Some of the most luxurious meals don’t require a lot of preparation and a long list of ingredients to make them. But they do require attention to detail and good timing.
Such was the case with today’s recipe for scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, dill and sour cream. Almost creamy, softly set dill-flavoured scrambled eggs set on toast, topped with a dollop of sour cream and draped with thin slices of silky, cold smoked salmon is, well, a pretty luxurious dish.
As noted in my introduction, though, there’s not a lot of advance preparation required to make it. You can buy the dark rye bread or whole grain bread required for the toast at your favourite bakery. The cold smoked salmon, sometimes called lox, is sold at seafood stores and supermarkets.
The only real preparation required is for the eggs and that’s minimal, but that’s where the attention to detail and good timing comes in.
When you beat the eggs with a fork, you want to do so vigorously, beating back and forth, and up and down. There should be no strands of egg white or yolk visible in your beaten egg mixture. If there is, those strands of yellow and white will show up in your cooked scrambled eggs, spoiling their look.
My recipe serves two and when I prepare that amount of scrambled eggs I like to use a good quality, nine-inch (23-centimetre) non-stick skillet. That cooking vessel will ensure the scrambled eggs won’t stick to the pan and all of the eggs will end up on your plates.
Because the eggs only take a few minutes to cook, before I cook them, I make sure my toppings, the sour cream, smoked salmon and dill sprigs, are out and ready to go. I also have my bread for the toast in my toaster, ready to plunge down just before I start cooking the eggs.
To cook the eggs, I set the skillet over medium heat and add butter to it. When the butter is melted, in go the eggs, and I cook and frequently stir them until a thickened mass with soft curds forms that appears just slightly undercooked. The skillet is then removed from the heat. While you finish preparing the toast and setting it on your serving plates, the eggs will continue to cook in the skillet and be completely cooked through when that task is done.
You can serve this deluxe egg dish for breakfast, brunch, lunch or even dinner.
Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
Here’s a luxurious scrambled egg and smoked salmon dish you can serve for breakfast, brunch, lunch or even dinner. To make the meal extra special, if desired, serve it with mimosas, sparkling wine with orange juice.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about three minutes
Makes: two servings
4 large eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp chopped fresh dill
• salt, to taste
2 tsp butter, plus some for the toast
4 slices dark rye bread or hearty whole grain bread
2 dollops sour cream
4 thin slices cold smoked salmon
• coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
• dill sprigs, for garnish
Crack eggs into a bowl and add the milk, dill and salt. With a fork, vigorously beat eggs back and forth, and up and down. There should be no strands of egg white or yolk visible.
Set a nine-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the 2 tsp butter. Put the bread in your toaster, plunge it down and toast it.
When the butter has melted in the skillet, add the beaten egg mixture and, while frequently stirring with a thin spatula, cook them until soft curds form and the eggs look almost creamy and slightly underdone. Remove skillet from the heat (the eggs will continue to cook in the pan while you butter the toast).
Butter the toasted bread and set two slices on each of two dinner plates. Top one of the pieces of toast on each plate with some of the scrambled eggs. Top the scrambled eggs on each plate with a dollop of sour cream. Drape two pieces of smoked salmon on the scrambled eggs on each plate, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, garnish with dill sprigs, and serve.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
