Breakfast Served All Day

It's Championship Week at school, and I'm finally called upon to justify the wildly extravagant salary I pull in annually. Meaning lots and lots of extended hours on our athletic fields and a very narrow window for dinner. If I rush, I can whip up something quickly and still have time to put my feet up for a few minutes before getting back to campus.

As organized as I pride myself on being at the office, I'm an accidental tourist in my personal life, stumbling along oblivious to the chaos I nest in. I'll go weeks ignoring the growing pile of laundry until I'm without clean socks or shirts to wear to work. It won't dawn on me that the cupboards are bare until I'm looking for something to make for dinner. So tonight, if I was gonna eat at all, I had to run to the market and find something that would takes minutes instead of hours to prepare. I am lucky to live within the confines of New York's real Little Italy in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Fresh is just blocks from the front door.

Mesclun salad with poached egg & lardons

Fresh mesclun or rocket greens ½lb pancetta ¼lb cherry or grape tomatoes 3 large brown eggs* 2 Tbsp olive oil Dried herbs - basil, thyme, etc Salt & freshly ground black pepper

*"Brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh!"

In a small mixing bowl, toss whole grape tomatoes in olive oil and a couple pinches each of dried basil and thyme, salt and pepper. You know I hate measuring, so I've learned a thing or two through trial and error. Add a little more basil than you would thyme. Everyone ought to know how to season with salt & pepper. If not, see you at IHOP.  Put tomatoes into a small baking dish and place in a 450° pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Cut pancetta into a large dice and set to browning in a skillet over medium heat. Once crispy and brown, drain on paper towels.  Wash your greens and give them a ride in a salad spinner. Five minutes before the tomatoes come out of the oven, prepare a shallow bath of very low boiling water with a tablespoon of distilled vinegar. Break eggs separately into small bowls and slowly roll them into the hot water bath. Poach for three minutes for soft yolks. While eggs poach, gently toss greens with a good homemade vinaigrette and arrange greens on a pretty platter, sprinkle lardons of pancetta around the mesclun and arrange roasted tomatoes. Place poached eggs atop greens and serve.

There's a reason diners serve the morning meal all day, it's because they can!

Gotta dash - Blog O. Food

We Call It Maize

So, during the aforementioned conversation with my boy Matty, I had already decided on centering a main dish around polenta and was mulling over what to do with all the inevitable leftovers the next day. We must have been talking about our favorite topic, bacon, because what I came up with set both our mouths to watering and our eyes to tearing:

Huevos rancheros on polenta - a recipe by Blog O. Food

4 dried Ancho chilies Water 1 clove garlic 2 whole allspice corns, crushed 2 black peppercorns, crushed ½ tsp salt 1 Tbsp olive oil Polenta, firmed and cut into 4" squares 2 large eggs 1 tsp distilled vinegar

Matty and I are sauce men. Salsa is fine for chips, but a good sauce, expertly turned out, can make grown men swoon - these two men, anyway. So instead of tomatoes, I opted for a Mexican red sauce to soak into the polenta and top my eggs.

Before starting the sauce, brush leftover polenta with a little olive oil and place in a pre-heated 350° oven and bake for 20 minutes. Cut the baked polenta into desired shapes.

The sauce:

Heat Ancho chilies for 30-45 seconds in a hot, dry skillet to release some of the oils and intensify the flavors. Turn them several times. You're not really toasting the chilies, which can turn bitter very quickly, but rather coaxing out some of the flavor. Steep the heated chilies in a small sauce pan with just enough slow boiling water to cover. Simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer the chilies and 1½ cups of the liquid to a food processor along with the garlic, crushed allspice & peppercorns and salt. Purée for several minutes until the sauce is completely smooth. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

Run the sauce through a sieve and back into the saucepan. Add the olive oil and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and use immediately, or transfer to a glass jar. The sauce will keep, refrigerated, for one week.

While the sauce simmers, poach 2 eggs in a shallow pan of just barely boiling water. You want only enough water to cover the eggs once they're placed in the pan. I was always told to add a splash of distilled vinegar to the water. It's supposed to help the eggs retain their shape. I don't know where I first heard this, but it seems to work, so I have not investigated the method any further. Poach eggs for 3 minutes and remove from their bath with a slotted spoon.

Place pieces of baked polenta on a serving dish, top with poached eggs and drizzle with the red sauce. I was gonna crisp up slices of pancetta, but feared straying too far from my Mexican roots. I went with thick-cut bacon instead.

Red sauce is complex and intense. You can remove the seeds and membranes from the dried chilies before you toast them. Most of the heat is locked in there. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after handling dried chilies, and never, ever touch your eyes, nose or mouth without doing so first. The allspice and peppercorns add more layers of flavor. Whole cumin and clove are also sometimes used. Traditionally, eggs are fried for this dish, but I've always loved a good poached egg, and my doctor loves my heart-healthy ways!

Back in 1998 I was in the middle of a cross-country road trip along Interstate 10. I was headed to San Diego for three months, escaping the summer heat of Miami, FL. One early morning, deep, deep in Texas territory, I answered my rumbling stomach in Sonora, where I stumbled upon the best huevos rancheros I have ever eaten. Fresh, homemade corn tortillas, double-thick slices of bacon, eggs and refried beans cooked in alarming amounts of bacon fat, and chili sauce a crimson color Harvard would be envious of. It was such a memorable breakfast, that I have never forgotten the name of the place: Mi Familia Restaurant 605 S. Crockett Avenue Sonora, TX 76950 (325) 387-2940 I'll bet I could drive there blindfolded even to this day.

I don't know if polenta will ever take the place of corn tortillas in huevos rancheros, I'm not convinced it really should. But now you have one more resourceful way to serve up leftovers without compromising your principles or offending your Italian and Mexican neighbors!

Thanks for taking the time - Blog O. Food

Grilled polenta

It took B.O.F. bff and new papa, Matty O'Food, to lure me back to Blogspot Dot Com. I've been in an extended funk since returning from Europe. I didn't realize it, but after so many great meals shared with friends, I just couldn't face cooking for one again. Where's the inspiration in that? But Matty's foodie IMs stirred the sleeping muses and I am once again looking with fondness at my kitchen.

During one of those online conversations, I surprised Matty - and myself - with a northern Italian spin on a classic Tex-Mex breakfast dish. Corn meal was gonna make a guest appearance, but polenta is a time-intensive affair, and one doesn't just whip up a dollop or two on a whim. Only by planning a couple of dishes was I able to justify the labor involved.

Polenta 101:

4 cups water 1 cup polenta 1 tsp salt 2 Tbsp butter ½-cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a heavy-bottomed pan, bring water to a boil. When rolling, whisk in polenta in a slow steady stream. Reduce the heat under the pot to low and continue to stir the polenta constantly for a few minutes until the meal becomes suspended in the liquid. Cook at a low simmer for 1 hour, stirring periodically. After an hour, whip in the butter, remove polenta from heat and stir in the cheese.

Cooked polenta should be silky and creamy, with a pourable consistency. It wonderful sauced with a ragù or sautéed mushrooms. You've seen it here with cacciatore. As polenta cools, it sets up quickly. Firm polenta can be cut up then baked, grilled or fried. Pour finished polenta into a large, ungreased baking dish and spread evenly with a spatula. Let the polenta set and do not cover until completely cool. Once firm, let your imagination run wild with serving ideas. Enzo's of Arthur Avenue was in my crosshairs.

Grilled polenta & cannellini - adapted from Enzo's of Arthur Ave.

1 lb dry cannellini beans rinsed and soaked overnight 1 lb sweet Italian sausage Polenta, firmed and cut into 4" squares Olive oil Salt Red pepper flakes

In a large stockpot, cover soaked cannellini beans in plenty of water and set over a high flame. Once the beans come to the boil, reduce to a low simmer and cook beans for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally to keep the beans from crowding and sticking to the bottom of the pot. Make sure the water level stays a couple of inches above the beans at all times. Do not add any salt until the end of cooking. Salt interferes with the cooking of dry beans making them tough.

Start checking the beans for doneness after 60 minutes. Cooked beans should be tender. Under cooked beans will be grainy feeling in the mouth. Do not drain cooked beans immediately, but allow them to cool in their own liquid. If drained while still hot, the skins crack and the texture gets ragged. Reserve the cooking liquid once you drain the beans.

As the cannellini beans cool, remove the sweet sausage from its casings and crumble into a large skillet and brown completely over medium heat. Allow the pork to cool a bit, then transfer to a food processor. Break down the meat into a coarse texture with short pulses.

Ladle some of the reserved cooking liquid from the beans into a sauté pan. Add a few tablespoons of beans and sausage. Reduce the sauce for 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and red pepper flakes. While the sauce reduces, brush polenta squares with a little olive oil and cook on both sides on a hot grill. The polenta is already cooked. You're basically looking for nice grill marks to tease the eye at the table. Spoon the cannellini and sausage sauce over the cooked polenta and serve right away.

I have a standing invitation from Enzo's chef Harpo to invade his kitchen where he will divulge some of the state secrets behind their more famous dishes. Before taking him up on the offer, I thought I would have a go at one of my favorite appetizers of his. I think I got pretty close. At least I pushed away from table satisfied. And that's all that really matters now, isn't it.

There was a good two-thirds of a pan of polenta leftover for breakfast the next morning. You're not gonna believe what I served up. Until then...

Thanks for taking the time - Blog O. Food