Huevos con Papas sin Papas

One of Heather's favorite breakfasts has long been huevos con papas. Growing up, she had close family friends who made them for her, and I'm certain it appeals to her because it's both delicious and nostalgic. She can usually put away four or five of these breakfast tacos, stuffed with fried potatoes and eggs, usually with some onion, sometimes chorizo, and always with cilantro, jalapeño and lime juice for flavor. While she's on the JP, I strive to make her meals as appealing as her favorites from the regular world, and I decided to try to make a breakfast that was evocative of huevos con papas, but without the forbidden lime juice and potatoes. I have my doubts about tortillas as well. They seem far too bread-like to be permissible, but from the crude rules we operate by (taken from memory of a single conversation over 15 years ago), they've always been fair game. To be on the safe side, and because we didn't have any tortillas in the house, I decided to use spring roll wrappers instead.

I started by making a sofrito of onion, garlic, fennel and diced linguisa, which were all cooked together in olive oil until the linguisa had rendered a little fat and color and the vegetables were soft and giving, with a hint of caramelization. While that was underway I prepared the eggs. I beat three eggs and some sesame oil, lightened with a little vegetable stock, until they were absolutely smooth, then I added chopped parsley and fennel fronds, salt, pepper and some Mexican oregano, crushed. When the vegetables were ready, I folded the eggs into the skillet, moving them around until just shy of being set. Eggs keep cooking for a couple of minutes after they come off the heat, so I always take them off while shiny and slightly wet.

Instead of potatoes, I used slices of avocado to support the eggs inside the spring roll, wrapping them together with some cilantro, scallions, crunchy sea salt and juilienne of ginger and jalapeño. When cooked conventionally, the potatoes would be soft and rich, having absorbed considerable olive oil or butter, and the buttery, smooth avocado was a pretty good potato proxy. The visual effect was a little drab, but when served with some salsa the whole dish looked okay. The salsa came out of a jar, and I'm sure it had some non-JP elements, but fuck it, we're not ninjas.

The linguisa was a nice alternative to chorizo, which can be a little greasy and loose, and the overall effect was solidly tasty. It wasn't really that much like huevos con papas, but it was pretty good. Pretty good. That's what we're shooting for folks, pretty good.