From Greg Atkinson

Fried Organic Eggs

“I can make amazingly bad fried eggs,” wrote the late M. F. K. Fisher in her wartime treatise on cooking, How To Cook a Wolf, tough with edges like some kind of dirty starched lace, and a taste part sulphur and part singed newspaper.” I think I have eaten fried eggs like those once or twice. But if they are handled very gently, fried eggs can be very good: tender and tasty. I believe that eggs fry better and taste better in oil than they do in butter. The whey in butter invariably browns and causes the eggs to stick to the pan. The oil should be fairly deep so that the eggs truly fry, but not so hot that they brown very much. Serve fried eggs as Mary Frances suggested, “with toast and coffee or with salad and white wine for supper.”

For each serving

Canola oil or (if you can find it) rice bran oil

2 eggs

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Put enough oil in a small sauté pan to reach 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan. Warm the oil over medium-high heat until it is hot but not smoking.

2. Crack the eggs directly into the oil, taking care not to break the yolks. Let the eggs cook, undisturbed, until the whites are set on the underside but the yolks are still quite runny, about 3 minutes.

3. Using a flexible fish spatula, turn the eggs over only once, and cook just until they are firm enough to be lifted out of the oil, about 1 minute longer. Serve with salt and pepper, to taste.
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Baked Organic Eggs

Whenever a crowd—and a “crowd” at breakfast means any more than two or three people—is joining me for breakfast, and eggs are on the menu, I like to bake them in the oven.

Makes 1 dozen eggs

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup find dried breadcrumbs

12 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter the insides of the 12 cups of a muffin tin, using about 1/2 teaspoon of butter in each cup. Sprinkle the buttered cups with breadcrumbs and shake the crumbs around to distribute them evenly over the buttered bottoms and sides of the cups.

2. Crack an egg into each buttered and breaded muffin cup and bake the eggs until the whites are perfectly set but the yolks are still slightly runny, about 12 minutes. Use a heatproof sillicone spatula or rubber spatula to transfer the eggs from the cups to serving plates.
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Oven-Scrambled Organic Eggs

If you have one of those muffin tins with large, shallow cups designed for baking “muffin tops,” it’s fun to bake eggs in perfect discs to use in Breakfast Sandwiches or Huevos Rancheros (see below). These eggs can be “lightened” by using 2 ounces (1/4 cup) egg white in place of each egg and by coating the tins with nonstick canola oil spray instead of butter.

Makes 6 servings

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

6 eggs

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter the insides of 6 cups of a muffin tin, using about 1/2 teaspoon of butter in each cup.

2. Crack an egg into each buttered cup and bake the eggs until the whites are perfectly set but the yolks are still slightly runny, about 12 minutes. Use a heatproof silicon spatula or a rubber spatula to transfer the eggs from the cups to serving plates. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
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Breakfast Sandwiches

I like the idea of eggs and ham in a tender roll for breakfast, but the actual experience is generally horrible. Made with fresh organic eggs and homemade hamburger buns, a sandwich of scrambled eggs and ham is delightful. The sandwiches are best made not with sliced ham from the deli section of the supermarket but with leftovers from a home-baked holiday ham. In an ideal world, an enterprising parent could prepare these breakfast sandwiches ahead, keep them refrigerated overnight, and microwave them in the morning to send the kids off to school with a hot breakfast in hand. (In my house, there is no microwave.) In the real world, the sandwiches are great for a leisurely Sunday breakfast with a fat newspaper and a big pot of coffee.

Makes 6 servings

6 Homemade Hamburger Buns or English Muffins

6 Oven-Scrambled Eggs (see above)

6 slices natural applewood-smoked ham

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF and warm the hamburger buns or English muffins.

2. Prepare the scrambled eggs.

3. Assemble the sandwiches, using a slice of ham folded or cut to fit the shape of the bun and a mound of scrambled egg.
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Organic Huevos Rancheros

I suspect that there are as many ways to make huevos rancheros as there are cooks who make them. But simple is best. Crisp tortillas, still warm from the oil in which they were fried, are topped with fried eggs and warm salsa. You can spread a thin layer of refried beans between the tortillas and the eggs, if you like.

Makes 6 servings

Oil, for frying

6 corn tortillas

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups refried pinto beans

tomato salsa

1. Line a baking sheet with a brown paper bog or with paper towels. Put enough oil in a small sauté pan to reach 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan. Warm the oil over medium-high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Fry the tortillas, one at a time, in the hot oil, pressing them into the oil with a spatula or swishing the oil over the surface of the tortilla so that it fries evenly. As the tortillas are fried, drain the on the lined baking sheet.

2. Fry the eggs in the same oil in which the tortillas were fried, following the method descried in the Fried Eggs recipe above.

3. Assemble the huevos rancheros by spreading a few tablespoons of refried beans over the tortillas, if desired, and placing a fried egg on top. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the salsa over each egg.
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Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington
Photo Credits: Fried Eggs T-Shirt
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