Egg Shop The Cookbook

Fact: even a bad bacon, egg and cheese is pretty great.

But the following is not a bad bacon, egg and cheese.

It’s the best. And it comes courtesy of Egg Shop: The Cookbook, a compendium of egg-forward dishes from the acclaimed New York restaurant, available this week.

The tome is chock-full with 100+ recipes for morning, noon and night that run the gamut from simple pleasures (omelettes, deviled eggs) to the divine and decadent (eggs caviar with a splash of cognac).

A bit of background: Egg Shop was started a little over two years ago in Nolita by the husband/wife team of Demetri Makoulis and Sarah Schneider. As the couple wonders in the cookbook’s intro: “How can two people obsessed with egg sandwiches, but with no background in the kitchen or the food industry, create a restaurant dedicated entirely to them?”

Apparently, the answer was to hire a great chef (Nick Korbee, from Smith & Mills) and focus on fresh ingredients. Below, two of our favorite recipes.

Ed. note: You’ll need the cookbook in full for perfect approximations of some of the ingredients (Panini roll, tomato jam, etc.), but you can pick up a worthy stand-in at your local grocer.

EGG SHOP B.E.C.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the face that launched a thousand ships: the signature Egg Shop version of a standard B.E.C. The star of this sandwich is a sunny-up egg with the yolk broken into the roll before serving, but the tomato jam is gearing up to steal the show at any moment. Sharp melted New England cheddar counters the sweet and savory jam and cuts the salt of the perfectly crisped bacon. If an egg were going clubbing, it would wear this sandwich to get laid.

1 Panini Roll (recipe in book)
2 tablespoons Tomato Jam (recipe in book)
4 Fresh Pickled Jalapeños (recipe in book)
2 ounces sharp white cheddar (we use Shelburne Farms, Grafton Village, or McCadam)
3 slices Black Forest or applewood-smoked bacon
1 egg
Pinch of sea salt, for garnish
Torn flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400°F or turn the broiler to low, if the setting is available.
Split the panini roll in half and spread the tomato jam evenly on the bottom half. Top with the jalapeños. Place the cheddar on the top side of the roll and lay both halves on a baking sheet. Set aside.
In a small cast-iron or nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp but not burned or dry. Place the bacon on top of the cheddar and broil the open sandwich until the cheese is melted and the roll is slightly toasted on the edges.
Meanwhile, crack the egg into the bacon fat and cook it using the sunny-up method on page 100. When the white is fully set, break the yolk slightly with the back of a fork or the tip of a knife and let it spread over the egg. Cook briefly, but do not allow the yolk to set.
Remove the sandwich from the broiler, place the egg on top of the tomato jam and jalapeños, and close the sandwich. Garnish with a pinch of sea salt and torn fresh parsley.

And for something a little simpler …

POP’S DOUBLE-STUFFED, DOUBLE-FLUFFED AMERICAN OMELET

This is that big boy you’ve heard about . . . stuffed with bacon, sausage, cheddar cheese, spinach, and mushrooms. Not meant for hot-weather consumption, this incredibly filling omelet should be cut in wedges for multiple servings. It’s truly an omelet to feed them all, with humble origins in my father’s home kitchen, where he uses a 1950s milkshake blender to fluff his eggs back to the glistening dawn of the atomic age.

2 maple sausage patties, crumbled
6 slices bacon, chopped
¼ cup sliced mushrooms
6 eggs
3 tablespoons half-and-half
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup spinach leaves
¼ cup grated cheddar cheese

In a 10- or 12-inch skillet, cook the sausage and bacon fully over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Reserve the mixture in a bowl.
In a blender, whip the eggs and half-and-half until very light, about 90 seconds on high. (A milkshake blender, while not entirely necessary, does offer a little bit more fluff and a bit more fun.)
Give the skillet a wipe and warm it over medium heat. Swirl the butter in the hot pan to coat it completely. Pour the whipped eggs into the pan and cook until fully set around the outer edges, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the heat to low and top the whole surface of the omelet with the spinach and cheddar. Cook until the spinach is slightly wilted and the cheese begins to melt.
Add the sausage mixture to one side of the eggs and use 2 spatulas to fold the other half over the side with the sausage mixture. Cook until the eggs are set and the cheese is fully melted, another 2 minutes. The outer surface will be lightly browned in places and likely have some spots where cheese has broken the surface and possibly caramelized on the edges. This is considered a good thing, not unlike “burnt ends” in the BBQ world.