I didn’t learn to cook at my mother’s knee. While she put together a decent plate of spaghetti or pan of Tex-Mex enchiladas in her youth, like many of her generation my mom relied on processed and frozen foods, when she cooked at all. Most of my life was a variation of that old joke. “What’s your mom making for dinner?” “Reservations.”
Turned out, the passion for food and cooking was still alive in this granddaughter of farm families, mess cooks and restaurant owners. Maybe it was all those restaurant meals as a kid, but I developed an appetite for good food and a fascination with how it was prepared, and set out to learn how to make it. Observation in friends’ homes and restaurant kitchens, and plenty of time poring over cookbooks and food magazines laid the ground rules. My greatest lesson: really great food relies on fresh, quality ingredients.
Even for beginners, one of the simplest, most economical things to cook is eggs. Scrambled eggs with a side of sliced tomatoes or fresh berries make a meal, morning or night. For variation on that theme, sauté some fresh spinach and pour the eggs over for a simple scramble. Try our grandkids’ favorite Papa J Eggs, spiked with shredded ham and a touch of freshly grated parmesan. With a little more effort, the same blended eggs become an omelet with a bit of cheese, vegetables or meat nestled inside. Can’t manage the delicate flip? Pile all the extras in the middle and call it a frittata. Or bake that in a piecrust: Voila! Quiche!
Eggs add easy protein to leafy salads, dress up a pizza, add a little body to a stir-fry, and there’s not a leftover alive that isn’t better with a poached egg on top. They’re about the best protein source for the money available. You don’t have to be a Volvo driving, latte loving food elitist to discover that egg-based meals are cheaper than fast food by a mile, even when you invest in high quality eggs.
And yet, food processing has also struck the simple, elegant egg. It was disheartening to discover last year that kids in classes at Olivewood Gardens had never cracked an egg. Eggs in cartons, eggs as rubbery yellow discs on a breakfast sandwiches were familiar. Quizzing kids in other places revealed the same lack of familiarity with the simple orb. Even their Easter eggs were bright plastic, not the hand-colored treasures of yore meant to wind up as egg salad sandwiches in school lunches later.
Like most fruits and vegetables, the flavor of eggs suffers when industrial production takes over. Crack a typical supermarket egg into a pan next to one from your favorite farmers’ market and you can see the difference. Those bright orange yolks in local eggs come from a balanced diet that includes greens, and that kicks up the flavor too.
Whichever came first, chickens are involved and San Diego’s newly liberalized urban farm regulations are allowing more households to raise their own little flocks. If that won’t fly on your urban balcony, get to know an egg rancher at your favorite farmers’ market. Take the kids along, and let them choose naturally brown, blue and green eggs, and talk to the farmer about which kind of hen lays which colors. Try a simple recipe.
There. You’ve hatched your own foray into cooking. Expect a most eggcellent adventure.
Catt Fields White www.sdweeklymarkets.com
