Making the perfect breakfast scramble
March 13, 2016 1:21 PM Subscribe
Help me potentially recreate an amazing breakfast scramble (lots of veggies!) I had last weekend, as well as perfect my general scramble technique!
Last weekend I had a life-changing (or at least breakfast-changing) egg scramble at J&M Cafe in Portland, Oregon. It had: three eggs, leeks, mustard greens, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, and, joy of joys, whole cloves of roasted garlic. It may have helped that I was still bleary-eyed and mildly hungover, but it was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had. Now I want to make it at home!
Various questions abound. I suspect/assume that most, if not all, of the add-ins were precooked. I've gone out and purchased a leek, chard (instead of mustard greens), mushrooms, and I currently have two heads of garlic roasting in my oven. What I'd like to do is cook everything today and have it in the fridge, so in the morning before I go to work all I have to do is mix a couple eggs in a bowl and get containers out of the fridge.
1) Suggestions for how to precook the various ingredients? I'm given to understand that having extra water in them will be a problem and make the scramble runny. My plan is to steam the chard, and then squeeze as much water out of it as possible. I just thinly sliced the leek and figured I'd maybe saute it? The mushrooms in the scramble were sliced incredibly thin, so I'll get my mandoline out for those and I guess saute those as well?
2) If my ingredients are precooked, do I add those to the pan first and let them heat up a bit before adding my eggs? Or do I mostly scramble the eggs first and then add the ingredients? When is the best time to add the cheese?
3) General scrambling technique for something like this! I normally prefer my eggs very, very dry - basically an egg pancake, but that doesn't work here and I'm happy to experiment. The eggs in my scramble at the restaurant were creamy and still a little wet, without being soggy (I'm not sure how to describe it, honestly). All the ingredients were mixed in pretty evenly but there were still some fairly large chunks of egg. What kind of pan technique should I be using? Just the traditional continually pushing everything towards the center? Should I add a little milk to my eggs?
4) Other suggestions for ingredients that I could make on the weekend but would keep well in the fridge during the week! I want to eat more vegetables and this seems like a great way to do it. I don't like peppers (bell or spicy) and don't eat beef but those would be the only food restrictions.
Thanks!
Various questions abound. I suspect/assume that most, if not all, of the add-ins were precooked. I've gone out and purchased a leek, chard (instead of mustard greens), mushrooms, and I currently have two heads of garlic roasting in my oven. What I'd like to do is cook everything today and have it in the fridge, so in the morning before I go to work all I have to do is mix a couple eggs in a bowl and get containers out of the fridge.
1) Suggestions for how to precook the various ingredients? I'm given to understand that having extra water in them will be a problem and make the scramble runny. My plan is to steam the chard, and then squeeze as much water out of it as possible. I just thinly sliced the leek and figured I'd maybe saute it? The mushrooms in the scramble were sliced incredibly thin, so I'll get my mandoline out for those and I guess saute those as well?
2) If my ingredients are precooked, do I add those to the pan first and let them heat up a bit before adding my eggs? Or do I mostly scramble the eggs first and then add the ingredients? When is the best time to add the cheese?
3) General scrambling technique for something like this! I normally prefer my eggs very, very dry - basically an egg pancake, but that doesn't work here and I'm happy to experiment. The eggs in my scramble at the restaurant were creamy and still a little wet, without being soggy (I'm not sure how to describe it, honestly). All the ingredients were mixed in pretty evenly but there were still some fairly large chunks of egg. What kind of pan technique should I be using? Just the traditional continually pushing everything towards the center? Should I add a little milk to my eggs?
4) Other suggestions for ingredients that I could make on the weekend but would keep well in the fridge during the week! I want to eat more vegetables and this seems like a great way to do it. I don't like peppers (bell or spicy) and don't eat beef but those would be the only food restrictions.
Thanks!
The combo you tried sounds really delicious!
1. Yes, pre-cooking is definitely needed for most, if not all the ingredients.
- Chard/greens/spinach are all really watery, so you need to be really ruthless in getting as much water out as possible after sautéing for a couple of minutes in oil/butter.
- Mushrooms need sautéing over a high heat. After a couple of minutes, they release their water and you can either drain the liquor off or keep cooking and you get a more intensely mushroom flavoured mixture with a little less texture - worth the payoff, if you have other texture-giving ingredients IMO.
- Leeks need 'top and tailing', then (optionally) halved lengthwise, then slice thinly and (definitely) plunge in a bowl of cold water to rinse out any mud and oomska. Personally, I'd leave cooking the leeks until you're ready to make the scramble, so you get a lovely fragrant pan of leeky, buttery goodness to start with.
2. Definitely do the eggs first then add the other ingredients about halfway to two-thirds of the way through. Starting with leek-infused butter (as mentioned above) at the start will intensify the the flavour though.
3. My scrambling technique has gone through some big changes in recent years and has started to resemble old-school risoto cooking, especially regarding control of the temperature and the final texture.
- take 2 or 3 room temperature free range eggs (depending on size/hunger). Crack into a jug/bowl/mug and stir half-heartedly with a fork. Add a splash of full-fat milk a pinch of sea salt and a generous grind of black pepper. The pepper will tend to clump together so give it another stir.
- in a small non-stick saucepan melt a teaspoon of unsalted butter over a medium heat. Whilst that's happening, cut some butter into 1/4 inch cubes - you'll need 4-6 of them.
- tip the egg mix into the pan. The temperature will cool, so if you're feeling co-ordinated, simultaneously turn up the temperature and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Otherwise, just be a little patient - stirring eggs is kind of Zen anyway....
- you'll start to see masses of egg solidifying, so it's time to add the other ingredients to get them up to temperature as the egg cooks through. Keep stirring so the clumps of cooked egg are evenly distributed.
-When the eggs are 80% cooked to your liking, STOP.Take the pan off the heat, stirring as you go. Add the cubes of butter and mix them in. Now's the time to add any cheese. With the pan off the heat, cover and leave to rest for a minute. The aim is to slow down and stop the cooking process by adding the butter and then let the flavours mingle before serving. The French have a lovely word for gooey, not completely set egg: baveuse. Some dictionaries define it as 'undercooked'; I think it's more accurately 'wobbly'. Nevertheless, it's definitely how I like my eggs, and it sounds like that's what you've recently tried.
4. The world of ideas here us huge but I'd certainly try: pancetta, chorizo, goats cheese, spinach, peas, broad beans, spring onion, smoked salmon...
posted by dogsbody at 2:18 PM on March 13, 2016 [13 favorites]
1. Yes, pre-cooking is definitely needed for most, if not all the ingredients.
- Chard/greens/spinach are all really watery, so you need to be really ruthless in getting as much water out as possible after sautéing for a couple of minutes in oil/butter.
- Mushrooms need sautéing over a high heat. After a couple of minutes, they release their water and you can either drain the liquor off or keep cooking and you get a more intensely mushroom flavoured mixture with a little less texture - worth the payoff, if you have other texture-giving ingredients IMO.
- Leeks need 'top and tailing', then (optionally) halved lengthwise, then slice thinly and (definitely) plunge in a bowl of cold water to rinse out any mud and oomska. Personally, I'd leave cooking the leeks until you're ready to make the scramble, so you get a lovely fragrant pan of leeky, buttery goodness to start with.
2. Definitely do the eggs first then add the other ingredients about halfway to two-thirds of the way through. Starting with leek-infused butter (as mentioned above) at the start will intensify the the flavour though.
3. My scrambling technique has gone through some big changes in recent years and has started to resemble old-school risoto cooking, especially regarding control of the temperature and the final texture.
- take 2 or 3 room temperature free range eggs (depending on size/hunger). Crack into a jug/bowl/mug and stir half-heartedly with a fork. Add a splash of full-fat milk a pinch of sea salt and a generous grind of black pepper. The pepper will tend to clump together so give it another stir.
- in a small non-stick saucepan melt a teaspoon of unsalted butter over a medium heat. Whilst that's happening, cut some butter into 1/4 inch cubes - you'll need 4-6 of them.
- tip the egg mix into the pan. The temperature will cool, so if you're feeling co-ordinated, simultaneously turn up the temperature and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Otherwise, just be a little patient - stirring eggs is kind of Zen anyway....
- you'll start to see masses of egg solidifying, so it's time to add the other ingredients to get them up to temperature as the egg cooks through. Keep stirring so the clumps of cooked egg are evenly distributed.
-When the eggs are 80% cooked to your liking, STOP.Take the pan off the heat, stirring as you go. Add the cubes of butter and mix them in. Now's the time to add any cheese. With the pan off the heat, cover and leave to rest for a minute. The aim is to slow down and stop the cooking process by adding the butter and then let the flavours mingle before serving. The French have a lovely word for gooey, not completely set egg: baveuse. Some dictionaries define it as 'undercooked'; I think it's more accurately 'wobbly'. Nevertheless, it's definitely how I like my eggs, and it sounds like that's what you've recently tried.
4. The world of ideas here us huge but I'd certainly try: pancetta, chorizo, goats cheese, spinach, peas, broad beans, spring onion, smoked salmon...
posted by dogsbody at 2:18 PM on March 13, 2016 [13 favorites]
The eggs you refer to - creamy but not soggy - may have been done as per how Gordon Ramsay does it in this video. i.e. scrambled with a decent amount of butter, no salt.
posted by lizbunny at 2:19 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by lizbunny at 2:19 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
4) Other suggestions for ingredients that I could make on the weekend but would keep well in the fridge during the week! I want to eat more vegetables and this seems like a great way to do it. I don't like peppers (bell or spicy) and don't eat beef but those would be the only food restrictions.
canned or jarred artichoke that's been rinsed of the gross marinating oil and drained
trader joe's frozen grilled asparagus thawed and chopped up
baked potatoes can be sliced into quick cooking home fries which go well in egg
baby spinach sautéed with garlic
cubes of sweet potato and black bean
mushrooms cooked in olive oil (or even truffle oil) with shallots
stale tortilla chips scrambled/softened for a few minutes in ranchera sauce (chilaquiles) with egg mixed in - you can also add beans, cheese, green onion, whatever
posted by Juliet Banana at 2:22 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
canned or jarred artichoke that's been rinsed of the gross marinating oil and drained
trader joe's frozen grilled asparagus thawed and chopped up
baked potatoes can be sliced into quick cooking home fries which go well in egg
baby spinach sautéed with garlic
cubes of sweet potato and black bean
mushrooms cooked in olive oil (or even truffle oil) with shallots
stale tortilla chips scrambled/softened for a few minutes in ranchera sauce (chilaquiles) with egg mixed in - you can also add beans, cheese, green onion, whatever
posted by Juliet Banana at 2:22 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've been putting leftover roasted broccoli and/or cauliflower (roughly chopped) on top of my scrambled eggs, and a couple of spoons of whatever salsa I've gotten at Trader Joe's recently.
posted by mogget at 2:37 PM on March 13, 2016
posted by mogget at 2:37 PM on March 13, 2016
I am a recent convert to the pre-salting technique - beat your eggs in a bowl, add a good pinch of salt, leave for 15 minutes before cooking. That and more ideas here at Serious Eats. I like mine creamy and runny and I am a terrible cook but I get good result with their methods.
posted by corvine at 2:50 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by corvine at 2:50 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
When you pre-cook the mushrooms, pans fry then *in a single layer* in butter. Fry until golden brown, then flip and fry the other side until it's brown also. If you crowd the pan, the juices the mushrooms release will boil/steam them instead of frying up nicely.
To make the whole cloves of roasted garlic (which are amazing on, well, everything, so do a bunch of heads at once and keep them in the fridge):
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Slice off the top each head of garlic to expose some of the cloves inside. Place the heads on a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in the foil. Roast until cloves are lightly browned and tender, about 30 minutes.
posted by ananci at 3:12 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
To make the whole cloves of roasted garlic (which are amazing on, well, everything, so do a bunch of heads at once and keep them in the fridge):
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Slice off the top each head of garlic to expose some of the cloves inside. Place the heads on a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in the foil. Roast until cloves are lightly browned and tender, about 30 minutes.
posted by ananci at 3:12 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I would roast the mushrooms and leeks alongside the garlic. You can mist the surface of the pan (I recommend foil for this) with oil but don't otherwise oil up the mushrooms, let them get a little dried out. The leeks you can toss in oil or spray real good.
One of the important features of creamy eggs is to get them off the heat before they're done, the 80% recommendation is about right for my tastes, and you'll have to experiment to find yours. You can add a tablespoon or two of water, milk, half/half, cream, sour cream, or greek yogurt, and you may want to experiment with each to see how that goes.
You can actually roast your greens too. It takes up a lot of real estate - I get the oven real hot, lay out the chard in a single layer over as many cookie sheets as I have, and pop them in 2 sheets at a time: one top right and the other bottom left, so air circulates. Basically you want to quick-dehydrate them. Watch carefully, yank 'em and swap out new pans as soon as they kind of crinkle up. You actually want to be opening the oven door pretty often so moisture doesn't accumulate. I've never tried the boiler, I just now thought of that.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:26 PM on March 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
One of the important features of creamy eggs is to get them off the heat before they're done, the 80% recommendation is about right for my tastes, and you'll have to experiment to find yours. You can add a tablespoon or two of water, milk, half/half, cream, sour cream, or greek yogurt, and you may want to experiment with each to see how that goes.
You can actually roast your greens too. It takes up a lot of real estate - I get the oven real hot, lay out the chard in a single layer over as many cookie sheets as I have, and pop them in 2 sheets at a time: one top right and the other bottom left, so air circulates. Basically you want to quick-dehydrate them. Watch carefully, yank 'em and swap out new pans as soon as they kind of crinkle up. You actually want to be opening the oven door pretty often so moisture doesn't accumulate. I've never tried the boiler, I just now thought of that.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:26 PM on March 13, 2016 [3 favorites]
If you like your eggs dry, have you ever tried making a scramble with tofu (specifically, with firm or extra-firm tofu)? The firmer the tofu, the more water that has been pressed out of it. I love a tofu scramble, and so do my kids. I buy kala namak / black salt to use as a finishing seasoning--it's got a bit of a sulfurous eggy smell and taste.
You can roast several heads of garlic at once and then keep them in the fridge of freezer to use on demand. I get big blocks of tofu and "scramble" them with a potato masher. Then the order of cooking goes: onions first (to desired translucency/brownness); then celery, carrots, leeks; lastly mushrooms and other wet veg. You don't need more than a minute or two between these steps. Add the tofu at the end to heat everything evenly. Move to a plate and finish with the kala namak.
If you're using cumin, add it with or shortly after the onions. It likes to be cooked. Most other spices can be mixed in with the tofu.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:05 AM on March 14, 2016
You can roast several heads of garlic at once and then keep them in the fridge of freezer to use on demand. I get big blocks of tofu and "scramble" them with a potato masher. Then the order of cooking goes: onions first (to desired translucency/brownness); then celery, carrots, leeks; lastly mushrooms and other wet veg. You don't need more than a minute or two between these steps. Add the tofu at the end to heat everything evenly. Move to a plate and finish with the kala namak.
If you're using cumin, add it with or shortly after the onions. It likes to be cooked. Most other spices can be mixed in with the tofu.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:05 AM on March 14, 2016
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posted by Juliet Banana at 2:17 PM on March 13, 2016