World's Greatest Fried Eggs

Something magical happened a few weeks ago. While trying to figure out what to do with the first fresh eggs I’d found at the farmers market this season, I discovered the greatest egg ingredient in the history of mankind.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little (truffles are pretty darn good on eggs), but not much.

Generally I am a big fan of adding some kind of ground red pepper (usually chipotle or ancho) to fried or scrambled eggs. But this day I tried something a bit different.

Digging through my pantry I remembered that I had a ton of smoked paprika left over from the hummus I made for Super Bowl. I decided to do an experiment and sprinkle the smoked paprika onto my eggs.

I can’t believe I went all my life without knowing about this.

But before I explain why exactly the smoked paprika made my eggs so amazing, I want to address what I’m sure many of you are wondering:

How healthy are fried eggs?

Answer: Eggs are perfectly healthy, and frying doesn’t make them any less so.

Personally I cook my eggs in olive oil (it’s just easier), but even if you use butter it isn’t a problem since the amount you need to cook is so small.

What scares people about frying eggs is an irrational fear of dietary fat. But theoretically the amount of oil you use to fry an egg should be about the same as you need to scramble eggs, so it isn’t clear why fried eggs would pose any more of a problem. I use olive oil to scramble eggs as well.

The other issue people have with eggs is the yolk. It amazes me how often people proudly inform me that they eat eggs but “only the whites,” as if this were some unique virtue.

I understand that the public health message we’ve heard about eggs for the past few decades has been extremely negative, but eggs have since been completely exonerated from heart disease accusations. There was a time when it was assumed that dietary cholesterol (which is definitely higher than normal in eggs compared to other foods) would raise blood cholesterol, but it doesn’t. In fact, the healthy fats in egg yolks are likely to positively impact your good HDL cholesterol.

Moreover, dietary fats in general have been shown to be excellent at satiating hunger, and are thus a terrific replacement for calories from refined carbohydrates. That makes egg yolks your ally in fighting heart disease and burning fat, not your enemy.

Then there’s the fact that egg yolks are incredibly rich in vitamins and minerals, since they are meant to be nourishment for a developing life.

And finally there’s the most important part, that farm fresh egg yolks are out-of-this-world delicious.

Which brings me back to how to make the best eggs in the universe.

First you must start with high-quality eggs. Two factors have the biggest impact on egg flavor. The first is the diet of the hen who laid the egg, and the second is the egg’s freshness. Thus for best results you want to find the freshest pastured eggs you can get your hands on. Pastured means the hens that lay the eggs are allowed to peck around on grass eating bugs and whatever else they find.

Your best shot at finding pastured fresh eggs is at a farmers market or direct from a farm, since if they are already on a grocery shelf they probably aren’t very fresh. Try to find eggs less than 1 week old. Their day of boxing should be clearly marked on the carton. (e.g. Eggs boxed today would be labeled 062, since it is the sixty-second day of the year–I know, I didn’t make these rules).

Chances are good that if your eggs are very fresh then they are from pastured hens, but this is not guaranteed. Ask the farmer and try to hold out for hens that are allowed to roam free in grass during the day. If you cannot get fresh pastured eggs, “cage-free” is your next best bet for flavor (though these may still be fed a limited diet).

Without asking the farmer it is hard to tell the difference between real pastured eggs and industrial eggs labeled “cage-free” that are still fed standard or organic chicken feed. One good indication will be the price, since pastured eggs tend to run $6-10/dozen here in SF. Trust me, it’s worth it.

I do not endorse the taste or healthfulness of industrially produced eggs (even the fancy kinds), and if you do eat them you should be careful to cook them completely.

(Aside: I never worry about the safety of eggs from farms I trust, so I always eat them runny. If you think runny eggs are gross, I don’t blame you. Runny industrial eggs are gross, and before I had fresh eggs I would have completely agreed with you. But fresh egg yolk is incredible, and it is something you have to taste to really appreciate. I definitely recommend stepping out of your comfort zone on this one.)

Once you have great eggs, fry them one at a time in 2 tbsp olive oil or butter on medium low heat and sprinkle with sea salt, course ground black pepper and a pinch of smoked paprika. The paprika adds a depth and complexity above what even chipotle peppers can offer, and the smokiness is reminiscent of–I kid you not–bacon. Needless to say, it is the perfect compliment to eggs.

Fry your eggs for just two minutes or so on each side, being careful to keep the yolk intact while turning. You really don’t want to overcook eggs, which will turn them rubbery and ruin the effect.

I haven’t actually tried these eggs with bacon yet, though I certainly plan to. But bacon is no longer a requirement for making a show stopping breakfast of champions. Here I served them with some ruby chard sautéed with pistachios and garlic.

Did you guys know about smoked paprika on eggs and if so, why was I not informed?

Tags: chard, cholesterol, eggs, HDL, heart disease, smoked paprika

Winter Salads

Today Nathalie Lussier is sharing her secret tips for making tough winter greens soft enough to eat in salads. Winter salads are a perfect use for all the lovely radishes, kohlrabi, carrots, beets and other sweet vegetables available this season at the farmers market.

Top off your salad with hazelnuts, grapefruit and some shaved cheese for a satisfying winter meal or side dish.

Nathalie Lussier helps people overcome unhealthy food cravings so they can eat more fruits and vegetables, and experience the magick of raw foods. She’s known as The Raw Foods Witch.

How To Use Winter Greens In A Salad

by Nathalie Lussier

Winter might not strike you as salad season, but there are plenty of delicious hearty greens to be had this time of year. One trick is to marinate the leaves so they soften and are easier to chew.

Here’s how to prepare some of these tougher greens and enjoy rich, satisfying salads year round.

Choosing Hearty Greens

The foundation of any good salad is the green component. Usually we think of lettuce, but there is a world of other greens to explore.

So what options do we have when it comes to hearty greens?

1. Kale: Kale is a tough vegetable that can handle the cold. It has a strong taste, but with a little bit of massaging it can make a really satisfying salad green. There are a few varieties, from the most common curly green to the spotty dinosaur (aka Tuscan) and beautiful purple kales. They are each slightly different and you should experiment with them all.

2. Cabbage: Cabbage is a tried and true winter veggie, but we can go beyond the usual coleslaw, saurkraut and cooked cabbage. Different colored cabbage adds beauty and variety to your salads, as well as sweetness and a crispy texture.

3. Swiss Chard: A relative of spinach, Swiss chard has a thick midrib that comes in a rainbow of colors like green, white, red, pink, and yellow. Swiss chard is great in salads and can be easier to chew than some of the others.

Washing & Cutting The Greens

De-stemming Tuscan Kale

Wash the greens thoroughly, you never know when a caterpillar will decide to make her home in a leaf of kale.

The way you cut the greens is important because you want them to absorb the marinade and soften.

Cutting Kale and Swiss Chard

For both kale and Swiss chard, you need to remove the stems by using a knife and slicing them out vertically. You can then chop up the stems and add them back to the salad like you would celery or other hard vegetables.

After you’ve removed the stems, slice the kale and chard horizontally into 1 inch strips. Put the sliced greens in a large bowl.

Don’t worry if you think you sliced up too much, it will shrink down in size as it marinates.

Cutting Cabbage

If you’re using cabbage, cut the cabbage in half and then use a knife to cut thin strips. These should look like coleslaw slices. You may have to cut them lengthwise if they are too long.

I recommend you cut the whole cabbage and make a big batch, unless you have something else planned for the other half. Making large batches at once makes future healthy meals that much easier.

Massaging & Marinating The Greens

This is the magic part that will take regular tough greens and turn them into the perfect salad.

Ingredients

• Your chosen greens or a combination of them (1 bunch)
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil or more as needed
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Pinch of Celtic sea salt

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty! Add the ingredients into your mixing bowl and massage them into the greens with your hands.

You really want to squeeze the oils and juices into the greens, because that’s what will make them truly mouthwatering.

The Final Touches

After you’ve thoroughly massaged your winter green salad, add any other chopped vegetables you like, or any of these salad toppings.

Dress the greens and veggies for a hearty, satisfying winter salad!

Don’t let tough winter greens turn you off salads. Once you know how to make those winter greens more palatable, you’ll be eating delicious raw salads all year round!

Do you have any winter salad tips?

Tags: cabbage, chard, guests, kale, Nathalie Lussier, salad

First off, I would like to apologize for getting this post up so late. I brought my camera to the market today, but unfortunately it was missing its memory card.

So yeah, both my camera and I were experiencing memory dysfunction.

In a lot of ways being camera-free was liberating; my shopping was easier and less hurried. But I do regret not getting a picture of the cherry blossoms from Hamada Farms.

As an alternative to authentic farmers market pictures, today I opted to bring my purchases home and try out some new photo equipment I am experimenting with. This project took all afternoon, and the rest of the evening I spent editing and writing.

Please let me know what you think about these photos. I am considering using more images like this at Summer Tomato in the future. (Don’t worry, they won’t entirely replace my regular farmers market pictures).

I think the images of leafy greens are particularly cool because they look like dendritic arbors of neurons, which is what I work on in lab every day.

———-

Today the market was beautiful. It was calm and not at all crowded, but I could feel winter winding down. The sun was bright and almost warm.

At the stands there were only a few lingering winter squash and more delicate greens are springing up everywhere. Pomegranates cannot be found at all (new cereal topping ideas anyone?) and even the citrus selection is less diverse than it was a few weeks ago.

Spring is on its way!

Today’s purchases:

• Trumpet mushrooms (Far West Fungi)
• Romanesco (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Ruby chard (Star Route)
• Pink pomelo (Paredez Farms)
• Naval oranges (Hamada Farms)
• Blood oranges (Hamada Farms)
• Meyer lemon (Hamada Farms)
• Baby artichokes (Iacopi Farms)
• Collards (Capay Organics)
• Gold chard (Capay Organics)
• Treviso (Capay Organics)
• Kiwi (Four Sisters Farm)
• Rosemary (Chue’s)
• Italian parsley (Chue’s)
• Garlic (Chue’s)
• Espresso Temescal (Blue Bottle Coffee)

I would love to know what you think about my photos! And FYI, the scientific glassware is a pet project of mine, I didn’t get it at the farmers market….

Tags: blood orange, chard, collard greens, treviso, trumpet mushrooms

Since summer ended I have been searching for the perfect winter lunch to bring to work. I want something healthy, delicious and, given the season, warm.

Roasted vegetables are a pretty good choice, but I learned the hard way that they don’t quite have the long-term appeal of summer salads (i.e., I got sick of them really fast).

My latest experiment is soup.

Soup appeals to me for many reasons:

1. It stores and transports easily and can be heated up in a minute or two in the microwave. This makes it a perfect food for the office.
2. Almost any recipe can be turned into a soup, so you can enjoy cuisines from all cultures–you could eat soup every day for the rest of your life and never eat the same one twice.
3. Soups are easy to modify, and hard to mess up.
4. As many of you know, I have a lot of experience making soup.

I accepted the challenge.

The first place I turned was my faithful Splendid Soups, by James Peterson. I can’t imagine there is a better soup recipe book on the planet. Not only have I used it to make dozens of spectacular soups, but it has made me a better overall cook as well. This book is truly a treasure.*

I had several goals for my first soup:

First, I wanted it to be healthy and light, meaning it should have something green (e.g. chard) in it and be broth based rather than cream based.

Second, I wanted to use the whole chicken I bought at the farmers market. I don’t normally eat meat for lunch, but I had been wanting to experiment with whole chicken and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I ended up modifying one of the vegetable recipes in the book to include chicken. Peterson gives detailed instructions on how to use chicken in any soup, so I simply followed his technique.

My soup turned out divine, but preparing it took longer than I had hoped.

Word of advice: Ask the butcher to quarter the chicken for you (unless you are planning on roasting it). This was only the second time I had quartered a chicken, and though it wasn’t very difficult it definitely cost me 20-30 minutes because of my inexperience. Oops.

Chicken Chard Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium chicken, quartered
• 1 large bunch of Swiss chard, trimmed
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 medium sweet onions, diced
• 2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 28-0z can of diced tomatoes, drained
• 4 cups (1 box) chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 0.5 cup parsley, finely chopped
• Juice of 1 Meyer lemon
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil

Heat some olive oil in a pan just large enough for the chicken to cover the bottom. Add the chicken skin-side down and cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Turn with tongs and cook for another 5 minutes, remove from heat and set aside. If at any point the chicken begins to burn, lower the heat.

Shred the chard by cutting out the stems (I like to leave a few in, but I cut them in half), stacking and rolling the leaves, then cutting them in thin, 0.25 inch strips. This is the same chiffonade technique we use on basil, sage and mint leaves.

In a 4-quart pot, cook onions, garlic and chilies in olive oil on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Allow the onions to become translucent, but not brown. Add thyme and cook 2 more minutes.

Add broth, water, tomatoes and chicken and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for 15 minutes or until the chicken feels firm to the touch. Remove chicken and set it aside to cool. Add chard to the soup and simmer 10 more minutes.

Remove chicken skins and cut chicken into bite-sized chunks. Return chicken meat to the soup, add parsley and simmer 2 more minutes. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and serve with crusty bread.

This soup will keep up to 5 days in a cold refrigerator.

Tags: big batch, chard, chicken, chiffonade, soup, work

As you can see, the Rainbow Chard I bought at the market yesterday was absolutely beautiful. So colorful and springy, I was almost sad to eat it. But of course I did eat it (well, half of it). I decided to prepare it my favorite way, sauteed with pistachios and mint. This is a dish I eat regularly because it is so quick and healthy.

For those of you who have tried the edamame dish from my original Quick Fix post, you’ll find that the preparation of this is very similar. It is great for those nights you want something a little fresher than frozen beans.

I’ve shared this recipe with a number of friends who now have it in their regular dinner rotations. I hope you enjoy it.

Shopping list:

• One bunch Swiss chard, any color
• One shallot
• Pistachio nut meats
• Fresh mint

To start, dice a mild onion such as a shallot, leek or ciopollini and slice a large handful of mint leaves (about 12 large leaves). Leaves such as mint and basil are easiest to cut if you chiffonade them by stacking the leaves on top of each other and rolling them lengthwise like a cigarette. From there they are easy to cut into thin strips.

Next chop the chard into 2×2 squares. I use some of the stems, but not the entire length. Stop cutting when there is no longer any green attached. When the stem gets thicker toward the bottom of the leaf, I recommend cutting them in half to ease cooking and eating.

I use half a bunch of chard for myself as an accompaniment to a meal (tonight I had eggs), but sometimes I just eat the entire bunch alone as an entree, maybe with a little brown rice. It’s really that good.

While farmers’ market chard is magnificent, almost any grocery store will have chard year-round. It’s very inexpensive and, of course, extremely good for you.

Heat olive oil in a pan until it swirls easily. Add onion and some pistachio nuts and saute until the onion is soft and translucent (it’s okay if it starts to brown). Add chard and stir to cover in oil. Add salt, but not too much. Cover for 1-2 minutes and allow the chard to wilt. Uncover, stir and continue to cook. Sprinkle mint over the chard and stir. Salt and pepper to taste. Chard is finished cooking when it is dark green and the stems are tender, about 8 minutes.

Tags: chard, mint, pistachios