Pancetta Peppers and Eggs

Photo by Amber De Grace on flickr.

Normally, we go out to brunch on the weekend. (Protip: go to Mintwood Place.) But this weekend, we felt like we needed showers after our strength training class, and so we bought some eggs and pancetta, and I raided the pantry. I was looking for a bag of dried Guajillo peppers, but apparently I used them up the last time I made adobo sauce. I did have some Arbol peppers, however, so I got three of those soaking while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. I chopped up a shallot and a couple of plum tomatoes, and grabbed a bit of fresh thyme, mint, and rosemary. I also whipped the eggs with a bit of milk, and I was ready to go.

I let the shallots stew in a tablespoon of butter for a good twenty minutes before adding the peppers (deseeded), the herbs, and a handful of pancetta. Once those had cooked for a while, I took out the herbs, chopped them, and added them back in, along with the eggs. One of the tricks to scrambled eggs is to just let them sit for a while without stirring them. It helps keep them quite creamy. After they had mostly set, I stirred them up and let them finish. Some queso or feta would have been great to add at this point, but since we did not have any, I went without. The second trick to scrambled eggs is to remove them from heat just before they're quite done. I don't do so well at this, usually removing them a little early. But since they keep cooking after you plate them, it's important to make sure they don't overcook.

They turned out well. I was a bit nervous about the peppers, as I'm not used to working with peppers that are that hot. Three, deseeded, seemed to be a good number to give the finish eggs a medium to hot level of spiciness. I'm not sure the mint added much, but both the thyme and the rosemary gave the dish a bit of depth, while the tomato helped keep it fairly light. Definitely a keeper.

Dino

I've mentioned Dino here before. It's a great mid-range Italian restaurant that has very good food at reasonable prices. And the occasional "everything but the quack" ten-course duck dinner. But this past weekend marked the first time we had been there for brunch. We had just finished a strength training class at Stroga, so we were famished. Dino has a deal where you get three 'courses' for just $25, and we both went for that. It's not really a three course meal, since one of the courses is 'mimosa', but it's a pretty solid amount of food. I ordered a cheese course, with a blue cheese and a truffled goat cheese, and the peposo, and my wife got the burrata and the perch.

The appetizers were fantastic. The truffled goat cheese tasted like real truffles, not nastyfake truffle oil. And the blue cheese was nice, rich and pungent. The burrata was smooth and milky. The mimosas were excellent as well, with fresh squeezed orange juice and better than average sparkling wine. Sadly, the entrees weren't quite as good. Both I thought were better than average, but the short rib wasn't anything I couldn't have done at home, and the perch was somewhat dry. We enjoyed it, but given the logistical difficulties of getting to Dino from Columbia Heights, I don't know if we'll be back.