Wakey Wakey, Eggs 'n Bakey (Recipe)
With some other stuff
Back in my late 20s, and very early 30s, all my college crew started to get married off. Which meant, I was going to quite a few weddings. And since my life was not panning out like theirs, I was going stag. Which was a drag. Hey that rhymed haha.
Several of these were destination weddings which was cool. And I liked to stay in the posh part of town, in posh hotels. 'Cause I had money to burn…at least that was my excuse. Anyway, it ended up being quite stupid since I would be alone sleeping in a giant hotel room, in a mega-king king-sized bed, ALL ALONE. It was craptastic. (Yes I said king twice.)
One such destination wedding was in Montreal, Canada. On this trip, I realized my high school French is still in the bowels of my mind somewhere. This during a startling moment when I effortlessly sussed out the French only menu in a, um, posh restaurant. Table pour une personne s'il vous plaît...! SMH… I also realized that Montreal, at least at that time since I have not been back, has some very attractive ladies in and about town, at all hours of the day. And even though just across the border to the US, dare I say disproportionately so when compared to their American counterparts. Lastly, the breakfast was on point in the local cafés. Like, really on point.
I can recall having some egg-salmon-bagel sorta thing the morning of the wedding. Now being from the New York tri-state area we are snobs about pizza, and bagels. So I cannot say it was a legit bagel, but it was a good bread/bagel sorta deal. The whole breakfast was delicious. So was the waitress* that served me, and the girl* sitting alone, that I nearly approached, in the same café. In an innocent sort of way, to share breakfast with one another. *Delicious, as in delightful to look at people.
So the wedding happened and due to this experience, when I got back home I decided to up my breakfast ante. Well, at least for the weekends when I had a bit more time to prepare things and indulge…in things. This is my version of that breakfast.
→ 2 eggs sunny side up
→ ¼ cup of black beans
→ 2 strips of bacon
→ 1 serving each of fruit and veg
It’s simple, easy, and, uh, delicious. Here is how I sort each out.
Cooking the eggs
This is one of those deals where I will be covering how I do different styles of eggs over several posts. Sunny side up is a straightforward sort of thing. However, if you don't pay attention, the yolks can become overcooked on the bottom, runny on the top, and crispy whites around the edges such that a fork will not cut through them. This is not a properly executed sunny side up egg. Although avoiding this takes practice, I'm gonna tell you what has worked for me. To get you started that is.
Oh, and use eggs that are either organic or at least from free range chickens raised sans any hormones or antibiotics. If you can get eggs from a local farm, even better. Higher quality eggs have really deep yellow, almost orange yolks. When fresh, the whites are quite thick. Not runny.
Step 1
Start with a cold non-stick pan of medium weight. In my experience, thick cast iron type pans take a long time to heat up, but once they do, the heat stays there. This will make the bottom of the eggs cook too fast, leaving the chef little room for error. Medium weight, or thinner style pans made out of aluminum (or a more thermally conductive material) do not retain nearly as much heat, making the eggs cook more evenly. Ditto for starting out with a cold pan (not feasible in a restaurant, but we're home cooks.)
Step 2
With clean hands, apply a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to the (cold) pan and spread evenly with your fingers. Just enough to apply a thin film of oil, not a puddle. Skipping this step will not allow the oil to infuse with the eggs as much.
Step 3
Add your eggs to the (cold) pan and sparingly season with salt, and white pepper. Why white pepper…? Well, it's a little different flavor, and they go invisible when dissolved in the eggs during cooking. It's a small aesthetic step that I like. You can also add some dried basil. But then again, this will spoil the virgin egg sort of appearance.
Step 4
Now you can apply low-medium heat to the pan, and cover with aluminum foil. The foil will reflect lots of heat, allowing the tops of the eggs to cook nearly as fast.
Step 5
Every now and then, remove the foil from the pan to check how the eggs are cooking. I like to shake the pan a little to watch how the yolks respond. Once they barely jiggle on top, and maybe even cloud over a bit, I remove the eggs from the pan onto the serving plate.
Eggs done.
Bacon in the microwave
Yup, I'm one of those.
Step 1
Take two strips of bacon and place them on two layers of quality paper towel, on a microwavable plate. Then place an additional layer of paper towel over top the two strips of bacon.
Step 2
Place in microwave and cook on high for 60 seconds.
Step 3
Remove from microwave, by which point you will find the paper towels soaked in bacon grease. Replace all the soaked paper towels with fresh paper towels in the manner described in step 1.
Step 4
Place in microwave and cook on high for another 60 seconds.
Done.
This, I find, is the least-messiest way of cooking bacon while absorbing as much grease as possible.
Cooking the black beans
Do this ahead of time. Follow link to the post below. Reheat beans in pan you cooked the eggs in, simple as.
Beans done.
Fruit and Veg serving
An apple, a pear, an orange, a cup of strawberries or blueberries. Whatever blows you hair back fruit-wise. For a breakfast veg, I like a fresh bell pepper of any color.
Done.
And there is a very well-rounded breakfast. I've enjoyed this many a weekend morning. Especially when I was semi obsessed with legumes…and bacon.
A word on the nutrition of it all. Starting off with the eggs, which some may associate with high cholesterol. Yes, the yolks themselves hold a lot of it. However, studies have shown that ingesting saturated fat is the main culprit toward high blood cholesterol levels, not consuming cholesterol already present in foods.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/cholesterol/
Plus, eggs are a great source of essential amino acids and micronutrients such as phosphorus, calcium, potassium, with trace elements of copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc.
Bacon in this quantity will give a nice flavor complement. They are another great source of protein, and contribute saturated fats in equal quantity to the eggs. Not as bad as you would think, however, saturated fat consumption should be limited. The rule of thumb is 1% of your daily caloric intake should be your saturated fat intake, in grams. So for 2000 calories per day of food, no more than 20 grams of saturated fat.
The black beans nutrition profile is covered in the post linked above. Let's just say they are mega.
Below is a nutrition label I have created for this breakfast sans fruit and veg since I have left that up to you. Figure an extra 20-25 grams in carbohydrate, and 50-100 calories, from the fruit. Oh, and I factored in a half a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. This may be too much or too little depending.
Keep in mind, roughly half of the total fat comes in the form of polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats. Both of which are of a distinct benefit to your health. Also, as mentioned dietary cholesterol is not thought to be a main contributor to blood cholesterol levels.
This is a solid once, twice a week breakfast. So nutritious, filling, and flavorful.
Having had the opportunity to feed this to some friends, I can say it does come highly recommended. All sparked from a trip to one of the nicer cities this planet has to offer.
To help grow this newsletter please Like, Comment, Share, and Subscribe.
To help support this newsletter, consider purchasing a Subscription.