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By Wolfgang Puck, Tribune Media Services
With the weather getting colder and the evenings drawing in, late on a weekend morning seems an ideal time to have friends over and feed them a warm, satisfying meal. It's almost as if the climate is helping us to start getting in the mood for all the holiday entertaining soon to come.
The beauty of brunch is that it's all about ease -- dishes you can make quickly, or in advance, or with very little effort; and casual styles of serving food, encouraging guests to help themselves. In fact, unless you really want to go all out and do lots of cooking, some of the best brunches revolve around a single main dish, which you can accompany with other items you buy from your supermarket's deli or dairy departments, the bakery, and the produce aisle.
My recipe for Baked Potatoes with Scrambled Eggs and Smoked Salmon is just that sort of star for your brunch table -- a neat one-dish combination of morning eggs and potatoes. It takes just a few minutes to get the potatoes in the oven, where they bake for about an hour, giving you plenty of time to set the table and arrange other pre-purchased items in bowls or on platters. In fact, you can even bake the potatoes the night before, halve and scoop them out as directed in the recipe, and then let them cool and refrigerate them, covered with plastic wrap. The next morning, just unwrap them, arrange them on a baking sheet, and reheat them in a 400 degrees F. oven until they're hot and crispy, about 15 minutes.
Making the scrambled eggs that fill them takes just a few minutes before serving time. Feel free to change or embellish the eggs, replacing the smoked salmon with smoked ham or chopped corned beef, adding some shredded Swiss cheese or sharp Cheddar or some creamy goat cheese, or stirring in some sauteed onions or mushrooms, roasted bell pepper strips, or slivers of sun-dried tomato.
Add a side dish such as a simple green salad or some fresh seasonal fruit and some good toast with butter and jam, and your brunch is complete. Or almost: Don't forget coffee or tea or, better yet, a glass of Champagne or a mimosa!
Serves 8
Ingredients - Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon in Baked Potato Boats
8 medium-sized baking potatoes
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
16 large or extra-large cage-free eggs
1 cup whole milk or half-and-half
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces very thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut into long, thin strips
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons salmon roe (optional)
Preparation - Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon in Baked Potato Boats
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Meanwhile, rinse the potatoes under cold running water and scrub them well with a kitchen brush to remove any dirt. Dry the potatoes thoroughly with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels.
With your hands, lightly rub the potatoes all over with the olive oil and put them on a baking sheet. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake the potatoes until they are tender enough to be pierced easily with a metal skewer, about 1 hour. Carefully remove them from the oven and set aside.
Break the eggs into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat lightly with a whisk to break up the yolks and combine them with the whites. Add the milk or half-and-half and whisk thoroughly, until the eggs are lightly frothy. Whisk in a little salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over low heat. Add the eggs and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the skillet occasionally with a wooden spoon, until they are softly set, forming moist curds. Take care not to overcook the eggs.
As soon as the eggs are done to your liking, scatter and stir in the smoked salmon strips and the chives. Remove from the heat.
Holding the potatoes with an oven glove or clean folded kitchen towel to protect your hand, cut them lengthwise in half with a sharp knife. With a teaspoon, carefully scrape out some of the potato from each half to form a boat, and then lightly loosen the remaining potato by mashing it with the tines of a fork.
Evenly spoon the eggs into the potato halves, mounding the eggs slightly. Spoon some salmon roe on top of the eggs and serve immediately, placing 2 potato halves on each serving plate.
(c) 2008 WOLFGANG PUCK WORLDWIDE, INC. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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Wolfgang Puck's Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck
The world-renowned chef with an extraordinary passion for food now shares that passion in Wolfgang
Puck's Kitchen. Puck makes great cooking easier than you ever imagined. He reveals how to turn common ingredients into uncommon masterpieces. Each feature includes both an expert tip and an easy recipe-exactly what you need to transform your home cooking from acceptable to delectable. Moves with color photos.
About Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck, in the eyes of food lovers and experts alike, is one of the most famous chefs in America and arguably the world. He has spawned a culinary empire that includes a fine dining group of 12 internationally acclaimed restaurants in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Maui; an extensive catering & events business with bases in Hollywood and Chicago, famed as official caterer to the Governors Ball following the Oscars; as well as Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc., a corporation that controls, licenses, and franchises the Wolfgang Puck brand in a wide variety of business activities, including casual Wolfgang Puck Cafes, fast-casual Wolfgang Puck Expresses, consumer packaged foods, cookware, book publishing, television, and the Internet.
For the first time, Puck shares his expert, easy-to-master approach to cooking in the newspaper arena through WOLFGANG PUCK?S KITCHEN, a newspaper column syndicated by Tribune Media Services.
The Austrian-born Puck began his formal training at age 14, inspired by his mother, Maria, a hotel chef. He left Europe for America in 1973 at the age of 24, having already worked in the master kitchens of three-star French restaurants. In 1975, Puck moved to Los Angeles, and soon was both chef and part-owner of Ma Maison. It quickly became a magnet for the rich and famous, with Puck as star attraction. Since then, he has changed the way Americans cook and eat by fusing formal French techniques and Asian and California influenced esthetics with the highest quality ingredients.
After the 1981 publication of the first of his five cookbooks, Puck, in partnership with designer Barbara Lazaroff, opened Spago. Located in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip, it was an instant success and culinary phenomenon from its opening day in 1982. Although the original location closed in 2000, three years after the successful opening of Spago Beverly Hills, Spago Hollywood today is remembered internationally as a legendary haven for entertainment, political and social luminaries.
In 2000, Puck developed his own "Wolfgang Puck" television show, which began airing on the Food Network in January 2001. The show features Puck sharing his cooking expertise with a studio audience who joins him in his kitchen, along with field documentary segments in which he explores the vast and diverse world of food, from farms to artisan workshops to restaurants, and visits with such luminaries as Julia Child, Robert Mondavi and Paul Bocuse. "Wolfgang Puck" was awarded a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Service Show in 2002.
Puck also appears regularly on ABC's "Good Morning America," sharing his latest creations. He has been a guest on a multitude of other shows, including "The Late Show with David Letterman," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Entertainment Tonight," "ABC News with Peter Jennings," "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather," "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher," "Frasier," and "The Simpsons." In 2001, the A&E Network featured Puck's life on its popular "Biography" series.
Puck and partner Barbara Lazaroff are actively involved in many philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, including their own Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation, established in 1982, which supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival to benefit Meals-on-Wheels.
Puck lives in Beverly Hills. He and Barbara Lazaroff have two sons, Cameron and Byron.
(c) 2008 WOLFGANG PUCK WORLDWIDE, INC. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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