Welcome to the post in which I nearly squander all of my culinary credibility by admitting that I can’t fry an egg properly. You may remember my previous egg failings from such posts as I can’t poach and egg, and I just learned how to scramble eggs!
I think we all have some pretty alarming gaps in our life experiences and skills, right? I am a formidable touch-typist but if the world depended on me sewing a button on a coat? Doomsday folks.
I’d like to think that this makes me more human and endearing. After all, if you want perfection I think we all know who you can go see.
If I possessed more egg prowess I would have had the courage of my convictions and let this one cook on one side until the yolk was perfectly set, rather than nervously flipping it, convinced that if I didn’t I would be serving salmonella a la mode. It would have been a heart-breakingly beautiful site and not the pancake-on-top-of-a-pancake you see here.
Appearances aside, this was delicious. I served these for dinner with broiled asparagus and it was yet another breakfast-for-dinner success. The latke was amazing, as these things tend to be, and was the perfect foundation for the egg.
Big Breakfast Latkes are on page 31 of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. You can also find it here, along with a very nice interview with Deb on NPR.org.
My son makes an incredible fried egg! He uses a combination of olive oil and butter – too much of both – and so gets really crispy edges. He covers it for a minute or less at the end to make sure the white is cooked through. Yum!
I can’t flip an egg to save my life, something that made my mother shake her head. But I agree with Ruth that if you cover the pan — cooking on low heat — you will cook the white through, and can produce a perfect “over easy” egg. No one will know.
I should have mentioned that I’ve made this dish, loved it, and loved that the latkes can be made ahead, frozen and reheated in the oven. It’s my solution to house guests and the fact that I don’t really like to cook early in the morning. (I’ve been eating these for my supper.) A little maple baked bacon, and I will look like a wonderful hostess. Even when bleary-eyed.
If you worried about salmonella buy pasteurized eggs because overcooked eggs are really disgusting. For starters, it looks like your pan is too hot (IMO eggs should never be browned.) Preheat your 8-inch or 10-inch nonstick frypan on a low to medium low temperature setting depending on how powerful your range is (you may have to experiment to get this setting perfect.) Break 2-eggs into a small glass prep bowl so that both eggs can be added to the frypan at the same time. Add 1-tablespoon of butter or bacon fat to the preheated frypan and swirl to coat pan. Gently pour eggs into frypan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add one tablespoon of water to frypan and cover pan for 2 to 3 minutes depending on desired doneness (preferably nice runny yolks and just firm whites.) Slide onto plate and serve. I usually have 2-pans going at once to serve everyone more quickly. With this combination saute and steaming method turning the eggs “over” is not necessary. It’s a very simple and foolproof method. Just practice it a few times until you learn the idiosyncrasies of you range and pans.