Category: Main Dishes

Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Shallots

Shallots are not cheap. However, one shallot can turn ordinary scrambled eggs into a gourmet dish, and if you wait until eggs are on sale, you can afford a shallot. Plus, if you are lucky, you can have the pleasure of identifying your purchase to the clerk who seems puzzled by the odd-looking onion. Ah, snobbery!

Shallots are related to onions, but they have a much milder flavor with a hint of garlic. Mature shallots have a brown papery skin covering their delicate purple and white flesh. I started using them several years ago after reading a gourmet magazine someone left at the cabin.

Here is a recipe to brighten your breakfast table.

INGREDIENTS:

3 medium mushrooms (about 2 inches in diameter)
1 medium shallot (about 1 inch in diameter)
3 large eggs
3 T unsalted butter
3 T milk
1/2 tsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash of hot sauce (optional)
2 T sharp cheddar cheese
Black pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Clean and thinly slice the mushrooms. Cut the stem and root ends off the shallot, cut the bulb in half lengthwise and peel off the brown outer husk. Slice each half very thinly so you have little half rings.

Melt the butter in a medium-sized frying pan over low heat. Add the mushrooms and raise the heat to medium for two or three minutes, stirring and turning the slices until they just begin to turn golden brown. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the shallots. Allow them to soften while you prepare the eggs. Do not brown the shallots.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl until they are lemon yellow. Beat in the flour, salt and pepper, then stir in the milk and the dash of hot sauce if you like it.

Pour the egg mixture over the mushrooms and shallots and allow it to cook slowly for a minute or so while you grate some cheese. Stir the eggs with a wooden spoon to keep them from burning. When the eggs are nearly done, sprinkle the cheese over the top, cover for a half minute or so and allow the cheese to melt.

Serve with juice, toast or a toasted bagel for a gourmet breakfast.

NOTES: I know, I know, adding flour to scrambled eggs is a no-no. Do it anyway if you add milk to the eggs. The tiny bit of flour keeps the eggs from being watery. For the cheese, a sharp cheddar or Gloucester is my preferred choice, but I have used medium cheddar when nothing else was in the fridge. It works. I even tried Parmesan once. Shall we say there appeared to be a clash of cuisines?

Pasta and Kale

Like me, kale prefers cooler climates. This may explain why I enjoy it so much, although it might just be my European heritage. Kale has been one of the most popular green vegetables in Europe for at least two thousand years. The Greeks and Romans who loved the vegetable may have brought it to northern Europe, but many food historians suspect that the Celts carried it with them when they migrated across the continent and ended up in Ireland.

Besides having a wonderful fresh flavor, kale is a great source of important vitamins and minerals. One cup of steamed kale has more vitamin C than an eight ounce glass of fresh orange juice, more calcium than a cup of milk and more potassium than a banana–all this with only 50 calories and four carbs.

During the year I spent in Germany kale was on the menus in fine restaurants, school cafeterias and neighborhood Gaststüben. You could buy it fresh at the market in front of the cathedral in Muenster even when snow covered the cobbles. Farmers just dug the kale out of the snow and sold bunches of it crisp and green to eager housewives and hungry students.

We like it steamed as a green vegetable, in soups or combined with pasta. This combination of pasta and kale is a very simple recipe, but if you make it with good smoked bacon you will have a delicious side dish or main course. We try to get fresh crisp curly kale, but you can use flat leaf kale as well.

Feel free to change the proportions of ingredients to suit your taste, but follow the recipe the first time!

INGREDIENTS:

A bunch of fresh kale (approximately 8 ounces)
4 strips of thick-sliced bacon
1/4 medium onion (2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter)
12 oz. package of pasta
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

PROCEDURE:

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. While the water is heating and the pasta is cooking, prepare the other ingredients.

Clean and chop the onion and wash and remove the tough stems and large center ribs from the kale. Shred the kale with a sharp knife

Cut the bacon into half inch pieces and fry it over low heat in a large skillet. When the bacon is nearly done, add the chopped onion. Cook it slowly for three or four minutes. Do not brown the onion or allow the bacon to become crisp. Remove the skillet from the heat until the pasta is cooked al dente.

Return the skillet to the heat, add the kale and toss it until it is slightly wilted. Add the drained pasta with about 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and toss thoroughly. Season lightly with salt and pepper and serve with extra Parmesan at the table.

NOTES: I prefer to use penne rigate for this recipe, but I have used rotini and macaroni. Anything except lasagna noodles should be fine.