patatas

i just stopped at the farmer's market on my corner of tompkins square park, which i'm surprised is even open due to today's winter chill, and bought a handful of fingerling potatoes, a big shallot, a half-dozen eggs, and a cup of hot cider. i was thinking to make one of my favorite breakfast recipes, borrowed from los angeles chef neal fraser of grace and b.l.d. i always get these spanish-style scrambled eggs when i'm in l.a.:

INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound fingerling potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 ounces dry chorizo, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
4 ounces thinly sliced lomo or serrano ham, cut into wide ribbons
1/4 cup piquillo peppers from a jar, drained and thinly sliced crosswise
1 dozen large eggs, beaten lightly
4 ounces Manchego cheese, coarsely shredded (1 cup)
Pinch of smoked paprika

DIRECTIONS
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook over moderately high heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and slice the potatoes crosswise 3/4 inch thick.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the potato slices and cook over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the chorizo and ham and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the ham is crisp, about 2 minutes. Stir in the piquillo peppers and cook for 1 minute.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Add them to the skillet and use a rubber spatula to scrape and stir until large, soft curds form, about 5 minutes. Stir in the Manchego and cook, stirring, just until melted, about 30 seconds. Transfer the eggs to a platter, sprinkle with smoked paprika and serve.
(courtesy of food and wine magazine.

If you're trying to do more of a last-minute, sans plans kinda breakfast (which is normally what I end up doing), I substitute the Manchego for shredded Parmesan, since I usually have it around the house, and cut out the ham, and it still makes for a deliciiiiooous meal.

I love how the fingerling potatoes are mixed in with the scramble here.

Speaking of fingerling potatoes, I partook in a lovely dinner party last night, in which fingerling potatoes were completely absent. Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't stock fingerlings (and they also didn't have fresh figs, dates, or mache, but don't get me started.) Anyway, needless to say, we did a lot of substituted. We were making roasted trout and planned on cooking small slices of the potatoes inside the trout, along with some rosemary and lemon. Instead, we had to get yukon golds, which we roasted separately with some sea salt, olive oil, and rosemary. As for the trout, we filled them with olive oil, lemon slices, chopped fennel, and chopped onions, and they came out perfect. Instead of mache, we made an arugula salad topped with fennel, blood oranges, and parmesan cheese, dressed in a lemon-olive oil concoction. Furthermore, we pigged out on devils on horseback (pitted dates stuffed with gorgonzola dolce, wrapped in bacon), sooooo good! We also had a bit of fettucini al limone and an assortment of cheeses. We finished it all off with a delicious warm ginger cake, ooh and there were champagne cocktails with elderflower liqueur. The best part of this meal was that we barely worked from written recipes, instead relying on phoned instructions from a certain someone. Anyway, I don't know why I got into that. Something about fingerling potatoes. Actually, I just wanted to repeat to myself the amazing cooking feat we accomplished last night.

A bientôt.