When I saw the Paper Chef ingredient list at Owen’s blog, Tomatilla, I knew immediately that there was something I could do with it! How exciting, as I have never joined Paper Chef before. The extra time given probably relaxed my brain cells enough to actually organize my thoughts and recall a favorite dish.

Years ago when we still lived in St. Louis, we sometimes had Sunday brunch at Tippin’s, a chain that specialized in American fare and pies. One of the fail-safe items on their menu was a dish called Florentine Skillet: a melange of panfried potatoes, spinach, scrambled eggs, and bacon, topped with a creamy hollandaise sauce and delivered to your table in a one-serving cast-iron skillet. Tippin’s has since closed their doors, driven away by the low-carb craze, but my fond memories remain.

My version’s just a wee bit more refined, with some lively mushroom duxelles thrown into the mix, and black olives to flavor and provide texture to the hollandaise. It’s a great brunch item, the hollandaise sauce unifying all the seemingly disparate entities. Since there are quite a number of steps, you can choose to prepare some of the ingredients the night before and finish your assembly in the morning.

Serving 4-6

Bacon:

6 strips bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, cooked in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 10 minutes or until fat is rendered and bacon pieces are crisp but not burned. Drain on a paper towel. Reserve 2 tablespoons fat for cooking potatoes if desired. (You can keep bacon fat in a jar in your refrigerator; used in moderation, it’s a lovely flavoring for anytime you want to make pan-fried or roasted potatoes a bit more special.) — can be prepared the night before; when bacon is completely cool, store in a covered container until needed.

Potatoes:

2 tablespoons bacon fat or extra-virgin olive oil
5 medium red potatoes, peeled if desired and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the fat or olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add potato cubes in one layer and cover, cooking for 15-20 minutes, turning once or twice when underside is browned nicely. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm until needed.

Mushroom Duxelles:

2 teaspoons butter
6 large button mushrooms, wiped clean and diced
2 teaspoons minced shallots or green onions/scallions
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Madeira or Port, optional

In a skillet, heat the butter and mushrooms over medium heat until butter is melted and mushrooms are starting to soften. Add minced shallots or green onions and salt and pepper to taste. Let mushrooms render their juices, about 5 minutes, stirring. Add Madeira or Port and cook 5 minutes more, stirring, until liquid is almost completely gone. Another element that can be prepared ahead of time. (Duxelles are a nifty thing to have around, and you can easily triple or quadruple this recipe. When you make duxelles, you can put them in a jar and refrigerate or freeze them, and use them to add extra flavor to omelettes, soups, sauces and other things.)

Spinach

Trim, wash and dry 1/2 lb. spinach. Steam, or if you want, you can cook semi-dry spinach in a skillet over low-medium heat without water or oil, just until wilted. Keep warm, covered, until needed.

Black Olive Hollandaise

The yolks from 3 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more if needed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided use
1/4 cup finely chopped black olives
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan, combine yolks and lemon juice, stirring well. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and set over very low heat, whisking gently but constantly, until mixture starts to thicken, about 4 minutes. Remove immediately from heat and add remaining butter, stirring constantly until evenly incorporated and mixture is smooth. Stir in black olives and season to taste with salt and pepper. (I used regular black olives to balance the saltiness from the bacon and the cheddar, but if you want a more assertive flavor you can substitute kalamatas for the olives.) Supposedly, hollandaise can also be prepared ahead and reheated very gently, but I don’t recommend it as I feel that the sauce thickens too much that way.

Cheddar Scrambled Eggs

4 large eggs
1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar (your choice, I used Cabot Sharp)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
cooking spray

Scramble eggs in a bowl and add cheddar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick skillet or wok over high heat. When hot, spray with cooking spray and immediately add the scrambled eggs. Stir vigorously and cook eggs to whatever stage you desire (I like mine semi-creamy so it doesn’t take more than a minute.) Remove from heat and chop into largish pieces.

Now you are ready to assemble the dish!

Two ways to serve:

• Heat large skillet over medium heat. Combine potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon, spinach and mushroom duxelles, folding everything quickly but gently. When hot, scoop into individual plates and drizzle with the hollandaise sauce. Serve with cut-up fresh fruit and orange juice.
• A more elegant way (I started doing this, but my family started to complain that they were hungry, so I ended up with the first method!): On a warmed plate, set a 5-inch round mold in the center. Spoon a layer of potatoes, then the spinach and mushroom duxelles, then the eggs, and finally the bacon on top. Remove mold and drizzle with hollandaise. Serve with a blueberry-strawberry compote and a nice mimosa.

I normally wouldn’t make a Sunday entry, but the hubby just came home last night after a week in Germany, and I wanted to make today’s brunch special. Now that he’s back, the kids are happy, and life, once again, is a bowl of cherries.