We had a pancake dinner last night at church and it was suggested that people bring breakfast like sides to accompany the pancakes. So since I could remain relatively anonymous I decided to try something different.
. . . if you can't experiment on your brothers and sisters in Christ who can you experiment on?
I wanted something relatively plain. Something a child could scrape the top off of and eat. Something without bread or cheese or meat. I've got friends and family members who don't eat any of these things and they all seem to want to come to dinner at once!
If there's no bread I want it filled out a little anyway so I chopped up some new potatoes I had leftover from another meal. They were raw so I threw them in a pot with some cold water and a generous amount of salt. By the time they came to a boil they only needed about 5 more minutes of cooking time.
While the taters were boiling I buttered a 9X13 dish. Do you save your butter wrappers for this? My grandma always did. Of course, butter in wrappers was a lovely new fangled invention to my grandmother! They had their own cow. Evidently you are the milkman in central South Dakota in the 30's.
Potatoes are tender! Drain them and throw them in the bottom of the dish. Mine had some water clinging to them so I let them sit uncovered for a minute or two. Soggy potatoes are no good! The salt water should of soaked into them and flavored them nicely. As soon as they're dry looking you can cover them up with foil or a lid.
Chop up some red bell peppers too! They'll add a touch of sweetness to our dish.
I sliced up some mushrooms. I love a good meaty delicious mushroom! They're not very meaty at this point so we need to meatify them!
Heat some butter in a skillet. When butter browns it forms all sorts of lovely nutty flavors! You can make really delicious dishes based almost entirely on browned butter, lemon and salt.
Throw the mushrooms in and throw in a little salt. Just a tad to help them give up their moisture. At first it'll seem like they've soaked up all the butter and nothing else is happening but eventually . . .
They'll release their lovely mushroom juice and start to brown! I threw a touch of black pepper in these. Plus a really tiny minced clove of garlic and the smallest sprig of fresh thyme from the garden. After I threw the thyme in it occurred to me that a 1/4 tsp of cumin powder would of been more south westerny but heck I really like thyme in mushrooms.
When the mushrooms are all shrunken bites of meaty deliciousness take them out of the pan and put them in a bowl. Oh look! We have fond. We're going to have to do something with that later.
Throw the peppers in. I just want to wilt them a little. No salt for these babies. I only cooked them for a minute. I didn't want raw peppers on my casserole. If your pan is hot enough they might get a little char on them.
Take the peppers out and put them in a bowl like the mushrooms. Look at all that brown goodness in that pan! That is flavor! We've gotta retrieve that. Pour in half a cup of dry vermouth or any other dry white wine.
It should bubble and spit at you some! Scrape all the bits off the bottom and get them boiling in the wine. Go ahead and turn the heat off and set the pan of goodness aside. Mind you, if you taste this stuff it probably won't taste very good to you. It's sort of bitter and vinegary but acid is one of those tastes that balance out a dish!
Let's get crackin'
and pourin'
and saltin'
and seasonin', if you can't find dried ground chipotle peppers where you're at you could use some of the canned ones chopped up finely. This was convenient though.
Mix all of those things up really well . . .
. . . and pour it over your potatoes. Bake it for 30 minutes in a 375 deg F oven. Now if your potatoes were still pretty steamy hot this might be done in 25 minutes. If you were working with cold potatoes and had put this casserole in the refrigerator overnight I imagine it could take more than 60 minutes to get this cooked.
Go ahead and add your mushrooms and peppers to your egg dish while its hot and they'll warm right up! I also added some chopped fresh cilantro but for some weird reason neglected to take a picture of it! I personally think a little sliced green onion would be delicious on here or even inside with the potatoes!
The custard is firm with just enough salt to make the eggs a star. The chipotle pepper gave that hint of smokiness that us Midwesterners LOVE with eggs. The mushrooms were lovely rich chunks of umami flavor. The peppers were sweet, moist, and made the casserole stand out with pretty color. The cilantro added a vegetal bitterness and aroma that's usually only offered in classic french herb omelets.
I will admit my casserole was neglected a little because it didn't look like your average egg casserole but everybody who tasted it really liked it.
Or . . . at least . . . that's what they said to me.
I really liked it. I think I've finally found an egg casserole I can serve to my family!
South Western Egg Casserole
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, 1/2 inch dice
1 red pepper, sliced into bite size pieces
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp butter
pinch of fresh thyme or cumin powder
1 clove of garlic minced
1/2 cup dry vermouth (any dry white wine will do)
12 eggs
1 pt. half and half
1 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp chipotle pepper
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
Cover potatoes with cold salted water. Bring to a boil and cook till tender, drain. Place potatoes in a buttered 9X13 inch baking dish.
Heat butter in 10 inch skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Add thyme or cumin and minced garlic. Saute until all moisture has disappeared from pan and mushrooms appear golden brown. Remove from pan and hold in a bowl. Add bell pepper to pan and saute until wilted, approximately 1 minute. Remove peppers from pan. Deglaze pan with wine, scraping up fond from bottom of the pan. Turn heat off and allow liquid to remain in pan.
Mix eggs, half and half, salt, and chipotle peppers until completely mixed. Whisk in wine. Pour over potatoes and bake around 30 minutes.
Garnish with sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and chopped cilantro.
