Tuesday, April 28, 2015
click to enlarge - Hannah Palme Egan
- Tartlets; quichettes; call them what you like, but please don't eat them all!
I'll admit it: this recipe seems a bit Pinterest-ready/Martha Stewart. But with
Vermont Creamery chèvre tucked into cups of local sausage, nestled into fresh organic spinach from Berlin's
Dog River Farm and then smothered with scrambled eggs from yonder farm stand, it's a super winner. Making it takes a little doing — there are a few steps — but the result is adorable and well worth the effort.
As always, the components are flexible: I used spinach and shiitakes (from Colchester's AH mushroom, which have become an Egan kitchen staple), but you could use any tender young green — collards, kale, arugula — for a smashing result. Or some other mushroom instead of shiitake. Or bacon instead of mushrooms. The main thing is the eggs. You need that dash of Bisquick and that splash of water, and I'd keep that chèvre, if I were you. The rest is negotiable...
click to enlarge - Hannah Palmer Egan
- The only rule with these little tarts is egg, Bisquick and water.
Breakfast Tartlets
Makes 12 3-inch tarts
Ingredients
- 1 pound breakfast sausage or chorizo
- 3-4 mushrooms, sliced
- 9 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
- Herbs, as desired
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 heaping tablespoon Bisquick baking mix
- 1/4 pound fresh spinach, washed and stemmed (keep the stems!)
- 1 clove garlic
- 12 scant teaspoons chèvre
- Smoked paprika, for garnish
Preparation
- Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 F.
- Roll the sausage into 12 golf-ball-size spheres. Place one in each cup of a three-inch muffin tin. Press the sausage into the edges of each cup until all the cups are lined with a thin layer of meat. The sausage should reach to the top of each cup, as it will shrink quite a bit during cooking.
- Bake the sausage cups for 15 minutes until they're cooked through and golden brown. Drain off the fat, but do not blot — you'll need a nice slick of grease so the eggs won't stick. Strain two tablespoons of the fat into a skillet and fry the sliced mushrooms over high heat until they're golden brown. Set aside.
- Mix the eggs, herbs and spices, water and Bisquick until smooth. Mince the spinach stems and garlic and add to the egg mixture.
- Working with one cup at a time, remove the sausage from the muffin tin and carefully line each cup with spinach (as you did with the raw sausage earlier), then replace the sausage into the little nest formed by the spinach.
- Spoon a bit (barely a teaspoon) of chèvre into each sausage cup, then pour in a little more than 1/4 cup of the egg mixture over each cup until the chevre and sausage are submerged. Top each tartlet with a mushroom slice and a dash of smoked paprika.
- Place in the oven; reduce heat to 375 and bake, 25-30 minutes, until the eggs are fluffy and just begin to brown on top. Serve warm.
click to enlarge - Hannah Palmer Egan
- Ready for the oven
Tags: Recipe, Eggs, Spinach, Sausage, Image, Web Only
About The Author
Hannah Palmer Egan
Bio:
Hannah Palmer Egan was a food and drink writer at Seven Days.