A few days ago, I was ravenous. I didn't want a plain old sandwich. I didn't want grilled cheese. I wanted something that could really sink my teeth into.
Also, I wanted an egg. A fried egg.
I made a fried egg sammich, and now so can you!
For today's recipe, I gathered some pretty minor ingredients:
- Bread (I used butter bread, but any bread will do!)
- Butter for spreading on your bread
- Canadian Bacon (optional)
- Cheese (also optional, but I used Cheddar and it was marvelous!)
- Cooking Spray for the pan
- Egg (your choice, and you can do more than one if you want. I only wanted one)
- Ketchup (optional, but delicious. Chili Sauce or Honey Dip would've been superior, but use what you've got...)
- Salt & Pepper (optional, but helpful)
In the words of Steve1989MREInfo, let's get this out onto a tray (or, in our case, onto the countertop)
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| Alright! |
You may notice I haven't got the Salt & Pepper or the Ketchup, but that's because I'm dumb.
Basically, things go down fast, so there may be some missing pictures, and I apologize for that, but it's hard to film things when you're trying not to burn lunch. (Yeah, this is a breakfast food, but sometimes you just want an egg sammich for lunch.)
Step 1: Spray your pan & butter your bread! This is just like when we did the grilled cheese sandwich, guys. You just slap some butter on the bread and put it, butter side down, in the pan. Turn the pan on to low and let the bread toast up!
Step 2: While your bread is toasting, you go right ahead and lay your cheese down. I used cheddar, but I know for a fact that Havarti, Swiss, and Muenster are fantastic choices. There are no wrong choices. You want a brie egg sandwich? Use brie. You want bleu cheese, ugh. Go for it. I won't stop you from destroying your taste buds. I won't even stop you if you want to end your relationship with your loved ones, your landlord, and the human race with Stilton... (I should, but I won't, because if you're using Stiltion I want no part of it...)
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| Cheese is good. Hot cheese is better. Let it melt. |
Step 2.5: You're gonna have your egg & bacon off to the side, but maybe don't leave them on the plate you're going to use for the sandwich. Even though the Canadian bacon I used was precooked, it's still smart to use another surface. Get them off the plate so you can remove your slowly toasting bread when it's toasty looking (lift a corner with a spatula to get a look. If it looks like it's toasted to your liking, remove it from the heat).
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| I have these mental lapses sometimes. Both ended up on a paper towel to the side. |
Step 3: Now you want to take out your bread when it's good & toasted with melted cheese. As soon as that bread hits your plate (keep it open or the cheese will glue it shut, leaving you incapable of building your sammich!) you want to toss your meat into the pan. You can add more spray if you want. I highly suggest keeping that pan as lubricated as possible.
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| Melted cheddar, what could be better? |
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| As you may have guessed, I kind of forgot to refresh the spray in the pan. |
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| Keep it very low - you don't want to go more than about a 1.5 on a dial like this. Burned eggs are wretched. |
Step 4: After your Canadian bacon/ham/bacon/whatever gets some nice color on one side, flip it over and prepare a space for your egg. You'll see in a bit why I'm hammering home to, even in a non-stick pan, spray or butter the area for the egg. Carefully put your egg on the other half of the pan, away from your meat. (Otherwise, the meat will get stuck in the egg, making putting everything on the sandwich that much harder!)
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| Would you eat this? I would eat this. I did... |
Step 5: Once you feel like your meat is hot enough, you can chase them around the pan and take them out. This is a great exercise to do while waiting for the white and yolk to set. I don't like runny yolk, so I had plenty of time for this game. The meat will likely be very slippery in the pan. That's good. Don't get too frustrated! You will prevail against the tyranny of escaping meats. I find that using either a fork or chopsticks works great for this. I had neither on hand and didn't want burned eggs while I wrestled with the silverware drawer, so I chased the Canadian Bacon around with my impeccably clean fingers and the corner of the spatula, pinching the meat between the spatula and edge of the pan before rapidly pinching, pulling, and flopping the meat onto the spatula. That sentence is almost guaranteed to make you smile while reading it out loud.
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| They're staggered here because they're too tiny to fill up a big slice of bread. That's why we usually use English Muffins for this, but I'm trash at toasting those in the pan... |
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| I promise, the meat rings in the back come out easily in the sink. That's what cooking spray is for. Also, now's the time for Salt & Pepper if you want them... I forgot. |
Step 6: Keep an eye on that egg! It will fight you if, like me, you want it flipped and 100% cooked through. Persevere. Even if the egg collapses in on itself like that scene from Inception, it will still taste fine. Also, keep it away from the center of the pan, as that's where all the heat is (if your pan is properly centered).
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| As you can see, it isn't easy to flip a fried egg. I need more practice. |
Remember - more practice means more fried egg sandwiches!
Step 7: When your egg seems done enough to you (don't be afraid to poke a hole in it with the corner of your trusty spatula to check how firm/runny your yolk is!) it's time to take it out and slam it on your sammich!
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| Don't actually slam the poor thing. It's been through enough. Just shovel it on. |
Step 8: Accessorize!
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| Ketchup. Because we had no chili sauce and even I'm not crazy enough to dollop gochujang on it. |
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| And I'd forgotten my salt & pepper, so this is when I added them. It was fine. |
Step 9: Hooray! Put the top on your sammich and eat that beast!
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| It was much better than it looked, which should tell you something! |
And that's how to make a delicious egg sandwich!
As for this week's spice, I'm going to go hot and tasty:
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| Good on pretty much everything! |
Crushed Red Pepper is a fantastic spice. You can put it on pizza (many pizza places straight up leave it on the table for you), you can add it to soups for a kick, you can throw it in meat dishes to give some extra heat. It's amazing stuff! I don't know if there's anyone left on the planet who hasn't seen this ubiquitous condiment, but if you haven't yet seen it, that's it. It looks like off-white discs (the heat is in the seeds) and flakes of dark red leathery paper (that's the flesh & skin of the pepper, it's sweet and smoky).
We'll probably use this when I make chili. And I plan to make chili. God I love chili.
That's it for me today!
Go Enjoy Something!
FC
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