Here’s a thing. I made it tonight. It was not as delicious as I’d hoped, but I still think it has potential. I took a picture, even though I’m not one of those folks who takes pictures of her meals, because I thought it also had potential to be beautiful. Again, it didn’t quite live up to my mind’s eye, but it’s not too bad.
Yum?
What you’re looking at is a parmigiano reggiano crisp topped with an over-easy egg and some crispy greens. The problems?
- The cheese crisps would maybe have been better a bit thinner and lacier. However, as they were, they made a great plate! I could just pick up the whole shebang and eat it like an open-faced sandwich instead of trying to somehow use a fork.
- The egg yolks broke as I was situating them. I wanted them to look all lovely and rounded and poach-y. This probably means I should have poached them instead of trying to make them a nice, round shape by dropping an egg into the ring top of a mason jar in the pan; that just resulted in kind of a mess.
- It was too salty. I salted the eggs and the spinach, maybe too much, but I also imagine the cheese was pretty salty.
- This could, I suppose, be a good thing in the first week or two of the LCHF diet. There’s something about eating more salt than usual ’cause turning fat into energy requires a lot of water to process and so your kidneys wind up flushing a bunch of minerals out of your body. Or something.
Egg in a Nunnery
[That’s what I’m calling it. I don’t know why. All measurements are approximate. The recipe is for one serving instead of the two pictured here, ’cause I had to break off all the edges of the cheese crisps and store them for later since I couldn’t eat it all.]
Wha’d’ya put in it?
- 1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano, coarsely shredded
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon butter, if you’re frying the egg
- 2-3 tablespoons canola oil (or any high-heat-friendly oil, I imagine)
- 4-6 leaves baby mixed greens (mine were kale and spinach, I think)
- salt and pepper to taste
- But seriously, be careful with the salt. That cheese is salty.
How d’ya do it?
- Heat up a tiny round frying pan over medium-low heat. (I use ‘3’ out of 10.) Sprinkle the shredded cheese directly into the preheated pan, making sure the shreds are close enough to melt together a bit, even when they shrink. if you want a plate-style crisp like in the picture, leave them more densely-packed.
- While those are bubbling, heat up the canola oil in a larger, deep pan over medium heat (5 or 6 out of 10). Once that’s hot (it’ll run around the pan like water when you move it), drop in the greens, keeping them separate from each other. Let ’em bubble maybe 15 seconds, then flip each one with tongs. Let bubble another 15-45 seconds. You can tell they’re crispy if you pick them up by an edge and they don’t droop over. Once they’re crispy, drop ’em onto a paper towel.
- Slide a wooden spatula under the edge of the cheese crisp and check the bottom; if it’s golden-starting-to-be-brown, flip the whole thing over.
- Poach an egg? I didn’t do that, and I don’t know how. If you wanna see if you have more luck than I did with my method, drop the screw-on top ring of a mason jar into the pan with the top up, drop a pat of butter into the hole, and pour the egg in. I tried to flip the whole thing, ring and all. That didn’t work for me. Good luck.
- Once the cheese is golden on the bottom as well, turn it out onto a paper towel and pat the grease off. Put it on a plate.
- Top the crisp with the egg and the greens. Maybe now would be the time to pepper and/or salt the thing. I did it in steps, but that made it way too salty.
- Eat it. Maybe yours will be more delicious than mine was.
Well, there you have it! A recipe that comes without much recommendation. What a silly thing for me to write about.
Tiger's Tale 