It’s January, and even though I don’t make New Year’s resolutions I’ve been eating lighter overall. A boiled egg is breakfast most days, cottage cheese or salad is fine for lunch, fruit or a handful of pecans makes an easy snack. We’ve even had light dinners most nights. After the unbridled hedonism and hoopla of the holidays, letting everything winnow down a bit is a relief.
BUT . . my friend Kim had a birthday this week, and she had one request: Eggs Benedict. Fine! That I can do!
I love Eggs Benedict. LOVE.IT. It’s a little indulgent, but that’s okay. And I’m a pretty big fan of brunch in general, even if I have to cook it. Back when I was still in college, I worked at a restaurant on the Southside of Birmingham that had a terrific brunch. I mean this brunch was really done well even for the late 80’s brunch heyday. We opened at 11 a.m. and by noon we would be packed. The menu was a treat (I’ll get to that in a minute), and the bar offerings were something unfortunately no longer seen in polite society. You could get a mimosa or anything else from the bar of course, but we also offered bloody marys, margaritas, gin and tonics, and screwdrivers by the pitcher. Irish coffees were on special, too, but maybe not by the batch? In any case, and this may come as a shock, but an air of celebration governed brunch, week in and week out. The wait staff loved working brunch shifts because those pitchers could run the tab for a 4-top way up in a hurry.
The menu was anchored by Eggs Benedict and several of its variations–Sardou, Florentine, seafood, etc–and included an omelet, a couple of sandwiches, and some other things that all came plated as brunch. That means they got a fruit of some sort–melon, strawberries, whatever–and brunch potatoes. “Brunch potatoes” did not have a specific recipe, that was simply what we called the third thing on the brunch plate that was potato-y. These brunch potatoes weren’t always the same, but they were always ridiculously, incredibly, good.
Brunch potatoes were made by Veronica. Veronica ran the upstairs kitchen like some sort of food prep angry goddess. She was married to our sweet day kitchen manager Ray, and they had a number of incredibly cute children. Sometimes they (Ray and Veronica, I mean) got into arguments at work. Now Ray was really good at his job, and certainly he outranked her in the restaurant hierarchy, but when they fought about work at work, Veronica always won. I know that whenever Veronica was out on maternity leave, the blue cheese dressing was thin and bland, and the croutons were hard and dry. So were the brunch potatoes. But when she was at work Veronica worked wonders, even though–as she explained it to me–she had a husband who sorely tried her patience, a thousand children at home, plus all this stuff to do, and she certainly didn’t have time for my or anyone else’s s&@t.
I asked her once how she decided what kind of brunch potatoes to make, and she told me she just used anything that needed to be used up, and then added cheese and ham or bacon. She said that people will happily eat up anything with cheese and pork in it. I’m sure that Veronica had never met a vegan at that point. I certainly hadn’t. In any case that was pretty accurate, and brunch potatoes were hugely popular. And no, you couldn’t order an extra side of them, and when they were gone, they were gone.
Fast forward to present day: Birthday girl Kim reveals that she dearly loves potatoes with her eggs. I couldn’t think of anything better than Veronica’s Brunch Potatoes. I had onions, a red bell pepper, parsley, cheddar cheese, buttermilk, and overcooked bacon. They turned out great! Kim took home some leftovers and called me two days later. She had given her husband some of the leftover potatoes, and she thought she deserved some sort of medal or award for sharing them.
These potatoes have a few steps, but they aren’t difficult, and you can assemble them ahead. They aren’t diet food to be sure, but they are SO worth it once in a while. I’ve given the basic recipe with the ingredients I had on hand last weekend, but you can vary it to use whatever you have.
Oh, and they’re not just for brunch!
Yum, y’all!
Brunch Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 large russet potatoes, or 3 medium ones
- salt and pepper
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
- 2 T. butter
- 2 T. flour
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1/2 t. garlic powder
- 1 8 oz. block extra sharp cheddar, divided
- 3 or 4 slices crisp bacon, crumbled
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs tossed with 2 T. melted butter, optional
Instructions
- Peel and cube the potatoes and boil them in water to cover with 1 t. salt. Cook until a fork goes through a cube, drain and set aside.
- Sauté the vegetables in the butter over medium low heat with a pinch of salt. Cook slowly until the vegetables are beginning to brown. Add the flour and stir constantly for a minute or two. Add the buttermilk and stir until the sauce coats a spoon.
- While the vegetables are cooking, grate ½ the block of cheese. Cut the other half in ½” cubes.
- When the sauce has thickened, take it off the heat and stir in the grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and the garlic powder. The sauce should be highly seasoned because potatoes are bland.
- Fold together the drained potatoes, cheese sauce, cubed cheese, bacon, and parsley. Put into a casserole dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Bake at 350° until potatoes are bubbly and the breadcrumbs are browned.
I bet you could turn this into a great main dish using a pound or more of ground beef. Side salad and you’ve got dinner. Is there any difference between a baking potato and a russet potato?
That’s a great idea! Gosh, you could even put the potatoes over a bed of BBQ and have a sort of southern cottage pie on steroids!
Good question on the potatoes. Baking potatoes are russets. Russets are the floury-type potatoes as opposed to waxy potatoes, such as red potatoes.
Made them for Birthday Dinner Potatoes. With grilled chicken and salad dinner was Delicious. Thank you for recipe inspiration 🎂😋