When I think about Southern cuisine, breakfast usually shows up late. Iconic foods like fried chicken, red bean and rice, boiled peanuts and beverages like sweet tea and the mighty mint julep come to mind before grits or biscuits and gravy. But one of my favorite meals−breakfast, lunch, or dinner− is a Southern twist on scrambled eggs.
My appreciation of this meal came a few years before I considered trying to learn how to cook. I was in Asheville, NC with family on a trip to the Biltmore Estate. Before spending the day at the Estate we had breakfast in town. I ordered this dish and was blown away, which quite an achievement for anyone cooking for a teenager. When our waitress returned to fill coffees and waters I eagerly asked her what went into the dish. Although I still haven’t decided if that was an appropriate action or not, I’ve been eating the fruits of my plausible indiscretion ever since.
Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs
- whole milk
- cream cheese (a block of it is preferable, instead of the tub)
- fresh chives
- salt & pepper
- a small pad of butter
Beat the eggs, and splash them with whole milk. Mix them thoroughly, but not psychotically. Carve a chunk of cream cheese from your block of it (about an inch and a half long, and a quarter to a third inch wide) and dice the cream cheese into cubes (you should have about twelve). Using a sharp and straight-edged knife here is much better than a butter knife. Melt the butter in a pan−cast iron, please−and pour the eggs in. Halfway through the cooking process add the cream cheese. You want to be careful not to mix the cream cheese in with the eggs. There should be some definition to where the cheese is, and isn’t. After the eggs are cooked, dust the eggs with chives, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with toast, bacon, and your breakfast beverage of choice.
