by Anna Reeser
The question of “what to do with the potatoes” has lingered for weeks. For some reason, CJ finds himself buying bags of potatoes and letting them sit unused until they sprout. He planted the really far-gone ones in the garden, but I found a bag of red creamers that was still edible. Inspired by Martha Rose Schulman’s recent potato and green bean recipe on the NY Times, I decided to pair the potatoes with blue lake green beans. Her recipe had slices of hard-boiled egg, but I thought the potatoes might benefit more from some sausage flavor. I asked CJ whether we should use the sausage or the eggs, to which he replied, “well those things aren’t mutually exclusive.” But of course. Anything can be topped with an egg and always seems to improve. But runny yolk is essential for topping food with eggs. CJ decided to try poaching them to preserve the freshness of a hard boiled egg but still get the dramatic stream of yolk. Egg poaching seemed like a daunting task. I tried it last year, and ended up with a weird foamy cloud of egg white. But CJ has mastered the over-medium egg and even omelette flipping, so poaching came naturally as well. The bright white eggs were perfect: they sat atop the salty, starchy, tangy mixture of potatoes, green beans, sausage, lemon, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs from the backyard. When sliced, the yolk ran down and coated the whole dish. Leftovers also provided a perfect breakfast (topped with a fresh poached egg, naturally).
Ingredients
6-8 red creamer potatoes
1 lb blue lake green beans
2 sausages (pre-cooked, of your choice. I think we used Louisiana Hots)
2 eggs, poached
rosemary
oregano
thyme
salt
pepper
olive oil
Method
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes and slice them into 1/2 inch thick semi-circles. Toss on baking sheet with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, and thyme and put in the oven when it’s ready.
2. Remove stems from green beans and place in a steamer basket in a large pot with a few inches of water over medium heat. Steam beans until tender but still bright green.
3. After about 10 mins, check on the potatoes. If they’re starting to soften, add chopped pre-cooked sausage. Cook until potatoes are browned and slightly crispy.
4. Poaching is really simple. Heat water in a small pot until it’s barely boiling: just tiny bubbles, not a full rolling boil. Crack the egg into a small bowl first (this helps preserve the shape) then pour into the water. Nudge with a slotted spoon to keep the whites together. Let it cook for 3 minutes, then carefully scoop onto a paper towel with the slotted spoon. We made the eggs one at a time to make sure they didn’t coagulate while cooking.
5. Toss the finished potato & sausage mixture into a large bowl with the green beans. Add lemon and balsamic vinegar, then serve. Top each portion with a poached egg and garnish with ground pepper.
Yield: 2-3 servings.