Nothing like staying in bed on a saturday  morning for a bit longer, just a bit longer, specially after friday drinks. What’s better is having breakfast in bed and what would be even better, being able to go back to sleep for another couple hours right after. Enough wishful thinking, but my sleeping in I got, so I’m happy about that. I will have to work for my breakfast and there won’t be any going back to sleep… well, maybe not right away, although a nap is in the works. I love sleeping, and eggs. So far a perfect day so far.

Not much in the fridge, I feel like I have neglected my grocery shopping planning and I end up running to the store when I need to cook anything. I used to go to the store and get everything I needed for the next 2 weeks. I gotta get back to doing that, Its more economical that way, and less money wasted on gas. But there something great about getting stuff right before cooking. Stuff is fresher, looks prettier and tastes more delicious. Specially protein and most veggies. I guess I will have to find a better balance between plan ahead vs buy stuff on demand. But today’s dish basically uses ingredients I already had, and like almost every saturday, I made eggs for breakfast: 

Ingredients: 

A few red creamer potatoes skin on, chopped in rounds
A few cherry tomatoes whole
some frisée leaves
some thyme sprigs
1 garlic clove
1 or 2 fresh eggs
some toast
pinch of paprika
coarsely ground black peppercorns
a little bit of dijon mustard (just leave it on the plate)
kosher salt to taste
olive oil as needed

Roasting stuff on a pan is always rewarding. You don’t have to rush it, actually better if you don’t. You want all those flavors to mingle together long enough for yumminess to develop. Potatoes cut to 3mm or so will roast far quicker than thicker cuts, so keep that in mind, if you slice your potatoes too thinly, they might roast too quickly and the tomatoes won’t have enough time to break down. Not the end of the world, it will still be delicious. Just different.  Salt, pepper and a pinch of paprika are used to season these. Cook both sides until potatoes are fork tender. About 6 minutes. Reserve. Use some of the oil in the pan, to dress your dish, there are wonderful flavors there, don’t throw it away.

Cooking eggs can present some challenges. I still fear poaching them, and doing eggs “over” can be tricky as well, luckily I like them “sunny side up” If you want your egg top side cooked a bit more, you can always cover the pan with a lid and let the steam work on the surface of the eggs (you can turn off the stove at this point and only let the eggs covered for about 30 seconds) Like anything else, practicing is key!

The frisée I left alone this time, didn’t wilt it. Just dressed it a bit with some olive oil and some salt. I could have used lemon or vinegar but I didn’t. Why? Because didn’t want to tone down the bitterness of it had it been sunday, maybe I would have done that. Or maybe I was too lazy!

I seasoned the oil for roasting. I added thyme and some garlic, and let those cook for a minute or two. Don’t let the garlic go brown, a slight golden hue is what you really want. I’m sure you’ve read about this many times. Garlic cooked until it gets brown tastes doesn’t taste good at all. Also if cooking with olive oil, don’t burn the oil. Maybe a little smoke is ok, but if fumes rises from the pan, you might as well stop and star over. Do not use that burned olive oil. Doesn’t taste good. Some chefs don’t use olive oil for anything other than cold applications, like salads and dressings. I can see why. But sautéing or slowly roasting using olive oil is delicious too. Up to you really. I like it.

Ground pepper, I recommend keeping some peppercorns and grinding what you need when you need it. Pepper has a very complex flavor profile, it isn’t just the heat, there are so many other things that are wonderful about pepper. The pre ground pepper one gets at the store is perfectly fine, but very likely will only provide you with some light peppery taste and some heat. The freshly ground stuff is amazing.

Sorry, for the lack of actual recipe or gear list (pan, knife, the usual). Instead I have written a bit about things that I’ve learned and that hopefully can be more useful than a list of instructions without any clarifications or explanations. I will try in the future to provide both, but I find the latter  more useful in the long run. Specially if learning how to cook without recipes which I believe is what I really love and love sharing. I’ll come back with another post very soon. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed today’ dish. I’m gonna go take a nap nap now!!!!

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