Scrambled Eggs & Smoked Salmon Wrap

There are various ways to scramble eggs; so, use your own method. Some people add water, some add milk, some add cream, and some see the addition of any of these liquids as heresy. Then, some people draw in the edges of the cooking eggs, some start in the middle and move them outward, some just start stirring. None of this will end civilization, unless we choose to make it the next silly thing we say we will fight to the death over. Four ounces of cream cheese is simply half of a typical "block" package of cream cheese. In the U.S., smoked salmon is more typically sold in flat small packages with one or more thin slices of smoked salmon per package, but you may also find it in pieces that you can slice yourself. I added the optional red chilies for chili pepper lovers, but if you love the taste of smoked salmon, you should probably leave the chilies out of the recipe, as they will likely overwhelm the other flavors. Finally, if you haven't worked with avocados, once you cut them open and remove the seed, you can the scoop out the flesh in one piece, with a large spoon, and then slice it, but you must squeeze some lemon juice over the avocado, or it will begin to darken.

Ingredients (4 wraps)

1/4 pound smoked salmon, cut or torn into bite size pieces

2 tablespoons butter (more if needed)

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt 

(Optional) 2 to 3 small red chilies, chopped

4 tablespoons evaporated (canned) milk

4 ounces cream cheese, cubed

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 avocado, sliced with some lemon juice squeezed over it

4 slices tomato, chopped (remove the seeds, if you'd like)

hot sauce to taste

4 flour tortillas (8 inch diameter size)

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the evaporated milk, ground black pepper and salt; then, whisk the egg mixture well, until there is a little foaminess in the eggs, set aside briefly. You can heat the tortillas in the oven, but I run some water onto a paper towel, wring it out, then cover a tortilla with the paper towel on a microwave safe dish, then zap it for about 20 seconds; repeat individually for whatever number of tortillas you are using. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter over low heat. Whip the eggs again briefly, and the add the eggs to the skillet and, if using chilies, quickly scatter the chopped chilies around to prevent them from piling up in one or two locations, and creating a flamethrower for the person getting them (of course, if you or others love the heat, pile them on). Then spread around the salmon pieces and cream cheese cubes. While this has only been a few seconds, the eggs will be motoring right along; so, scramble the eggs by your own method, but I begin to draw the edges of the eggs in toward the middle, then keep moving them around (swirling motion, I guess is best to describe it). You can lift the skillet off of the heat while you're moving around the eggs, but if there isn't much "liquidy" egg to be seen, turn off the heat. Remember, the residual heat of the skillet will help cook any remnant of uncooked egg. When finished, divide the cooked eggs and place a portion that runs through the middle of each tortilla. Top the eggs with a little raw onion, a couple of slices of avocado and some chopped tomato. Sprinkle on a few drops of hot sauce (or more than a few, for those who like some sizzle). Fold the tortilla around the filling and you're ready to eat.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fawn (Fetus)-"Fawn" is the noun for a baby deer (the verb, often used with 'over,' in 'to fawn over,' is a different and unrelated word). "Fawn" is related to "female" and to "feminine," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from Latin-based French. "Fawn" goes back to Indo European "dhe(i)," which meant "to suck, to suckle." This gave Old Italic "fetos" (the Indo European form rendered as "f" in Italic), which gave Latin "fetus," meaning "an offspring, the production or fruit of a plant" (fruit in the general sense, not the specific classification). This gave Latin the noun "fetonem," with the meaning "young animal." This passed into Old French as "feon," meaning "a young animal," with more of a tendency to usage for "a young deer," and also with the spelling "faon." English borrowed the word in the mid 1300s, with the spellings "foun," "fowne," "fawne," before the modern form, and by which time the usage for deer type animals had become pretty much the exclusive meaning.

Mexican Scrambled Eggs: Huevos a la Mexicana

This is a common dish in Mexico and there are some generally minor variations. You can make it as mild or hot as you like: for mild, use one seeded jalapeño pepper; for a bit more kick, use two seeded jalapeños; for more heat, use one jalapeño and one serrano pepper; and, for lots of heat, use two serranos with seeds.


Ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 jalapeño or serrano chili peppers (can seed them or not), chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or you can use canned tomatoes)
2 tablespoon red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons oil

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook about 90 seconds. Add the garlic, chili pepper, bell pepper and tomato, cook about another 2 to 3 minutes, until the peppers and tomatoes soften. Add the ground cumin, cilantro and salt, stir to mix everything. Add the eggs and let them just begin to set, then stir and move the eggs to scramble them until done. Serve with refried beans* and warm  corn tortillas.

* To make your own refried beans, this is the link to the article:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/11/refried-beans-frijoles-refritos.html

Huevos a la Mexicana with refried beans and a corn tortilla...

WORD HISTORY:
Mince-This word is distantly related to the word "mite" (small insect), a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to the words "minor" and "minus," both words of Latin derivation, borrowed by English. It goes back to Indo European "mei," which meant, "small." This gave Old Germanic "minniz," which meant, "smaller, less." This produced the verb "minnizan(an)," meaning, "to make smaller, to make (something) less." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "minsian," meaning, "to make smaller, to lessen." The Old Germanic form also gave Frankish, another Germanic dialect/language, and close relative of English, "minn," meaning, "small, less," and the derived Frankish verb "minnson." This "may" have become a part of Old French as the verb, "mincier," meaning, "to cut or make into small parts," as the Frankish spoken in what is much of modern France and Belgium was absorbed into the Latin dialects of that region in an ongoing process over a period of a few hundred years, with some Frankish words disappearing, but other Frankish words surviving in some form for varying periods of time, right up to the present. Likely the English form, which had become "minsen," was influenced, at least in spelling, by the French word, as the spelling became "mincen," circa 1400, before the modern form, and the meaning, "to cut items (usually food) into very small pieces," seems to have also come via French. A secondary meaning developed in the 1500s, "to use polite ways in language to express a thought (usually in disagreement), rather than more direct speech" (example: "I won't mince words. Your behavior is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated!") There are still some other Germanic relatives around: German has "minder" ("less, inferior:" that is, "less in quality," also, the noun, "Minderheit"=minority), Low German "minn" ("little (in amount);" as in, "few, limited, scarce"), West Frisian has "min" ("little;" as in, "few, scarce"), Dutch "min" ("less, small in amount"), Swedish "mindre" ("small/smaller, less/lesser, few/fewer"), Icelandic "minna" (less), Danish/Norwegian "mindre" (less).  

Turkish Scrambled Eggs: Menemen

This is not a typical dish of eggs with some vegetables mixed in, but rather a dish of scrambled eggs more heavily laden with finely chopped vegetables. The "heat level" should be tolerable for just about everyone, except for those who like lots of heat; in which case, you can use the seeds in the chili pepper, and double the amount of cayenne pepper. Turks have this dish with pita bread (Turkish: "pide") or round sesame seed bread (Turkish: "simit"), and additionally, they may serve the eggs with black olives, feta-like cheese, or garlicky yogurt. The Turkish name for this dish is, "menemen," pronounced as if, "meh-nah-men."

Ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 green or yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 jalapeño or serrano chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper* or 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2/3 cup tomato, chopped (or drained canned chopped tomatoes)
2/3 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (+ sprigs for garnish, if desired)

In a skillet, heat the oil over low heat, add the butter. When the butter is melted, mix it well with the oil, then add the onion, the bell peppers and the chili pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and the tomatoes. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about another 6 to 8 minutes, stirring as necessary to keep any of the mixture from burning. Add the ground Aleppo or cayenne pepper, the oregano, the chopped parsley and the salt. Add the eggs and mix them into the other ingredients. Keep stirring the egg/vegetable mixture with a fork or a spatula until the eggs are cooked. If, by chance, you live near a Turkish bakery, you can buy some "simit bread," also called, by some, "Turkish bagels." I used two types of bread in the photo below, but neither is Turkish.

* Aleppo pepper is a ground chili pepper used in some Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean cooking. It is reddish or orangish in color and typically it is not mouth-blistering in heat. Aleppo is available in some supermarkets, spice shops or shops handling Middle Eastern food products.

WORD HISTORY:
Range-This word, related to "rank," ^ has a very complicated history in terms of meaning developments, but it goes back to Indo European "krengh," which meant "to turn or to bend," seemingly derived from Indo European "sker," the principle meaning of which was "to cut," but with a secondary meaning of "to bend, to curve," perhaps from the notion of cutting something off and then forming it into a particular shape, and thus seen as the result of "cutting." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "khrengaz," meaning "that which is curved, a bent object." This gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect, "hring" ("ring," an object bent into a circular form), which was then borrowed into Old French as "reng," which then became "ranc." At this time it took on the meaning "row, line," but exactly why this meaning developed is unclear. This then gave Old French the verb, "rengier," meaning, "to arrange in a row, to place in order." This was borrowed into English in the early 1200s as "rengen," which "seems" to have been influenced in spelling by the French spelling change from "rengier" to "ranger." The noun, too, was borrowed in the early 1200s, with the meaning, "row of hunters, row of soldiers." This then began to develop into the meaning, "hunters 'ranging' over an area," and it further influenced the meaning of the noun to, "a large area (initially for hunting)," but the meaning of, "in a row," did not die out, but rather came to be applied to mountains and hills, "a range of mountains; mountain range." The noun also developed the sense, "from one point to another point ('a range');" thus, the modern use in, for example, "range of options." From the 'distance' idea also came the meaning, "the distance (the range) a shot from a gun could go;" which then provided the basis for, "place for gun firing practice (rifle or gun range)." Why the cooking device/appliance is called a "range" is not known, although initially many fireplaces had "rows" of hooks for pots, and the idea might have transferred to the stove with openings on the top to cook food.    

^ "Rank" was derived from Germanic, but it was borrowed by English (and by German as, "Rang") from French, which had gotten it from Frankish, the language of the Germanic tribe, the Franks.

Scrambled Eggs a la India

Scrambled egg dishes in India go by different names: egg bhurji, akoori, ekoori, akuri, and perhaps others, but they are all spiced up scrambled eggs and have many of the same ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (yellow, brown or black) 
1 small onion, chopped
1 or 2 green or red chili peppers, chopped, or 1 or 2 teaspoons chili pepper flakes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or sunflower oil)
1 tablespoon butter (to finish)

It is good to use a spatter screen for your skillet. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds, which will begin to pop within a few seconds; immediately add the onion, the ginger and the chili pepper; cook until the onion begins to soften. Add the tomato and cook for about 1 minute, then add the ground cumin, the turmeric, the salt and 2 tablespoons of the chopped coriander. Stir to mix and cook an additional minute. Lower the heat to low, then pour the beaten eggs over the mixture. Stir occasionally as the eggs begin to firm up into the curds of scrambled eggs. Divide the tablespoon of butter into smaller pieces and add to the top of each serving. The hot eggs will melt the butter. Sprinkle a little of the remaining tablespoon of chopped coriander over each serving.  

With some flatbread

WORD HISTORY:
Cheetah-This word for "a large, sleek, spotted member of the cat family, known for its speed and agility; and thus, its hunting prowess," is distantly related to obsolete English words "hador" and "hædor," dialectal forms from the same Old Germanic source, with both meaning "bright;" thus also, "clear" (close English cousin, German, still has "heiter," meaning "bright, cheery"), and very distantly related to both "shine," and to the suffix "-hood," as in "neighborhood, adulthood." It goes back to Indo European "skai," which meant "bright, shining, clear." This produced the "k" dominant form "kitro/kitdra," with the same meanings. This gave Sanskrit^ the transliterated "chitra," which meant, "speckled." This then produced "chitraka," which meant, "speckled body;" thus, "type of leopard." This gave Hindi the transliterated "chita," and the transliterated Urdu "cheeta,"^^ meaning "speckled or multicolored cat, a cheetah." England's involvement in India brought the word into English in the 1700s, although its wider use didn't happen until later in the 1700s.     

^ Sanskrit is an ancient language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European; thus, it is related to English, although much further down the family tree. It is still in use to some degree, especially in India.

^^ Hindi and Urdu are also Indo European languages from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European. They have many similarities and are mutually intelligible in most cases.