Eggs with Dinner

After seeing a NY Post article bagging on putting eggs on everything I suddenly had a real craving for the stuff.  Reading the quotes from a Bon Appetit (the hoi polloi Gourmet) face man calling eggs things like "the Ugg boots of food" just stoked the hunger.  So when it was time for quick dinner tonight going breakfast style just made sense.

The breakfast potatoes are pretty standard--peeled diced potatoes cooked on a medium flame in pork fat in a cast iron pan.  Tossed occasionally and seasoned with just salt and pepper, they were crisp on the outside and creamy within.  Sometimes simple is best.

When the potatoes were done they were removed from the pan and it was time for the pork.  The pork comes from a pig raised in Ashatabula at Millgate Farm--now available at the Shaker Farmers Mkt.  (full disclosure, Tod, who owns the farm, is a friend.  fuller disclosure, if his pork/beef wasn't great I wouldn't eat it and we'd probably still be friends.  it's seriously high quality and the way it's raised is beyond reproach.  go the market.  ask Tod about his pork.).  I split a pig with some friends, and this piece was strangely labeled "picnic ham."  Since we didn't get any of our meat cured or smoked (and miss all the fun of doing it ourselves?!?), this was a fresh, bone in slice from part of the pig's shoulder.  Rumor has it this cut is good bbqed, but it's also very good cooked quickly on the stove, and boned and pounded it makes great schnitzel or just a super fast cooking tender piece of meat.  That's what's pictured above.  Pounding boneless meat is where it's at--I don't even miss the bone.

While the pork was cooking (total time about 6 minutes over high heat) I dropped two quail eggs to cook sunny side up in the same pan.  Sauce making ingredients were limited, and as noted in the aforementioned Post article runny egg yolks make a simple dressing.  Sure, eggs can be abused, but there's the baby and then there's the bathwater.  Quail eggs just sitting in the fridge are babies.  I got these from Irene Dever at the West Side Market.  They're also available all over AsiaTown.

It may not be beautiful (I hadn't planned on taking a picture), but it's an easy one pan dinner that would satisfy just about anyone (barring any dietary restrictions) without being particularly expensive or  fussy.  And when I saw that the folks from Quarry Lane Farms were heading out for brinner at maybe not one of Cleveland's finest establishments, I just had to speak up.  There is an alternative.