of water with two teaspoons of chia every morning now. I can’t say I feel any real difference but I like it and who knows?

If you have definitive information on the best way to eat chia, I’d be interested to know.

Leftover Strategies: Eggs Poached in Tomato-Bean Broth with Mushroom Carnitas

Heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo with tomatoes and mushroom carnitas.

Go ahead and laugh but for months I’ve been starting my day off with Zumba exercise DVDs. It’s hard work but it beats the treadmill I was using and I love how alert and awake I feel afterwards. Weight loss has eluded me but I’m more concerned about being sedentary than pounds.

One thing is for certain, I can’t just have a bowl of cereal after a workout. It would be too painful and my morning must contain a certain amount of pleasure. This breakfast of leftovers did it for me.

Heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo with tomatoes and mushroom carnitas.

My Nearly Magic Tomato sauce, some leftover Alubia Blanca and mushroom “carnitas”. I used mostly bean broth with the tomatoes to make the poaching sauce. I chopped up the mushrooms to heat them through and then poached the egg in the liquid, all in a small pot.

 

 

 

What Do You Say To a Fresh Bean Flower?

Hello, gorgeous!

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It’s that time of year where the flowers aren’t going to turn into beans any time soon and the cold weather is on the way . These runner bean flowers are better served in other ways.

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For me, scrambled eggs with Hatch chiles seemed like a reasonable idea. I was right.