Sourdough Toast and Eggs

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I love scrambled eggs if they’re done right, but oh so often they are not done right. At all.

As a rule, Americans tend to over cook our eggs. We’re so terrified of contracting illness due to salmonella poisoning that we obliterate the wonderful texture of creamy eggs. We eat stiff, rubbery yellow blobs, or cover up the awful texture with huge amounts of cheese. The reality is that we don’t need to cook eggs into oblivion in order to remain safe while eating them, and eggs don’t need cheese in order to be delicious.

Whether you’re like me, living on the wild side and consuming under-cooked eggs, or not, I’m here with good news. Federal health code regulations for food service establishments require that egg products be cooked to 145° F before serving. You will be surprised at how soft eggs cooked to 145° F are.

I learned how to make great scrambled eggs by watching Good Eats with Alton Brown in middle school. His recipe for scrambled eggs rocked my world. Now I have my own version, and I’m here to share it.

For this recipe I cooked 2 eggs and put them both on one piece of toast, but you could easily split them between 2 pieces of toast if you like. I just to try to limit my carb intake at meals because I get hungry so quickly if I eat too many carbs. Speaking of carbs, this entire recipe was adapted from a recipe by I Quit Sugar with Sarah Wilson.

Toast and butter your bread. Besides being delicious, the butter will help stop your creamy eggs from making your toast soggy.

I like sourdough because it’s lower in sugar and has extra flavor. You can use any kind of bread you have.

This toast is great with a quarter of an avocado mashed and spread on it after the butter. I didn’t have ripe avocado today, so I did without. My husband teases me about avocado toast. “Millennials and their avocado toast,” he exclaims in disdain. I have no shame, though. Avocado toast is delicious.

Scramble 2 eggs and 1 tsp. half and half (or milk). Pour into a greased or buttered skillet heated over medium/medium low heat. Scrambled eggs taste better when they’re cooked low and slow.

Cook the eggs, “stirring” with a rubber spatula regularly, but not constantly, over medium low heat. By “stir” I mean scrape the bottom of the skillet with your spatula. Once the eggs just start to visually solidify, back off on the frequency of stirring. If you drag the spatula across the eggs and the liquid doesn’t fill in immediately, you’re well on your way.

Once the eggs have completely solidified, but still look very wet, pull them off the heat and salt and pepper to taste. Feel free at this point to test the temperature and cook the eggs more if needed, until they have reached 145° F. I’m comfortable eyeballing it.

Place your lovely, creamy eggs on top of your toast, and squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon juice on top. Did you know if you hold the lemon rind-side down, it’s a lot easier to avoid getting seeds in your food?

If you don’t have fresh lemons, don’t worry, I usually don’t. Work with what you’ve got. You can use the bottled stuff. I do recommend ReaLemon if you’re going to use bottled juice. It’s real juice and doesn’t have the acrid taste that a lot of bottled juices have. Plus it doesn’t get moldy in my fridge if I forget about it like lemons do.

Sprinkle just a tiny amount of smoked paprika, and about 2 tsp. crumbled feta on top. If you don’t have smoked paprika, just skip it. We’re going for smoky here, and sweet paprika won’t provide that. If you don’t have feta, you can use freshly grated parmesan.

That’s it. I can’t put into words how delicious this simple breakfast is, and it takes about 10 minutes to make. There are lots and lots of variations for eggs on toast, but this is one of my favorites. The combination of creamy eggs, a little bit of tart from the bread and the lemon, smokiness from the paprika and umami from the feta is nothing short of magical. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Sourdough Toast and Eggs
1 or 2 pieces of sourdough bread
butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. half and half or milk
salt and pepper to taste
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, or 1/4 tsp. lemon juice
a sprinkle of smoked paprika
2 tsp. crumbled feta or grated parmesan

Toast and butter the bread. Scramble 2 eggs with 1 tsp. half and half or milk.

Cook the eggs in a small greased or buttered skillet, “stirring” with a rubber spatula regularly, but not constantly, over medium low heat. By “stir” I mean scrape the bottom of the skillet with your spatula.

Once the eggs just start to visually solidify, back off on the frequency of stirring. If you drag the spatula across the eggs and the liquid doesn’t fill in immediately, you’re well on your way.

Once the eggs have completely solidified, but still look very wet, pull them off the heat and salt and pepper to taste. If you like, at this point, test the temperature and cook the eggs, if needed, until they have reached 145° F.

Scoop the eggs on the toast, top with lemon juice, smoked paprika and cheese.