I am fairly certain this little recipe began with my father who loves gardening – a hobby that I most certainly inherited.  In fact both of my grandfathers were gardeners at different scales – one owned hundreds of hectares of farmland in Ecuador where he grews cacao, rice, bananas and everything else you can imagine, and my the other had an square acre of frontyardage lined with apricot, plum, apple and pear trees and a large garden of heirloom (though we didn’t need to qualify it as such back then) fruits and vegetables that included wild strawberries, red and black currants, carrots, asparagus, zucchini, beans and peas, kohlrabi and chives.

Well sometimes these plants would migrate to my parents’ garden and chives is among the most rugged and proliferating perennials, so there were always chives growing.  My father would grab a handful of these from the garden and hack them up to toss in his Saturday morning omelets.  It got so that I couldn’t enjoy scrambled eggs without chives but short of the common “green eggs” recipe I find frequently in cookbooks, I seldom find the combination in the outside world.

Being the tinkerer that I am, I incorporated a few of my own staples to the formula so that it would suit my needs.  I also learned a few tricks along the way – one is of course to add just a drop of milk (not too much or the eggs will brown too quickly) and to always cook the eggs on low-medium heat, using the spatula to gently move (from my father) and continuously chop up the eggs (from my friend Peter Devlin who worked for a while at a greasy spoon) as they cook – this gets them the consistency you find at restaurants and cruise ships.

I like to add ginger to everything, because its so damn good for you and also aids in digestion and helps warm up the body and metabolism, both good things in the morning, so that will also make an appearance here.

Keram’s Favorite Scrambled Eggs

2 eggs (preferably organic)
4-5 strands of chives
1 teaspoon canola oil or butter
1 teaspoon of milk (lactose-free is preferred)
dash of paprika
dash of organic sea salt
a twist of fresh ground pepper
1/4 inch minced fresh ginger
(optional) half clove minced fresh garlic

• Wash and chop up the chives into small 1/8-inch pieces. Set aside.
• Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and add paprika, milk and ginger.  Beat until smooth.  You can’t overbeat the mixture; the smoother the better.
• Heat the skillet to medium temperature, add oil or butter.
• If you are using garlic, add this now, and heat for about 30 seconds – do not brown. (If they do, then your skillet is too hot!)
• Pour in egg mixture, and let it stand for about 30 seconds.
• Fold in chives.
• Use spatula to move cooked egg from sides and bottom of skillet, chopping them up consistently as they cook.
• When the majority of the eggs are cooked, as salt and pepper.
• When the eggs are no longer runny in an part, remove from heat and serve immediately.
• Enjoy.

Tags: 2 eggs, black currants, cacao, chives, cruise ships, diabetic recipes, free recipe, friend peter, fruits and vegetables, garlic, ginger, grandfathers, greasy spoon, green eggs, Keram's favorite, kholrabi, pear trees, peter devlin, recipe cards, scrambled eggs, spatula, square acre, staples, teaspoon canola oil, tinkerer, wild strawberries