Sunday, January 04, 2009

Napoleon Complex

I get a wild hair up my ass for weekend breakfasts. I'm never in a very big hurry, and I have the rest of the day to burn off the calories, so I can really splurge on two or three proteins and as much dairy and starch as I want. I can always, I dunno, go shovel snow or someshit.

This little treat is a testament to that philosophy. I wanted pancakes, but was really craving savory flavors, like salty ham, melty cheese and drippy yolks. I didn't want to phone it in with a Ham and Egg McChee™ (my go-to weekend brekkie), so I thought about making blini. Without buckwheat flour (or caviar), though, blini seemed pointless. But think about it: blini are just a savory pancake. Why can't I make a basic pancake recipe that's savory? I couldn't think of any reason why not, so I did.

Halving Joy of Cooking's basic pancake recipe, I omitted the sugar and added minced onion, chopped thyme and parsley, salt and pepper and a handful of grated Madrigal cheese (a French baby Swiss). I cooked little silver dollar pancakes, poached two eggs, and browned some shaved Niman Ranch applewood-smoked ham and some sliced mushrooms. When everything was ready (45 minutes later, including pre-cooking cleanup and prep), I stacked the little pancakes with a layer of ham, a layer of mushrooms, and a poached egg on top.

Served with some boiled potatoes tossed in crème fraîche and herbs (and the requisite mimosa), it was a luxuriant and elegant brunch. Let the diet start on Monday.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh no you did-n't... there you go again with the eggs. why do they make everything look and taste so much better?

peter said...

Just don't invade Russia in the winter.

I should have made crêpes for brunch... damn.

Terri said...

Oh, man. I hate sweet things for breakfast...well, except for mimosas, that is. I'll try these next weekend. Great idea.

glamah16 said...

Exclelent. You need to start your own brunch place . CS left today and I wont have anyone to cook weekend breakfasts for some time.:-(

Manggy said...

I can't beLIEVE I saw this first through Facebook and not Google Reader... What has the world come to, heh :)
You're making me wish I could Nightcrawler myself into Oregon so I can share in this gorgeous breakfast. (I'll forgive the fact that the taters aren't fried, hee hee ;) I still don't have the hang of the winter/ shopping alone for food here, so I opened my host family's cupboard of wonderful Amercun' packaged products and had 2 Eggo strawberry waffles and fried up some bacon, sigh...

cookiecrumb said...

That food is a *gift* to yourself. So nice.

Thistlemoon said...

Heather, your breakfasts ROCK!

Heather said...

Abu Dhabi - Egg does make everything taste better. It's nature's gravy.

Jube - Yeah, I guess you should've, shouldn't you.

Terri - I like a nice pancake or French toast once in awhile, but I do lean towards the savory.

Courtney - No one wants to pay for brunch for which they hafta wait 45 minutes. I'll keep these all to myself. :)

Marky - Leggo my Eggo? Yeah right. Eggo is Fail. Bacon, however, is Win.

Cookie - It sure is. The gift that keeps on giving, to be trite.

Jenn - It's the most important meal of the day! Why not make it pretty? :)

michael, claudia and sierra said...

i would have totally done you the night before for a breakfast like that...

are you listening mr. voodoolily???

Anonymous said...

What a good idea! I love drippy eggs yolks in lieu of syrup!

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

I agree! The diet can def start Monday...a great savoury idea Heather and lovely for brunch.

Heather said...

that egg looks so delicious. i love the savory pancake, it all sounds sooo soo good.

Brilynn said...

That's gorgeous!
And delicious, I'm sure.

Marilyn said...

I too throw caution to the wind on Sunday mornings, and am all for messing with recipes and four kinds of bacon. That stack of sin is calling me, and looks absolutely delightful!

Syd said...

Somebody had to do it.

Pam said...

It's 11:30 at night and I would give anything to eat this right now. The dripping yolk is killing me.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

This beats the yogurt, blueberries and walnuts I had for brekkie. *&!% this eating healthy %$&@.

Heather said...

Claudia - He's listening. ;)

Jillian - Yolks are nature's gravy!

Petah - Ick, today's Monday. :\

Heather - The savory pancake is a keeper, for sure.

Brilynn - It was almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Marilyn - Breakfast is definitely a good meal for experimentation.

Syd - You are a silly, silly woman. I like it.

Brittany - Sugary pammycakes are delicious, too. I wish I had some with jam.

Pam - It's 8:18 and I'm getting nauseous looking at it it. :P

Valli - That sounds perfect to me right now. Healthy doesn't have to be bad! :D

Brooke said...

Oh how I would love to have something savory cakey, porky, cheesie, drippy, eggy right now. And my diet started on Saturday. Damn you!

Catherine Wilkinson said...

Diet?
This is a recession! I say, eat as much goodness as you can get. Preferably at Heather's house with a bottle of booze!

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

I love this idea. The pancakes are awesome. Why not make them savory and serve wtih eggs. I could omit the ham and serve these to Sir Pickypants and he'd love them (although I'd keep the ham for myself).

Anonymous said...

I hate making breakfast, but loving eating it.. and I would love to eat this. Fantastic stuff. I am never into sweet pancakes that much.. heavy syrup first thing in the AM doesn't exactly set me up for the day

These light pancakes with ham and a lovely (really nicely poached BTW) poached egg - bang on.

Lo said...

Totally YUM.
No arguments over savory pancakes or waffles will be found at our house!

Peter M said...

That's an f-ing amazing brekkie...eggs benedict-style and Hell...some hollandaise would so work here too!

Anne said...

Oh this hits every sweet/savory button on my motherboard.

Dewi said...

As the weather is getting gloomier, I think breakfast like this will get me going! Delicious Heather!
Cheers,
Elra

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Heather said...

Brooke - Well, you can save this for when you get a break from the counting. :P

Catherine - This may be a recession, but there's no shortage of fatass.

Rachel - They're probably just fine without the ham, but is that any way to live?

Matt - After lots of practice and many tears, I have mastered the properly poached egg.

Lo - Now you can fight about poached or fried eggs instead.

Peter the Greek - Ooh, Hollandaise.

Anne - omg, I knew you were a robot!

Elra - At least the days are slowly getting longer. Not that I don't still want gravy on everything...

Heather said...

Naval - I see you've been commenting at all the other girls' blogs. What do you take me for?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, sod the diet! My favourite phrase at the moment is 'detox shmeetox' - uttered at least five times a day. Your pancakes look great - I'm not a sweet tooth person myself - my friend says I have a 'fat tooth' instead. Cheers....

Alicia Foodycat said...

The salty, fatty, carby breakfast is the greatest breakfast of all.

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Agh!!! what a great idea dn why did I never think of making savory pancakes. You are sooo good!!! I am making this over the weekend. Diet be damned!!!

Anonymous said...

damn. that's nice. you do love yourself some brekkie. i'll be enjoying my next w/e one with some heirloom tomato bloody mary mix!

i'm still laughing at claudia's comment.

Anonymous said...

Nice... Niman Ranch makes the best porky bits.

Anonymous said...

I've been waking up around 1pm this week, but if I get up at a decent hour tomorrow I'm making this for myself!

Ken Albala said...

Heather, You know once you start down the road of savory pancakes, there's no turning back. Trust me, one day you will look back and wonder, when the fuck did I start putting tuna fish in my pancakes? Are there supposed to be beans in here and sauerkraut?

It's all true. You are forewarned.

Maggie said...

Great looking recipe! I love savory breakfasts. I'm usually eating lunch or dinner food for breakfast but this way my family won't call me a freak.

anno said...

These amazing delectables caught my attention this weekend, snowed in as we were for about the 10th day since Christmas and desperately in need of something cheering and sustaining. Being snowbound, we used what we had on hand -- buckwheat pancake mix, bacon, a bunch of thyme I'd forgotten about in the back of my deli drawer, and stilton; no mushrooms -- and they were still completely fabulous. Sure could have used some mimosas, though. Thanks for some terrific inspiration. I'm trying your split pea soup today.

Unknown said...

Dammit girl, food porn is dangerous! I am on my way out now, to harvest some wild Maitake (Hen of the Woods) Mushrooms, and I think they would be wonderful in this dish.

I had planned to sit here and enjoy a quiet Saturday at my keyboard, but now I have a craving for this dish. By the way, I found the pic @ http://foodporndaily.com/pictures/view/savory-cheddar-herb-pancakes-with-bacon-mushrooms-a-poached-egg

And it took a few minutes of dilligent searching to find your blog. Bookmarking you now!