Out of all my mom’s greatest breakfast hits, dahi toast is easily the most the beloved in our family. This sandwich—a loose interpretation of a recipe from one of my dad’s friends—is totally unexpected (who would ever think to put yogurt between bread?!) and impossible not to like. Imagine a tangier, spicier grilled cheese sandwich. You get that satisfying oily bread crunch, but with onions, chiles, and (my favorite part) a crispy topping of black mustard seeds and curry leaves added into the mix. The glue that holds this recipe together is the tang of the sourdough bread—it’s the perfect foil to the rich, ricotta-like filling. We are a house divided when it comes to accompaniments for dahi toast—my mom and sister like cilantro chutney, while I prefer ketchup. My dad uses both: He swirls the chutney and ketchup together to create a kinda ugly-colored but admittedly delicious super-sauce.
Not a side dish at all, this is a well-stocked breakfast entrée. Make sure the potatoes are diced — that is, in 1/2-inch cubes. They must be small and evenly sized to cook in the stated time. Skip processed sandwich meat and look for whole, roasted smoked ham at the deli counter. Have the butcher cut it into 1/2-inch slices to make the dicing easier for you.
There are a few things that are crucial to making an epic frittata...
These eggs are exactly what they sound like: fried eggs combined with teeny croutons. I like them on top of vegetables or rice bowls. You can add a sprinkling of herbs like dill to the pan, but not too much while you’re cooking the eggs—you don’t want to introduce excess water. As written, this recipe makes fried eggs with little salty, crunchy breadcrumb bits embedded in them. If you want to go breadcrumb-crazy, or if you have more than one slice to use up, tear up 2 or 3 slices of bread. In Step 4, you’ll need to scooch the breadcrumbs aside in spots to make little nests that you can crack the eggs into.
Of all the savory breakfasts in my book Dining In, this one is definitely the heartiest and most time consuming. Even so, it’s still a basic one-skillet deal. It’s also the one dish I am most likely to eat for lunch or dinner, with or without eggs, because I find chickpeas simmered with dried chorizo and fresh tomatoes to be one of life’s greatest pleasures.
I call this creation “green eggs no ham,” and it’s an ideal vegetarian dish. Spiked with lemon zest, chives, chile, and cream, it really doesn’t want bacon or ham or all the other meaty things I automatically think of when I think of eggs.
These fluffy beauties are tender within, golden without and slightly crisp at the edges: joy. Not only heroes of the breakfast table, they can also do a tasty savoury turn at lunch and dinner. For many, they’re the brightest stars in the pancake firmament.
A bright and lovely light meal, these pancakes are bursting with spring flavors. Enjoy them with a hefty dose of sunshine if you can.
Canned pumpkin puree adds a bit of subtle flavor to these muffins, but more important, it also makes the muffins ultramoist.
The perfect fried egg sandwich means different things to different people. Find just the right one and you are guaranteed bliss for many mornings (or late nights!) to come. For me, a lot has to do with the layering strategy (a well-thought-out stack can help keep layers from sliding out the side of the sandwich!), as well as how the eggs are cooked (I like mine fried with edges slightly crispy, and yolk just runny enough to coat everything when you take a bite, without getting lost to the plate). Another equally important factor is the inclusion of a little acidic tang to play off the fat of the egg yolk and cheese. My answer to this is mustard and pickles. I discovered these unconventional additions when I was in college in Montreal, and often frequented a burger joint called La Paryse. My favorite dish on the menu was the egg sandwich with pickles. Now, when I wake up a little rough around the edges and need a substantial meal to start the day, this is it.