Saturday, September 13, 2014

Irish Cheese Noodle Breakfast Mold

Cooking Irish can also be found at Pinterest and PETITCHEF.


[This is the closest image I could find of the noodle ring. As soon as I make one I will take a picture and substitute the real dish. At least you can see what the noodle mold will look like but visualize this smothered in a cheese sauce and the center filled with breakfast meats with tomato and mushroom garnish.]

We had this at a B&B just outside of London. When we touring England, we did not make reservations so toward late afternoon we always started to look for a good B&B or hotel. We stopped at a place that looked very inviting. The owner said he was booked but was willing to give us his room. He said he made the most unique breakfast in all of the British Isles, and I think I would have to agree with him. He made a cheese and egg noodle mold filled sausages and rashers. Yum, yum, and more yum!! And he was kind enough to share the recipe with me. He said he got it from a cousin who lived in Pennsylvania.  Small world.  When I returned to The States, I discovered it is a very old German recipe found in many Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks.  I always use the recipe that he provided, but there are many variations online one could try.  Most recipes call for Swiss cheese, some gruyere, and most call for the center to be filled with vegetables such as mushrooms, peas and carrots, asparagus tips, creamed spinach, creamed cauliflower, cheesed broccoli, etc.  I have never seen it made as a breakfast entrée as it was served in Britain.  And I really enjoy that version so that is the one I will present here.


Eli, Carla Mooney, and I at Trafalgar Square in July of 1985


Eli, Carla, and Teri Mooney at Trafalgar Square in July of 1985


Yours truly, Carla, Teri, and Eli playing with the pigeons in Trafalgar Square in July of 1985

Trafalgar Square is a square in central London.  With its position in the heart of the city, it is a tourist attraction and one of the most famous squares in the world.  At its center is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base.  Many statues and sculptures are on display in the square, including a fourth section displaying changing pieces of contemporary art.  The square is also London's most prominent site for political demonstrations. The square consists of a large central area surrounded by roadways on three sides, and stairs leading to the National Gallery on the other.

On the north side of the square is the National Gallery, and to its east is St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church.  The square adjoins The Mall via Admiralty Arch to the southwest.  To the south is Whitehall, to the east Strand and South Africa House, to the north Charing Cross Road, and on the west side Canada House. The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews [stables and later garages] since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming north from Westminster.  As the midpoint between these twin cities, Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which all distances are measured.

In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area.  Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme.  The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845. The square has become a social and political location for visitors and Londoners alike, developing over its history from "an esplanade peopled with figures of national heroes, into the country’s foremost place politique", as historian Rodney mace has written.  Its symbolic importance was demonstrated in 1940 when the Nazi SS developed secret plans to transfer Nelson's Column to Berlin following an expected German invasion.  It would be comparable to the Germans taking our Statue of Liberty and planting it in the middle of Potsdam Square or the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

The square used to be famous for its feral pigeons, and feeding them was a popular activity with Londoners and tourists.  The National Portrait Gallery displays a 1948 photograph of Elizabeth Taylor posing there with birdseed so as to be mobbed by birds.  The desirability of the birds' presence has long been contentious: their droppings look ugly on buildings and damage the stonework, and the flock, estimated at its peak to be 35,000, was considered to be a health hazard.  In 2000, the sale of birdseed in the square was controversially terminated, and other measures were introduced to discourage the pigeons, including the use of trained falcons.  In 2003 and 2007 laws were passed to forbid feeding the birds in most of the square, so today there are few birds in Trafalgar Square.  It is used for festivals and hired out to film companies in a way that was not feasible in the 1990s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/pigeons_gallery.shtml

Elizabeth Taylor in Trafalgar Square in November of 1948 with the pigeons



She must be have been glad they are now outlawed in most of the square.


For many years, revelers celebrating the start of a New Year have gathered on the square, despite a lack of civic celebrations being arranged for them.  The lack of official events in the square was partly because the authorities were concerned that actively encouraging more partygoers would cause overcrowding.  Since 2005, a firework display near the Square has given spectators a fitting start to the New Year. There has been a Christmas ceremony at Trafalgar Square every year since 1947.  A Norway Spruce or fir is given by Norway's capital Oslo and presented as London's Christmas tree, as a token of gratitude for Britain's support during World War II. 

Norway's Prince Olav, as well as the country's government, lived in exile in London throughout the war. As part of the tradition, the Lord  
Mayor of Westminster visits Oslo in the late autumn to take part in the felling of the tree, and the Mayor of Oslo then comes to London to light the tree at the Christmas ceremony.


Trafalgar Square is popularly used in films to suggest a generic London location as an alternative to Big Ben.  On 30 April 2009, an estimated 13,500 people visited the square between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm for a mass sing-a-long, organized by T-Moblie® as a commercial advertisement.

Here is the recipe for the breakfast noodle mold.  I imagine the owner of the B&B changed the original recipe he got from his cousin from Swiss to cheddar either because he liked cheddar better or it was in his pantry.  This has most of the ingredients of the traditional Irish breakfast though there are no fried potatoes though substituting 2 cups of hash browns or fried potatoes for the 1 cup of noodles is an alternative.  This does make for an interesting breakfast entrée with a great presentation.  We thoroughly enjoyed it that morning in 1985 just outside London.  I hope your family does as well.

IRISH CHEESE NOODLE BREAKFAST MOLD

Ingredients:

1 cup of egg noodles
3 tbsp. of butter
3 tbsp. of flour
½ tsp. of salt
Pepper to taste
½ tsp. of garlic powder
½ tsp. of paprika
1½ cups of whole milk
2 eggs, well beaten
½ lb. of mild cheddar cheese, grated
½ lb. of breakfast sausage links, cooked and kept warm

½ lb. of bacon, cooked and kept warm
½ lb. of Canadian bacon, cooked and kept warm
½ lb. of ham or ham steaks, cooked and kept warm
6 cherry tomatoes, sautéed in butter
6 mushroom caps, sautéed in butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Boil the noodles in salted water until tender according to package directions.  Drain and place in well-greased ring mold.  In a sauté pan, melt the butter, add the flour, and blend until a light roux is formed.  Gradually stir in the milk and cook, stirring constantly until thickened.  Add the seasonings and grated cheese.  Cook until the cheese melts.  Divide the sauce in half.  In a bowl, to ½ of the sauce add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.  Pour this over the noodles.  Set the mold into a pan of hot water and bake for 45 minutes. Unmold on a large platter, and pour the remaining hot cheese sauce over the mold.  Fill the center with breakfast sausage links, bacon, Canadian bacon, and ham steaks.  Garnish sides with the tomatoes and mushrooms.  

Again, a variation of this dish would be to use a package of hash browns instead of noodles and have a breakfast potato and egg mold. I'm starting to prefer that version.

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