Every once in a while, something comes along that’s so good you can’t stop eating it. This adventure began when my best friend, Magnificent, loaned me her copy of "The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner)". Clearly this dealt with two topics of vital interest to me, although I know far more about the former than the latter. It’s a strange day indeed when a cookbook uses too much butter for me—I’m the sort of person that keeps cardiologists smiling as they write college tuition checks. (I know it’s unfair that genetics keep my cholesterol count low while I’ve spent 30 years raising those of other people.)
I sometimes have occasion to feed mobs of people. At first, I was intimidated, but soon I realized it was an excuse to spend more time playing in the kitchen. This recipe was in the chapter for Christmas breakfast. Author Jill Connor Browne says she quadruples the quantities, and that it freezes like a dream. Quadrupled, it should feed perhaps 16 to 20, but that’s one thing that’s hard to predict, isn’t it?
The recipe is titled Egg Stuff That Goes In Tortillas. Browne makes up the following mixture and then stirs it into eggs as she begins to scramble them, but I think it’s too good to dilute with the eggs. I’d use it to fill an omelet, or solo as a burrito/taco/enchilada filling, with lettuce and tomatoes and even some sour cream if you really feel suicidal. It’s rather like au gratin potatoes with green chiles, so good I had to force myself to stop eating it from the skillet with a spoon.
My variation on the recipe goes like this, and remember, I took out some butter:
½ lb. pork sausage, bulk, not links (Browne likes hot sausage and so do I)
1 small-to-medium onion or ½ c. frozen chopped onion
2 large potatoes or a package of hash browns
1 medium sweet red or green pepper, chopped (I usually omit this)
2 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
1 small can chopped green chiles, drained
Brown the sausage in a large skillet, using a pancake turner to break it up as it cooks. While it’s browning, chop the onion (and optional sweet pepper) in the food processor. Change blades and shred the potatoes, peel and all, if you’re not using frozen ones.
When the sausage is done, scoop it out with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Leave the grease in the pan and add the potatoes, onions and sweet pepper, if you’re using it. Cook them, turning from time to time, until the potatoes are done and browning some. Then stir in the reserved sausage, the cheese and the chiles. Continue stirring until the cheese is melted. Taste and see if you need to add salt and pepper, Browne says, but I can’t imagine needing either, given what we’re dealing with.
If you are doing the egg thing, beat the eggs, and after you put them in the skillet, add the sausage-cheese mixture. As I said, this mixture usually goes with about 8 eggs. Scramble the eggs as you usually do. Wrap the mixture in tortillas, add some salsa, roll up and eat.
Or, just like chocolate sour cream cake, you can apply it directly to your hips.
—Ann