Weekend Oysters and My Favorite Poached Eggs

I always order oysters and a glass of champagne while dining out with my husband in the city. Although these beautiful luscious bi valves are one of my favorite foods on earth that is not my gustatory motivation. It’s more along the lines of self preservation, staving off starvation and my immediate pending thirst for the grape. My husband reads the wine list like it’s the Sunday NY Times, as if we have all the time in the world. He just can’t help himself. He’s at the top of the heap in the wine industry. So I get the bartender and waiter working for me right away while he peruses the list for the next 20 minutes. A dozen oysters please. I just can’t sit at a table for that long with mere bread and water. This also gives me time to sit back and check out every detail of the front of the house, which is actually good sport for a restaurateur, while slurping oysters and sipping champagne. Now that’s entertainment!

Sunday has always been a family day for me. I suppose it is part of growing up a good Roman Catholic Irish girl. My Mom always had her pressure cooker going on Sunday. I walked by that spitting piston, steaming on top of the stove, on my tippy toes, face turned away, thinking it would explode at any moment and kill us all. On our birthdays she would prepare our favorite meal of choice. In the dead of winter, I always asked her for Hungarian Goulash, over buttered egg noodles, from the infamous pressure cooker. A devil’s food 3 layer cake with vanilla butter cream was my idea of a birthday cake. My all time favorite Sunday meal, for breakfast, lunch or dinner is a potato gallette, crisp bacon, poached egg and braised leeks with thyme. That’s it. That’s all I need to be happy!

Potato Galette, Poached Egg, Crisp Bacon & Braised Leeks with Thyme
(Occasionally my husband makes this and he always manages to include bacon, however I am just as happy without. We prefer Nueske apple wood bacon or D’Artagnan’s heritage breed, nitrate free bacon. )

Ingredients
1 large peeled, grated russet potato per person
Crispy cooked bacon strips
1 Bunch of leeks, cut into half moons, soaked, rinsed and drained
Thyme leaves
Butter
Olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly Ground black pepper
Eggs

Sauté the leeks in butter & olive oil over low heat. Eventually, I add a little bit of water to keep them from browning. Season and add thyme. Turn off heat and set aside. Reheat with a good dab of butter and a little water if needed. You can make individual galettes or a thicker family style one depending on what size cast iron skillet you have, a must for success. If you are making a larger one it has to finish cooking in the oven whereas the smaller ones don’t. I prefer the individual gallette which has more crispy burnt edges. Keep them warm on a sheet pan in the oven as you make more. Heat your skillet on the stove top over low heat. No oil yet. Peel, then grate potato. With your hands, squeeze all of the water out. Add a very generous pour of oil into the pan then add grated potato. Flatten it out with your spatula, season. Flip it. You want a very dark, golden brown potato cake. Add more oil if you need it. Now poach your eggs and fry the bacon. Enjoy!

After your leisurely Sunday Brunch……… you are now completely capable of leaving the house, for a civilized stroll down your street, catch up with the neighbors or just meander along, peacefully. Sometimes you just need a lazy, quiet weekend!