For some of us, breakfast is the best meal of the day -- even if we don’t have time to cook it most mornings.
It’s a good thing breakfast so easily translates to dinner, with homey dishes that make a comforting and uncomplicated repast at the end of a busy day.
I have fond memories of my mother grinding leftover roast beef and mixing it with diced potatoes, sauteed onions and spices to create a delicious hash casserole for supper. Of course, she always topped it with sunny-side-up eggs that seemed to smile.
Leafing through “Eat Like a Man” (Chronicle Books, $30), the new cookbook compiled from the pages of Esquire magazine, I was taken with the number of breakfast dishes that are perfect for dinner, or anytime, really.
In all, the book has more than 100 recipes, with lunch, dinner and side dishes from some of America’s greatest chefs, such as David Chang, Thomas Keller and Wylie Dufresne.
The recipes are combined with inspiring interviews and essays that illustrate what it means to “Eat Like a Man” -- including Esquire writer at large (and Marietta resident) Tom Junod’s moving, James Beard Award-winning story, “My Mom Couldn’t Cook.”
The breakfast section features a Junod essay about offal, “Those Parts,” with a vivid recollection of his father, “never a churchgoer,” waking up early on Sunday mornings to make a “Heathen Breakfast” of sauteed kidneys and fried eggs.
Like Junod’s “Heathen Breakfast” and my mom’s hash, breakfast food seems to conjure up powerful feelings of time spent with family and friends.
Esquire food editor Ryan D’Agostino, who edited “Eat Like a Man,” keeps a surefire pancake recipe in his wallet that he whips out whenever he’s called to kitchen duty.
D’Agostino points out that dads making pancakes or waffles or French toast with their kids has become a familiar family ritual.
“The breakfast section came from a story we did about breakfast,” D’Agostino said. “Mostly, it’s stuff chefs make on their days off, whether for their kids or their wives or themselves. It’s a bunch of mildly ambitious but unbelievably manageable recipes.
“Start with breakfast, and you’ll want to cook lunch, and then you’ll want to cook dinner. One thing I’m hoping guys will realize with this book is that cooking isn’t such a stressful thing. It’s supposed to be fun and bring people together.”
Recipes
These chef’s breakfast recipes from the new Esquire “Eat Like a Man” cookbook can be served any time of day. — Bob Townsend, for the AJC
Pulled Baby Back Rib Eggs Benedict
Hands on: 30 minutes Total: 30 minutes Serves: 2
This recipe from Raymond Chen of Inn at West View Farm in Dorset, Vt., is an unusual “Benedict” with leftover ribs and corn bread that’s easy to fix for brunch, lunch or dinner.
Leftover meat from cooked half-rack baby-back pork ribs, shredded
Bull’s-Eye hickory smoke sauce
hoisin sauce
2 slices corn bread (from a mix, if you’d like)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
sliced scallions for garnish (optional)
cracked black pepper
Preheat oven to 350. Place half rack of ribs (enough for 2) in a roasting pan and heat in the oven for 10 minutes, then shred the meat off the bone. Meanwhile, make a hickory-hoisin sauce with Bull’s-Eye hickory smoke sauce and hoisin sauce (preferably Lee Kum Kee’s) mixed in a 2-to-1 ratio. Toss the meat in the sauce -- not a lot, since the corn bread is sweet -- and divide evenly on top of 2 slices of corn bread.
Poach a couple of eggs by gently cracking them into a pot of aggressively simmering water with the vinegar. After about 2 minutes, remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place on top of the pork. Finish with some sliced scallions (optional) and cracked pepper.
From “Eat like a Man” (Chronicle Books, $30)
Per serving: 415 calories (percent of calories from fat, 43), 21 grams protein, 37 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 19 grams fat (6 grams saturated), 252 milligrams cholesterol, 1,023 milligrams sodium.
Breakfast-style Red Beans and Rice Grits with Eggs and Andouille
Hands on: 30 minutes Total: 3 hours Serves: 6
This take on New Orleans-style red beans and rice from chef Lee Richardson of Ashley’s in Little Rock, Ark., takes some time to make, but the results are worth it and you’ll wind up with leftover red beans for another meal. Richardson’s “rice grits,” made by grinding long gain rice, is a neat trick for those times when you don’t have regular corn grits on hand.
1 pound dried red kidney beans, picked over
4 cups chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
3 ribs celery with leaves, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound good-quality smoked ham, diced
1 pound smoked ham hocks
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning
2 tablespoons Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 dozen turns freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons coarse salt, divided
1 cup long-grain white rice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
12 poached or loose sunny-side-up eggs
grilled andouille sausage for serving
chopped scallion greens for garnish
To make the red beans: Put the dried beans and 6 cups of water in a small stockpot over high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and let soak for 30 minutes. Drain the water from the beans and add 6 cups fresh water and the 4 cups of stock, along with the onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, ham, ham hocks, bay leaf, Creole seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer; cook for 90 minutes or until beans are tender and stock is reduced. Add 3 teaspoons of salt and crush some of the beans with a spoon or potato masher. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the ham hocks, strip off and return any meat to the pot, and keep the beans warm. At this point, you can remove half the beans, cool, and freeze for future use.
To make the rice grits: In a clean coffee grinder or small food processor, grind the rice into a meal. Bring 4 cups water to a boil with the salt and 1 tablespoon of the butter. Slowly whisk the rice meal into the boiling water and continue to whisk until the mixture begins to thicken and spit at you. Lower the heat and continue to stir for about 3 minutes. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until thick and creamy, about 15 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter.
To serve: Ladle about 1 cup beans into each serving bowl and top with about 1/2 cup rice grits. Top the grits with poached or fried eggs and serve with a piece of grilled andouille sausage and some freshly chopped scallion greens.
From “Eat like a Man” (Chronicle Books, $30)
Per serving: 598 calories (percent of calories from fat, 39), 40 grams protein, 53 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 26 grams fat (10 grams saturated), 490 milligrams cholesterol, 1,834 milligrams sodium..
French Toast BLT With Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
Hands on: 1 hour Total: 1 hour Serves: 6
This savory combination of two all-time favorites comes from Sue Zemanick of Gautreau’s in New Orleans. She uses fresh challah, thickly sliced or it will fall apart during the soak. The long soak creates a custard that cooks into the sweet, airy bread so it puffs up in the oven after getting a crisp crust in the frying pan. It’s topped with rich cheese, smoky bacon, ripe tomato and peppery arugula with roasted garlic vinaigrette.
12 thick slices smoked bacon
2 cups heavy cream
5 large eggs
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 slices challah bread, at least 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese
3 heads garlic
3/4 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
12 slices ripe tomatoes (about 3 small)
6 cups arugula, cleaned
Preheat oven to 350. Place the bacon on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.
To make the French toast: Combine the heavy cream and eggs in a bowl and whisk to thoroughly blend. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Soak the bread in the mixture for 15 minutes, then turn the slices over and soak for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Place a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the canola oil. Once the oil is hot (it will shimmer slightly), fry the challah slices on each side until golden brown, working in batches. Transfer the challah to a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake until the custard is cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes; the bread should soufflé, or puff up. Remove from the oven, cover each slice with grated cheese, and return the pan to the oven to melt the cheese.
To make the roasted garlic vinaigrette: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the tops off the garlic so the cloves are exposed. Place the heads in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Cover the pan with foil and roast until the garlic is golden brown and fragrant, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the garlic from the oven. Cool briefly before squeezing the cloves out of their skins into the bowl of a blender. Combine the vinegar and mustard, blending until smooth. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in 3/4 cup olive oil. Keep the blender running and season with salt and pepper.
To serve: Once the cheese is melted, about 4 minutes, remove from the oven. Put 2 slices of bacon and 2 slices of tomato on each slice of challah and drizzle with some of the vinaigrette. Toss the arugula with the remaining dressing (or enough to coat) and place atop each piece. Serve warm.
From “Eat like a Man” (Chronicle Books, $30)
Per serving: 762 calories (percent of calories from fat, 73), 28 grams protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 62 grams fat (31 grams saturated), 319 milligrams cholesterol, 543 milligrams sodium.
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