Ridiculously Good Breakfast
July 12th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Posted in breakfast, garden
Beet greens are sublime
Poached eggs with sauteed beet greens and Allan Benton prosciutto.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Shopping: none
The most delicious part of the beet may be above ground. The leaves of the beet plant are one of the most delectable of all greens in the garden, but also one of the most fragile. Beet greens are highly perishable. You rarely see them at the market. So when we harvest beets, as we did this week, we make sure to have a plan for cooking the greens immediately.
That’s how I found my way to beet greens for breakfast. And in the meat basket in the fridge I just happened to have a package of prosciutto from our favorite pork processor, Allan Benton in Madisonville, Tennessee. We order his bacon and other products online. The prosciutto provides a perfect platform for sauteed greens and poached eggs.
While water for the eggs is heating up, sweat a minced clove of garlic in olive oil in a heavy skillet. Wash the beet greens, removing any tough stems, then raise the heat in the skillet a bit and drop in the moist greens. Add a splash of champagne vinegar, stir and cover. The greens will cook in just a few minutes, while you poach your free-range eggs. Meanwhile, heat the prosciutto on your plate in the oven.
To serve, simply mound the cooked greens on the prosciutto and top with the poached eggs. Give everything a good grating of romano cheese and a grind of pepper.
Now you remember why you planted those beets.
Ed, we learned about Benton’s bacon from cooking demos with Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene. Awesome! Jon stopped by last week in Madisonville and got the full tour of smoking operation. Came home with bacon, ham, and proscuitto. This week’s CSA did not include beets or other greens but will try to find something comparable. This looks great. Do you blanch your bacon before frying to remove excess saltiness?
So this *does* look ridiculously good. So good I want to eat breakfast for dinner tonight. 🙂
Kristen, I could totally see this for dinner, with a big salad, maybe, and fresh berries with whipped cream for dessert.
Natural, you are lucky to be so close to Allan Benton. I’d love to pay a visit. Better still would be several other Bentons all over the country, so we could have these hand-crafted pork products all the time.
Ed, we are lucky to have lots of resources in our area. What part of the country are you in? We’d like to learn smoking and charcuterie ourselves. I make a mean beef brisket corned beef. I told Jon when we retire or for a working vacation we need to volunteer to help Allan out for a week or two just to learn the business!
Cathy Paybe