What do you do when you feel like making something warm and quick for breakfast? For me at least, the answer is not "let's grab 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and whip up something simple and fast." Actually, French omelettes can be prepared pretty fast but I didn't really have any ingredients to use for fillings other than cheese or grapes and I didn't feel like using those today. Luckily for me, our family has been making this awesome egg sandwich for over 50 years (hard to believe) since my sister (whom I shall refer to as "Peanut" in order to protect her identity) came home for a visit with this concoction.
To make it sound really cool and fancy, I used Google to translate the name into French. Before you try calling me out for breaking my rule to not use Google to translate recipe names in Julia's book, I need to remind you of two things. 1. I made the rule so I have the authority to change the rule at any time to suit my whim. 2. I have not broken the rule since I used Google to translate from English into French, not the other way around. So there, I haven't broken my rule after all. Shall we move on?
The French name of this sandwich is Bourre` Ivre which means "Drunken Bum." You may wonder why this sandwich is called a "Drunken Bum" sandwich. To be 100% honest, we've been asked many times and I still wonder myself. The reason we call it a Drunken Bum is because Peanut said that's what it was called. She learned to make this during her travels around the world while married to a U.S. Navy sailor and made them for us the first time while home for a visit. Who know what exotic country this sandwich originated in. Considering that her worldwide travels pretty much consisted of Florida, Virginia, and California I don't know that this is really all that exotic. In any case, this is what we've called it for half a century and that's the name it'll be known by in our family even though we don't drink!
Some would call it a scrambled egg sandwich, which it technically is, but there's much more to it both regarding the ingredients and in the preparation. I think it is worthy of Julia Child's recognition in that what I've prepared today would be considered by Julia as the "master recipe" while there are several variations using this as the same starting point. I'll mention those later so that you may enjoy this sandwich in its many forms.
To start off making this I cracked open the eggs to be scrambled into a small bowl. This step is verrrrrrrry important. First of all, if you do not crack the eggs open they are much harder to scramble since they are inside of that solid shell. Second of all, cracking them open into a bowl and not directly into the pan is a key step for me. I'm still practicing the one-handed egg cracking technique and it is much easier to remove bits of egg shell from the bowl than from a hot frying pan. I'm happy to report, however, that no shells ended up in the bowl so the cracking part went quite well. Still a bit slow and a little messy, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.
Now pay attention to this part because it is seriously, one of the steps that sets this sandwich apart from just being any ordinary scrambled egg sandwich. First the frying pan is heated and then the eggs are poured into the pan -- before they've been scrambled. That's right! Do NOT beat the eggs in the bowl beforehand. If you want nice fluffy scrambled eggs you can beat them in the bowl to a lovely frothy consistency and add some water and milk but that is NOT what we are making here. We're making bourre` ivre, remember? As soon as you pour the eggs into the pan the whites should start to cook so that it looks like you're making fried eggs, that's when you should start scrambling.
Instead of having the typical uniform yellow color of plain old scrambled eggs you'll end up with a white/yellow mixture. The next important part of scrambling these eggs is that they're cooked until pretty much all of the moisture is cooked and you have very dry looking scrambled eggs. Don't get carried away though, there's a fine line between dry and burnt. Dry is what you want to end up with, not burnt. As soon as the eggs are cooked, remove them from the heat and add a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise (a little more or a little less depending on the consistency you like). It is important to have the pan off of the heat as you do this in order to prevent the mayonnaise from cooking and creating sort of an oily coating on the eggs. With the mayonnaise you need to add pepper to taste. I love my drunken bums being a bit peppery so I used a generous pinch of black pepper but you can add less if you choose.
After everything is stirred together, the egg mixture is spread evenly on a slice of bread. At this point it is called an open face sandwich and is completely edible. In order to give the sandwich some dignity you should add a second piece of bread on top. Now it is a true sandwich and you are ready to sit down and enjoy an awesome sandwich. This is a great way to start your day -- remember what mom always says, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." It is also a nice lunch and makes a great light dinner.
I promised you some variations so here they are:
1. Toast the bread.
2. Add grated cheese to the eggs.
3. Use an English Muffin instead of slices of bread. NOTE: When using an English muffin you are prohibited from calling the sandwich by the french name of bourre` ivre since an English muffin is decidedly un-French.
4. Use cayenne pepper in place of black pepper.
5. Any combination of the above.
There you have it! Try it, you'll like it!
Bon Appetit!
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