12 Recipes of Christmas - Duck Egg and Brussels Sprouts Hash

Over Easy and Delicious

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: six geese a’laying… and Cook Local gives you Duck Egg and Brussels Sprouts Hash.

Ok, before we get started with today’s recipe, I need to rant. Was the original author of this song a poultry farmer? Seriously. Dude. We’ve got partridges, doves, hens, birds, geese, and swans. Have you ever tried to keep a goose as a pet? Those suckers are mean! One used to make a nest on the patio of John’s houseboat and lay her eggs every year and he had to be very, very careful going out his front door. The goose would hiss and flap her wings every time. Granted, she was just trying to defend her eggs, but still. Mean.

Years ago, there was a joke making the rounds on the Internet about a gentleman (?) who gave his lady love everything from the song. It’s old, but here it is. It still makes me tear up laughing. We’ve already cooked the recipes for day 1, 2, and 3, and we’re pretty damn sick of anything that has to do with fowl. Can I have a steak already? Or bacon? Please! Anything but more chicken!

Getting back to today’s recipe though, our original thought was to make a goose egg souffle. Of course we can’t get goose eggs, but certainly duck eggs would work. So Mr. Cook Local went in search of a recipe and found one. Unfortunately, my dear, wonderful husband didn’t read the recipe when he picked it and I didn’t read it before the day we were supposed to make it. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a lot more like scrambled eggs than a souffle. Then I did a little research and discovered that duck eggs aren’t even very good for souffles. Their whites are thicker and denser than a chicken egg and they just don’t puff very well.

Well, no one’s perfect, right? The recipe we’ve got today was formed out of a desperate need to use up some ingredients from our fridge, total exhaustion from cooking for seven days straight, and a little inspiration from a friend. It was damn tasty, easy, and it even fits the theme. Sort of.

Duck Egg and Brussels Sprouts Hash

Breakfast for dinner

• 6 medium potatoes (any type) from Olsen Farms, small diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• High heat oil of your choice
• Soy Salt from Secret Stash Salts
• 1-2 Tbsp soy sauce or Chipotle-Yaki from Zane and Zack’s
• 1 lb Brussels Sprouts, quartered, de-stemmed
• 2 large duck eggs
• 1 tbsp butter or lard

1. In a large skillet or preferably a wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the potatoes and the garlic and cook until the potatoes have started to brown and are nearly done.
3. Mix in the Brussels Sprouts, a generous pinch of Soy Salt, and a couple dashes of the soy sauce or the Chipotle-Yaki.
4. Spread the mix against the sides of the pan in as thin a layer as possible. This will allow some of the Brussels Sprouts to brown and crisp slightly.
5. Once the Brussels Sprouts are just about al dente, heat the butter (or lard) in a small skillet over medium heat.
6. Crack a duck egg into the skillet and fry until sunny-side up stage.
7. Serve the hash topped with the egg and another pinch of soy salt.

Look at those colors!

Notes: I love breakfast for dinner. The recipes are almost always simpler than your average dinner fare and there’s something decadent about frying up some eggs for dinner. It feels like you’re cheating somehow. Skirting your responsibilities for just one night.

The majority of time you’ll spend on this dish is cutting up the Brussels sprouts and potatoes. You want them to be relatively small so they will cook quickly and get just a bit of caramelization on them. If the pieces are too large, they’ll take forever to cook and the outsides will be soggy while the insides will be crispy. Not very appetizing. But if you buy small Brussels sprouts, and quarter them, that’s just about perfect.

You can season the mix with just about anything you want. We wanted a bit of an Asian flair, so we used the soy salt from Secret Stash Salt and a bit of Chipotle-Yaki from Zane and Zack’s. You could use any of the Secret Stash Salts or a smoked sea salt or a spicy salt. Or skip the salt entirely and use some powdered Padron peppers or red pepper flakes. For a thicker sauce, mix in some fish sauce or oyster sauce.

One last note on the egg. The photographs are obviously of an egg fried over easy. For the ultimate decadence, break the yolk and mix it in with the sprouts. However, not everyone likes runny yolks. There’s nothing wrong with an over hard egg either. For another variation, whisk a couple of duck eggs together in a bowl and cook them like an omelet. Fill with the Brussels sprouts mixture just before serving.