Arzak Eggs with Mushrooms and Polenta

This is a bit fancier than I usually get at breakfast time, but this is a pretty easy dish if you have leftover polenta you’re looking for a use for. The egg technique comes from Juan Mari Arzak, head chef of Spain’s famous Arzak restaurant.

Polenta and Mushrooms:

1 cup uncooked polenta

3 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons butter, divided

Crimini mushrooms, chopped

Salt

Bring the water to a simmer in a pot and slowly add the polenta, stirring to incorporate. Add in the salt and rosemary. Turn the heat to low and cook for half an hour, stirring frequently, until the polenta is very thick. Place the polenta into an 8”x8” baking dish lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Cut the polenta into 4 pieces. Heat a frying pan over medium and add the butter. Add the polenta and cook for about 3 minutes per side.

In a separate pan, melt some butter and add the chopped mushrooms. Mine were in smaller pieces so they only took about 5 minutes total to cook. Salt the mushrooms while they’re cooking to help release their water.

Eggs:

4 eggs

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1.5 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

Line 4 ramekins with plastic wrap so that there is some overhang. Add a little olive oil, then crack an egg into each piece of plastic. Add a little salt, pepper, and thyme to each egg. Bring the ends of the plastic together to create a bundle. Tie a piece of kitchen twine around each bundle. Tie the other end of the twine to a wooden spoon.

Bring a large pot of water up to a simmer. Add the egg bundles, balancing the wooden spoon on the top of the pot. Let simmer for 4 minutes – you can remove the bundles from water and poke the plastic to check if they’re cooked through.

Serve the mushrooms and eggs on top of the polenta, and grate some parmesan cheese on there for good measure.

Rosemary and Lemon Scones

This is a mashup of the basic King Arthur Flour scones recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/scones-recipe and the Pioneer Woman’s Rosemary and Lemon Scones recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/02/lemon-rosemary-scones/.

Scones:

11.5 ounces all purpose flour

2.5 ounces sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 stick (4 ounces) butter

2 large eggs

4 ounces almond milk

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

Zest of 1 lemon

Glaze:

5 cups powdered sugar

½ cup almond milk

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk together. Add in the butter, and incorporate with a pastry blender/forks. You can leave a few chunks in there.

In a separate bowl/pyrex measuring cup, combine the eggs, almond milk, rosemary and lemon zest. Give it a good whisk to break up and incorporate those eggs.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl with the flower, and stir until they come together. Add a little extra flour/milk if the mixture is too wet/dry.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured working surface, and use a rolling pin (you’ll probably want to flour that as well) to roll out the dough into a rectangle about ¾” thick.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 12 rectangles. Then, make diagonal cuts in the middle of each rectangle to make triangles.

Transfer these triangles onto a baking sheet lined with either a silpat or parchment paper.

Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are just about to start turning golden.

Meanwhile, make the glaze. This one is easy: Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl, and add the lemon zest, juice, rosemary and milk. Mix, and add powdered sugar or milk as needed to get the right consistency. It should be pretty thick, but still come off a spoon easily.

Remove the baked scones from the oven and cool for at least 5 minutes. Dunk each scone in the glaze, and place on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet to cool. Allow to sit for 1 hour to set the glaze.

Boxty Quesadillas

This is a take on a dish from Fado Irish Pub, a chain of bars I’m fond of for being open for soccer matches early in the mornings on weekends. Nothing like drinking Guinness at 10 a.m. on a Sunday. The food there is also pretty tasty, so I decided to recreate their Boxty Breakfast meal.  Boxties are potato pancakes, in this case with a crepe like consistency. I adapted the recipe from: http://www.fieldandfeast.com/cook-something/the-irish-boxty-2/ It doesn’t taste exactly like I remember it, but it’s still a tasty breakfast. I stuffed the quesadillas way to full, hence the ugly presentation.

For the boxty pancakes:

1.5 lbs potatoes, grated and soaked in water for 10 minutes

½ stick (2 oz.) butter, melted

4 ¼ cup milk

3/8 cup water

4 eggs

20 oz. all purpose flour

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup parsley

Pico de gallo:

2.5 medium tomatoes (I used the vine ripened ones), diced

2 serrano chiles, small dice

1 garlic clove, roasted on a dry skillet and minced

½ red onion, diced small, then rinsed under cold water in a colander

Cilantro, chopped

Lime juice

Salt

Filling:

3 eggs

1/3 pound Irish bangers

Monterey Jack cheese

Make the pico de gallo ahead of time and let the flavors marry together in the fridge. For the pancakes, whisk the eggs and add the other liquid ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and add the wet mixture into the dry, until everything is incorporated. Drain the potatoes in a colander, and add them to the pancake mixture. Heat a 9 to 10 inch non-stick pan (or, you know, as many pans as you have), spray with some non stick spray and ladle in ¼ - 1/3 cup in the center of the pan, then rotate the pan in a circle so the mixture fills the area. Cook for about 45 seconds, then flip and cook for another 45 seconds. This recipe yields 20 or so pancakes.

Once the boxties are finished, cook the bangers in a pan, breaking it up, until it starts to brown. Whisk 3 eggs and dump them in the pan. Once the eggs cook a bit, add the cheese. When the eggs are done, dump the mixture on top of a boxty, add a big scoop of salsa, and top with another boxty. Slice into quarters.