Breakfast 1

Heirloom tomato and mint salsa

As far as salsas go, this one is pretty basic. 1 cucumber, diced; 3 heirloom tomatoes, diced; 1/2 red onion, finely chopped; juice of half a lime; pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper; 4 tablespoons olive oil; handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley and mint. Toss to combine. Can be made up to an hour prior to service.

Fried eggs, sunnyside-up, with heirloom tomato and mint salsa, served over crispy sourdough toast

This is one of my favorite ways to eat breakfast. It’s also relatively quick. This took about 20 minutes from start to finish (including making the salsa). Can’t beat that. I haven’t included a recipe because it’s so elemental that almost anyone can make it.

Click here to view a high resolution version of this picture.

Eggs on Toast 2

Eggs sunnyside-up, heirloom tomato and cucumber salad, toasted levain

This is my newest favorite way to have breakfast — pan-fried eggs over salad and crispy toast. Ingredients vary, depending on the season and what looks good at the market. The salad is simply halved cherry tomato, diced cucumber and summer squash, half an onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic scapes, parsley and extra-virgin olive oil.

Once you have it this way, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t thought of it before.

A bigger version of the pic can be seen here.

Two 20 Minute Meals

The most common excuse I hear when people say they’re not into cooking is “I don’t want to slave for hours on end in the kitchen just to make something to eat”. That could be a legitimate excuse but the reality is that you can make something tasty in a fraction of that time and it doesn’t even have to be complicated, as these two dishes prove. I think the real reason why people make excuses when it comes to cooking is they either don’t want to expend any effort or they don’t know how to cook. And we wonder why fast food and obesity are the issues they are today.

Thin spaghetti with mustard greens, garlic, pine nuts and golden raisins — This is an adaptation of a dish at Contigo, a restaurant located in Noe Valley in San Francisco. The original uses fava greens instead of mustard greens and doesn’t contain pasta.

Odds and Ends 1

Fettucine with summer tomato sauce

Later in the season when tomatoes get more flavorful, I usually opt for an uncooked tomato sauce or a bread salad. This sauce is great though with first-of-the-season toms like the ones pictured in the post below.

olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
handful of fresh oregano or parsley, chopped
kosher salt
freshly milled pepper
extra-virgin olive oil (optional)
cooked pasta

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until it takes on a bit of color, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes begin to relax. Check seasoning and remove from heat. Add chopped herbs and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Stir. Add cooked pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Midsummer Bounty

Some pix from this morning at Union Square Greenmarket. Some of what you see in this post will appear in meals throughout this week’s menu.

Strawberries — Simple is best when it comes to in-season strawberries. I like them with cream and a bit of sugar, or with a touch of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of black pepper. Breakfast tip: try a bowl of fromage blanc with strawberries macerated in vanilla sugar and chopped mint.

Sucrine — Rooted in the French word for “sugar,” sucrine (sugar lettuce sounds better) is a smaller variety of romaine with soft, silky leaves, buttery texture, and, as the name suggests, a sweet-ish flavor. You can take the elongated core of the lettuce, peel it, and steam it — it is as delicate as asparagus and just as delicious.

Green garlic — Green garlic is young garlic which is harvested before the cloves have begun to mature. The resulting vegetable resembles a scallion, with a deep green stalk and a pale white bulb. It can often be found for sale at a farmers’ market in the spring, and can also be grown at home relatively easily. Many large grocery stores do not stock green garlic, although growing consumer demand may change this. It can also usually be special ordered through a greengrocer.

Breakfast For Dinner 1

Plain omelette, spinach and radish greens sautéed in butter, roasted radishes with marjoram and mint, rye bread

When spinach and greens are briefly wilted in butter with a little garlic, they take on a magical quality. They literally melt in your mouth.

Ramps and Ferns

By next week, ramps season will be gone until next spring. Get them while you can.

Fiddlehead ferns run for about two weeks in most locales. The season usually begins in early April in the South until mid to late July in Canada. Some people think they taste like pond scum. For me, however, they remind me of asparagus. They have a delicateness that’s accentuated when briefly sautéed in butter.

Wild asparagus and ramps frittatta, fiddlehead ferns sautéed in butter

L’Ardenne

Eggs sunny-side up, salade au larde

We usually think of dandelions as a persistent weed. To a certain extent, this is true, but in the early spring when the greens are young, it can be delicious. Here it’s featured in “salade au larde”, otherwise known as one of the regional dishes of the Ardennes, a region of extensive forests in southeastern Belgium, Luxembourg and France. The fancy name shouldn’t scare you away. You can make it in less than 20 minutes and best of all, it’s even better the day after once the flavors have had a chance to meld.

4 medium potatoes (1)
2 strips bacon, cut into pieces
1 cup dandelion greens (2)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of sugar
kosher salt, to taste
freshly milled black pepper, to taste

Steam or boil potatoes in their skin until tender, but not falling apart. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl, peel if you wish and dice.

Render bacon until crisp. Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper.

Combine potatoes, bacon and dandelion greens. Pour dressing over all and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

(1) The pic shows Bintje and Purple Peruvian potatoes, but this is great with any potatoes that have a medium- to high-starch content such as Yukon golds, Yellow Finns or red-skinned

(2) Arugula or watercress are good substitutes.

Breakfast in Four Pictures