…in a world without eggs

Tuesday
Just back from four days in Reno to an “empty” refrigerator. Not empty, of course, but no “meal” food. We just drove for five hours and I took the car for a wash, so I’m not in the mood to expend energy making dinner. “Order a pizza,” is an obvious choice. But then I said to Carol, “I could get a jar of canned tomato sauce from the cellar, make some spaghetti.”
“There’s a beef patty left from last week’s sliders,” said Carol. Sounds like a plan.

The tomato sauce consisted of a pint of “Early Girl Raw” from last November. (Raw is when you have a few tomatoes, run ‘em through the food mill without cooking and can ‘em. I got that idea from the A16 Cookbook. They use “raw” San Marzano sauce for their pizza.) The raw sauce will take a little flavoring. Rough chop a shallot, two little carrots and a couple whacks of celery; put em in the mini-processor and chop fine. Saute that in some olive oil, until soft. Chop half the frozen patty, now almost soft, make a space in the center of your skillet, add the meat and brown. Mix that up with the vegetables, add a gurgle of red wine and cook until the wine is almost gone, add the sauce. Cook for a while, maybe 15 – 20 minutes to reduce and thicken. Meanwhile, get your spaghetti water going and cook the spaghetti. Get Carol to make a salad. Open a bottle of Cline California Zinfandel. Now that’s a damn fine and easy dinner. C said I should have added Italian seasoning. She’s probably right.

But that’s not what this is about. This is about Wednesday’s breakfast. Breakfast again? Yep… seems like that’s where I throw stuff together and invent. I’m not a milk and cereal guy – just put breakfast in the “search” box to check out previous breakfasts.

After my walk I opened the refrigerator. No eggs. I could mix up some Greek yogurt and Emerald Breakfast-on-the-go!, but that is not appetizing just now. In the fridge is the last of the grits, and beside them, some leftover grilled swordfish and green beans. Tomato sauce would be nice, but I used all of last night’s sauce. Wait! I have a can of Amy’s Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque in the drawer. That’ll work.

swordfish and beans, grits, tomato bisque

Just heat everything in my little skillet. On the plate, fish on top of grits, green beans beside, 2 or 3 tablespoons of tomato “sauce” spooned over. Now that’s a damn fine and easy breakfast.

breakfast without the sauce

with the sauce... looked so good, I already ate half

Later, I went to Whole Foods to get squid for dinner, but I forgot to get eggs. DUH! So I’m in the same boat for my Thursday breakfast. I took a similar route… Still scraps of leftover swordfish – cubed that. Still a few green beans – chopped those. I have the leftover Amy’s Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque in the fridge. A good start.

Thursday’s cubed fish and chopped beans

I cubed my last Purple Viking potato and boiled it, added a couple whacks of celery halfway through the boiling.

fish and vegetables in the pan

I added about half of that to my fish and green beans and into the frying pan and spooned Amy’s tomato soup over that. Now is that a soup, or fish and vegetables with a sauce? Clue: I ate it with a fork.

That was good, but I’m definitely going to get some eggs today at the Thursday CUESA Market while I get something for dinner today and tomorrow.

For Friday’s breakfast, I took the leftovers from Thursday dinner and put a flipped egg over it. It’s amazing how much richness and wonderfulness an egg can add. And I only use one.

Thursday dinner: summer squash saute, Burgers’ Smokehouse Pork Rope Sausage, beans with tomatoes. For Friday, I used 3 slices of sausage, about a quarter-cup each of squash and beans… and that egg.

Sometimes, just before waking up, before the alarm goes off, my mind starts going: where will I walk today? What will I make for breakfast? What day is this? Is anything going on? If its sunny, the Marina would be good, but it hasn’t been sunny in the morning in weeks. Have leftover grits… I could open the bacon… what will I put over grits? Tradition calls for shrimp and gravy, but I don’t have any of that. Don’t have any tomato sauce open either… I could chop a tomato and make sauce… what if I sliced a tomato and just heated it… put that over the grits? Hmmm… worth a try.

I got up and made coffee. Out the window, it’s not sunny on Union Street, but it’s too early for the sun to be over Russian Hill. When I went out the door and looked down the street, “Its sunny in the Marina!” I said to anybody around. A woman was about to cross Polk Street, but I doubt she heard me.

I had a good walk — in the sun on some streets and the Palace of Fine Arts. Lovely day to make some grits and tomatoes.

Palace of Fine Arts designed by Bernard Maybeck for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

Last night, I actually made the grits. I had the idea I would poach my cod in a ginger-soy poaching mixture so I have this cod on my plate in a pool; around the pool is a wall of grits. Off to the side — or better, in the corner of the plate — I could array my haricot vert tossed with blue cheese and pecans. It didn’t exactly work out that way, as you shall see, the grits were a bit too loose, so they made kind of a pillow for the cod. Things don’t always work out visually the first time, but everything tasted real good.

cod poached in ginger soy liquid with scallion and cilantro

So, this morning I got out the bacon, grits and a tomato. I fried the bacon and drained on a paper towel, poured off a little bacon fat and put the grits in the skillet. All I need is to warm them, they’re not going to make a nice crust no matter what. Bacon onto the plate and the grits over that and the plate in the oven to keep warm while I cook the tomatoes.

At this point, I could put a flipped egg on the grits and that would be breakfast; the comforting taste of the egg and grits becoming one. Today, I put the sliced tomatoes in the skillet to warm in a little olive oil.

Once warm, just slide the hot tomatoes onto the plate over the grits and bacon.

Salt and pepper makes breakfast. And a darned good one. Yum

Quick Cheese Grits
Adapted from the back of Albers Quick Grits box/mr
For four    yield 3 cups

3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup grits
my additions –
1/2 cup buttermilk
6 ounces sharp white cheddar, shredded
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in orange le Creuset pot (two-quart heavy pot), slowly stir in grits.
Cover pot, reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in buttermilk.
Off heat, stir in cheese and butter.

Cod With Ginger and Soy
Mark Bittman NYT White Fish Recipes 7/11

Put a large, deep skillet over medium heat; add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon minced ginger; cook until sizzling. Add 1 1/2 pounds fish, ½ cup soy sauce, 1½ cups water, ½ cup chopped scallions, ½ cup chopped cilantro and a teaspoon rice vinegar. Boil, cover and turn off heat. Fish will be done in about 10 minutes. Garnish: Chopped scallions.
Cook’s NOTE: Don’t be fooled by the brevity of this recipe, prep takes a long time, a lot of chop chop.

the title of a k d lang album, or
a swell breakfast

We’re getting near the end of peach season in Northern California, a good time to eat a peach, and to celebrate a peach.

This is an O’Henry, a yellow freestone peach. I’m eating it on Tuesday morning, having bought three at the Market on Saturday morning. The other two hit my tummy on Monday. Peaches at the Market are picked pretty ripe, so even though I pick out the firmest, they don’t last long at home, a bad thing if you want space between your peaches.

In any case, this one was ready to go around the bend, so after my morning walk, I got out my vegetable peeler, paring knife, little skillet and sausage and went to work.

First, I peeled the peach. Love peaches, yellow peaches — I’m not partial to white, they have kind of an empty sweetness — hate peach skin. This is a freestone peach, so I can cut it into wedges.

I took my sausage — a hot Italian from Golden Gate Meats — slipped it out of the casing and fried it up. I’ll use about half and put the other half aside for whatever later.

I scoop the sausage meat out of the skillet, but not the good sausage juices — these sausages aren’t overly fat. Add about half a tablespoon of butter to the skillet and swirl it around to coat the whole bottom. Add the peach wedges and cook. Juices will flow.

I turn the wedges and sprinkle the cooked sausage over and between. In a minute or so, that’s all hot and done. Slide it onto a plate and eat.

Oh my.