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| Saturday, May 22, 2010 01:06 PM |
| Chef Fëanor on Eggs, Pizza, and the Uses of Leftover French Fries |
 by Fëanor |
The other day, my folks were over, and they were good enough not only to keep the baby entertained most of the morning and early afternoon, but also to pick us up lunch from the local pizza and sandwich place: King of Pizza, which is easily one of the best places to get pizza in the area (we're also big fans of another nearby place called Stella's - they deliver! - and Mack & Manco's down the shore). In this case we did not get pizza, but shared a couple of cheesesteaks and a couple orders of fries. I always forget, however, that an order of fries from King of Pizza is a heaping pile of fried potatoes served in a large, rectangular, cardboard container. So, needless to say, we had leftovers. Normally leftover fries just get thrown out, because they generally don't hold up well. But we decided to keep them in a plastic bag in the fridge with vague ideas of frying them up as pseudo-hash browns for breakfast on some future morning.
But then one night we decided to make a pizza. We make a pizza nearly every week, and I highly recommend it as an easy, tasty dinner solution. We just keep a Boboli pizza crust on hand, along with some shredded mozzarella cheese, some pepperoni, and some tomato sauce, and then at a moment's notice, we can throw a pizza together, adding any toppings we might have lying around (olives, other cheeses, leftover chicken, artichokes, etc.). I always also add some spices - garlic powder, oregano, basil. The pizza cooks up in just ten minutes. This time when I was pulling the pizza fixings out of the fridge, I saw the French fries lying there in their plastic bag and I thought, why not?
The pizza I made had three spoonfuls of Wegman's marinara sauce, a generous amount of shredded mozzarella cheese, the last of some fresh, homemade mozzarella cheese which we got from a local Italian food market, a dusting of grated Parmesan cheese, some spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, slices of green pepper, garlic powder, plenty of pepperoni, and finally, on my side only, oregano, basil, and a generous helping of whole French fries (poppy's not a big fan of the spices, and was adamant about not wanting to join me in the French fry experiment).
I was hoping the fries would crisp up again in the oven, but they didn't really, possibly because the sauce and fresh mozzarella gave off a lot of moisture. It was an interesting experiment, and it turned out pretty tasty, but it wasn't as delicious as I was dreaming it would be.
But my experimentation with leftover French fries was not over! This morning poppy requested some eggs and bacon for breakfast, and once again when I was pulling the fixings out, I saw that bag of French fries and thought, why not? So I made for myself a French fry and mozzarella cheese omelette. Well, really less an omelette than scrambled eggs with a bunch of stuff in them; I don't bother with the fancy folding and so forth that normally goes into making a real omelette.
To make my scrambled eggs, I broke three eggs into a bowl, added a dash of milk, and beat them thoroughly. Then I added salt and pepper (yes, I do this now, and sometimes I add a bit more salt during cooking, but I try to avoid adding salt or pepper after the fact; I've found that seems to make the eggs over-salty) and a small handful of shredded mozzarella (this ends up coming into a lot of my recipes), and finally broke up the rest of the French fries into small pieces and dropped them into the bowl, as well (there were probably about half a dozen fries left). I put a pan on medium heat, dropped a pat of butter in and spun it around, then poured the egg mixture in and cooked it up, scraping it off the pan and flipping it over occasionally. Eventually the egg mixture settled into one large mass, which I flipped over one more time and then took off the heat. I let the eggs go a little longer than I normally do; they got a bit brown in places. The cooks on TV tell you to take scrambled eggs off the stove while they still look not quite done, as they supposedly cook a bit more once they get to the plate, so I generally try to do that. But really I don't mind if they get a bit brown.
This, my friends, was an unqualified success, especially accompanied by a couple slices of center-cut bacon and two pieces of buttered toast. The French fries really added a nice bit of extra flavor and texture to my pseudo-omelette. I highly recommend it! |
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