Breakfast. It’s What’s For Dinner

I’ve mentioned before that Sugar + Shake are big breakfast (but not getting up early) fans. Of course, this means that we are really big on Breakfast for Dinner. I especially like it because I’m far too impatient (like you’re shocked about that) to make certain things first thing in the “morning.” I’m too hungry. Making them for dinner seems more manageable.

One of these Breakfast for Dinner dishes in heavy rotation in the Sugar + Shake household are these cute little things to the right: Ham & Egg Cups.

Many years ago, Shake and I took a trip to rural Ohio for a friend’s wedding. Off a list of suggested B&Bs provided by the bride’s mother, we selected The Porch House Inn. I haven’t the faintest recollection of what made us pick that one, but it was a great choice. Not only was it a lovely B&B, both Bs were really good! Well, I don’t know, maybe I just think the beds were really good because we were so tired, but I know for certain that the breakfasts were AWESOME. (Note: I’m not certain the place is still open; their website is up, but kind of dated looking, and they have no TripAdvisor reviews since 2011. Also, it strikes me as strange that their rates are still exactly the same as when we stayed there 7 years ago. So if you stay there and it is horrible, please don’t blame me!)

The innkeep cooked breakfast for us while we sat in the kitchen and one of the mornings’ offerings were ham “cups” filled with mushrooms and dill and a soft-cooked egg. The dish stuck with us (mentally, that is) and as I got more adventurous in my cooking (I wasn’t, back then—there were a lot of packaged sauces in use in our kitchen in those days), I decided I’d try my hand at re-creating this dish. Unlike my still-unsuccessful meatball attempts, this copycat has come out quite well.

I used to use regular white mushrooms, and they are certainly quite fine, but I now prefer to use ali‘i (king oyster) mushrooms ‘cause they’re so meaty.

Oh, and in this post you get to see my not-very-pleasant-looking silicone muffin “tin” which I lamented about here. Try not to judge me on its apparent grossness.

One of the other reasons I’m not terribly jazzed about it is because it has relatively shallow wells. This make the whole filling + egg bit a little precarious. A deeper well means you can put more mushroom filling and still have room for your egg to rest on top without danger of spilling over.

Ham ‘n’ Egg Cups

You can make 4 or 6 egg cups, depending on how many people you’re feeding (or how many eggs you feel are acceptable to consume in a single meal). If you make only four cups, you can serve the extra mushroom filling on the side.

4 oz. ali‘i (king oyster) mushrooms (or your favorite type of mushroom; you may need a little more if they’re a type that cook down a lot)
4-6 slices ham or Canadian bacon (we like Applegate Farms’ Black Forest or uncured ham)
4-6 eggs
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
dill, chopped
butter (for sautéing)

Pre-heat oven to 350˚. Clean the mushrooms with a damp towel and cut into small dice. Set aside. Melt butter in a large sauté pan. Sauté garlic and mushrooms. Add dill, reserving a small amount for garnish.

Lay ham slices in four (or six) wells of the muffin tin to create little cups. You may need to do some creative folding. Fill each ham cup with mushroom filling to about half-way. Top with an egg.

Bake until eggs are set to your preference. Some people like ‘em really runny, some like ‘em cooked through. My preference is to let them go ‘til the top turns opaque, but they still jiggle. I’ve never quite figured out the magic number of minutes; I usually check on ‘em after 6 minutes and check every couple minutes after that to see how they’re doing.

Carefully remove from muffin tin—this may require some combination of spoon(s), tongs and/or fork(s). Serve with any left-over filling and top with dill, salt and pepper to taste.