Chips for breakfast

A great dish for one. Drawing water from a well in Transylvania.

Chips topped with cheese and fried egg are a frequent weekend breakfast at my house. They are called Cartofi prăjiți cu brânză și ou ochi in Romanian.

If tomatoes are in season, full of flavour and juicy, I cut them into thick slices and mix with olive oil and salt. Ok, maybe I also add sliced spring onions, and then I can't resist sprinkling some of the grated cheese I prepared for the chips. I’m already anticipating the glorious sauce I’ll find in the bowl after I eat the last slice of tomato. It’s the highlight of my morning to dip morsels of bread in it. That's also why I prefer to eat this breakfast alone - no competition for the sauce, no fights, no polite statements of ‘you finish it off, I’ve had too much already.’ 

Ingredients and method (make 1 portion for 1 person)

1 large potato cut into small wedges

25g (or more) Cheddar cheese, grated

1 large egg

Herbs

Oil for frying

This dish gives you time to gather the ingredients while the potato wedges are frying to a golden colour in the pan. 

Let’s look at the ingredients:

The potato wedges -personally, I don’t have the crisp-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside kind of goal. I just want them to be golden brown with some crispy edges. Keeping them soft gives them the flexibility and absorption qualities to be dipped in the egg yolk.

The cheese - needs to be salty, rich and powerful. This is your seasoning. I use an extra mature Cheddar, and mix half of the quantity with the chips as soon as they are ready. As the cheese melts, it covers the chips in a sticky, gooey-delicious coating. 

The egg - has to be super fresh. A ripe yolk, ready to burst, is as unctuous and sophisticated in flavour as any classic French sauce. Just simpler. When you fry the egg, tilt the pan and baste the whites around the yolk with hot oil to cook it to perfection.

The herbs - I like dill, but I know that many people will be put off by it, so I used parsley for the sake of this recipe. You can use thyme, sage, rosemary or savory, something with depth of flavour and a little spiciness. If you like tarragon (see my previous posts about it here and here), use it sparingly. It’s strong. 

When everything is ready, and the potatoes are on the plate, I sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top, then I make a well in the middle, where I put the fried egg. I sprinkle with herbs.

I take a moment to step back and admire the result of my steady-paced work. It looks pretty. I should take a picture with my phone but I’m too hungry.

So I spear one chip with my fork and dip it into the yolk. It bursts, and now I need to hurry up and coat it in as much yolk as possible. Then, I drop in another chip and eat a slice of tomato, so the flavours can intertwine and infuse in my mouth.

I eat so quickly that some tomato juice ends up on my chin. Not very ladylike but I’m soul searching. I want to discover that perfect potato-cheese-egg-tomato mantra…then repeat it. 

Transylvanian Tour

Our tour is scheduled for September 21st to 26th, and we have one room left. You can see the schedule for each day here. We will visit villages where traditions are still thriving, like the one here, where two women are drawing water from a well.