Cheesy any-time-of-the-day hash with fried egg

This is a great breakfast but I've enjoyed it for lunch and dinner too. It satisfies my urge for the holy trinity of potatoes, melted cheese and runny eggs that can strike at any time of the day!

Cheesy hash with fried egg
(serves two)

4 eggs
2 cups frozen traditional breakfast-style hash browns (McCain or Cavendish)
half an onion, diced
half a red pepper, diced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp herbes de Provence (or substitute chopped fresh thyme if you have it)
olive oil for frying
salt and pepper for seasoning
half a cup of grated cheddar cheese

Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-low heat. Add the onion and red pepper and fry for five minutes until softened. Add the frozen hash browns and mix well. Add the paprika, herbes de Provence or fresh thyme, and salt and pepper. Stir well to combine all the ingredients. Then let sit and allow to brown for a few minutes without stirring. Stir and repeat. Stir and repeat again if needed. The idea is to get a nice brown crispy crust on at least two sides of the potato cube.

In the meantime, fry the four eggs in olive oil sunnyside up in a separate skillet.

Once the hash has browned to your liking, take the skillet off the heat and set aside on a cold element. Scatter the cheese over the hash browns and cover the skillet with a tight-fitting lid for two minutes or until the cheese has melted. Then remove the cover so that the potatoes don't get soggy.

Scoop some potato hash on a plate and top with two fried eggs.

À La Maison Campbell in Quebec's Eastern Townships

S and I visited Quebec's Eastern Townships this summer and stayed at À La Maison Campbell, a charming bed-and-breakfast that was highly recommended by two of our friends who love good food.

As you can see from the photos, the breakfasts at Maison Campbell are delicate works of art — ideal subjects for a food blogger's camera — and mouthwateringly delicious.

The B&B is run by Jean and Danielle Goyer, who are both incredibly warm and welcoming. Danielle is an artist and a self-taught cook. She prepares the breakfasts every morning and Jean serves them in their sunny dining room.

I don't know how they serve so many people in style every morning, but I'm glad they do because all four courses are wonderful!

The breakfast starts with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice that contains a secret ingredient to make it creamy and fizzy. This is followed by a yogurt cup that is always different from day to day — sometimes with meringue, other times with berry crisp — and showered with lots of pretty petals and leaves from the edible flowers in their garden.

Then you are offered croissants with butter and jam, and a final pièce de résistance, le plat principal du jour. While we were here, this varied from a goat cheese omelette (my favourite), crepes or scrambled eggs, eggs florentine or benedict, and French toast with hazelnut chocolate spread and almond paste.

It was a perfect way to start the day. I really recommend this B and B if you are ever in the Eastern Townships because you will be treated so well and never be hungry! Danielle and Jean even offer their guests a complimentary glass of Port each night, and access to their long, rambling garden, which has a little vineyard and lots and lots of reading nooks. We had a wonderful time and hope to return someday soon :)

















À La Maison Campbell
68, rue Bellevue
Magog, QC
1-888-843-7707


View Larger Map

Weekend brunch with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and fruit

Visit beFOODled on Flickr.

Besides pancakes, this is the other big breakfast that S and I sometimes make on weekends: a brunchy plate of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and fruit.

To make the eggs, fry the bacon first in a frying pan until crispy, and then set aside on some paper towels to drain. Drain away most of the bacon fat from the frying pan except a teaspoon or so. In the same pan, saute some sliced onions, which will become a bed for the eggs. When the onions have softened, break two eggs on top of them and cook them sunnyside up. Break the bacon into smaller pieces and put them on top of the egg whites so that they surround the yolk. Then garnish with some chopped green onion. Everything sticks together nicely and the egg becomes this happy colourful work of art!

Each time I made the hashbrowns, they come out differently depending on what kind of pepper, cheese and spices I have on hand. Today I sauteed some finely diced onion and diced red pepper in a frying pan until softened, and then add hashbrowns. Mix and season with salt and pepper and add some smoked paprika and thyme. I fry the hashbrowns for about 10 minutes, leaving them alone for several minutes at a time before turning, so that at least two of the four the sides brown up. At the end of the 10 minutes, take the frying pan off the heat, sprinkle grated cheese all over and cover. The cheese melts quickly under the cover of the lid. Just remove the lid carefully so that all of the condensed water on it doesn't end up on those carefully crisped hashbrowns!

Serve with tea and apple quarters or mandarin orange slices.

Pancakes

Visit beFOODled on Flickr.

This has been my favourite breakfast of late, a little stack of pancakes with maple syrup, bacon, a glass of OJ and apple slices (not pictured). And you can't beat the recipe for easiness — President's Choice buttermilk pancake mix and water. These little beauties were poured out by S who has perfected the art of the circular pancake. Mine on the other hand look a bit deformed but still taste good!

Sandwich melt with yellow tomatoes and olive tapenade

Sandwich melt with yellow tomatoes and olive tapenade on Flickr by beFOODled.

Last week S made trés haute cuisine ;) open-faced sandwich melts with yellow tomatoes I found at the grocery store. I think the colours are beautiful — chocolate brown, bright green and fresh, lemon yellow.

Yellow tomatoes and purple carrots are a few of my favourite things about summer, when the heirloom varieties of produce become available. Often these are the original colours from when the vegetable or fruit made its Old World debut.

This sandwich melt follows the same method as my previous recipe, but is layered with different ingredients — slices of old cheddar and yellow tomatoes under a sprinkling of chopped green onions and grated parmesan. The tomato slices are seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with a couple of dollops of olive tapenade and a drizzling of olive oil, which is a very tasty combo.

Open-faced vegetable melt sandwich

Open-faced vegetable melt sandwich on Flickr by beFOODled.

This sandwich pretty much got me through life as a student. Now I make it on weekend mornings when it's my turn to do breakfast.

You can switch different toppings in and out, but the mainstay is lots and lots of grated cheese. I like to use cheeses that are good melters, like cheddar, fontina or mozzarella. Mozzarella is a bit bland in the flavour department, so I always mix it with a sharper cheese like cheddar.

And when I buy baguettes, I cut them into four sections, wrap each section in plastic wrap and freeze the whole lot together in a big freezer bag. Whenever I take one out to make this sandwich, the bread still tastes fresh.

Open-faced vegetable melt sandwich
Serves two

two quarters of a baguette or four slices of brown bread
cherry tomatoes (or any tomato)
two spring onions
cheese like cheddar, fontina or mozzarella
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and take some bread out of the freezer.

Halve the cherry tomatoes or slice regular tomatoes. Slice the spring onions into thin rounds, including the green parts. Grate the cheese.

Slice open the baguette and add the toppings — tomato, onions and then cheese on top. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, if using.

Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Cheese, mushroom and caramelized onion omelette

Cheese, mushroom and caramelized onion omelette, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

Here's the recipe for S's special breakfast omelette. It is delicious and a little bit sweet because he uses sugar to caramelize the onions.

Cheese, mushroom and caramelized onion omelette
half of a large onion, sliced
six mushrooms, sliced
dry herbs or fresh chopped herbs
green onions (optional)
balsamic vinegar
sugar
Worcestershire sauce
knob of butter
olive oil (or another oil)
2 eggs
mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper

Fry the sliced onion and mushrooms together in the oil. Season with salt and pepper after they have sweated for a bit (released some of their water). Add some fresh chopped herbs, such as rosemary or thyme, or some dried, and some sliced green onions, if you wish. Once the vegetables start browning, glug in about half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, the same amount of sugar and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Let that reduce for a bit until everything looks like it has been absorbed. Set the mixture aside.

Crack two eggs in a measuring cup and beat together. In a separate frying pan, add a knob of butter, enough to spread around the pan. When the pan is at medium heat, add the eggs and swirl them around so they spread out evenly. Wait until the eggs have solidified a little bit. Add the mushroom mixture to one half of the omelette. Slice some mozzarella cheese and then rip it into chunks, and spread it over the top of the mushrooms.

Using a fork, peek underneath the omelette. Wait until the underside is just starting to brown and then take the pan off the heat and hold it over a plate. Slide the omelette off so that the side with the mushrooms lands on the plate first. Then lift the pan up and over so the other half of the omelette flops over on top on the mushrooms. Serve immediately.

Sunday Harvest Brunch

Today S and I met some friends at the Landsdowne Farmer's Market and we all bought ingredients for a Sunday harvest brunch at Ella and Cinder's house. The photo above is from the market, and the one below shows all of the delicious dishes we prepared.

Ella made sage-and-brown butter ravioli with toasted almond slivers, and also this amazing dish that was sort of a cross between an apple tart and a semi-sweet quiche. She has promised me the recipe, so stay tuned! She also served prosciutto-wrapped melon and many cheeses, including a great maple cheddar, which she bought recently during a trip to Prince Edward County. We also made insalata caprese and MV made her famous spicy Portuguese shrimp. S and I bought olive and potato-dill artisan breads from the market. Squeaky made mimosas with champagne, peaches and strawberries, and Em and I brought éclairs that we made yesterday and which I'll tell you about soon in another post!

More Breakfasts from Chez Fanny in Montreal

S and I went to Montreal to celebrate my new job :) We stayed at our favourite Montreal B & B Chez Fanny again, and it proved to be another great weekend in my old and much-loved city. The breakfasts, as usual, were delicious - cheeses, good breads, yoghurt with hazelnut butter swirled in, vanilla French toast with toasted butternuts, and Fanny's plate - an assortment of breakfasty bites surrounding two soft-boiled eggs!

The Best Continental Breakfast in Montreal

I will never stay in a hotel again! Last weekend S and I went to Montreal to take in the Jazz fest. We decided to stay in a B&B instead of a hotel, and it was great. We stayed at Chez Fanny, which is in a beautiful historical house in the Plateau, and we made friends with another young German couple also staying there. This picture is of the delicious continental breakfast that Fanny served us. We had freshly squeezed juice, fresh figs (so decadent), and yogurt and maple syrup, and we had cheese dusted with pistachio nuts, and lots of breads, including that little loaf in the background. It came from the Marché Richelieu across the street, and was filled with white chocolate and cranberries. Fanny says they make an even better one with orange and chocolate. I think I will have to return soon!