- 7 minutes ago
Brighten up your holiday brunch with a dish that is as beautiful as it is tasty. In this video, Chef John shows you how to make his Easter breakfast casserole featuring a light, tender custard and fresh spring vegetables. This simple recipe is the perfect way to use up leftover ham while feeding a hungry crowd.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Easter Breakfast Casserole.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you my method for making what I think is a perfect breakfast casserole.
00:13One that's beautiful to look at, delicious to eat, and features a tender, custardy, feather-light texture.
00:20Which in the world of breakfast casseroles, is a very rare thing indeed.
00:25And to get started, we will prep a couple bunches of asparagus.
00:28Since we're doing this in spring, and this is definitely one of my favorite spring things.
00:33And after we slice off the tips, I like to cut the spears every inch or so.
00:38So we have some nice, very user-friendly bite-sized pieces.
00:42And these were very nicely trimmed.
00:44But of course, if you have any tough, woody parts near the bottom, you'll want to trim those off and
00:48discard them.
00:50And then speaking of bite-size, whether we're using sliced up ham left over from the holiday,
00:54or stuff already sliced from the store, what I like to do is cut that in about one inch strips.
01:00And then slice across every quarter inch or so.
01:03To get some pieces that will be similarly sized to the asparagus.
01:06And also very easy to get on a fork.
01:09And then what we'll do is give that a taste, for quality control purposes.
01:13Before we pop it in the fridge.
01:15At which point, we'll head to the stove with our asparagus.
01:18And we'll transfer that into some generously salted boiling water.
01:22And what we'll do is blanch this very briefly.
01:25Alright, literally as soon as this comes back to the boil.
01:28Which is only going to take about a minute or so.
01:30But just as soon as that water comes back to a boil like this.
01:34We will grab a bowl of cold water.
01:36And we'll use our handheld strainer.
01:38Which in the business, we call a spider.
01:41Short for spider web.
01:42And we'll transfer those pieces of asparagus in.
01:45Which will immediately stop the cooking process.
01:48Which is key, because this is still going to get cooked in our casserole.
01:51So all we're doing here is locking in the color.
01:54Plus by blanching, we're going to get a sweeter, more mild flavor.
01:58And once that's set, we're going to multitask.
02:01By transferring some peeled quartered russet potatoes into the same water.
02:05And as you can see, we're using our spider to lower those down in.
02:09Which is much safer than trying to transfer them in with your hands.
02:13And what we'll do is cook those until they're fully tender.
02:16At which point we'll drain those very thoroughly.
02:18And reserve them until needed.
02:20And that's it once our potatoes are set.
02:22We will sauté some diced onions and diced red bell pepper.
02:26And a little bit of olive oil set over medium high heat.
02:29And we will also add in a nice big pinch of salt.
02:32And we will cook those stirring for a few minutes.
02:35Or until our onions soften and start to turn translucent.
02:39And those peppers have lost their crisp raw edge.
02:42And I know it looks like we cooked the onions golden brown.
02:45But that's mostly the color bleeding off the peppers.
02:48I mean, we can cook the onions actually golden brown if we want.
02:51But it's not really necessary.
02:52As long as they've softened up.
02:54And once we're happy with those, we will turn off the pan.
02:57And reserve that until needed.
02:58While we move on to the last major component.
03:01Our egg custard.
03:03And for that, we will crack a dozen large eggs into a bowl.
03:07And we will season those up with some salt.
03:09Some freshly ground black pepper.
03:11And of course, a few shakes of cayenne.
03:14And then we'll grab our whisk and bust those eggs right in the yolks.
03:18And we will give those a thorough mixing for about 30 seconds.
03:21Before we add our milk and cream.
03:23And the reason for that is because the eggs are a thicker viscosity.
03:27And if you add everything together and start whisking.
03:30Especially in a bowl this small.
03:32You will 100% of the time have milk and cream splashing out.
03:36So it's just way easier.
03:38And usually way less messy to do it this way.
03:41And that's it.
03:42Once our dairy is in.
03:43We'll give that a final mixing.
03:44For about a half a minute.
03:46Or until everything has been evenly combined.
03:49At which point we can start building up our casserole.
03:52Which begins by cutting up some potatoes into a greased casserole pan or dish.
03:56And for that, I'm going to use a technique my grandmother and my mom used for potatoes.
04:01Where they would hold a piece of potato in their palm.
04:03And then use a butter knife to cut straight down through the center.
04:07And then across into smaller pieces like this.
04:10Okay, whether they were making potato salad or home fries.
04:13I never, ever saw them use a cutting board.
04:16And they would always, every time, do it like this.
04:19Which is very fast and easy.
04:21And kind of fun.
04:23But obviously, if you use this technique.
04:26The knife choice is very important.
04:28Okay, this would not be the time to try out your new sushi knife.
04:32But anyway, no matter how you cut those up.
04:34Once we have those sliced into bite-sized pieces.
04:36We will scatter those over the bottom evenly.
04:39At which point we'll transfer over half of our grated cheese.
04:42And once again, I'm using the classic food-wish combo of half-chatter, half-jack.
04:48And once our potatoes have been cheesed evenly.
04:50We will scatter over one half of our pepper-onion mixture.
04:54And once that's done.
04:55We will apply all our ham.
04:58Making sure we're separating every piece.
05:00For optimal distribution.
05:02And once our ham's down.
05:04We can do the same thing with our asparagus.
05:07Which, like our potatoes, we drained very well.
05:10And of course, if you feel like adding some other tasty tidbits to this.
05:14Like some crumbled up bacon.
05:16Or maybe some sautéed mushrooms.
05:18Go ahead.
05:19I mean, you are after all the savior.
05:21Of your Easter breakfast casserole flavor.
05:23And if it would be good in an omelet.
05:25It will be good in this.
05:26But whether you add something else or not.
05:29We will finish up with the rest of the onion-pepper mixture.
05:32And once that's been scattered over.
05:34We will carefully pour in our custard.
05:36Oh, and pro tip.
05:38As we place our ingredients in.
05:40We are not under any circumstances poking and pressing things down.
05:44And the reason is.
05:45We want lots of space for that custard to flow into.
05:48So when we serve this.
05:49Everything's been evenly dispersed.
05:51Alright, we don't want everything pressed against the bottom.
05:54With our egg layer sitting on top.
05:56And once that's been poured in.
05:58We will finish up with the rest of our cheese.
06:00At which point we have to ask ourselves.
06:03Are we DTT?
06:05Which of course stands for down to tap.
06:08And I really hope you are.
06:10Because once we give this the old shake-a-shake-a.
06:13We really should give it the old tappa-tappa.
06:16Which is going to settle our egg mixture down into every nook and cranny.
06:20And that's it.
06:21Once tapped.
06:22This is ready to transfer into the center.
06:24Of a 350 degree oven.
06:27For about 50 to 55 minutes.
06:29Or until the top is lightly browned.
06:31And our eggs are set.
06:33And it hopefully looks like this.
06:35Oh yeah, now that looks gorgeous.
06:37And I could tell it was done.
06:39But if you do want to test.
06:40You could use a skewer.
06:42And if it comes out wet.
06:43With a bunch of uncooked eggs on it.
06:45It needs to cook a little longer.
06:47But this was perfect.
06:49And then what we should do.
06:50Is let this cool for about 10 minutes or so.
06:52Just to let things tighten up a little bit.
06:55So that's what I did.
06:56Before I grabbed a spatula to cut out a piece.
06:59And I went ahead and served that up.
07:01And grabbed a fork.
07:02And went in for the official bite.
07:04And this, my friends, is the lightest.
07:07Tenderest.
07:07Most perfectly textured breakfast casserole you will ever enjoy.
07:11Alright, while the ingredients in most of these things are very similar.
07:14If you don't use the proper ratio of eggs, cream, and milk.
07:18You're going to end up with something tough, dense, and rubbery.
07:21Alright, this is not supposed to be a frittata.
07:23Or a baked omelet.
07:24And I think what makes this so special.
07:27Is the contrast between all those rich, flavorful, savory ingredients.
07:30And that extremely light, tender custard.
07:33Which contains just barely enough eggs to hold everything together.
07:37And as long as you use roughly the same amount.
07:39This breakfast casserole technique.
07:42Will work no matter what you decide to put in.
07:44So whether you do your own customized version.
07:47Or make this exactly as shown.
07:50To me, this is by far the best way to breakfast casserole.
07:53And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:57So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts.
08:00A printable written recipe.
08:02And much more info as usual.
08:03And as always, enjoy.
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