Joe’s Special

I love scrambles! Just add a few ingredients to humble scrambled eggs and, presto! Now you’ve got a more exciting meal! Joe’s Special is one of my favorite scrambles. It features ground beef and spinach in addition to the eggs. I usually order it when I see it on a restaurant breakfast menu, and sometimes

make it at home when I have extra ground beef to use up. I’ve enjoyed this unassuming combination since I was a kid.

I use fresh spinach because I usually have it on hand and I don’t bother chopping it. I just throw it in the pan and let it wilt. I serve the scramble with Portland French Bakery’s City Sourdough Wheat Bread. Enjoy!

Joe’s Special
-recipe from A Real American Breakfast by Cheryl Alters Jamison & Bill Jamison

The people who count such things say that scrambles now outrank all other egg preparations in America’s affections. This San Francisco creation — claimed by almost every Joe who’s owned a restaurant in the Bay area — helps to explain the popularity. With the addition of ingredients as basic but as unlikely as ground beef and spinach, the namesake cook (probably Italian-American) turned straightforward scrambled eggs into a distinctive treasure of tastes. For a full sense of place, serve the eggs with good sourdough toast. Makes 4 servings.

6 large eggs
Splash or two of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or oregano
1/2 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper or more to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 pound lean freshly ground beef, preferably chili grind (a bit coarser than hamburger grind)
3/4 to 1 pound fresh spinach, preferably the crinkly savoy variety, trimmed of stems and chopped, or one 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the Tabasco, salt, basil, and pepper. Whisk just enough to combine; you should still see large bubbles. Set aside.

Warm the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the onion and sauté until soft but not beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the ground beef and continue cooking until uniformly brown, breaking the meat into small pieces as it cooks. Cover with the spinach, place a lid over the mixture, and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the spinach wilts. (If using frozen spinach, cook, covered, for 1 minute, just to take off its raw edge.)

Stir the spinach into the meat, cooking briefly to eliminate excess liquid if the mixture seems watery. Pour the egg mixture over all, stirring with a spatula from the bottom until the eggs begin to set. Remove from the heat and stir a few more times, as the eggs cook through from the residual heat. Serve immediately.