This morning, I wanted to experiment with egg rings.
The ‘deconstructed bacon and egg sandwich’ is a scrambled egg with thin strips of Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips, toasted whole grain bread with black truffle butter, with hot sauce dots on the plate and fresh chives from the garden.
A bit of soft cheese would have been good on top of the egg (queso fresco, chevre, brie), but I was not really trying to make this for breakfast today, it just kind of came together.
…Apparently food blogging has been great for my creativity.
I prefer scrambled eggs and eggs where the yolk is cooked all the way, so rather than do the standard fried egg in egg ring, I made a scrambled egg in an egg ring.
When using egg rings, don’t forget to turn the handle up so the wood doesn’t burn and you can lift it off the pan easily. Make sure the egg ring is laying flat in the pan and is not touching any of the side of the pan. You can spray it with cooking spray or brush a bit of oil onto the inside to keep ingredients from sticking, but I did not and it was not necessary.
The result of this fabulous accidental breakfast was so pretty that I decided to plate it and make a blog entry. I’m not the photographer that B. is, so kindly pardon any deficiencies in the snapshot.
This was incredibly simple – took me about 10 minutes to prepare, and the presentation was well worth the extra time getting it mise en place.
Deconstructed Vegetarian Bacon and Egg Breakfast “Sandwich” with Black Truffle Butter Toast
Serves: One – Multiply recipe for multiple servings.
Source: http://nomeat.org
Ingredients
1 egg
2 tsp. black truffle butter
1 tsp. water
1 slice Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs or 1 tsp dried herbs (see directions)
1 slice of bread
2 four-inch long snipped chives
Hardware
1 egg ring
1 frying pan
1 spatula
1 knife for cutting veggie bacon strips
1 shot glass (with thin-sided glass) or small round cookie cutter – optional
Instructions
Preheat a frying pan over medium-low heat with the egg ring on the right side of the pan, uncentered. Veggie Bacon:
Add thin strips of Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon to the left side of the pan, where the egg ring is not resting. Cook until they are slightly less crispy than you would like, because they continue to crisp when taken out of the pan. No butter or oil is necessary, but can be used if desired. Remove from pan when desired doneness is achieved.
Egg:
Beat one egg in a small dish with about a teaspoon of water. The water will help steam the egg and make it puffy and delicious.
To the beaten egg, add salt, pepper, and fresh herbs such as parsley, basil, oregano, sage, chives, or even cilantro and beat until combined. Your herb choice is really a taste preference or what you have on hand. All will work equally well.
You can substitute dried herbs if you let them sit in the egg for a minute or two before cooking so that they can rehydrate. I used dried herbes de provence and employed this method.
Beat the egg with seasonings to combine well.
Add a small bit of butter to the pan inside the egg ring.
Pour the egg into the heated egg ring that has been resting in the pan carefully. Do not move the egg ring! If you do not stir the egg around, it will puff a bit during cooking when the water steams.
Turn the heat to low and cook the egg until the ring slides off easily. It was about 3-6 minutes for me. There may still be some liquid on top, in which case
Toast:
Cut a small circle of bread from a slice of bread (save the rest for other uses). This can be done either free-hand using a knife, or by using something round and sharp like a cookie cutter or the top of a drinking glass/shot glass. It should be no more than 2″ across, but 1″ to 1.5″ will look better. This is just a vessel for getting delicious truffle butter into your mouth, so it shouldn’t be so large it overpowers the diameter of the egg. It should ideally be sized for a single bite.
Add the unbuttered bread to the pan on the side of the frying pan – where you cooked the bacon (opposite where the egg ring is resting). Toast lightly dry in the pan on both sides.
Remove from pan and let cool slightly before spreading black truffle butter onto the toast. Sure, you can use regular butter, but truffle butter is so much better!!!
Plating:
Plate the egg first. You may need to cut a slit in the top of the egg if you want the toast to stand up, but you can just as easily place the toast ring leaning against the egg on the plate.
Criss-cross the bacon strips on top and lean the chives vertically against the truffled toast. If using cheese, place a small ball of soft cheese at the axis of the veggie bacon. If you have raw truffles, shave a few pieces and put them on top as well. Place 3-5 drops of hot sauce or prepared pesto on the plate for decoration and dipping. Enjoy!
Author’s Note:
Another option for this recipe (or just making scrambled eggs in egg rings in general) would be to add a small bit of pancake mix - maybe 2 tsp. or so - to the egg before beating it (e.g. Aunt Jemima or Bisquick pancake mix). This will make the egg extra puffy and not affect the flavor at all. Make sure it is well incorporated. I am pretty sure this is how IHOP makes their omelettes so fluffy.
April has been a vegetarian her entire life and is an avid home cook. She resides in Maryland with her omnivore husband, four happy dogs, and an african grey parrot. She enjoys spending her non-cooking free time as photographer and business manager for Baltimore Maryland’s Premier Wedding and Portrait Photographers at Blair Wright Studios Photography
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