Cast Iron Inpired Breakfast

Let the games begin!

It was pointed out by Nancy JG in my last instructable that I was seriously lacking in ingredient lists and quantities.

There are certain recipes that have detailed lists of the required items. If not followed properly a disaster would surely befall the person bold enough to stray from said list. I do make these type of items regularly. That said I must point out that I also love to wing it. As I did in my last instructable. This effort is also designed to let you set aside the measuring utensils. You will need no recipe just imagination. This is art not just food.

Turn on the oven to 350° f

This is a cast iron inspired dish so a cast iron pan is the only requirement. Though you could change the name to oven safe bake ware inspired breakfast and you would be good to go with another vessel.

I always have a bag of frozen veggies on hand. This one has red, yellow and orange peppers, cooking onions, and broccoli all chopped and ready to go. Today the refrigerator contains leftover filling from my last instructable this is due to my complete lack of ingredient measurements. See how that can work out in your favor? This includes ground beef, carrots, onions and mushrooms. There were a few raw mushrooms left over from that endeavor as well, so we will clear them out of the crisper. Eggs are integral to this dish as well as some grape seed oil.

Dump some of the frozen mix into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for a minute or so. If you were unable to find leftovers that excite your breakfast yearnings, add more veggies. Once that is done, squeeze out the excess liquid. The longer this bag of frozen goodness remains in the freezer, the more liquid comes out when you do this step. This will eventually become freezer burn as the moisture leaves the veggies and condenses on the inside of the bag. So use these frozen veggies regularly so they are consumed before they spoil.

Add enough oil so that when hot you can coat the pan and half way up the edges. The oil becomes quite liquid once it heats up. Almost as light as water.

If you have leftovers, mix them into the veggie mix. Now brush the mushrooms and remove the dried stem tips, they make a wonderful addition to the compost collection.

Before you start cutting the mushrooms cut down the heat on the cast iron. We want it hot but we aren't searing a steak. Now slice the mushrooms, add 5 eggs to the mixture and whip it up with a fork.

With a baking mitt on, pick up the pan and slowly swirl the oil to coat the pan. Do not spill oil it is extremely flammable, do this step away from the flame. If oil drips over the edge of the pan wash it off before setting it back on the burner.

Place the mushroom slices neatly in the pan without splashing oil then slowly pour the egg mixture over them. Try not to move the beautiful pattern you made with the mushrooms, its part of the finished masterpiece.

Shut off the burner but leave the pan on top of the stove for now. Wash your bowl, fork, knife and cutting board.

By this time the oven should be up to temperature. If not don't worry put the pan in anyway.

I now add a bit of oil to my small cast Iron pan and turn on medium to low flame. Today we also have left over baked potatoes from our most recent baked chicken. How convenient is that eh? I have chosen three that haven't been partially cannibalized by my wife. They get cut in half. Then seasoned with Pop's Danger Powder. This is my own hot pepper powder it contains only organic peppers with no preservatives habanero, cayanne, red chilli, jalapino, hot Hungarian and cherry bomb. I also seasoned with some Hawaiian black salt. This was a gift this Christmas from one of my kids. The wife and I like it's crisp flavour. Though we don't consume much salt normally.

As with the larger cast iron pan, remove from flame and coat the pan. Once back over the flame add the potatoes cut and seasoned side down. Jiggle the pan a few times to try and stop the potatoes from sticking. Brush the extra seasoning from the cutting board over the potatoes to season the backs a bit. Keep the heat just hot enough to keep a slight fry going, no loud sizzling and no smoke. They will come off the pan before the egg comes out of the oven. If you think they are cooking to long remove them and clean up the pan.

During the winter we like to have sprouts on hand. They have a slightly spicy flavour. We bought them a few times but they were a costly extravagance in our humble opinion. Google helped us get our sprout fix. Mumm's Sprouting seeds Seeds gave us an affordable supply of sprouts. With merely a mason jar, a piece of nylon window screen and an elastic we can sprout enough to keep us happily in the green all winter. This would be the topic of another instructable. Suffice it to say we have sprouts to add to today's masterpiece.

While waiting for the food to cook the table gets set.

Have a look at the surface of the eggs to make sure the egg is cooked. If it still looks wet pop it back in the oven until it sets. The sprouts are used as a nest for the potatoes. Hopefully the potatoes didn't stick to the pan. If they did use a spatula to get them off trying to keep the crispy surface intact.

Once the surface is cooked remove the cast iron from the oven and shut it off. With a spatula cut the egg into 4 equal parts. Each plate gets two pieces one mushroom side up and one veggie / leftover side up.

I hope you enjoyed playing in the kitchen with me this morning.