Breakfast for Dinner or Just Breakfast, you choose.
This wonderful dish is a fantastic take on a Chorizo hash, in which the fresh sausage is paired with onions, garlic, and potatoes. 
There’s a hint of pickled onion, a tablespoon or so of cheese and the hash then tops a Corn Tortilla. The crowning glory is an Olive Oil-basted fried egg that tops the dish. It’s easy to make. It takes all of 30 minutes to create a crispy, flavor-filled hash with a mild hint of spice combined with the unctuous yolk of a perfectly fried egg. It’s so good you’ll be tempted to eat it at any meal—even breakfast.
Did you know that the word “Dinner” used to refer to breakfast?
I was surprised to read that the Old French word for dinner, disnar, actually means breakfast. Then again, breakfast itself did not exist until the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. Mealtime for Europe’s monarchs was a social occasion when lots of time was spent at table. Only two meals were served, one midday and one in the evening. Their actual times varied but two meals were the rule, not the exception. The literal definition of breakfast—breaking the fast—after a night of slumber was actually condemned by the Catholic Church. No less than Thomas Aquinas wrote that breakfast committed ‘praepropere’—the sin of eating too soon. This was associated with one of the seven deadly sins—gluttony. The thinking was that if one ate breakfast one had other lusty appetites for things like wine and ale.
How did we get from being a deadly sin to being “the most important meal of the day?”
In much of Europe, breakfast was granted to children, the elderly, the sick, and working men. Eating breakfast me that you were poor, a laborer who needed the energy to sustain their labor. Exceptions were made for noble travelers who were permitted to eat breakfast while they were away from home, presumably to sustain them during their journeys. It took a very long time, but this is how by the 16th-century breakfast became commonplace. And the introduction of caffeinated beverages—coffee and tea drunk first thing in the morning–cemented Europe’s relationship to breakfast.
Where Breakfast for Dinner came from.
Three years ago, McDonald’s announced that it would be serving its breakfast items all day. It was really just acknowledging something that was already happening. A survey in Britain found that in typical households there, one in three served breakfast foods for dinner at least once a week. Do you suppose they call them “Full English Dinners?” Breakfast for dinner is ‘different’ without being too exotic. When you are hungry and it’s your usual dinner time, you are more likely to choose typical dinner foods like pasta or steak versus making pancakes. But when hunger isn’t the chief motivator, there’s a certain novelty and appeal of a time atypical food. When it comes down to it, try today’s recipe anytime you like. It will delight you just as much in the morning as it will anytime after 5. Here is the recipe. And after it, a couple of other Breakfast dishes to enjoy.
Chorizo Breakfast Tacos
Spicy Chorizo hash tops a tortilla and cheese and is topped off with a perfect fried egg.
Ingredients
- 1 large spring onion, tops removed, bulb thinly sliced, or 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 4 ounces fresh chorizo, casings removed
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 small russet potato
- 4 Olive Oil-Basted Fried Eggs (Recipe follows)
- Warm corn tortillas, crumbled cotija cheese, and lime wedges (for serving)
- 3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
Directions
- Step 1 For the Tacos: Give spring onion, vinegar, and a pinch of salt a good toss in a small bowl. Let sit while you prepare the hash. This will be just enough time to lightly pickle the onion.
- Step 2 Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium skillet over medium. Cook chorizo, breaking up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer chorizo to a plate with a slotted spoon.
- Step 3 Add yellow onion and garlic to fat in skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6–8 minutes.
- Step 4 Meanwhile, grate potato on the coarse holes of a box grater. Put potatoes into paper or dish towel. Squeeze firmly over the sink to remove excess water.
- Step 5 Add potato, chorizo, and remaining 1 Tbsp. oil to skillet. Cook, turning hash occasionally and breaking up with a spoon, until potato is golden brown, cooked through, and crunchy around the edges, 8–10 minutes.
- Step 6 Assemble tacos with hash, fried eggs, tortillas, drained pickled spring onions, and cotija. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.
- Step 7 For the Olive Oil–Basted Fried Eggs
- Step 8 Heat oil in a medium nonstick skillet (a 10″ skillet is perfect for 2 eggs) over medium-high. When the oil is shimmering, carefully add eggs one at a time, shaking the pan gently after each addition. Cook eggs, shaking pan occasionally to keep them from sticking to each other (a rubber spatula can help nudge them apart if needed) until edges are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully tilt skillet toward you so that oil pools at the front edge of the pan. Spoon hot oil over egg whites, especially anywhere they are still translucent, while avoiding yolks, until whites are set, about 1 minute more. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to blot oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Cranberry Crumb Cake with Almonds and Oats from Saveur Magazine
