Or something close to it. This meal was so delicious and praise-worthy that I’m sure Dr. Seuss will forgive us for borrowing the name of his much loved classic.
Picture taken with Nikon D80 with Nikkor 60MM Macro lens and the help of the foodio built for me by the father in law 🙂
Jason used our meat grinder on the pork we picked up from IB on Sunday night and turned it into some of the best breakfast sausage I’ve ever eaten. He has graciously offered to provide that recipe here and I would highly suggest you go to your grocery store so you can make this soon now. On second thought maybe you shouldn’t. You’ll never be able to go back to pre-made/pre-cooked/diner sausage ever again!
On Monday night we decided to use the sausage in a hash with some veggies we got on our last trip to the farmer’s market that we have to use up. We didn’t get to go last weekend b/c we were busy doing this.
Making a dish like this is great way to stretch a little bit of meat a long way whether you’re trying to save a buck or your waistline. Jason had made 2 lbs worth of sausage but we couldn’t in good conscience eat all of that meat no matter how much we wanted to. We used 1/2 a pound in this dish and froze the rest. We threw in tons of veggies and 8 oz of meat made enough hash for two dinners and 1 lunch.
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Green Eggs and Ham
serves two for dinner + 1 small lunch the next day
Hash:
8 oz of homemade breakfast sausage
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3/4 lb of whole baby fingerling potatoes (any waxy potato diced would be fine as well)
1 bunch of diced ramps, whites only
4 oz sliced shiitake mushrooms (any kind is fine)
salt and pepper
Ramp gravy:
1 bunch of ramps, greens only
2 cups of milk, at room temperature and divided (1% works fine)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
4 eggs, cooked anyway you like
Brown sausage in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Once thoroughly browned, remove the sausage from heat and reserve.
Turn the heat down to medium and add tablespoon of oil. Swirl to cost the pan with the oil and add the whole fingerlings. Quickly toss to coat all the potatoes in oil and sprinkle on kosher salt. Let the potatoes cook for about 15-20 minutes. Yes, the first picture is of hands Jason made out of fingerlings.
Prepare the ramp gravy in the meantime.
Fill a small saucepan halfway with water and salt. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Throw in the greens of the ramps and let boil for 1 minute. Drain and immediately place ramps in an ice bath so that it retains the bright green color. You can also just be lazy like us and place a bunch of ice cubes on top of the drained ramps and rinse with running cold water. Either way works. Just get the temp down on it fast.
Place the blanched ramps in a blender or food processor along with 1 cup of milk. Blend/puree until very smooth and uniform. If you want to get your gravy super smooth and have a tamis or chinois, you might want to run the puree through it. Jason’s been itching for one b/c he’s the sauce guy in the family and either one of these instruments would get his sauces much smoother than just the blender alone.
In a small saucepan (we used the same one we blanched the greens in) over medium heat, melt the butter and flour together and whisk to create a roux. Cook the roux for about a minute so your gravy won’t have a raw flour taste to it.
Lower the heat and slowly add the remaining cup of milk. Whisk constantly to break up any lumps that may form from the roux. Add the ramp puree and whisk to combine. Let sit over the lowest heat possible while you prepare the rest of the dish.
At this point, the potatoes should be fork tender. Smash the potatoes with a meat mallet or potato masher to break open the skin and flatten the potatoes slightly. This will add to the surface area touching the heat which will contribute to getting the potatoes crispier. Crispy = yummy.
Add the whites of the ramps as well as the shiitake and toss everything together. If you used a cast iron skillet, you can turn the heat off. The residual heat from the cast iron skillet should cook the ramps and mushrooms perfectly if you keep stirring. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Plate the hash and spoon the ramp gravy over top.
Jason made sunny side up eggs for us to put over top of the plated hash but scrambled, poached, over easy, etc… would work also. Top eggs with plenty of gravy. I didn’t take a picture of that part simply b/c it wasn’t as pretty after the second topping of gravy.
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This dish was by far one of the best breakfast dishes we have ever made. From the ramp gravy to Jason’s homemade sausage, every element of the dish complemented amazingly well. I was a bit apprehensive that the ramp gravy would have a bite to it like but the blanching process mellowed it out and the resulting gravy was subtly sweet. This played out perfectly with the homemade sausage that was both sweet due to the pure maple syrup and salty at the same time.
The dish took us about 45 minutes to make and was well worth every minute and effort we put in. We are so proud of this dish that we plan on serving it at the next (and first) brunch gathering we have. Anybody wanna join us? 🙂
The Equivocal Epicurean 