Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan

I was introduced to Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan in New Orleans during a road trip by the Aulacord Duo around 1978. We were looking for business playing for college campus activity centers. The Association all the colleges belonged to held their convention there that year. After a long day on the road I spent the first night with the car and the trailer in a $10 trucker's motel while the new guitarist spent the night comfortably at his in-laws up near Lake Pontchartrain. They were out of town and I was Not Allowed. This was because of some incident involving my former guitarist. He had misbehaved himself in a big way in a similar situation some years before. I was Tainted With The Same Stripe because I knew him. I never knew the details. The next day things were cleared up and I rejoined the fold. We made this for breakfast. I did the dishes in gratitude for belonging once again to the Human Race...



There were other culinary highlights to the trip, but I'll never be able to make beignets and why would I want to? Like malasadas from Leonards Bakery (in Honolulu), they melt in the mouth .. but honey, I just don't need them in my kitchen. "A minute on the lips" is the word to the wise. If I want beignets, I should go to New Orleans and get them at the Café Du Monde (or, more to my taste, at the Morning Call in Metaire). If I want beignets I should  w a l k  to New Orleans (towing the car behind me). I also recall a steakhouse whose owner had been to McDonald's University and got you served and out the door in twenty minutes (this is not a recommendation), and one amazing dinner at an historic restaurant in the Quarter. But I digress: this is an blog entry about Eggs Scrambled with Parsley and Parmesan.


That first time, the result just didn't measure up to the name. I know people who love the smell and the idea of coffee, but who can't stand the taste. This was the same way. The name and the idea far surpassed the reality. One issue was the cheese, which we shook out of a cardboard canister, a cream-colored powder like cheap coffee creamer. It tasted about the same. The other was .. the parsley. A new bunch with freshly snipped leaves, and simply not tastable. I tried several times over the next thirty years. The simple truth was this: If I used enough parsley to get any flavor, the eggs turned green and would barely hold together.


I finally had the idea that brought this dish around. I knew long ago that, to get the flavor from parsley, you cook the minced stems and save the leaves for garnish. I had always used the fresh leaves with the eggs. Problem solved.

Ingredients:
4 eggs, scrambled
a handful of freshly grated (not pre-pulverized) parmesan cheese
a small onion, diced
A small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
A quarter lemon
a small pat of butter
Fresh-ground coarse pepper
Salt (to taste)

Method:
Saute the onion, the parsley and the pepper in the butter
Squeeze the lemon into the pan
Stir in the eggs and the parmesan
Serve when it is cooked - not too long, though.

===
The lemon juice is part of the secret too.
You may like the result if you stir an ounce of cream into the eggs...


Parmesan photograph from the Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Spa.
Parsley drawing from the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Serves two, each:
calories: 240
carboydrates: 7 grams