THE BERGAMOT KITCHEN
27. NOT YOUR GRANNY’S EGG SALAD
I woke up thinking of black beans to hang out with some snappy romaine on the grill. One thing led to another and we end up with an egg salad brunch. This was a great idea.
• Black beans
• Quart of chicken stock (essay 9)
• EVO
• Blueberries & and a nectarine – in season and local or not at all
• Eggs from our girls
• Pine nuts
• Easy garlic (essay 1)
• A little bit of pork sausage
• Seeds of cumin, coriander & fennel.
• Sierra Nevada Cheese – Capretta Goat Yogurt
• A shallot
• Fresh fennel
• A firm heart of romaine
• Goat ghee (essay 23)
• Salt & pepper
First thing. Toast the seeds. There is no reason to use spices or seeds if you don’t wake them up from their nap with some gentle heat. Don’t let them get too hot or they scorch and become bitter. This looks about right.
Yes, they need to be ground. Either like this or with a small coffee mill. I use both – depending on conditions, stuff, mood etc.
My intention is to use these tiny little sausage balls as savory surprise morsels. As they are small, they need to pack a punch. I’m infusing with the ground cumin, coriander & fennel. Even though I didn’t show it, I had to add some extra hot Indian pepper. It needs to talk to me.
At this time I have no idea how I’m going to use them.
Doesn’t take long – finish them up in a hurry.
Drain, towel and set aside until there’s a plan.
Now for the 5 MINUTE beans. A pound of black beans in the pressure cooker with a modest gob of goat ghee (any oil will do) to mitigate foaming.
Note: These babies have soaked for four hours.
A quart of stock (any homemade stock will do). I actually keep some Costco organic chicken stock for occasions when I may be short, but it never quite reaches the mark if I don’t make it myself.
More ground seed to make the beans pay attention to the boss.
This is a 5 MINUTE run. A couple of minutes and I’ve got beans for the week.
A necessity in my kitchen – All-Clad pressure stove top cooker.
This is a nice heavy and fresh romaine – even after removing some of the outer leaves.
A nice even bisect.
I’ve got this great old screen that I use in both the oven and on the grill. It’s perfect for this job.
It’s sitting in a tinfoil tray to keep the EVO from running everywhere. If you’re not picking up on it, I am applying the EVO rather generously on both sides.
I’ll carry it out to the grill on the tinfoil tray to keep from making more of a mess than I generally do.
I really love this San Francisco applewood smoked sea salt when I’m grilling something like this – adds a little more dimension to the equation.
This color is killing me. I just can’t get enough of it.
I’m adding a very special smoked Bulog to this. One day (given permission) I may share the secret of this extremely exotic and precious pantry item.
I would bet that mine is the only pantry in the State of Michigan with this special home grown, home smoked and home dried Blue Ridge Bulog. My yearly allotment is measured in grams and of a particularly low number. It’s used selectively to be sure. Flavor to the 10th power.
Now it’s time to prepare some fresh flavor for the beans – fennel and red onion – sliced thin.
Two piles of each. One group to cook with the beans and the other for fresh crunch and flavor. TBD later.
The beans are cooked. Now is the time to do a bean base for the salad. I’m still not certain as to how this may end up (doesn’t matter) but I’ll have it at the ready when necessary.
Starting upper left: Ground seed, goat yogurt, goat ghee, pine nuts, sliced onion and fennel, easy garlic, beans, pepper & salt, ground smoked Bulog pepper.
Toast them little piney nuts in my Indian kadai. This is a near perfect tool – indispensable. From Hawkins Cookers Limited
Goat ghee.
Seeds in the hot ghee – remember they have already been toasted so this is fast. Just long enough to get a good whiff.
In go the onions and fennel.
Now for the Easy Garlic.
Time for the beans.
Keep a rather high flame and the stuff moving until the beans are really hot and infused with the flavors.
In with the goat yogurt. Please don’t use what they call Greek style yogurt or anything other than full fat and may you go to hell if it’s flavored.
We absolutely love this Capretta Goat Yogurt.
Get it going. Keep it moving.
You may have noticed that I use a goodly amount of freshly ground black pepper – both for flavor and the crunch. I’ve never been able to use too much – and I’ve tried.
A little Maldon’s Sea Salt Flakes.
Bulog.
Now it has come together and I can let it sit on simmer while I deal with the eggs and lettuce.
This shouldn’t take long. The grill is on high.
My grill sits in the prairie. Rain, snow or sunshine – matters not. The umbrella used to leak in the rain. After so many years it has developed such a prairie crust that I stay dry unless it’s a downpour.
I see Joe Pye Weed, Tall Coreopsis, a spike of Great Blue Lobelia, Boneset, Ironweed and some Swamp Milkweed. Smells so good.
These look great. A few more minutes and the outer leaves will have a little char. Yum.
Note: Without some char, it just ain’t right.
So now comes the making of the egg salad. I guess the first thing is to lay a bed of beans.
These look great.
Down with the romaine on top of the beans and sprinkle the pine nuts and strew the crispy fennel and onions like Manna from Heaven.
A strategic arrangement of those little sausage bombs. Isn’t it funny how these things just take care of themselves without having to think?
Six minute little soldier eggs with some salt & pepper.
Egg salad and tea. Nothing else to say except, “Wish you were here”.
MORE BERGAMOT KITCHEN ESSAYS
23. goat ghee wiz
24. what a fermentation
25. mystery thighs & basmati
26. basmati outrageous
27. not your granny’s egg salad
28. salsa roja @ 35k
29. huevos, salsa & cerveza
Thanks for visiting with me.
Paul V’Soske
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