Version from Germany
Bauernfrühstück — Germany
A hearty German skillet dish of sautéed potatoes, bacon and scrambled eggs with onion and chives, usually served with a tomato or pickle salad.
- 15 min
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 4
- Servings
- Easy
- Difficulty
Bauernfrühstück, literally "farmer's breakfast," is a one-pan dish built on sautéed potatoes bound with beaten eggs, closer to a soft scramble than a firm omelette. Onions and chives are cooked through it, and leftover roast meat, bacon or ham is folded in, making it a practical way to use what remained from the previous day's dinner.
It is reported across Germany with regional differences in how it is put together; the Berlin version, known as Hoppelpoppel, is one of the better-known local names for essentially the same combination of potatoes, eggs and meat. It appears on lunch and dinner tables as often as at breakfast, usually with a side salad.
To prepare it, boiled or par-cooked potatoes are diced and browned in a pan with bacon until golden, then onion is added and softened. Beaten eggs, seasoned with salt, pepper and chives, are poured over the potatoes and gently stirred over low heat until just set, keeping the eggs soft rather than dry. It is served straight from the pan.
This version keeps to the plain combination of potatoes, bacon, onion, egg and chives, accompanied by a tomato salad or vinegar-pickled cucumbers, a pairing common across the country. Similar potato-and-egg skillet dishes exist elsewhere — the herb-flecked omelette in France, the tortilla de patatas in Spain, or the pyttipanna in Sweden — each shaped by its own local ingredients.
Preparation
Boil the potatoes until just tender, then peel and dice them.
Fry the bacon in the butter until golden, then add the potatoes and brown them well.
Add the chopped onion and cook until soft.
Beat the eggs with salt, pepper and chives.
Pour the eggs over the potatoes and stir gently over low heat until softly set.
Serve immediately with a tomato salad or pickled cucumbers.
