Comfort Food : Breakfast: The Meal You Can Count On : Morning Basics: Just Plain Appealing

As long as I can remember, breakfast has been one of the few constants in life. It is as comforting as sleeping in one’s own bed or listening to a favorite song. I’m not talking about brunch, which I consider a cluttered, undefined meal. Breakfast is plain and personal.

The appeal of breakfast has increased for me since we entered the great food renaissance 15 or 20 years ago. These years have brought many exciting and stimulating new ingredients and dishes to our tables, but also many disappointments. Cooks and chefs have become stars; food has become a vehicle for showing off creative dishes. Plates have become palettes; food is paint. At times, we’ve forgotten that food should taste good.

But breakfast brings us back to basics. As little as possible is done so the food retains the taste and texture of good, wholesome ingredients. Supermarket breakfast food--the toasted pop-up or the “tarted-up” box cereal--is not what I mean. Fresh fruit or juice, good cooked grains, homey breads, jams, honey, milk, eggs, bacon, ham, home-baked quick breads and griddle cakes, breakfast cheese--these are the reviving foods that should start the day.

Simple as breakfast is, putting cereal in a bowl is not the only way to prepare it. Like a Scrabble game, the basic ingredients can be rearranged into various combinations. The possibilities are endless: custards made of eggs, milk and sugar; cookies made with flour, butter, sugar, raisins or other fruit and oatmeal; cakes with flour, fruits, milk, eggs and butter; pies with fruit or custard filling and crusts with flour, fat and cornmeal or oatmeal, and good bread, with its many variations, the symbol of all that is simple and the best in our diet.

KEDGEREE

3 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and finely chopped

1 1/2 cups freshened, boned, skinned and flaked finnan haddie, or any smoked fish

3 cups cooked basmati rice (try brown basmati rice)

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Generous grindings black pepper

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt, optional

Lime wedges

Combine eggs, fish and rice in large mixing bowl. Toss together lightly to mix. Combine whipping cream, curry powder and nutmeg in small saucepan. Heat, stirring until spices are blended. Add cream mixture, pepper and lemon juice to rice mixture and gently toss.

Taste for salt and seasoning (dish may not need salt if smoked fish is salty). Put Kedgeree in casserole and heat at 325 degrees only until hot. Serve lime wedges placed in platter.

BRIDGE CREEK FRESH

GINGER MUFFINS

1 (2-ounce) piece unpeeled ginger root

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons), with some white pith

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cut unpeeled ginger into large chunks. Process ginger into tiny pieces (or chop by hand into fine pieces). You should have about 1/4 cup, better too much than not enough. Add ginger and 1/4 cup sugar in small skillet and cook over medium heat until sugar has melted and mixture is hot. (Don’t walk away from pan; this takes only couple of minutes.) Remove from stove and let cool.

Combine lemon zest and 3 tablespoons sugar in food processor and process into small bits. (Or chop lemon zest by hand, then mix with sugar.) Add lemon mixture to ginger mixture. Stir and set aside.

Cream butter in mixing bowl 1 to 2 seconds. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs and beat well. Add buttermilk and mix until blended. Add flour, salt and baking soda. Mix lightly just to blend. Add ginger-lemon mixture and mix well. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins so that each cup is 3/4 full. Bake at 375 degrees 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm. Makes about 14 medium muffins.

These biscuits will be only about 3/8-inch high and rather flat. This is the way they are supposed to be. They’re very tasty, the barley lending a homey flavor.

BUTTERMILK BARLEY

BISCUITS

1 1/4 cups barley flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Stir with fork to mix well. Stir in buttermilk and beat briskly until mixed and smooth. Add melted butter and blend well.

Dust board with flour and turn dough onto board. Pat dough into piece about 1/4 inch thick. Use 2 or 2 1/2-inch cutter to cut out biscuits. Pierce each biscuit 2 or 3 times on top with tines of fork. Place biscuits little apart (although these won’t spread during baking) on greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Serve warm.

Note: Barley flour is available in health food stores.