“Paddy Melts”: Irish Breakfast in Sandwich Form

The men in my husband’s family love puns, good ones, bad ones, it doesn’t really matter.  As you can guess, this can take getting used to.  Actually, I’m pretty sure you never get used to it.  My husband is notorious for not only using bad puns whenever possible, but for taking things a step further and EXPLAINING them to anyone who will listen.  It might go something like this:

HIM: “Why should you never break up with a goalie?”

ME: “I don’t know. Why?”

HIM: “Because he’s a keeper.”

ME: Eyes rolling

HIM: “Get it?” 

ME:  Silence.  No matter what I say here, he will go on.

HIM: “He’s the goalie, the GOAL keeper!” (Proud)

ME: Yes. I got it. 

Even after more than a decade and 2 (almost 3) children together, there are some things about my dear husband that remain a mystery to me.  I guess that’s a good thing – though I’m still not sold on the puns.  Nevertheless, today I made a punny breakfast in the form of Irish Breakfast Sandwiches: Irish cheddar, breakfast sausages and eggs between two pieces of buttered brown bread heated up in a pan until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted.  Served with baked beans, they make the perfect hand-held version of an Irish breakfast.  Delicious whether you like the name or not.  

Breakfast “Paddy” Melts

Ingredients (from the Irish Boutique)

Serves 4

3-5 tablespoons room temperature  Kerrygold Irish butter (I use salted butter)

8 pieces Brown bread – homemade or store bought. 

1 cup Irish Cheddar, grated

4 Irish breakfast sausages, I’m using Winston’s.  They are SO good.

4 eggs

2 tablespoons milk (whole or 2%, half and half also works)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 can Heinz baked beans

Worcestershire, HP or hot sauce to taste

Cook the sausages.  The sausages can be cooked over medium high heat in a sauté pan for about 10 minutes or until you slice into one and no pink remains. If you have a meat thermometer, 165F is what you are looking for here. I like to cook mine in a cast iron under the broiler for easy clean up.

This is what they look like after 10 minutes under the broiler.

Cook the eggs.  Beat the eggs and milk together and add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat and add 2 tablespoons of the butter until it becomes foamy. Add the eggs and scramble.  I take mine out of the pan when they are fluffy but still moist as they will be cooked a little bit more in the sandwiches.

Heat the beans.  Heat your baked beans in a saucepan or the microwave. My kids ate the last of our beans last night, as my son says "I'm a beanie boy!" So no beans for us today. Next time.

Once the sausages and eggs are cooked, set them aside and use the remaining butter to butter each piece of brown bread on one side.  Top the other side of the brown bread with about 1/8 cup of grated cheese. Now, cut your sausages in half horizontally and cut each of those pieces in half again so you have four nice little pieces of sausages that fit your bread. Place sausage pieces on top of half of the pieces of bread and top of each of the remaining pieces of bread with an equal portion of eggs.

At this point you should have butter, bread, cheese, sausage on four halves and butter, bread, cheese, eggs on four halves.

Heat your non-stick skillet over medium heat until pan is quite hot. Place sausage topped bread pieces butter side down in the hot skillet and egg topped pieces, butter side up on top.  Gently press sandwiches together with a spatula.  After a couple of minutes, turn the heat down to medium low and cover the pan.  Cook for two more minutes.  Uncover the pan and turn the heat back up to medium.  Use a spatula to press down gently on the sandwiches again just before flipping to cook on the other side. After a couple more minutes, turn the heat down to medium low again and place a lid on the pan. Cook for two more minutes, remove the lid, check the sandwiches for crisp bread and melty cheese.  If they look done, remove from the pan.

Cut in half and serve with beans, Worcestershire, HP, or hot sauce.