Hands down, my favorite breakfast is two soft boiled eggs, a touch of butter, a piece or two of good ham or salami, a nice warm crusty roll or some dense wheat bread, and a cup of strong coffee with real cream. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life. It’s a typical German breakfast, though I started enjoying it far before I moved here a few months ago. Pancakes, french toast, waffles… these are all good too, but nothing is as filling, satisfying, or simple as my beloved german breakfast.
I even have a bit of a breakfast ritual. Two eggs get poked with a pin to prevent breakage, then cooked in barely boiling water for exactly six minutes, then run under cold water for about 20 seconds before being placed in their individual eggs cups, narrow side down. While the eggs are cooking I arrange about 1/2 – 1T of butter, a little pile of salt, the salami, and the roll (a broetchen in German) on the plate, making it look nice so that I start the day off in the right manner.
With such a ritual, why ever change it?
Well, because you might be a sort-of cookbook addict, and you come across a recipe for something so simple but classic that you decide you must try it immediately. Such was Fergus Henderson’s Celery Salt with Boiled Eggs in Nose to Tail Eating
And the result? I love it! It adds an earthy complexity to the otherwise clean and bright flavors of egg yolk, salami, and good bread.
If you’re a sweet breakfast type of person, and eggs with celery salt sounds like your anti-breakfast, I’d recommend using this mixture on things like steamed buttered vegetables, as a rub for a piece of poultry or other meat, mixed in to ground beef for hamburgers, or even mixed into eggs for a savory quiche or tart.
Do you have any breakfast rituals? or any food rituals for that matter?
Homemade Celery Salt
Adapted from The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
makes about 2 cups1 1/2 c. sea salt
1 lb peeled celery root (celeriac)Grate the celery root on the large holes of a box grater, then mix with the salt in a large bowl or ziploc bag. Mix until the salt and celery root are well mingled. Place in the refrigerator and allow the flavors to blend for about three days.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, then spread the celery/salt mixture on a large baking tray. Dry in the oven for between 2 and 3 hours, until the celery root is very dry and crisp, but not singed. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes
Grind the mixture in batches in a spice grinder or all at once in a food processor. Stored in an airtight jar, the mixture will keep indefinitely.
Enjoy with soft boiled eggs, sprinkled over vegetables, rubbed on a steak, or however you please!
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March 31st, 2009at 5:39 pm(#)
my grandpa used to make a simple and lovely breakfast for my sister and me. as i remember it…to begin, he’d soft boil one egg and fry one piece of bacon per slice of toast. second, he’d very roughly chop the egg up while it was on top of the toast, spread it around to evenly cover the toast, and sprinkle the egg w/ a little s&p. next he’d crumble the crisp bacon over the top and cut it up into little squares so it would be easy for us to eat (we were tots at the time…). i recall it always being perfectly balanced, just the right amount of egg, bacon, and s&p on each small square of toast. he always burned his toast and bacon, he liked them that way. he was the best grandpa : )
March 31st, 2009at 10:57 pm(#)
denise — that’s such a sweet story! and that you still remember it so vividly means it must have left a large imprint on you.
how are things in SF going? missing rural life? thriving in the bustle?
March 31st, 2009at 11:32 pm(#)
I love the first picture! Just lovely!
April 2nd, 2009at 6:34 am(#)
SF is okay…excellent coffee…we had a lovely walk in the presidio last week. i often escape to sausalito on the ferry for quiet time, but it’s not the same as being in Point Reyes. i miss our garden and our worms, BUT i planted some carrot seeds in a pot in my bay window and they’ve sprouted. my husband spotted the first sprouts last night! now we’ll have to wait and see if they produce tasty carrots. cross your fingers! how’s germany? is spring bringing you a wider veggie selection?
April 2nd, 2009at 1:48 pm(#)
Joy — thanks! I am glad to find your blog too! I am slowly getting better at baking (especially savory things), and your site’s an inspiration. Those Palmier puffs with gruyere and prosciutto look amazing
denise — it’s all of the sudden springtime in Hannover, which has made things a LOT better. People are out and about, more happy, more lively… and it was basically an overnight change! It’s starting to be asparagus season here too — a huge crop for the area, so I am looking forward to asparagus everything with asparagus sauce with a side of asparagus :)
April 13th, 2009at 5:59 am(#)
This is a great idea- I’ve never actually considered making my own celery salt, but I think I now I will have to try it. Thanks for the inspiration.
April 16th, 2009at 2:23 am(#)
Your breakfast ritual reminds me of Frances’s lunch ritual. (You’ve read the children’s books about Frances, right?)
I don’t have much of a breakfast ritual, aside from my coffee which is downright sacred. This morning’s breakfast will be leftover raspberry oat muffins (for me) and Dutch Puff (for the kids)—which I need to go get in the oven right NOW.
May 21st, 2009at 11:41 am(#)
Hi there: Interesting recipe for celery salt. I had never heard of making it from scratch before.
As for my favorite breakfast . . . . I love poached eggs on buttered toast, and a salt bagel toasted dark with butter hits the spot too, but my hands-down, most soul-satisfying breakfast is sausage gravy on biscuits. I first had it as a kid from my great-aunt Thelma in West Virginia, and it has stuck with me for 35 years.
I only make it occasionally for health concerns, but there’s nothing like it. A big old-fashioned cast-iron skillet, the sausage sizzling away, getting broken up into tinier and tinier pieces. By the way, modern no-stick skillets are no good for this because the sausage just slides around instead of getting broken up. The resulting gravy is creamy and salty and savory and peppery. Then you take a hot biscuit, split it open and ladle the gravy generously over it, with another dose of black pepper on top.
-Michael