Hoppel poppel doesn’t come from St Olaf, the fictional mining town in Minnesota that Golden Girl Rose Nylund (Betty White) supposedly came from.
In fact, it’s German, more specifically from Berlin, but is also a part of the diet of the German-American community in the Midwest.
It’s loosely classified as a farmer’s breakfast and comprises leftover potatoes and other items cooked with meat. The meat can be bacon, salami or ham. It is completed by stirring beaten eggs into it, and sometimes cheese as well.
A stove top dish, it is described as a casserole in its Wikipedia entry, but it really isn’t a casserole and is closer to a frittata or perhaps shakshuka, although it is neither of those either, only somewhat similar.
I’d rather see it as one of those recipes suitable for leftover potatoes and bacon, with fried onion being in the mix too. I’ve even seen versions with green peas in them.
I made some the other day with onion, potatoes, bacon and eggs, plain and simple. Plan this for a morning after you’ve accidentally cooked too many potatoes. (I do that frequently.)
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped small
200 g streaky bacon, sliced into bits
8 eggs
Salt and black pepper
2 or 3 cooked potatoes (peeled), diced
Butter or oil
Chopped parsley for garnish
Method
Chop the onion and set aside. Dice the bacon. Cut the potatoes into small cubes. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in salt and pepper.
Melt butter or heat oil in a large frying pan. Add the diced bacon and fry until golden, and remove to a side bowl.
Add the onions to the pan (with more fat if needed) and fry until golden. Add the potatoes and continue to fry, moving the potatoes around to cook all over, until as golden as a Miami matron.
Return the bacon to the pan and stir. Add the beaten eggs and cook, turning and scraping with a spatula, until the eggs are just cooked.
Scatter chopped parsley over and serve. DM
Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
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TGIFood
Lekker Brekker Monday: Hoppel poppel
Huh? I know. It sounds like an obscure dish that Rose Nylund is telling the other Golden Girls about. Actually, it’s German, but also has an American home.
