Kitchen Chemistry: Waking Up Breakfast

Happy Monday, friends! I'm pleased to welcome back my favorite guest blogger: my boyfriend/live-in chef, Adam. Bon appetit! 

Adam here. Good morning from my kitchen/laboratory. Now that the algae stains have been scrubbed from my range (long story), I would like to announce that my research into the science of food and the psychology of eating is back on track. As usual, I will be analyzing the biology, technology, physiology, and sociology of food from various angles. At the same time, I aim to make intelligent changes to proven formulas with an eye toward progress and innovation. Learning, having fun, and eating enough to fall asleep comfortably (read: pass out) are also goals.

What makes the traditional American breakfast so good? Is it the richness of cream, butter, eggs, and animal fat? The sweetness of maple syrup and fruit compote? Or the soft textures enjoyed in a half-waking stupor? I hypothesize that breakfast food appeals to our most primitive, infantile cravings. In the dawn of consciousness, we want something warm, soft, rich, and bland. The irony is that this meal does everything to prepare the human body for life except wake it up!

There's only so much that can be done to jazz up breakfast. Go bigger, go cheaper, go healthy, or go back to sleep. My objective is to break the breakfast mold by adding texture, color, fresh ingredients and a full flavor profile to an otherwise classic dish.

Tier 1: Crispy hash browns seasoned with salt & pepper

Tier 2: Pan-seared spiral-cut ham

Tier 3: Egg sunny-side up (raw eggs will do also, for a more gelatinous texture)

Cook under the broiler (425º F) for 3-10 minutes, depending on egg strategy

Tier 4: Bull-Fight Corn Salsa

• Sauté 1 sweet onion & 4 cloves of garlic in 4 teaspoons of vegetable oil
• Add 1 orange bell pepper & 1 red bell pepper (diced)
• Add 3 ears bull fight corn (oven roasted, grilled, sliced off the cob)
• Sauté mixture briefly, add the juice & zest of 3 limes, drain & cool
• Add 1/2 bunch of chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, chili powder & ground cumin to taste

Top it off with chilled salsa and serve. The tartness and spice of the salsa is decidedly anti-breakfast. The corn and bell pepper should provide a fresh crunch, while the deliberate layering forces the diner to deconstruct the dish and pay attention to their food. Elizabeth and decided to further flout tradition by eating this at 7:00... PM.

Croque-Madame...Oui Monsieur!

StB and her dad have been raving about something called a "Croque-Madame."  I am extremely uncultured, so initially I thought that this meant "dead lady" in Spanish.  How wrong I was.  Croque-Madame actually translates (roughly, in French) as "Miz Crunch," and is a far tastier and more wholesome dish than "Captain Crunch," which was one of my favorite breakfast cereals growing up (this cereal contains fiberglass, which allows the Crunch to enter your bloodstream much faster).  Anyway, the Croque-Madame is a glorious invention involving an elegant combination of French toast, ham, Gruyere (or Emmental), and fried egg.  It's a staple of French cafe fare- and it makes one helluva breakfast.  Prepared without the egg, this sandwich is called a "Croque-Monsieur."  Prepared at McDonald's it becomes a "Croque-McDo" (not even kidding).  Substitute chorizo sausage and it's a "Croque-Basquaise."  Basquaise is French for Both "Basque woman" and "Basque chicken" (and you wonder why we hate the French).  I tweaked the Croque-Madame recipe a little and tried one for myself.  Here's how it went...

Instead of ham, I cooked thinly sliced prosciutto in a saute pan until crunchy.

The French toast batter was prepared with 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of cream, and 2 tablespoons each of water, agave syrup and vegetable oil.

Slices of French bread were dipped lightly in the batter, fried until crispy and golden brown, then topped with copious amounts of melted Gruyere.

The eggs were fried over-easy in unsalted butter.

If I were to do this again, I would use a better quality prosciutto and add either a sweet or sour element to the dish.  I'm thinking maple syrup, honey, or a good hollandaise sauce... you can never have too much flavor, even for breakfast .