Eggs in the Nest

1 Slice Firm Bread 

Egg

Margarine

 

Punch a hole in the geometric center of the bread with a shot glass.  (I have a Tupperware medicine cup that's perfect. You can also use the lid from a spice bottle.)  Put the bread on a medium hot grill or cast iron skillet and drop a half-teaspoon of margarine in the hole.  Slide the bread around to get it on the bread.  Let the bread heat a little, and then flip it over and drop another chunk of butter in the hole.  Break the egg in the hole, and then lift the corner of the bread just a little (1/2 ") so that the egg runs under the corner of the bread.  Cook the first side until the white on the bottom is done and then flip the slice.  Cook to desired consistency -- for an "over easy" the egg will quiver a little if  you move the bread.  

 

French Toast.

Stale or Firm Bread (the thicker the better)

1 Egg per person

2 Tbsp Milk per person. 

Sugar & Salt

Heat a grill or griddle to pancake heat.  (that's HOTl!  Water turns to little balls and dances on the surface.)  In a shallow soup bowl, mix the eggs thoroughly and add the milk.  Mix again.  Add a little sugar and even less salt.  Dip each slice of bread in the milk, turn, wait about five seconds, turn again, and put on the grill.  (Do this very quickly or you'll have egg all over everything.)  By the time you've done two servings it will be time to turn them all, starting with the first ones you put down.  Don't be afraid to take these off the grill when they're brown on both sides -- thick slices will continue to cook after you've taken them off.  Cut slices in half diagonally and arrange like a stack of paper hats.  (Presentation is everything!)  Butter while hot, and serve with hot syrup.  

Omelets without an omelet pan

Two or three eggs per omelet.

Pepper & other seasonings

 

Fillings:

• Chopped ham and grated cheese. 

• Hash browns & soft fried onions

• Soft cooked tomatoes, peppers, and onions  

• Sautéed mushrooms (if canned, sauté them for a minute in a little butter anyway)

Prepare the filling first.  Have it there in a pan or bowl when you start on the eggs.  Whip the eggs to a froth, add a shot of water and whip again.  Put some margarine or butter down on a medium-hot grill and pour part of the liquid egg mixture on the grill.  It will spread all over the grill.  Use your big spatula to build a little dike along each edge of the egg.  Pour the rest of the egg inside the corral you've made.  Put your filling inside the corral. Season the inside.  When the base looks done enuf, turn one-third of the omelet over the filling,  Turn again in the same direction, so that you have the filling nicely enclosed.  It will be thinnest on the top, and thick on the bottom where you have to pick it up.  Use a knife or fork along with the spatula to pick it up and put it on the plate.  Serve with toast and hot sauce (my personal favorite is Trappey's "Red Devil" cayenne pepper sauce but I'm getting used to Marie Sharp's Mild) or salsa.    

 

Sam’s Industrial Strength Fried* Potatoes

Potatoes

Pepper

Oil

1.      Parboil potatoes until the skin peels back when you scrape it with your fingernail.  This takes about 15 minutes at altitude, about 10 minutes at sea level.   

2.      Pour off boiling water, cover potatoes with cool water, and allow to cool until you can handle them. 

* For Hash Browns: Grate potatoes, using the 1/4 inch holey side of a “knucklebuster” square grater.

* For Home Fries:  Slice the potatoes thinly, using the slicer side of a “knucklebuster” square grater, or by slicing very thin with a sharp knife.

* For Cottage Fries: Cube the potatoes into 3/4” cubes.

Put the potatoes on a medium hot grill or in a hot heavy skillet, well oiled. Pepper well.  Fry the potatoes until crusty done.  If they don’t brown nicely, turn up the heat a little and add oil.

Tip:  If they don’t brown crusty, the skillet isn’t hot enough.

Tip:  If you parboil the potatoes too long, they will not grate into hash browns.  In that case, make one of the other two forms.  (It took me a long time to figure out why Sam was giving me home fries instead of hash browns.  It was because the potatoes were too soft to grate properly!!)

Microwave Tip:  I use a Microwave to do the potato.  A medium-large potato takes about two minutes, and then you need to cool it down in cool water to grate it.  Par-boil a couple first to get the idea of how done they should be.  

Rick's Killer Breakfast Burritos

Flour Tortillas (at least 12" diameter)

One Potato

One egg per person

Chopped Onions

Mexican Cheese

Mayonnaise or Mayonesa (Mexican Miracle Whip)

Refried Beans

Salsa

1.     Microwave or parboil a small potato until the skin peals off when you pick at it with a fingernail.  Coarsely grate or slice fine (see hash browns) pepper liberally, and brown on grill or in heavy skillet until crusty. (REALLY Crusty -- gives a surprise crunch to the filling!!)

2.      Scramble an egg for each person.  (I use a sauté pan for this.)

3.      Warm up flour tortillas (one or two per person, depending on size.)

4.      Assemble Burritos:

a)     Spread a band (about an inch wide) of Mayo across the center of each tortilla. 

a1)  If you have refried beans, you should put a layer on first instead of Mayo. 

b)     Put a band of potato and a band of scrambled eggs on top of the Mayo. Grate cheese over the innards

c)      Optional: Sprinkle with chopped unions

d)     Roll the tortilla into a burrito

Tip:  It’s easy to get too much filling in these.  A little filling will do nicely.

Tip:  These are best when smothered with Sam’s Colorado Green Chili.  If you are going to do that, you can omit the salsa.  Alternatively, you can smother the burritos with hot salsa rather than putting it inside.  

Tip:  You can buy a small hand grater that’s shaped like a hair brush.  This is perfect for grating a little bit of cheese on any Mexican dish.

Rix Modifier.  If you have leftover Corn Beef Hash, use hash and eggs for a great Burrito.

New Details.  Serve your breakfast burrito, smothered with Colorado Green Chili (below)  with a side of Mexican chopped lettuce salad.  This will give you the Red,White and Green you need for true Mexican authenticity.

New Pronouncement:  This dish is probably the best thing I make.  It is WORLD CLASS!  In addition, it is a good excuse to have one or more beers before noon. (Nothing goes so well with Rick's Killer Breakfast Burrito.) 

New Addition.  Look here for Rick's Killer Huevos Rancheros.

Corned Beef Hash

1 or 2 Large Potatoes

1/2 Small Onion, diced

One can Corned Beef

Black Pepper

Oil

 

I would not have thought that you could do this with canned corned beef, but it may actually be better.  It is certainly easier than cooking up a corned beef brisket just to make hash.<grin> 

1. Parboil potatoes as described under "Industrial Strength Fried Potatoes"

2. Cube potatoes into 1/2" cubes. 

3. Add oil to hot pan and then potatoes.  Do not stir until they have crusted on the bottom.  

4. Add onions, and more oil.  Stir until unions are soft.  

5. Add corned beef, and more oil.   Break up corned beef into small pieces and then leave it alone so that it can crust.   It's hard to leave this whole mass alone, but it will crust before it burns.  

6. When you have a nice crust on the bottom, pepper vigorously, and turn.  Cook until canned corned beef is thoroughly dry.  (It looks like dogfood until then!)  

Top servings with one or two fried eggs and serve with toast. 

 

Note:  Mix some shredded parboiled beets with the potatoes for "Red Flannel Hash."

 

Steak & Eggs

Steak

Eggs

 

Sam bought an entire rib-eye strip, and cut steaks off of it as required.  I would recommend this if you're a beef eater; otherwise get steaks cut by your butcher.  Pepper the meat on one side thoroughly with black pepper before you put it on a Hot grill.  Then pepper the other side as it cooks.  DON'T SALT IT.  Turn it when the cooked side looks like the final steak will look.  If you want it medium or well-done, let it cook longer before you turn it.  If you start turning it, you won't know know how done it is without cutting into it (the sign of a tyro cook.) 

 

Why not salt?  Because salt sucks the juices out oif the meat.  You want to seal the meat with cooking before you salt it.

 

Why pepper?  Pepper gains flavor when you cook it.  Always put black pepper on your cooking food early rather than at the end.   

 

Serve this with Fried or Scrambled Eggs, Hash browns and Toast. 

 

Tip:  Many gourmands believe that you need "pig meat" with breakfast, and steak violates that principle.  You can stick with the principle, and enhance the dish enormously by smothering the steak and the hash browns with Colorado Green Chili (which is made with pork.) below.

 

Colorado Green Chili (Chile Verde)

4 lb. Pork Roast diced or coarse (Chili) ground

2 lb. Ground Pork or Pork Sausage

2 Tbsp. Chicken Granules

3 Large Onions

18 Jalapeño or 6 Green Habenero Peppers. 

2 Green Bell Peppers. 

1 Cup Rice

 

1 Tbsp. Black Pepper

Flour or pancake batter

(If you cut this recipe in half, use 4 or 5 Habeneros or it won't be hot enuf. <grin>)

1. Combine Pork, Chicken Granules and enuf water to cover, and cook for two or three hours, skimming scum at first and fat later. 

2. Dice Onions, sauté, peppering generously, and add to meat.    

3. Clean bell peppers. Dice all peppers and add to pork. (Purists might  sauté these first, but Sam didn't.  In fact, he froze jalapenos in season, and chopped them frozen and put them in his chili.  Some people use a variety of peppers.  Sam only used Jalepeños.  I add the bell peppers for color rather than flavor.   Add black pepper and salt to taste.  Cook some more. (about an hour, or until cubed pork is falling apart.)  

4. Add uncooked rice.  Cook until the rice and peppers are done (about 30 minutes.) 

5. Thicken somewhat with "roux".  Sam used pancake batter, since he had that sitting around the diner.  You can make up a slurry of flour and water, or cornstarch and water, and add it to the chili to thicken it a bit, or you could actually cook up a roux with flour and fat.  However, this chili is traditionally a lot thinner than Red Chili, and (like Cajun etouffé) is used more as a sauce or gravy than as a standalone dish.  

Caution:  It is very easy to get carried away by adding too many hot peppers, and you will make this chili too hot for most people to eat!

You can bag this, freeze it, and thaw it as needed.   Look here for an account of what's happened to Sam's Green Chili lately.

Note: New (May 2006)   I just made a half batch of Colorado Green Chill.  I added about a Tbsp of Garlic Powder, which I mixed into slurry before I added it.  I seeded the peppers -- seeds make it hotter -- and this batch (9 jalapenos, Tbsp of black pepper) was plenty hot.   I used two pounds of pork steak, which was the cheapest port available except for cheap pork sausage.  Be sure to break the sausage up real fine before you add it.  I browned the pork a little before I added the 'broth.'  You don't need any bell peppers -- it's green enuf without them!

Note: New (April 2008)  I used 3 Anaheim Green Peppers along with 9 Jalapeno's in a half batch.  It was just right!! (Won a Chili Cook-off with it!!)

Texas Red Chili

Everyone has their own recipe for Red, and this is mine.  I think it's close to Sam's, but Sam often confessed that he didn't even like red chili!

5 lb. Chuck, coarse (chili) ground

2 Large Onions, diced

2 Tbsp. Beef  Granules. 

4-6 cups water as required

1 #303 Can Hunt's Tomato Sauce (16 oz)

6 Tbsp. Gebhart's Chili Powder

1/4 cup Oregano Tea (boil 2 Tbsp oregano in water and add to chili)

4 Tbs. Ground New Mexico Red Chili Powder.  

1 Tbsp Black Pepper

1 or 2 Beers. (test thoroughly before using.)

Tabasco or Cayenne pepper to taste

Chili Beans (see note 1)

 

Brown peppered meat & onions together, in batches, and put them in a large stew pot.  Add 4 cups water and beef granules and begin boiling.  Add more water if required. After an hour or two, add tomato sauce, chili powders, & oregano tea. (Note 2)

Cook a lot more.  If the chili seems thin, you can thicken it with maza (corn flour roux), but with 5 pounds of beef, it shouldn't be thin!  In fact, if it seems too thick, you can thin it with one or two beers.  Sample them thoroughly before adding them to the chili-- they may be bad.  Chili should be HOT -- i.e., should have an "after burn" and if it doesn't, you need to add some hot stuff to make it hotter.  Cayenne pepper, Tobasco, or (my favorite) Marie Sharp's Fiery Hot Belizean Habenero Hot Sauce will do the trick. 

 

Note 1:  The Chili society doesn't allow beans in competition chili, but most chili eaters think they belong there.  You can add a can of chili beans or cook your own. (see our for beans recipe here.)  

 

Note 2: Texas Red is supposed to be RED -- not flecked with green.  If you don't mind the flecks, you can put oregano right in the Chili. 

 

Afterthought:  Notice that this chili doesn't have any tomatoes in it.  Anybody who puts tomatoes in their chili should be staked out on a Texas anthill for a couple of days.  All the tomatoes in chili should have been precooked into sauce.  It's CHILI, for gosh sakes, not marinara sauce!

All American Cheeseburger

Everyone thinks they know how to make hamburgers, but most of them taste home made.  We've had a lot of trouble here in Belize with tough beef, altho Dolpho, our nearest butcher, makes up a "grind beef" mixture with some green peppers in it that's actually pretty good.  One day when he was out of beef, he suggested pork, and I tried it.  The Belizean pork is just naturally fatter than beef, and it makes a better hamburger.   There are tricks to making a hamburger here.  The first trick is a big cook's spatula.  The second trick is a real grill.  (I show you the spatula and the grill here, and tell you how we make these in Belize.)

The "Breakfast Thing"

Sam's greatest invention.  Two patties of beef or pork (your option), each on a slice of cheese and a slice of bread. Industrial Strength Hash Browns at both ends.  The while thing covered with Green Chili or Red Chili -- your option.  :People asked for "a green thing" or "a red thing".  If you weren't starving, you asked for "a half a thing".  

Sam's Special.  Sam's version of a "Big Mac"  Tomatoes, lettuce, "secret sauce"  (mayo - based) 

Pork Cutlet Sandwich, Chicken Fried Chicken, Chicken Fried Steak 

These are all "cutlets" and they're all  made the same -- only the meat is different.  You always pound the cutlet to thin it and tenderize it.  Sam used the back of his big Chinese cleaver -- I usually use a wooden mallet with grooves in it.  Cover the cutlet with plastic (save your plastic bags) and pound one side, the other, and then the first side, until you've got a cutlet about 3/8" thick.  You need:

    Peppered Bread Crumbs, in a loaf pan. 

    Egg wash -- One Egg, 2 Tbsp Milk, beaten thoroughly together, in a wide soup dish. .  

 

First, coat the cutlet with crumbs.  (You can use flour for the first coat, but it takes more time and most short-order cooks don't do it.)  [Secret #1: Coating the cutlet once before you egg it is important -- it keeps the coating from separating from the cutlet.] Then, dip the cutlet in the egg, one side, other side, first side again!  Put it back in the bread crumbs. Turn it a couple of times, shaking the pan to coat the meat well.  Press it down well to really press the coating into the meat.  [Secret #2:  Continue to turn the meat, pressing, until the coating doesn't show your finger prints.]  [Secret #3:  Set the cutlet on the board and let it sit for a couple of minutes to firm up the coating.]

 

Fry the cutlet on grill or in a heavy skillet until nicely browned.  {Secret #4: You can pour some dry vermouth on the grill under the cutlet and cover it with a pot lid for a couple of minutes to simmer and turn the breading soft, moist and more like fried chicken.]  Serve on a slice of bread, with mashed potatoes, smothered with Chicken Gravy (below). 

 

Chicken Gravy

Sam didn't show me how to make this -- but it's too easy to omit.  Real fancy chefs call it "velouté sauce."

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp Flour

1 Cup chicken stock, combined with 

1 Cup milk or condensed milk

 

Melt the butter (substitute extra virgin olive oil for half the butter if you're trying to be healthy) and whisk in the flour to make a roux.  Cook this a little to avoid a floury taste before you begin to add the combined stock, a little at a time, stirring constantly with the whisk.  Continue to stir as it thickens.  Season with Old Bay spice or Season-all, Poultry Seasoning and Pepper. Forget the Chicken Gravy mix -- you don't need it!  You can make the stock by stirring a Tsp. of Chicken granules into warm water.