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.

Sweet potato and kale hash with fried egg

I love any supper that involves fried eggs so this lovely recipe from Laura Keogh over at Sweet Potato Chronicles caught my eye at once. The maple syrup made the kale and sweet potato so sweet and delicious that I forgot I was also eating something very healthy and fortifying. Yum yum. Another recipe for my "workweek dinner ideas" file. I gave some of the potatoes and kale to the babies and they scarfed it down with gusto. Yet another reason why it's such a keeper.

Spinach, mushroom and red pepper frittata

The babies and I eat scrambled eggs almost every day for lunch. They love the taste. They can pick them up and eat independently. I can make them really fast. Everybody's happy. But once in a while I make a frittata for variety. I put in all sorts of precooked veggies and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. After the frittata has cooked, I slice one half into thin strips and then small squares for them, and then keep the other half for myself.

For this recipe I used red pepper and baby spinach, but you can add any combination of vegetables you like. In the past I've done red pepper and zucchini, and sweet potato and spinach, which are both nice combinations. Use a saucepan that you can put under the broiler for a few minutes (ideally all-metal and without a long handle, but do what you can — mine is non-stick and has two small handles).

Spinach, mushroom and red pepper frittata

1 Tbsp olive oil
half an onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red pepper, minced
handful of baby spinach, julienned
6 mushroom, sliced
3 eggs
1/2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt

Heat a dry saucepan on medium heat on the stove. Add oil once it's hot.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl or measuring cup. Add the sugar and salt, and a little bit of water (a couple of tablespoons). Whisk everything together and set aside.

Fry the onion in the saucepan and stir until soft and glassy, about five minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for two minutes. Add the red pepper and mushrooms, stirring and cooking another three to five minutes. Add the spinach and cook for two minutes until just wilted. Once the vegetables are cooked, spread them evenly around the bottom of the pan.

Preheat the broiler.

Gently pour the egg mixture into the frying pan and let it swirl around the vegetables to evenly coat the bottom of the pan. Don't stir. Turn down the heat and let cook for a few minutes until the bottom has set, then sprinkle grated cheese over top.

Put the whole saucepan under the broiler for a few minutes until the top has cooked through and the cheese is bubbling.

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.

Stracciatella

Stracciatella soup on Flickr by beFOODled.

On Friday, S and I had lunch on a patio in Little Italy and I ordered stracciatella. It was so good and reminded me of the leek and egg drop soup that we made with Mark in Calgary.

Today, I made my own version for lunch.

Stracciatella is a Roman recipe and the word means "little rags," which refer to the shape the egg and cheese take when they are dropped into hot soup. The authentic Roman method adds semolina or flour to the egg and cheese mixture, and uses parsley. I did things a little differently and julienned some basil and spinach instead, and I made a soup base by sweating some leek and onion like we did with Mark.

Stracciatella
serves four to six

1 leek, white and light green part, finely sliced
1/2 an onion, finely diced
6 cups chicken broth
3 eggs
lots of grated fresh parmesan cheese (I used our microplane zester for an extra-fine grate)
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup baby spinach leaves, finely sliced
6 big basil leaves, finely sliced
salt and pepper

For the croûtes
2 baguette slices per person
some grated parmesan

Add the leek and onion to some hot oil in the bottom of a stock pot. Add some salt and sweat over low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add five cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Wash, dry and julienne the spinach and basil leaves.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and parmesan together. Add the last cup of broth and the nutmeg. Stir and set aside until the leek and onion broth is boiling.

Make the croûtes. Cut the baguette into slices, two per person. Put on a baking sheet and grate some parmesan over top. Put under the broiler until golden and crispy.

Turn the leek and onion broth down to medium-low heat. Add the egg and cheese mixture in a thin stream, stirring the broth constantly with a whisk — watch for the little rags forming!

Add the spinach and basil and stir. Ladle into bowls, top with two croûtes. Garnish with more grated cheese and cracked black pepper.

Stir-fried rice bowl

Stir-fried rice bowl, originally uploaded by beFOODled.

I made this last night because I had a craving for fried rice with egg on top, kind of like the nasi goreng my Mom used to make. I used what I had, which was frozen, shelled edamame instead of frozen peas, and day-old basmati rice instead of the short grain variety that's preferred for fried rice. It was still very tasty, though, and a fast meal.

Main ingredients
cold day-old rice (preferably short grain)
yellow onion
green onions
red pepper
garlic
chorizo sausage
shelled edamame (or frozen peas)
egg

Slice all of the veggies and the chorizo on the diagonal, to resemble the shape of a penne pasta. Set aside.

Asian dressing
cider vinegar, about three tablespoons
one inch piece of grated ginger and juice
soy sauce, about two tablespoons
pinch of salt
bigger pinch of sugar
a few drops of sesame chilli oil
a few drops of sesame oil

Dissolve the salt and sugar in the vinegar first, then add all of the other dressing ingredients, mix well and set aside.

In a frying pan, fry the chorizo until browned and set aside. In the same pan, fry the vegetables — yellow onion, red pepper, green onion, garlic. Put the chorizo back into the pan. Add the dressing and the edamame and cover the pan for four minutes to steam the edamame. Turn off the heat.

In a different pan, fry an egg sunny side up. Season with salt and pepper.

Microwave the cold rice and spoon into a bowl. Top with the fried egg and the chorizo/vegetable mixture and tuck into the goodness of this stir-fried rice bowl.

Stir-fried rice bowl detail, originally uploaded by beFOODled.