Monday, January 11, 2010

Kentucky Hot Brown Scramble

Other than my basic lack of culinary skills, one of the major inhibitors to my being a good cook is difficulty varying from a recipe. After a lifetime in the engineering world where bridges collapse and planes crash when the plan is not strictly adhered to it is difficult for me not to follow a recipe explicitly - so today’s meal is practice at being more creative. When we decided to smoke a turkey breast for making Hot Brown’s (see yesterday), I’d also looked around and found a recipe for a Hot Brown Frittatta on the Food Network which sounded very good so I book marked it for use with the extra turkey, which I was sure we would have. Sunday morning I was ready to make it, but decided I did not to want to wait for nearly an hour while it baked, so I decided to use the concept to make a scramble instead (deviation 1).

I made half the recipe (deviation 2) and only used about ½ cup of cream (deviation 3) so it wouldn’t be too watery. While visiting my son before the holidays, we’d visited a store run by a small Mennonite community in the area and one of their offerings was a cheddar cheese that also contained the bacteria that makes blue cheese, so we bought a wedge of it and I used it in this dish (deviation 4). We are also big fans on Guggisberg cheeses from Ohio Amish country and when my neighbor placed an order recently I got three kinds as well – one of which is Farmers which I used in here (deviation 5).

I didn’t measure the onion but used a piece we had in the frig that looked close enough (deviation 6) and I diced the fresh tomatoes we had left from the Hot Browns rather than using canned (deviation 7). Here’s a pic of the ingredients ready to go.



Bev likes to buy particular eggs at Walmart called All Natural that have Omega-3 and and something else that’s supposed to be good for us -one of the things we like is the more orange color of the yolk. I used three of them and three brown eggs, which many folks assume are the richer, and this shot shows the difference – the brown eggs are the lighter colored.


I first sautéed the onion and tomatoes in a butter/olive oil mix ( rather than the specified bacon grease- deviation 8) to remove some of the water.


Then added the turkey to begin warming up.


Next added the cheese and bacon. Since we like our eggs scrambled moist, I wanted to give the cheese a chance to warm up and start melting prior to egg addition.



Lastly, added the eggs and scrambled them.


Here’s a shot of Bevs before the Mornay sauce, she wanted hers on the toast.


Here’s my plate and close-up, finished up with leftover Mornay sauce and a little parsley - ready to devour.



It was delicious and the only thing I’d do differently is use a little less of this cheddar as it had just a tad too much bite for my taste – those who like blue cheese sauce on steak would have likely thought it perfect. This meal will definitely happen again whether we have leftovers from Hot Browns or not – we almost always have some smoked chicken (possible deviation) in the freezer. I made at least 8 recipe deviations and got an excellent result and since I didn’t measure anything, I’ll have to wing-it next time – maybe there’s hope for me yet.

PS – It’s also delicious without the sauce – another deviation? – I think I may be getting out of control here.

Have a great day and stay warm – it's finally supposed to get above freezing today. I sure hate it for all the folks whose livelyhood has been impacted by the cold.

Larry

2 comments:

  1. Daddy, I'm so proud of you. :) For things like this, recipes are more like...guidelines. Add what you like, leave out what you don't, and just have fun with it. Love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HOLY CARP (sic)!!!!!!!!

    THAT IS AWESOME, Larry.

    Brilliant and I am definitely going to make that. I'm with Bev, I'd do mine on the toast.

    This is an amazing idea and you have my mind going here with this one.

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate and enjoy your comments