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| Creamy and Savory Cheese Eggs |
So, one thing that I think we can all agree on regarding Soul Food is that it certainly isn't bland. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a legitimate place for food that is simply appointed in such a way that the preparation is more concerned about letting the pallet experience it in it's least altered state. However, the history of Soul Food (proper) is one that could not rely on the natural flavors of the ingredients to shine through. Why? Well, because Soul Food in it's truest form came from ingredients that were not prime cuts or the ripest and most juicy, hand picked produce. The fact of the matter is, the ingredients of many of our Soul Food dishes do not shine on their own!
Much of what the disenfranchised people (slaves) used as ingredients was offal. As a result of receiving inferior ingredients the original cooks of what we call Soul Food had to transform it by adding what spices they could, by using long, slow cooking techniques like braising so that tough cuts of meat would become tender. Pig's feet, tail, ears, shanks, intestines were among these cuts as well as cow's tongue and tail (ox tails) Ingredients like these required a more complex and elongated process in order to elevate them. They also often needed additional flavor notes.
Notes, you see, are not only found in music, or writing. Flavors in all of their depths and intensities are expressions that call one to pay attention to something. Notes also inform regarding an idea of some other thing. Well, flavors do the same thing. They speak of what a dish consists of and how it was prepared. Flavors call attention to the ingredients and spices, as well as the intention of the chef. The chef communicates through his/her food just like a musician communicates through their instrument or a singer with their voice. Notes. And like Jazz, Soul Food is full of them!
My Savory Cheese Eggs are like that. I decided that I wanted to do eggs that were a step below an omlett, having that creamy, cheesy consistency that so many of the big named chefs are stumping for these days. Most of the time when you order cheese in your eggs what you get is hard scrambled eggs with a gooey mess of partially melted cheese on top of them. Well, Marvin Murphy didn't play that.
Taking a hint from Latin cooking, I do a kind of a sofrito for my cheese eggs. I start by seeding and chopping one large jalapeno pepper (if you want the heat, use the seeds) two cloves of garlic and half an onion. The other ingredients are: 5 large eggs, 2 table spoons of butter and 4 slices of American cheese.
I crack and scramble my eggs in a bowl, then tear my cheese into small pieces and add them to the eggs, then set aside. I start a pan on medium heat with my butter and immediately add my garlic, onions and peppers to it while the pan is cold. Of course any pepper would do here, so don't be bound to the way I do it, I'm just a guide. You're conducting your own symphony and that's what makes jazz cool...it sounds like the person playing it and not like the guy that just got finished playing it.
Once the sofrito has begun to soften the onions and peppers, add the eggs and cheese. From here it's all technique. To get the kinds of texture that I like, you have to work the eggs as the cheese melts with lots of movement. I use a wooden spoon. Key here is that you want to abandon the old "fluffy egg fold" technique that was so popular for so long. You're not making an omelet here, so scramble those eggs! Don't go crazy but you do need to work the eggs pretty consistently. As they start to near being done, make sure that you pull them off of the heat just before they reach the doneness that you're looking for. This is very important because the eggs will continue to cook and tighten directly after they've been taken out of the pan or removed from the heat. So if you cook them right to your target, you've actually over cooked them in the end.
When done right, these babies are gold. With toast or biscuits...fried fish and grits and you're in there! The peppers, fresh garlic, onions and REAL butter elevates the eggs to something more complex and in my opinion, better. Is it for everybody? Even I don't always do it this way. But then, I likes my jazz every once in awhile.
Kev
