Here’s breakfast fit for a king or queen – or to feed your personal president or lord or lady of your castle. Great for Easter, for Father’s Day or for no special occasion at all.
Warm a generous patty of frozen herb butter in a stainless steel skillet until melted. The butter needs to be hot, not browned because browned butter completely changes the taste of anything that comes near it. Because the butter takes on a nutty flavour, be careful not to burn it.
Wilt a very finely chopped generous tablespoon of Spanish onion in your skillet. Add a tablespoon of finely chopped sweet red bell pepper (always cut peppers working from skin side to flesh so as not to have bitter peppers). Add a teaspoon of finely chopped sun dried tomato; dry or bottled in oil. Sauté for just a minute. You don’t want mush. Next, mince a small garlic clove, mashed with lemon and salt. Sauté on medium low heat.
Using a slotted egg turner, return the sautéed mixture to the skillet just to warm through. Then remove to wait in a holding dish.
Fry three rashers of top grade fatty bacon in the same skillet until medium crispy and set aside. When frying bacon, do not turn the bacon rashers or move them around; just leave them alone. Resist the urge to touch. Just before removing them from the pan, turn the rashers just briefly and finish up the frying on the other side. That’s the very best way to fry bacon. You are not making crumbled bacon.
Add a little more butter to the pan with the bacon fat drippings. Sauté four firm, medium-size chopped white button mushrooms, again on high heat but you don’t want crispy mushrooms. Sprinkle with a pinch of dried thyme. No salt (it makes the mushrooms weep). Sprinkle with dry thyme.
Do not overcook the mushrooms; just sear them. Just turn once over lightly (you don’t want mushy mushrooms) and remove the mushrooms from the skillet and save with peppers and onion mix.
Add more butter to the skillet and sauté a half dozen medium-size shrimp. Sprinkle the shrimp with dry thyme.
When the shrimp is no longer translucent it’s cooked. Remove from heat immediately. Like everything else, the shrimp continues to cook in its own heat. So be very careful not to overcook. The shrimp will get rubbery.
If you have cooked the shrimp with the shells on, now remove the shells.
Deglaze the skillet with your favourite brandy. Scrape the pan clean using an egg turner. Add the drippings to the onion mix.
In a separate or clean skillet, melt a couple of tablespoons of plain butter. You are going to cook scrambled eggs in this clean skillet. You don’t want any crunchy bits in the pan.
Just eggs. Nothing added. No water; no milk or cream. No spices, either.
Whisk six whole large eggs in a bowl. Just incorporate a little air. Gently drop the whisked eggs into the hot butter and start to move the eggs around the pan immediately as they congeal. Don’t leave the stove. Keep heat medium high. You don’t want the eggs to stick to the pan.
Do not let the eggs brown. I rarely use a Teflon coated pan in any way shape or form. And I highly recommend using a copper bottom stainless steel skillet for all my recipes. A skillet has low sides. Invest in a glass top cover, so you can see what’s going on while you cook. If you don’t currently use a good skillet, I recommend investing in one. Good ones last for 20 years or more if taken care of. And for making the scrambled eggs, at their very best, this works like a charm. You might be surprised.
Using an egg turner backwards, lift and continuously move the eggs, until just barely cooked. They should look moist. Always remember, food continues to cook when removed from the heat source. You don’t want to make an omelette. It is very important to keep moving the eggs continuously as they cook, mounding the eggs gently. This will only take a minute or two.
This egg consistency is just beautiful to see and wonderful to eat. They are pure eggs. Do not overcook. That would change the taste of the eggs completely.
Transfer the eggs, evenly divided, into two oven-to-table flat low serving dishes. I like to use oval midsize, low-sided, oven-proof ramekins.
Sprinkle with a little salt, a few twists of course ground black pepper and a dusting of fine paprika powder.
Divide the onion, bell pepper and garlic mix over top the loosely scrambled eggs. Don’t stir.
Now the bit that makes this dish extra special. Split six pimento stuffed green Manzanilla olives (McLaren’s brand is by far the best but often very difficult to find) in half, top to bottom, and position around the edge of the beautiful eggs. Sprinkle each dish with a few drops of the olive jar liquid.
I know some people don’t care for olives, but truly this makes the egg dish spectacular. Do try it because all that happens is the flavours burst in your mouth, combined.
Position the cooked whole shrimp around the outside edge of each dish. Precooked, thawed whole medium size frozen shrimp will do in a pinch, if you don’t have fresh; but fresh is noticeably better.
Divide the bacon strips and position on top of the eggs. Now for the grand finish. Top each serving dish with a large slice of cheddar cheese. Cheddar works best with this dish.
But, absolutely necessary: Sprinkle the cheese slice with grated rock hard strong Parmesan cheese (perfect use for a leftover hard bit) and a sprinkle of very dry Romano. (These two cheeses marry wonderfully well.) A few twists of black pepper and you’re done.
Place both serving dishes on a cookie sheet, under preheated broiler on the top rack with the oven door open, just until the cheese bubbles. Just seconds. You don’t want the cheese to brown.
Serve with toast triangles. No need for another meal till dinnertime. A brunch glass of dry white wine acts as a great palate cleanser. Enjoy.
No one will ever be disappointed with this ‘adult’ breakfast dish.
To broaden your breakfast experience, making it into a brunch meal, just serve a side salad of tomatoes, such as this recipe: Salad on the run – Instant fresh tomato basil salad.
(We eat with our eyes.)
The working title for Carolyne’s Gourmet Recipes cookbook is From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks. This kitchen-friendly doyenne has been honoured and referred to as the grande dame of executive real estate in her market area during her 35-year career. She taught gourmet cooking in the mid-70s and wrote a weekly newspaper cooking column, long before gourmet was popular as it is today. Her ebook, Gourmet Cooking – at Home with Carolyne is available here for $5.99 US. Email Carolyne. Scroll down to the comments at each recipe column. Carolyne often adds complimentary “From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen” additional recipes in the Recipes for Realtors Comments section at REM.
