It's Kind of Hard to Beat Brinner

Runny Yolk Brinner Goodness on a Roll!!


Awesome Jersey Tomato Caprese Salad!

BRINNER! That delectable combination of breakfast for dinner. You’d have to be a robot not to love it. As Turk from Scrubs notes, it’s kind of hard to beat brinner. This past weekend, Susan, Rich, and Connor were kind enough to send us home with some fresh Jersey tomatoes (none better in the world!), some nice Jersey sweet peppers, and some fresh jalapeños that they had left over from their CSA share. They don’t call it the Garden State for nothing, folks!

Flush with Jersey produce, Sarah and I thought we’d do a new spin on a Jersey classic: Taylor ham, egg, and tomato sandwiches last night. It’s like a brinner BLT, except without the yucky lettuce and with the yumminess of the egg! The egg and pork roll together with the cheese really highlight the sweetness of the Jersey tomatoes.

This time, to twist things up a bit, we swapped out the Taylor ham (aka pork roll) for some thick cut ham slices from Whole Foods. (Shocker: they don’t sell Taylor ham pork roll at Whole Foods! I know, right?!?) Sarah also picked up some avocado to add into the mix. And, though we usually use a Kaiser roll to house the Taylor ham version of the sandwich, Sarah picked up some challah rolls, as those were the only soft rolls available at Whole Foods.

I was really excited to get my hands on the ingredients and get cooking! The sandwich couldn’t be easier. Put the ham in the pan and heat. Then, you cook your eggs the way you like them. Sarah wanted her egg fried over-medium, while I wanted mine lightly over-easy, so I could get that nice runny yolk. Other than those two items, all you need to do is chop the tomatoes and avocado, slice the bread, and you’re done-zo. As an added flourish (and to get more of those delicious Jersey tomatoes in our bellies), Sarah made a nice Caprese salad to accompany our sandwiches (it was DELICIOUS!).

The ingredients Sarah picked out were phenomenal. The thick cut ham (we each had two slices on the sandwich) was perfectly sized to fit the roll, and ALMOST made me forget about Taylor ham altogether. The Jersey tomato provided a simultaneous sweet and crisp element that married very well with the umami notes from the ham. On top of this, we piled 6 slices of avocado, which provided a blanket of a cool creamy softness. Next up is the egg. For me, a runny egg is what brinner sandwiches (and breakfast) is all about. Just looking at the warm yolk oozing out of the tower of meat and veg encased in sweet challah bread made my mouth water. A runny egg never disappoints, in my opinion. It didn’t here either.

The only drawback to these sandwiches is that they are so good, you’ll be done in far less time than it took you to make it. It’s a disappointment. I wished our sandwiches were 3 feet wide around, that’s how good they were.

As the summer comes to an end, so too does the dream of nights of brinner meals focused around the egg, ham, and Jersey tomatoes. Though, technically, we could have these sandwiches any time of year, there’s something about the summer and limited availability of Jersey tomatoes that makes them so much more special between the months of May and September. With just a bit more time to go, I highly recommend you run out to the store, get yourselves some ham (Taylor or otherwise), egg, soft sweet rolls and some Jersey tomatoes, and make yourself one of these delectably easy-to-make brinner wonders. If this is the last one we have this summer (and I hope it isn’t), I will be happy to know that we ended on a VERY high note.