Brunch: œufs en cocotte with prosciutto and spinach

Regulars to this space know I detest eating Sunday Brunch out. That’s why I almost always cook on Sunday mornings. It’s comforting on so many levels. I typically find some jazz programming on cable and make the house smell yummy.

But with inclement weather on the way, I didn’t want to brave the throngs of panicked shoppers at the local market so I had to take what I had and make what I needed. This recipe is a derivative of one I saw in a magazine and wanted to amend based on what was in the fridge. The eggs are shirred, meaning baked. The whole thing is so simple anybody can do it; while the presentation is so amazing you’ll look like a genius.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 4 ounces of thinly sliced prosciutto (most of one package)
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 2 handfuls of spinach, coarsely chopped
• One small diced Roma tomato or 1/3 diced red pepper
• About a cup of a mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese for garnish
• Salt and pepper to taste

Technique

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Sauté the veggies until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet and allow to cool. Next, grease a muffin tin (that’s right) with olive oil. Then, line the muffin tin with sliced of prosciutto and add your veggie mixture. Top with mozzarella cheese, making sure to leave a well in the center. Next, crack a fresh in the cup on the cheese. Garnish with a bit of parmesan, salt and pepper. Once that’s done, pop them into your oven for 12 to 18 minutes, depending on how runny you like the yolks. Serve atop a toasted English muffin.

Now, isn’t that better than waiting in line for the mediocrity that serves as Sunday brunch in most commercial establishments? Bon appétit!

Sue Sue’s perfect muffins and Eggs McMalawer

When I was in high school, I had a crush on a girl named Sue for about two weeks. Then I discovered that she didn’t know who I was.

Alas.

Like so many other tempest tossed romances, mine ended with nary a whimper. It could have happened 500 year ago or last week and the results were the same: a heart broken on an adolescent level. Indeed, the only difference between tragic romances of today and those back then is that back then, we weren’t all vampires.

However, I have been able to rekindle relationships from those cheery days at Chatham High albeit the long distance kind through the magic of Facebook™. In the 30 some years since I left the perfect small town, we’ve more or less become whatever we were supposed to be. In my case, I busied myself in cold world of data in my software universe. Sue stood by the warmth of her hearth and became a baker, and a good one at that.

Baking to me is one of the Dark Arts. I can cook anything on top of the stove. I can roast like nobody’s business. But baking? Impossible. During one recent exchange, she said she was going to make some English Muffins.  I was dumbfounded. Baking English Muffins? From scratch? I don’t understand. How can you make an English Muffin?

There was humor in response and an invitation to sample some of her glorious fare. They came out of the oven on Thursday and arrived on my doorstep on Friday. But what to do with these magnificent muffins? There was only one possible use – Eggs McMalawer.

Her Imperial Majesty likes a poached egg on an English Muffin, so I decided to pull out all the stops, obtaining thick slices of Canadian Bacon from The Meat House™.

Hardware -- sandwiches

Bake Hampton™ English Muffins

4 large eggs, poached

4 slices thick top Canadian Bacon

4 slices American Cheese

Hardware – Hollandaise

2 egg yolks

1/3 slick of butter, melted and hot

Pinch of salt

Technique – yields two servings

Hollandaise

In a food processor, combine the egg yolks and salt (you can add a pinch of cayenne pepper but I don’t). Next, with the food processor on low, slowly drip the hot butter into the eggs yolks until froth up and they double in volume. Set aside in a warm place until it’s time to plate.

Sandwiches

Fork separate the muffins and lightly toast. (Sue will get mad if you use a knife.)

In a skillet, sear the Canadian Bacon until lightly browned. Set aside.

Poach the eggs in salted boiling water.

To plate:

The Bake Hampton muffin as the base, topped with cheese, the Canadian Bacon and the poached egg. Drizzle with Hollandaise Sauce. Garnish with fresh cracked black pepper or a pinch of cayenne.

The difference between the Sue’s Bake Hampton muffins and what I would find at the store, can best be explained by her Imperial Majesty Junior, who said succinctly, that “they taste more like bread”. When I asked her what she meant, she said “they taste more like real bread – like a baguette – that the others.”

I asked Sue about her baking and her career choice. Her younger brother Bobby is a chef and her older brother Mark is spice importer to the high end Trade in Manhattan and The Hamptons. "As far as family career choices, yes it is bizarre," She says. "We always gave Mom the credit, as she was a foodie way before foodies were in fashion."

I think that sums it up pretty well; the difference between Bake Hampton’s English muffins and what I can get at any grocery store is the difference between the bread they serve at the local franchised sub shop and what one can get at the corner bakery in Paris. It wasn’t manufactured in a factory; it was created by an artisan. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Bake Hampton

21 Wilder Estates Drive

Alexander, NC 28701

www.bakehampton.com