Why is it that, when it comes to food, moms get all the love?
On Mother’s Day, mom always gets breakfast in bed or brunch out at a nice restaurant. It makes no difference if she has the parenting skills of Dina Lohan or that crazy neo-Nazi lady who named her child Adolf Hitler and pretty much ruined his life in the first five seconds.
No matter what, Mom’s gonna get some eggs scrambled by somebody else.
Fathers? Fathers not only get no stuffed French toast or eggs Benedict, they are expected to fire up the grill and feed us.
And while they are grilling the steaks, they are forced to open cute cards that make fun of their lawn care skills, tag them as easy marks for scoring some extra cash, and label them lazy if they want to take a half hour for themselves in the recliner with a beer and a rerun of “The Simpsons” instead of chauffeuring you and your creepy boyfriend to the mall.
This year, why not give your dad what he really wants?
Breakfast meats.
Hash browns or any other form of fried potato, as long as it’s greasy and comes with ketchup on the table.
Runny eggs oozing over a steaming pile of corned beef hash.
You know, manly food. The kind of guilt-inducing, artery-clogging fare that June Cleaver put on Ward’s plate.
Go ahead, it’s only one day. You can force-feed him a green smoothie on Monday.
Need some ideas? I asked a cookbook author and a few chefs what they would serve, or would like to be served, on Father’s Day.
Dana Moos’ manly dish is topped with truffled sour cream, but it contains three of the man-food food groups — potatoes, bacon and cheese — and tastes like something every dad loves: A loaded baked potato.
Moos is the innkeeper/breakfast cook at the Pomegranate Inn in Portland and the author of “The Art of Breakfast” (Down East Books, $28.95). Known for her creative breakfasts, Moos says she’s noticed that men tend to like anything with cinnamon.
“The women tend to like the savory dishes more,” she said. “The men tend to like a baked French toast. Guys tend to like cinnamon.”
Guys also love poached eggs, and so does Moos, so she created a potato hash dish that is sure to satisfy Dad on Sunday. You can find her recipe for poached eggs on potato, onion and bacon hash at right.
“I cook the cubed potatoes and onions with some raw bacon, and they all cook together, but then I also save some bacon for garnish on top of the sour cream,” Moos said. “And then I use Cabot cheddar that I shred by hand, so it’s really good sharp cheddar, and then fresh chives on top of the sour cream. And it does taste like a loaded baked potato.”
Mom needs to do the chopping, but Moos said kids can help with dumping, piling and putting stuff in bowls, along with (depending on their ages) cracking the eggs and mixing the sour cream and truffle oil.
Chefs love it when their kids get busy in the kitchen to make them something special for Father’s Day. Tony Poulin, a chef instructor at Southern Maine Community College and father to a 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, says his perfect Father’s Day meal would be “fresh Maine sea scallops, prepared any way.”
Mitchell Kaldrovich, chef at Sea Glass at Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth and father of a 2-year-old daughter (and another daughter on the way), thinks a Croque Monsieur would please dad and be easy for a child to make.
In guy speak, a Croque Monsieur is the French version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (usually Gruyere) with a creamy, cheesy bechamel sauce. Kaldrovich would add some crispy bacon and a strawberry, banana and honey shake.
Kaldrovich, who grew up in Argentina, says his dream Father’s Day brunch would be a natural gaucho steak chimichurri with steak fries.
Chef Steve Corry, co-owner with his wife Michelle of Portland restaurants Five Fifty-Five and Petite Jacqueline, has two boys ages 5 and 2.
“They’re a little young to dabble in the kitchen,” he said. “The 2-year-old is clearly too small. The 5-year-old helps me whip up pancake batter and things like that.”
If the kids were to make his Father’s Day breakfast, Corry said, it would probably be something along the lines of a Croque Madame “just because the kids love grilled cheese sandwiches.”
A Croque Madame sounds more like something you’d serve on Mother’s Day, but it’s basically a Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top. There are plenty of recipes online, or if you’d rather go out, both Petite Jacqueline and The Front Room in Portland have Croque Madames on their brunch menus.
Corry says his ideal Father’s Day meal would have some kick to it because he likes spicy breakfast foods. Chili, eggs and cornbread sound good to him.
“I think I would kind of poach the eggs right on top of the chili, maybe have some tortilla chips sticking out of there, and cornbread on the side – skillet cornbread, maybe,” Corry said.
“I could go on and on about breakfast,” he said. “It’s a dangerous meal.”
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
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