Cooking For Others: Breakfast at the US Open

EVENT: Breakfast at Wimbledon
VENUE: Phoebe’s Grandparents’ House, Martha’s Vineyard
PARTY-SIZE: 4
TYPE: Televised Sporting Event & Egg-Eating Session
MENU: Bluefish Hash with Mustard and Lemon Thyme; Olive Oil Fried Eggs
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Lodge Cast Iron Skillet-Buy It Now OpenSky!

I don’t really watch sports, to put it mildly.

I’m still not sure if I understand the rules of football. I “went” to a number of games in college—but never actually made it into the stadium for most. I’ll occasionally attend televised sporting events at bars or my guy friends’ apartments—mainly Adam’s Super Bowl Party—but if it were appropriate to do so, I would rather stay home and eat wings while watching The Rachel Zoe Project.

The one exception is tennis. I love watching this sport, especially when my future husband, Rafa Nadal, is playing. I find tennis exciting, but I also find that it has the highest percentage of attractive men, which is impressive, since there are usually only two players on the court. Usually both of them are hot.

That probably was the reason why my grandmother always had the TV tuned to tennis. I have many summer memories of going over to my grandparents’ house on Martha’s Vineyard and joining my grandma to watch Wimbledon. She’d offer me ginger-peach tea and Nilla wafers, and then complain about how Pete Sampras’ power serve ruined the sport. I thought Agassi was way cuter, so I’d agree.

Now, my parents have taken grandma’s place on that very same couch. This summer I was there to join them for the Wimbledon final, and I made a breakfast of champions to help cheer on Mr Phoebe Lapine (né Nadal). We always seem to have leftover blue fish out here from the previous night’s dinner, and I tossed that in a skillet with a few fingerling potatoes from Morning Glory Farm some fresh lemon thyme from the garden, and voila.

The breakfast (and the outcome) was ideal. And when my hero is done winning grand slams, and dating the beautiful Spanish woman who was sitting in his box during the match, I will make it for Rafa as we watch the Wimbledon final from his Uncle Tony’s sofa in 2018.

But in the meantime, I’m going to be making this hash for my friends, who are coming over this weekend to watch the US Open final, eat brunch, and debate who has the better backhand, and the better butt.

From my kitchen, serving a breakfast of (tennis) champions, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

Bluefish Hash with Mustard and Lemon Thyme
Serves 4

You can really use any type of leftover fish for this recipe. Salmon, even, would be delicious.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 red potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), in a 1-inch dice
1 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon Coleman’s mustard powder
1 tablespoon lemon thyme leaves (1/2 tablespoon regular thyme)
1/2 pound cooked blue fish, flaked
Juice of 1/2 lemon

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over a high flame. When hot, add the potatoes. Saute over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, until beginning to brown. Add the onion and continue to saute until the potatoes are very brown and cooked through, another 10 to 15 minutes. Add the mustard powder, thyme, and blue fish. Saute for another 5 minutes, until the fish is heated through, stirring infrequently (you don’t want to break apart the fish too much). Season generously with salt and squeeze the lemon over the hash.

Serve with an olive oil fried egg.