Best Brunch: Savory Garden Greens Goat Cheese Cakes & Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

Hands up for savory breakfasts and keep them up if you feel like a rockstar when restyled leftovers are part of the mix! This dish is all about using up those garden greens you have that might be on their last leg (beet greens, kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, and so on) and turning them into savory breakfast cakes with fresh herbs and creamy goat cheese. It's the perfect platform for an egg cooked your way--my default is sunny side up these days--and a little roasted red pepper vinaigrette to tie it all together. I used a mix of beet greens and kale--the beet greens gave my savory cakes a nice pinkish hue--along with dill, parsley and chives for my herbs and folded in leftover quinoa. Like veggie burgers, savory cakes are equally delicious with or without grains like couscous, farro, or barley or cooked seeds like quinoa or amaranth, but if you have some already cooked, this is a great way to use up leftovers. 

Today I'm on my way to Atlanta for Re:co--the Specialty Coffee Symposium--and the US Coffee Championships! I'll be helping out with coffee service at Re:co and judging the US Barista Championship. I can't wait! I'm making a little roadtrip of it with stops in Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, and a pop over to Charleston. I would love to hear your favorite can't miss spots for food and drinks. Find me here on the blog, here or here. Happy weekend, friends! 

Savory Garden Greens Goat Cheese Cakes
Makes 6 cakes
3 tablespoons olive oil or bacon fat, divided
1 cup diced onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 large bunch garden greens of choice, chopped, about 10 cups loosely packed
1/2 cup herbs of choice, chopped
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 cup leftover quinoa or couscous (optional)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled or cut into pea-sized pieces

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil or bacon fat in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add diced onion, and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally, about 4-5 minutes. Season with salt then stir in the garlic and fennel seeds and let cook for 1 minute. Stir in the chopped greens and let them cook down with the heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove the mixture from heat and stir in the chopped herbs. Let cool, then transfer the mixture to a food processor. Use the food processor to pulse the cooked greens and herbs until they are finely chopped, small enough to help the cakes stay together. Transfer to a bowl and fold in the egg, bread crumbs, quinoa or couscous (if using), smoked paprika, and lemon zest. Mix until well combined, then fold in the goat cheese throughout the mixture.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil or bacon fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Patty out the cakes, about 1/2 cup each, and cook on the hot skillet. Turn after about 5 minutes and cook a remaining 7 minutes on the other side. Lower the heat if needed to keep them from burning. 

Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette
Makes 1/2 cup
2 roasted red peppers
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup olive oil

Use a food processor or blender to blend together the red peppers, garlic, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, and salt. Stream in the olive oil while the vinaigrette is blending. Serve with the savory cakes, sunny side up eggs and fresh sprouts, herbs, or greens. Store any leftover vinaigrette in a sealed contain in the refrigerator and use within a week. 

Sage Macaroni and Cheese

I know that I'm not alone in my ardent love for macaroni and cheese. As is the case with its rich and creamy variants--ice cream, gratin, cheesecake, spinach artichoke dip--every splendid bite feels like some sort of luxurious bequest, perfectly indulgent. You can just close your eyes and have a personal celebration that, for however quick and fleeting a moment, life is just delicious. That's dangerous, isn't it? All things in moderation they say, so you can dish these up in ramekins and serve them beside something green and/or protein packed. 

This recipe calls for infusing the milk with fresh sage before creating the roux, and topping each ramekin with crunchy flash fried sage. The sage is a soft, subtle note in the mix, just enough to satiate and spark curiosity for more. Again, dangerous. I hope you enjoy! -Mallory

Sage Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 6 (Bake in 1-cup ramekins or a 1.5 to 2-quart baking dish)
 2 1/2 cups milk
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
12 sage leaves, divided
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorn
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups gruyere, grated
1 cup sharp cheddar, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs 
1/4 cup olive oil
6 sage leaves, for frying

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Bring milk, shallot, 6 of the sage leaves, and peppercorn to a simmer over medium-high heat. Make sure not to boil it, just simmer. Reduce to medium and simmer until the milk is reduced to 2 cups, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Strain out the shallot, sage leaves, and peppercorn, reserving the milk for the macaroni and cheese.

Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat, add a dash of salt (optional) and cook macaroni according to the instructions on the package, about 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Grease the ramekins (or baking dish) with butter or cooking oil and set aside.

In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter then add the flour, whisking continuously as the roux begins to bubble and change in color, 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the infused milk and continue to stir constantly as it thickens. Once all the clumps are gone, remove from heat and add in the gruyere, cheddar, salt, and pepper. Next, fold in the cooked macaroni and transfer to the ramekins. Top with breadcrumbs and bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. 

When you take the macaroni out of the oven, fry the remaining 6 sage leaves. It will only take a few minutes, so you don't have to worry about the macaroni and cheese getting too cool. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sage leaves and let fry for only a few seconds, then transfer them immediately to a paper towel to drain and cool. 

Herb Fried Chicken Biscuits & Apricot Mustard

This all started with craving for apricot jam and slowly transformed into an excuse to dish up fried chicken, which happens more often than not; I love fried chicken. I have very sweet memories from childhood of fried chicken and roller coasters because my family would venture to Six Flags St. Louis theme park once every summer and we couldn't do so without packing fried chicken. The tickets were awarded to my brother, sister and me for reading books throughout the school year as part of the 600-Minutes program- now it's called Read to Succeed. When lunchtime rolled around, we migrated back to the parking lot for a packed picnic lunch of fried chicken that we enjoyed cold from iced coolers packed in the family minivan. My mom fried the chicken the night before, so as I was lying awake in bed anxious for the next day's allures, the rich smell of fried chicken seeped into my room and pulled me even further from sleep. 

Getting back to today and the apricot decisions, I opted to postpone apricot jam until summer when I can get fresh, in season apricots from the market to bring to a sweet stovetop simmer. Instead, I put together an apricot mustard from dried apricots. The mustard seeds and dried apricots take a few days to hydrate in a bath of white wine and apple cider vinegar, but the result is glorious. The biscuits and fried chicken come together in less than an hour. 

Apricot Mustard
Makes about 1 cup
1/4 cup mustard seeds
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Soak mustard seeds and apricots in a glass bowl along with wine and vinegar. Cover with plastic wrap and let soak for 3 days at room temperature.  Transfer mustard seeds, apricots, white wine and apple cider vinegar to a food processor. Add salt, brown sugar and nutmeg and blend until the mustard reaches your desired coarseness and consistency.

Buttermilk biscuits
Makes 12 biscuits
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees fahrenheit. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour until it’s the size of small peas. Add buttermilk in a pool in the middle, then mix until just combined. Turn out the biscuit dough on a lightly floured surface and knead gently by folding it in half, rolling out the dough, then repeating the fold and roll two additional times. Cut out biscuits using a 2-inch cutter, place on parchment-lined baking sheet, then brush them with melted butter.

Bake at 475 degrees fahrenheit for 12 minutes. Remove biscuits from the oven and cool on a wire rack. 

Herb Fried Chicken
Makes 12 biscuits 
Peanut oil
6 cloves garlic, lightly smashed with skins in tact
6 sprigs hard herbs: thyme, oregano, rosemary
4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, each cut into 3 pieces
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon chili sauce or hot sauce (optional)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Fry chicken in three batches using a medium skillet. Add 1 1/2 inches of peanut oil to the skillet and set the heat to medium-high. Add garlic and herbs immediately so that they infuse while the oil comes to temperature. Meanwhile, pat dry the chicken and set aside. Whisk together greek yogurt, milk and chili sauce (if using) in medium bowl. Sift together flour, salt and black pepper in a separate medium bowl. Drench the chicken first in the flour, then in the milk and again in the flour. Then fry, baby, fry. The oil is ready to start frying when it sizzles from a drop of water. Fry the chicken for 3 minutes on each side. Check for doneness by cutting into the center of a piece, then adjust heat and cooking time accordingly. It's better to keep the heat in the medium to medium-high range and cook longer than to crank the heat and end up with burnt chicken. Transfer the fried chicken to a paper towel-lined plate, then serve with biscuits and apricot mustard.

-Mallory