Country Gravy – Deliciously Dingy and Definitely Diner

This sausage country gravy recipe comes from a time before cooks tried to think of ways to trim a few calories, but rather, thought of ways to sneak more calories into a dish. This was a meal that was meant to fill you up and keep you satisfied for a long time.

In addition to the astronomically high calorie count, another advantage of a milk gravy that’s been thickened with a roux made from the rendered fat of meat scraps, is it’s very cheap. So, when you combine “cheap,” with “filling,” and “delicious,” you have all the makings of a diner classic, which this certainly is.

In a diner, this gravy (also known as sausage gravy or cream gravy) would be made with leftover cooked sausage links and other breakfast meat scrapes like crumbled bacon, or ham ends. Since we’re making ours from scratch, we have the advantage of all that freshly rendered fat to make the light roux.

This method is more authentic and flavorful, but admittedly does nothing to improve the recipe’s dingy color and questionable appearance. Let’s face it, some great recipes are just plain ugly and that’s the way it is. I used a low fat milk, which makes for the dingiest color, but whole milk or cream, if you want this extra rich, do look marginally better.

As I mention in the video, if you’ve eaten this before, and know how shockingly good it can be, the look of the dish never crosses your mind. If this were a blind date, the recipe would be described as being “really fun with an amazing personality.”

As far as serving suggestions go, you can’t miss with fresh baked buttermilk biscuits (even though I used store bought, we have a great recipe, which you can see here), but this is also out-of-this-world on things like country-fried steak, and fried chicken. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

8 oz breakfast sausage

4 strips bacon

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup packed all-purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

2 1/2 cups milk, more or less as needed

A Perfect Time for Pumpkin Pancakes

A friend sent me a nice note recently that his wife had made these pumpkin pancakes for dinner, and that they were thoroughly enjoyed by all. I always appreciate those kinds of messages, especially since they often serve as a reminder for doing seasonally appropriate recipe re-posts.

This was the week pumpkin made its yearly appearance into my life. On restaurant menus, on television, in store windows, on neighbors’ steps, and all over our living room…and dining room…and kitchen…and, well, you get the idea. So, to celebrate the beloved American gourd, I decided to rerun this tasty winter treat. Enjoy!

Click here to read the original post, and to get the ingredient amounts.

Good Morning Sausage! Pork, Fennel, and Orange Breakfast Sausage Patties

I know I say this a lot, but I can’t believe I haven’t done this recipe yet! There are few things as easy and amazing as homemade breakfast sausage, and this is my favorite formula.

The key here is to get some properly ground fresh pork from a real live butcher. The ground pork in the meat case at the supermarket is not going to be coarse enough, not to mention the fact that the meat they used was probably chosen based on it’s inability to be sold in any other form.

Tell the butcher you want a couple pounds of freshly ground pork shoulder, and be sure to use the term “sausage grind.” This means a very coarse grind, and an adequate fat content. Anything less than 30-40% fat is just not going to make a great sausage patty.

Above and beyond the meat, almost anything goes when making sausage patties. I think the fennel, nutmeg, and orange zest (an idea I borrowed from my uncle, and sausage master, Bill) really gives this a breakfast-y flavor, but if you’re not into those ingredients, use what you like.

Lastly, the overnight refrigeration really makes a big difference. All those big flavors need time to meld together, and besides, by making this in the evening for the next morning’s meal, you’ve pretty much assured yourself of some quality sausage-related dreams. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground pork

1 tsp kosher salt (1/2 to 3/4 tsp of table salt), or to taste

1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs blend (mine has thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano)

2-3 tsps fennel seeds, lightly crushed

2 tsp freshly grated orange zest

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

pinch of fresh nutmeg

Grandma Kelly’s Good Old Fashioned Pancakes Really Measure Up

I was looking over a list of the all-time most popular recipes posted on Allrecipes last week, and there it was at number one…”Good Old Fashioned Pancakes.” Since I’ve never done a classic American pancake recipe video, despite countless food wishes for just that, I decided it was an omen that could not be ignored.

This is from Dakota Kelly, who claims to have found it on a well-worn card in her Grandma's recipe book. Well, Grandma Kelly, if that is your real name, this recipe makes one fine stack of pancakes. Not too thick, not too thin, tender, light, buttery, and delicious.

I’ve always used those exact same seven ingredients, as do 90% of all pancake makers, but like many “pros,” I simply throw everything in a bowl, and stir in enough milk, until the batter feels “right.” I never bothered to write down the formula.

So, as much as I hate to admit it, it was actually kind of fun to use an exact set of measurements, knowing I’ll now be able to repeat these results again and again. I know that boxed mix is convenient, but every once in a while you need to make this kind of recipe from scratch. I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 12 small pancakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Karina's Gluten-Free Pancakes

The best gluten-free pancakes I've ever eaten.

When I was small and clueless I ate the world in tiny bites. I chewed apologetically, counting each deliberate grind in time to the spiral beats of a song in my head that only I could hear. A tune not unlike a mosaic of bird calls, and the powdery flutter of wings feeding on the garden lit by young Mozart's star.

Colors were a mysterious and spiritual language infused with deep logic and meaning. A green Jello box invited tunneling and confusion, but the sweet brush of balsam as I sought asylum beneath its rooted symmetry petted my pining fatherless heart.

Trust is green and hard to paint, but so is betrayal.

Not only the betrayal by others. The betrayal you participate in.

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Eggs Benedict

Serves 8;

Ingredients;

4 English muffins, split, and toasted
8 nice slices of Irish dry cured ham, warmed and cut to fit
8 poached eggs
Hollandaise Sauce (see below)

Poached Egg;

Water
2 tablespoons vinegar

8 eggs

Method;

Bring a deep pan of water the boil. Add the vinegar. One at a time, crack the eggs into a cup and then slip the egg into the barely simmering water. Reduce the heat, if need be, to maintain that low simmer.

Cook just until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft, about 3 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer each poached egg onto a clean dish towel to drain. Trim the edges of any streamers so they're nice and tidy.

Hollandaise Sauce;

4 egg yolks
Juice from ½ a fresh lemon

1tblsp water

Sea salt to taste
Ground white pepper to taste
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup melted butter

Method;

Place a pan of water over a high heat and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, and water in a small metal bowl that will fit snuggly on top of the pot. Whisk the mixture constantly over very low heat until the eggs double in volume and thicken. Immediately remove the pan from the heat but continue whisking for 1 minute. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cool slightly.

Drizzle in the melted (but not hot) butter in a slow, steady stream, whisking all the time, until it is well-incorporated. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary. Be careful at this stage that you do not add the butter to quickly as it may split.

To keep warm; place the Hollandaise Sauce in a bowl over hot water, stirring occasionally.

To complete;

Start by preparing the Hollandaise Sauce. Keep it warm but do not let it boil.

Start the water for the eggs. Warm the ham slices, and toast and butter the muffins or crumpets. Keep them warm in a warm oven.

Finish preparing the Poached Eggs.

To assemble, place a slice of ham on top of each toasted English muffin half, place a poached egg on the ham, and spoon a little Hollandaise Sauce over the top. Serve immediately.

Irish Smoked salmon with poached eggs, hollandaise and potato bread

My childrens favourite breakfast, we make this every Sunday morning.
Ireland is blessed with some of the best salmon in the world, even though wild salmon are getting harder and harder to find, Northern Ireland has a fantastic farm just of the coast at Glenarm. These fish are farmed out at sea in the strong tidal currants, which help the fish to develop strong musscular bodys similar to that of their wild cousins.
At the Merchant hotel all of our smoked salmon comes from Walter Ewing, he produces a fantastic quality of smoked salmon an has been for many years.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much my family and I do!!!


Ingredients;

2tbsp white wine vinegar

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

2tbsp water

1  lemon, zest and juice

200ml clarified butter, slightly warmed

to taste sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

4 slices smoked salmon

Potato farls (recipe follows)

Method;

Bring 2ltrs of water to a boil in large shallow pan. Add white wine vinegar to the water. Lower heat to simmer. Break eggs into six small bowls, one per bowl. Gently slide the eggs into simmering water. Poach until whites are firm, about 2 minutes. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon. Drain on a paper towel. Keep warm.

Combine egg yolks, water, lemon zest and juice in stainless steel bowl. Whisk over double boiler until light and fluffy. Remove from heat. Slowly whisk in clarified butter. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper.

Arrange the smoked salmon onto 4 serving plates; place a poached egg on top of the salmon and spoon over a little hollandaise.

Serve with some freshly made potato bread pan fried in butter.

For the Potato bread

Ingredients;

4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved      

1 pinch salt   

¼ cup plain flour, plus extra for dusting          

1tblsp melted butter

Method;

In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.

Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.

On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 20cm circle about 1cm thick. Cut into quarters using a floured knife; alternatively shape the potato bread into small cakes as we do in the merchant.

Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet or a dry frying pan and cook the farls

The potato cakes are now ready to use as you wish.

Does this Hollandaise-less Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict Make Me a Traitor?

I'm probably not the first person you think of when discussing adapting high-calorie recipes into lower fat ones. I know I've done a few, but generally I believe one should make something in its full fat glory, or not at all. I hate to break it to you, but shredded, steamed chicken with fat-free yogurt on quinoa chips isn’t really "nachos."

This hollandaise-less smoked salmon eggs Benedict, however, has me on the other side of that argument. As promised, here is a video recipe for the plate you saw in the How to Poach Eggs demo. You'll have to take my word for it when I say that despite the absence of the traditional hollandaise sauce, it was really, really good.

As I explain in the clip, the dill butter spread, and the yolks from the poached eggs combine to form a fine substitute for the world's highest calorie sauce. I think this idea can be adapted to feature any number of compound butters and meat combinations, and I'd love to hear about any such breakfast experiments. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for the Dill Butter:

1/2 stick butter

2 tablespoons dill

1 teaspoon lemon zest

salt, fresh ground black pepper, and cayenne to taste

Pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup

Get the day off to a great start with these light, fluffy and fruity pancakes, perfect special breakfast or weekend brunch. Simple to make and very versatile, these pancakes can be served with any seasonal fruit or just simply stacked onto a plate and serve with whipped butter and maple syrup. Delicious!!!!

Serves 4

Ingredients;

150g self raising flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml milk                                                                                                                                                                                      
50g butter
250g blueberries                   

Maple syrup to serve

Method;

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the 2 eggs into the centre of the well, begin whisking the eggs, mix well.

Next gradually add small quantities of the milk, whisking continuously (don't worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk) until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thick cream. Now melt the 50g of butter in a pan. Spoon 2tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.

Place a large pan over high heat, turn the heat down to medium and spoon the batter into the hot pan, you should be able to get 3-4 pancakes in the pan depending on its size. It should take only a minute or so to cook; flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute on the other side.
Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper to stop them from sticking together.

To serve, stack the pancakes onto a serving plate and arrange the blueberries on top, pour over the maple syrup and serve at once.

Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter

I love this recipe; it is a fantastic treat that can be served for a special breakfast, a sweet brunch or to end an evening meal as a dessert.  Get the children involved in making this dish, I have found that they can’t get enough of it and it is a great introduction for getting your kids into the kitchen and more involved in cooking. I have found that once the children have a go at cooking they love it and the more you cook with them the more familiar they become with different ingredients and in turn the more they start to enjoy food.

Ingredients;

Hot Cakes;

300ml Ricotta cheese

200ml Milk

4 Eggs separated

120g Plain Flour

1tsp Baking powder

1 Pinch of Salt

50g Butter

Fresh strawberry halved

Icing sugar for dusting

Honeycomb Butter;

250g unsalted Butter softened

100g sugar honeycomb crushed with a rolling pin

2tblsp Honey

Method;

Hot Cakes;

Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix well to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2tblsp of batter per hotcake into the pan (don't cook more than 3 per batch).

Cook the hotcakes over a low to medium heat until golden brown.

Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through.

Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.

Stack 3 hotcakes on a plate and top with strawberries and a slice of honeycomb butter.

Dust with icing sugar.

Honeycomb Butter;

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours.

Store leftover honeycomb butter in the fridge for up to 24 hours, or in the freezer - it's great on toast.

Basic Omelette

This recipe is for the base 3 egg omelette, once you master how to make the perfect omelette you will be able to experiment adding any ingredients you wish. A favourite of mine would have to be the simple Glebe Breton cheese and dry cured Irish Moyallen ham.

Ingredients;       

3 eggs

2tblsp clarified butter

Seasoning

50g Glebe Breton cheese

Method;

Break the eggs into a bowl, add 1 spoonful of clarified butter and beat lightly with a fork, when the eggs have been mixed season with salt and pepper.

Heat a frying pan about 20cm until very hot, add the remaining butter and spread it over the surface of the pan, quickly pour the eggs into the pan. Keep stirring the eggs with the fork and shaking the pan at the same time. When the omelette is set underneath (but still runny on the top), sprinkle the cheese over the middle, cook for a further 30 seconds. Fold both side of the omelette into the centre, roll onto a serving plate and serve at once.

The perfect start to the day;

The Merchant Fry

What better way to start the day (only not too often), than a traditional fry up. All of the U.K and Ireland have their own version of a fry, some contain hash browns or baked beans, I’ve even had one with tinned tomatoes ‘Horrendous!!’, but what makes our Ulster fry unique is the addition of potato farls and soda bread as well as all of our fantastic local produce.

All of the ingredients that we use at the Merchant hotel for our fry are sourced from the best of Irish produce; I have added the names of the producers in the ingredients list below. They are well worth trying to source as this will make you fully appreciate why the fry has become one of our national dishes.

Ingredients;

4 slices Stautons black pudding    

4 slices Stautons white pudding                  

8 McCartney’s of Moira breakfast sausages        

8 slices  Moyallen dry cured bacon                     

4 Large field mushrooms                           

4 oven roasted tomatoes                                                                                     

4 Home made soda farls (recipe follows)  

4 Home made potato bread (recipe follows)                    

4 Organic eggs, lightly fired in Irish butter

Method;

For the perfect fry, cook the sausages first in a little vegetable oil and butter, remove from the pan and keep warm, cook all of the other ingredients until they are all cooked through.

To serve, place 1 slice of white pudding, one slice of black pudding, 2 sausages, 2 slices of bacon, 1 cooked field mushroom, 1 tomato, 1 potato bread, 1 soda bread and 1 egg per plate serve at once and enjoy.

Potato Farl

The word farl originates from the Gaelic word ‘fardel’, meaning four parts. These potato cakes are best cooked on a griddle and served hot with Irish salted butter, but are best served alongside soda bread as part of our famous Ulster fry.

Ingredients;

4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved      

1 pinch salt   

¼ cup plain flour, plus extra for dusting          

1tblsp melted butter

Method;

In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.

Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.

On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 20cm circle about 1cm thick. Cut into quarters using a floured knife; alternatively shape the potato bread into small cakes as we do in the merchant.

Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet or a dry frying pan and cook the farls for 3 minutes on each side or until evenly browned.

The potato cakes are now ready to use as you wish.

Soda bread

Ingredients;

600g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of sugar

1tsp vegetable oil

600ml buttermilk

Method;

Sift together all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk and mix together. Turn onto a work surface and knead lightly for a couple of minutes.

Work the mixture into large flat cakes 1cm thick, any thicker and they will not cook properly, alternatively you can work the mixture into small cakes as we do in the Merchant.

Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium heat, sprinkle a little flour into the dry pan and place the soda farls in the pan, cook for 6-10mins on each side, make sure the heat does not get to hot or the farls will burn.

The soda farls are now ready to use as you wish, but I personally recommend split in half with a good helping of Irish butter

How to Poach Eggs - Better Late Than Whenever

I mentioned in the recent Roasted Asparagus with Fried Prosciutto and Poached Egg video post that I'd be doing a new and improved "how to poach eggs" technique demo. I said I'd be doing it "soon," which to me means sometime this year, but apparently to many viewers that meant in the next day or two.

So, it's safe to say, this video recipe was truly "by popular demand." And by "demand" I mean constant harassment, and good-natured threats, or at least I hope they were good-natured. The lesson here is to never promise anyone anything.

In related news: I'm not saying exactly when, only that it will be in the future, but the breakfast I used as a destination for my poached eggs will also be turned into its own video recipe for a sort of hollandaise-less eggs Benedict, so stay tuned for that.

Anyway, this is fairly straightforward stuff, except for the fact that the really, really fresh eggs I bought to show how amazingly well they hold together in the hot water, were anything but. As you'll see, they spread out faster that a group of food bloggers in a free grand tasting tent. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For 2 quarts of water

1 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

fresh eggs!

Gluten-Free Baked Donuts

Gluten-free cake donuts with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Apparently it is National Donut Day. But don't be grumpy, my celiac lovelies. I've got a gluten-free donut recipe for you, from the friendly archives of Gluten-Free Goddess.

For those of us born and raised on the East Coast- specifically, near Boston, Massachusetts- a certain coffee BF with a hole in the center is spelled donut. Not doughnut. Why so not-snobby casual, you might wonder? Why switch the ough to o when Boston's rep is more of a Paul Revere and cobblestones conservative town than say, oh I don't know-- maybe, rainbow flag flying West Hollywood? Dunkin Donuts is the culprit, I suspect- that ubiquitous New England coffee and doughnut chain from Quincy, MA, infamous for the tag line, Time to make the donuts! muttered by Fred the Baker in television ads for a good fifteen years.


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Top Chef Fabio Viviani Makes Me Breakfast in Aspen

Last year, while at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, I was invited to a private, early morning cooking demonstration by Fabio Viviani, one of the most popular and entertaining Top Chef contestants of all time.

For obvious reasons (including, but not limited to, long nights of drinking, eating and more drinking), early morning events at the Aspen F&W are usually not high on my list, but despite a pretty impressive hangover, I decided this up-close and personal demo was too good to pass up.

By the way, In case you're wondering why I'm posting this now, I thought I'd lost this footage in a hard drive crash shortly after the event, but just recently found the files on a memory card.

The event was sponsored by Bertolli, and Chef Fabio was there to show us the differences between, and best practices for, using their three main styles of olive oil; light, classic, and extra virgin.

When I heard "breakfast," I was thinking something like a simple frittata, but we were treated to a beautiful plate of food featuring a seared beef tenderloin filet, with an avocado feta salad, pan-roasted tomatoes and green onions, finished with aged balsamic.

This was shot on my cell phone, so please pardon the sound and video quality, but I think any fan of Fabio's will still enjoy this glimpse into what a private class with the gregarious Italian chef would be like. He's one of those teachers that no matter how much fun you're having listening to him, he's having twice as much fun explaining it.

If you happen to be in Southern California, Viviani is the chef and owner of Cafe Firenze in Ventura Country, and Osteria Firenze in Los Angeles. As I mentioned in the video, he also teaches private cooking classes, and if you'd like more information, you can check out his official website for details. Enjoy!

Bonus Italian Chef Coverage: Victor Casanova’s Spaghetti Alla Chitarra Recipe by Average Betty

Since we have an Italian chef theme going on today, I thought I'd add this great video recipe from Average Betty featuring Chef Victor Casanova from Culina in Beverly Hills. Thanks to my buddy Sara for sharing, and for providing the written recipe here! For the original video post, click here. Enjoy!

Just Ham and Eggs

Hello from Atlanta, where I'm hard at work eating and drinking my way around the 1st Annual Atlanta Food and Wine Festival. Been having a great time, and can't wait to share some of the great things I've tasted with you, hopefully in video form.

In the meantime, here is a little Ham and Eggs video I did before I left.  Sure it tastes the same as if you cooked them separately, but that's really not the point. This looks cool, and besides, you only need one pan. Enjoy!

Roasted Asparagus with Fried Prosciutto and Poached Egg – Never Say Never Cook Prosciutto

As many of you know, I often post these video recipes on YouTube well before I get around to writing the post, and this roasted asparagus with prosciutto and poached egg is no exception.

One advantage of this modus operandi is that the initial comments I get will often help shape the blog post's theme. This time the controversy revolved around the wisdom of cooking prosciutto. I knew this was going to come up, and even joked about it in the video (parental warning: I used the word, "ass").

Even though I acknowledged the fact that cooking prosciutto is very much frowned upon, and that this was done using scraps from the shank end of the ham, I still was viciously attacked.

First of all, there are exceptions to this no-cook rule, even in Italy. Saltimbocca is a classic dish that features veal cooked with prosciutto and sage, and I've seen more than one Italian chef use cooked prosciutto in things like frittatas and salads.

The opponents of cooking prosciutto point to these main issues: Prosciutto gets intensely salty when cooked, it smells less than appetizing, and it's basically a waste of good pork to eat it any other way than thinly sliced in its natural state.

I basically agree with all of that. Frying prosciutto isn’t a great smelling food, but the taste doesn't match this "wet pork" aroma, and is actually quite mild and pleasant to my palette. Besides, where are these people when broccoli is being cooked? That doesn't smell like freshly cut flowers either.

Yes, cooking prosciutto does make it salty, which is why I didn't use any salt in the dish. Anchovies are unbearably salty too, unless used properly. Finally, I LOVE traditional sliced prosciutto, and agree that's the best way to enjoy, but that doesn't make this wrong. I think fresh raw oysters are the best, but once in a while I want Oyster Rockefeller.

If you are skeptical, I encourage you to give this a try. I think you may be pleasantly surprised. Enjoy!

Note: I've already done a how to poach eggs video, but it's really old and crappy, and as I mention in the clip, I'll be redoing it soon, so stay tuned!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 oz minced prosciutto (yes, you can use ham, bacon, or pancetta)

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

lemon, juice and zest

poached eggs