My mother grew up on a farm.
It was more like a house where there was a massive green yard and all the neighbors were relatives. And then one day, my grandpa thought it'd be fun to come home with a bunch of chickens, a sheep, and 3 dogs. He built a coop, a few dog houses, and then called it their farm.
From this home, grew the legend of the most genius chick(en) the world has ever known. My mother still tells everyone about this chicken that ended up being my grandmother's favorite.
This chicken would knock on the outside door to their kitchen and wait to be let in. If no one opened the door, she would run to the kitchen window and peck at it with her beak until she saw someone look her way. Once she got the attention she demanded, she'd run back to the door and wait. This would repeat over and over until she finally got her way, and my grandmother would open the door. She'd dash in, head to her corner, lay her egg, and strut out like the queen she deemed herself to be.
And before you ask, yes, it definitely is kind of morbid of me to talk about a chicken willingly sacrificing her egg children during a breakfast post, but there you have it.
No, she wasn't eaten...at least not by my family.
Basically, my mother grew up eating this dish all the time and now I did too. Aren't cultural traditions so beautiful in that way?
The staple breakfast in our home is one of the simplest. It's like a healthier and easier English Breakfast. Our assortment involves eggs, cheeses/meats, freshly cut up vegetables, marinated olives, and my mom's hot pepper spread.
It takes us 20 minutes to have it all on the table ready to be devoured.
My mother, grandmother, and I always prefer it with cheese. Some men in my family prefer it with meat, so we more commonly make this with an assortment of cold cuts or pan-fried meats. We typically just add the meat in the pan with the eggs. Unfortunately, my body can't handle meat as well as it used to, and living in a culture where lettuce is for rabbits and meat is as necessary to our survival as water...makes for a challenging time.
However, I still just omit it and eat it with feta the way grandma and mom intended.
Smart Chicken Breakfast
(Let's bask in the morbidity.)
Ingredients
Serves 2-3 people
3 jumbo eggs
2 large tomatoes (or 3 medium/small ones), large slices
2 cucumbers, cut in strips
1 block of feta cheese, sliced
1 cup green olives (or 1 8oz jar), preferably not pitted
1 lemon, sliced
3/4 c olive oil (1/2 c for olives + 4 tbs for the tray and pepper spread)
2 tbs butter, or margarine
2 tbs Turkish pepper paste*
3 garlic cloves, 1 minced* + 2 sliced in half
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper*
2 tsp oregano
1 sprig cilantro, roughly chopped
3-4 pieces of toast, crackers, or pita
salt and pepper, to taste
*If you want to omit my mom's pepper spread, just remove the ingredients with the " * "
Steps
Eggs
Place a frying pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add butter and let it get lightly browned. It will start to have a nutty smell.
Crack in your eggs. Top with salt and pepper. Cook around 2-3 minutes. You want the whites just set and the yolk nice and jiggly. Slide it out of the pan onto your plate (Keep in mind that the eggs cook in the residual heat of the pan so remove accordingly).
Pepper Paste
Mix garlic, cayenne, pepper paste, and 2 tbs of olive oil. Set aside.
Olives
Pour the olives and the brine from the jar into a colander. Give it a good rinse under water.
Add it into a bowl with 1/2 c olive oil, sliced garlic, oregano, and a pinch of black pepper. Take your lemon slices and squeeze them to extract the juices into the bowl. Add the slices in after as well. Mix well and set aside (or pour back into the jar for easy storage).
Tray
Slice your cucumber in half crosswise (like a circumcision that went too far). Then, cut in thirds lengthwise (basically in the opposite direction from before).
Cut your tomatoes in the same way.
Arrange everything on a large plate (as seen in the picture). Drizzle the remaining 2 tbs of olive oil over the vegetables. Add salt and pepper.
Serve everything together and enjoy!
My ideal way to eat it is to shmear some of the spread onto the bread, add some cheese and top with a bit of the egg. You can also add the cheese and tomato on the bread or dip the bread into the yolk and bite into the cheese after. Basically, the only way to mess up is by not having fun with it. Just enjoy and explore!
Substitution Suggestions
Vegan: Can use your favorite vegan egg product (like Just Egg) and serve it scrambled. Can substitute cheese or meat for vegan versions. (I'd recommend a recipe for vegan meat or cheese, but it's just easier to buy your own favorite brand. If you have any recommendations, share it with us in the comments! I'd love to hear them.)
Vegetarian: This dish is vegetarian.
Gluten-Free: Toast your favorite gluten-free bread.
Dairy-Free: You can substitute with pan-fried turkey, fresh salamis, or pan-friend spam. If you can't eat meat, then fresh lox, an assortment of cured fish, or a vegan alternative on the side will be just as delicious!
Kosher: This dish is kosher.
Halal: This dish is halal.
No Feta: Can use goat cheese, burrata, mozzarella, roquefort, ricotta, or pan-fried haloumi
No Tomato or Cucumber: Use bell peppers, radish, celery, or any raw vegetables instead.
No Olives: Can similarly marinate caperberries, artichoke hearts, or fennel.
No Olive Oil/Lemons/Oregano: Use a neutral oil/Use limes or vinegar/Use sumac, marjoram, marjoram with basil, basil, or just omit the seasoning and use pepper.
Any other substitutions you'd like? What ended up being your favorite way of eating it? Let me know below!
Comments