Author Notes
Growing up, we sometimes ate One Eyes for breakfast. You know, you'd cut out a hole in a piece of bread, crack an egg in its center, and fry the the whole thing til the egg was cooked and the toast crispy. Kind of brilliant, and, I thought, unique. Not so. Apparently, it just ran under a horde of other aliases: Egg In The Hole In The Bread. Hole-y Toast. Egg In The Hole. Bird's Nest. Toad In The Hole. Abundant and literal, and I'm sure there are more. By whatever name, the brilliance is in the simplicity. One Eyes take two things you'd normally eat at the same time on breakfast or brunch plates and marry them together as one. As it happens, I was thinking, recently, about the other objects on that breakfast plate and it occurred to me you could perform the same marriage on eggs and hash browns. The result is fantastic—homey comfort food disguised in a dramatic, attractive presentation. —Cara Eisenpress
Ingredients
- For the Hash Browns
-
2
medium-large baking potatoes
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1
small onion
-
1 teaspoon
kosher salt
-
1
egg
-
2 tablespoons
flour
-
oil for frying
- To assemble and serve
-
3
eggs
-
salt and pepper
Directions
- For the Hash Browns
-
Grate the potates and the onion. Don't do this much before frying, as the potatoes will brown.
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Add the salt and flour, then beat in the egg.
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In a frying pan, add oil to about 1/2 inch deep. Heat over medium heat until a shred of potato dropped in sizzles immediately.
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Gather one third of the potato mixture into a ball, squeeze out some of the liquid, and add to the frying pan. Flatten with a spatula, and cook on each side about 6-7 minutes until nicely browned. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Repeat twice more with the remaining potato mixture. (You can fry up the hash browns 1-2 hours in advance if you'd like.)
- To assemble and serve
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Preheat the oven to 400°F. Oil a baking sheet.
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Arrange the hash browns flat on the baking sheet. Using a finger or the back of a spoon, smoosh a well in the center of each hash brown.
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Carefully crack one egg into each depression and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk is as set as you like it—less time if you like it runny.
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Serve with ketchup, sour cream, and hot sauce.
I'm the founder, editor, and head chef at the blog Big Girls, Small Kitchen (www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com), a site dedicated to easy-to-execute recipes and stories from a quarter-life kitchen. I'm also the author of In the Small Kitchen published in 2011.
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