By which I mean, my taste buds crave the same things over and over, and then I'll abandon them for something entirely new (not that I don't run around the kitchen in my neo-eighties romper from Urban Outfitters, but that's a story for another time).* Sometimes I just have big taste preferences that pop out of nowhere and I eat them three, four, five times in a week and then no more. I just like thing X right now. A lot.
Last summer, the things I really liked were gin martinis and any Italian dish involving spicy sausage.
This past winter, I kept hankering for bourbon and curry. So many curries were made or eaten at disappointing Indian restaurants. (I recently removed one curry from the freezer to eat for lunch last week or some time, and I have to say, my flirtation with curry hasn't extended as well over the warmer months. Or maybe, don't freeze coconut milk for very long.) Also soup. More soup that you could shake a bread stick at.
But lately my food trend has been "what can I put underneath a poached egg?" and this breakfast is no exception to that rule.
Poached Eggs in Bell Peppers
loosely adapted from everydayfoodmag.com
1 large bell pepper, any color
4 eggs
salt
pepper
water
This recipe is a riff on the classic "Egg in a hole" type of breakfast that I used to eat as a child--a hole ripped in a piece of toast and then an egg fried in the middle--my parents called them "One-eyed Petes," which is not a name I'd like to dwell on for very long. The best part of those was the buttery, crunchy little bit of bread that had been ripped from the center of the bread. Very ceremoniously, I always ate that bit of bread last. Like an after-dinner espresso or something, at the fine age of eight or nine.
Anyway, onward. Cut the bell pepper into half-inch strips. I didn't bother with either end (they're in the fridge now, waiting to be used for something else), I just cut straight through the widest part to make the rings. Heat the stove to medium-high heat. Put the rings in your frying pan (one that has a lid) and then crack an egg into each one. Pour about a quarter-inch of water into the pan, put the lid on, and let them do their things.
I don't even flip the eggs. I check on them after about a minute and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and then let them keep cooking until the white has lost that clear-ish tint on the top. When they're done, the water is somehow all sucked into the pepper, making it just the perfect texture of firm but definitely cooked.
This recipe idea has already taken me to all sorts of culinary places in my head--what other round things could I put an egg inside? I think it might be fun to poach an egg inside a ring of red onion and then serve it over a bed of carpaccio or just thinly sliced roast beef. With some sort of horseradish hollandaise sauce. I've heard of little egg custards baked inside sugar pumpkin shells, and I'm thinking they could work for egg cups too, but you'd have to put two eggs in each one. The possibilities are endless!
The rest of the breakfast was pretty straightforward. A piece of french toast with sliced up peaches on top. The bread was some sort of store-bought freezer thing I'm trying to get rid of--hey, everything is better covered with peaches. I soaked the bread in the leftover egg wash from the almond pastries a little bit further down (waste not, want not!), some rice milk, and lots of nutmeg and cinnamon.
The other two things in the lead picture are roasted potatoes cooked with honey and chili powder (sorry, I don't have measurements), topped with goat cheese and red pepper sauce.
Red pepper sauce
1 red pepper
1 clove garlic
glug of olive oil
Mince the garlic and then cook it with a little bit of olive oil on low heat. This step is to cut the garlicky taste of the garlic. Last time I made this sauce, I used tomatoes and raw garlic, and it was VERY good. So good that I think every person I came in contact with for the next week knew how good it was, which is not generally something I require of my meals. SO. Cooked garlic is milder.
Roast the pepper over an open flame until it gets charred and wonderfully blistery. Turn it every so often to keep the charring even. It'll start to get soft and at that point, chop it into smaller pieces (remove the ribbing and seeds) and add to the garlic.
Stir it all around and continue to cook the pepper until completely soft. Blend the garlic and red pepper in the food processor and then sprinkle it all over your breakfast potatoes.
Friday breakfast, done and dusted.
* That's a joke. Please know that I stopped wearing rompers before learning how to tie my own shoes.
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