Deep Fried Poached Eggs

A creative spin on poached eggs.  Poached eggs and sausage rolled in English muffin bread crumbs, deep fried and served over a frisee salad with lemon vinaigrette.

As a New Yorker, if you don’t “do” brunch, you’re doing something wrong.  Here, we’ve expanded Sunday brunch, originally conceived as a combination of breakfast and lunch for the after-Church crowd, to Saturdays and you’d be hard pressed to find a restaurant that doesn’t serve up a wicked menu of egg, pancake and all-you-can-drink mimosas/ bloodys between the hours of noon and four.  Big sandwich?  Soup and salad?  I don’t think so.

I know, I say it like it’s a bad thing.  But really, how many different ways can you eat an omlet?  As a creature of habit, I prefer to eat my breakfast when I wake up and immediately start dreaming about what to have for lunch… and dinner!  Taking a break from my habit this past weekend, I cooked up a little brunch dish that, for me, can take the place of my beloved sandwich any day.

While I may not be the biggest advocate for brunch, I do find myself preparing it for guests on a fairly regular basis.  I had a full house this weekend and in between taking in the city (and perhaps one too many drinks), I found myself, once again, trying to come up with a breakfast/brunch dish that was a bit out of the ordinary.

Inspired by chef Scott Conant of Scarpetta (NYC and Miami), who took his inspiration both from the Scotch Egg and Eggs Benedict, I developed my own brunch combo that’s a proven crowd pleaser.  It could be just that I took my sweet old time with this little experiment and my test guests were so hungry they would’ve eaten a shoe, but I think they were a genuine hit!  This dish takes the poached egg to a new level, combining them with sausage, parsley and fresh ramps. It’s an update of the classic Eggs Benedict with it’s heavy hollandaise sauce and takes it’s cue from the deep fried hard boiled egg and sausage of Scottish fame.

Once the egg is poached, you need to let it set in the fridge for a half hour or so before rolling it in bread crumbs (a step I didn’t take the first time around).  If you’re going to prepare it for a crowd, it’s pretty simple to prep the eggs before they arrive and just drop them into the oil when you’re about ready to sit down.  Serve up some mini muffins as a starter and serve the eggs over a frisee salad with a lemony vinaigrette.  A side of fresh fruit and yogurt rounds out the meal nicely.  Oh, and don’t forget the mimosas and bloody marys!

The lemon vinaigrette is a lighter, simpler version of hollandaise sauce, the molten yolk adds a nice richness to the mix.

Recipe:  Deep Fried Poached Egg with Sausage and Ramps over Frisee Salad and Lemon Vinaigrette

Serves:  4

Ingredients/Sausage and Eggs

3 Fresh Chicken and Spinach Sausage Links (use any fresh sausage here)

1 Tbl. Olive Oil

Olive oil cooking spray

1 Tbl. chopped flat leaf parsley

2 Tbl. chopped fresh ramps or wild leeks (optional)

4 extra large eggs

2 whole wheat English muffins, (left out overnight is best)

1/2 cup flour

2 extra large eggs

Vegetable oil for frying

Ingredients/Vinaigrette

3 Large Eggs, hardboiled and grated on a fine box grater

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbl. fresh lemon juice

! Tbl. chopped fresh parsley

1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest

Kosher salt

Prepare the Eggs and Sausage

Heat 1 Tbl. olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, remove sausage from casing and add to skillet.  Break up the sausage into small crumbles and cook through.  Remove to a plate and let cool.

Bring a 6-quart pot of water to a boil over high heat. Line four 4-oz. ramekins or large muffin cups with plastic wrap, leaving 3 inches of plastic handing over the edges on all sides.  Spray a thin coasting of cooking spray on the plastic wrap.  Cut 4 strips of plastic wrap to use as ties. Add sausage, parsley and ramps evenly among the cups.  Crack one egg in each of the cups and season each mixture with salt and pepper.  Gather up the loose ends of each piece of plastic wrap, release as much air as possible.  Twist the plastic wrap to create a ball shape.  Tie each bag closed with one of the plastic strips.

Place the pouches in boiling water and cook until the egg whites are firmly set but the yolks are still runny — about 4 - 5 minutes.  Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate.  Chill for at least a half hour or up to 2 hours.

Prepare the Vinaigrette

In a medium bowl, combine the grated eggs, oil, lemon juice parsley and zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  The dressing will be very thick.

Prepare the Crust and Fry the Eggs

Split the English Muffins and toast them until golden brown.  Let cool.  In a a food processor, pulse the muffins into fine crumbs.  Season with salt and set in a wide, shallow bowl.  Put the flour in another wide, shallow bowl and season with salt.  Put the eggs in a third wide, shallow bowl, season with salt and pepper and whisk.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a 4-quart pot to fill to a depth of 2-inches at heat to 350° over medium-high heat.  While the oil is heating, remove the plastic-wrapped eggs and cut just below the tie.  Carefully peel off the remaining plastic.  Working with one egg at a time, gently dredge in the flour and then the egg mixture, shaking to remove excess.  Gently coat the egg with the bread crumbs.  Transfer the egg to a large plate and repeat the process for the remaining eggs.  Fry the breaded eggs until golden brown and warmed through, about 90 seconds.  Drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

To Serve

Divide the frisee among 4 plates.  Spoon sauce over the frisee and add the egg over the top.  Serve and enjoy!!

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