Monday, July 2, 2012

Parsley and Egg

Parsley as a garnish?  Heck, no!  If you're Armenian, parsley is a major food group and used in abundance in salads, meat preparations, kuftes, and, yes, even in eggs:  scrambled, omelettes, frittatas, and quiche, for starters.  If you read Marash Girl's earlier blog on parsley, you'll remember that you left her with a bunch of parsley on her kitchen table.  (http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2012/06/keep-your-parsley-fresh.html) That bunch of parsley was beginning to fade; time to use it, and perfect for a new twist to the old scrambled egg / omelette routine.  How do you like your egg?  (See Marash Girl's blog on that line by clicking the following link:  http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-do-you-like-your-egg.html).

Parsley (sitting there begging to be used) and eggs -- plenty of them.  Brings back memories of Grandma Jennie's favorite Saturday night special:  plenty of chopped up parsley beaten into eggs and dropped into sizzling vegetable oil (she used Crisco in those days) for a small pancake sized frittata that she served in sandwiches with tomatoes.  Marash Boy's mom made a similar mix as a side dish, using far more parsley, and chopping the parsley coarsely.  The eggs in her preparation were used only to hold the parsley together, and her oil of choice was Dan Yugh (rendered animal fat that she rendered herself; yes, she did1  How times have changed.)

Marash Girl, influenced by the heightened awareness of the dangers of fat and frying, has adapted that recipe for breakfast, and this is what she did.

Throw the parsley stems in the cuisinart and chop til fine.  Then add the parsley leaves, chopping only momentarily until fine.  (Don't over chop or you'll have a mushy mess.)  Add the eggs to the Cuisinart (she added four for one bunch of parsley), beat for 10 seconds only, heat a smidgin of a good olive oil in your favorite omelette pan, add the egg/parsley mixture to which has been added (you guessed it)  salt/pepper/Aintab (Armenian) red pepper, and cook as you would an omelette or scrambled eggs.  And there you have it:  Marash Girl's favorite way of preparing eggs for breakfast.
A fresh bunch of Italian parsley replaces the parsley just used for 'Parsley & Egg' in Marash Girl's kitchen.


1 comment:

  1. Any Armenian worth his/her salt (or should I say his/her parsley) had a parsley patch in the back yard!

    ReplyDelete