Veggie - - Page 40

by gansie

Follow the Leader: Poached My Fear

So I’m back. I’m back in love with my kitchen. Saturday was an unusually not totally drunk night so I started my day early and sans hang over. Unfortunately it also started with errands. (Buying a toilet seat – did you know that there are different size toilet seats?)

But as soon as got back I made myself a proper brunch, something that doesn’t happen very often. Oh, but before I get to that: I’m sorry. I know my post on Friday made no effing sense, (an early happy hour with Tim is disastrous!) but what I was getting at was that I have been flipping through old cooking magazines recently. I also scrolled through recipes I’ve previously clipped. And that is where I found my proper brunch.

I say brunch, instead of breakfast, because to me brunch will usually contain an element of lunch. This brunch sided next to a green salad.

Savory Parmesan Pain Perdu with Poached Eggs and Greens
[Gourmet, May 2009]

Linked above is their version, but here’s my spin. Essentially, it’s a savory french toast, but baked instead of pan fried.

Instead of baguette slices, I used the remains of a week-old pumpernickel loaf. In a buttered oven-proof mini-pyrex, I put the bread down in one layer then dumped over top of it a mixture of one egg, a few splashes of half and half seasoned with salt and pepper. Scantly cover with grated parm. Press the bread into the mixture and let it sit for 10 minutes.

After the liquid is absorbed throw it in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. When the bread is in the oven boil 2 inches of water with a few dashes of vinegar. When the bread has less than 5 minutes left, create a tiny whirlpool in the water, lower the heat so it’s less than a boil and drop an egg into it. (I actually cracked an egg in a bowl first and then slid the egg into the whirlpool. Egg in bowl is Gourmet’s suggestion; whirlpool is mine, via my friend El.) Stir the egg whites a bit around the yolk so it stays together.

Take the bread out of the oven, place it on a plate with a side salad. My side salad was arugula dressed with red wine vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. After 2 and a half minutes spoon the egg out and lay it on the bread. Polk the yolk to stop the cooking. And to make sure it’s runny! Luckily, I conquered my fear of the poached egg. My yolk ran. Although I’m not sure why the eggs whites are shaped like I had fried it, and not round. Hmm.

by gansie

Continuation: The Allure of the Twirl

It’s that fucking twirl. In March I identified that part of my pasta obsession revolved around the act of twirling. Twirling long strands around my fork and piling it into my mouth. In that March meal, Ricotta-ed Spinach with Noodle Onions and Parsnips, I omitted the pasta altogether and satisfied my twirl craving with butter-enveloped long, thin onion strands.

Last night, however, I doubled the twirl intake. I bought extra tall spring onions at the Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market and decided they should not be chopped. I should honor their slender ways and keep them intact.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments

by gansie

The Punishment for Being Late

It’s become my rule. Invited to a BBQ? Bring something not for the grill.

I’ve learned my lesson. I’m a late girl. I come from a late family. We are late. Always late. So if I want to bring something for the grill, I always get there too late. The grill is taken.

That is why I bring a side. Sure, it’s more cooking then bringing marinated eggplant rounds, but people expect more from me anyway.

This past weekend my coworker threw a party for her daughter’s middle school graduation. It was a cook-out. So while I longed to be lazy and just bring my fresh bundle of asparagus bought that day from the Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market to throw on the grill—I didn’t. I whipped it into a salad instead.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 7 comments

by gansie

Should You Let Slimy Greens Slither Away

I wasn’t kidding when I said I was stalling on my way back to the kitchen. I’ve been home more than a week and have been in the kitchen maybe three times. I’m starting slowly.

I was away at Maids’ wedding the first weekend we were back and I refused to go real food shopping until I could make it to the farmers market on the next Saturday. I was freaking craving eggs, but I wanted to wait to buy them there. So I had to figure out how to create something to eat with almost nothing.

Gazpacho a la Leftovers

Luckily, my work catered (actually Couscous Cafe catered) a lunch meeting and there were leftovers. A co-worker let me steal a bag with a dressed-salad mix (romaine, feta, olives, carrot shreds, onion, tomato), another bag with a veggie salad (chunks of tomato, cucumbers, onion and parsley dressed in vinegar and oil) and another bag of pita triangles.

80 and I tore through part of the salad as a side for leftover pizza, but I just wasn’t sure how to make the rest into a meal the next day. Ah! I’ll buzz it!

in Veggie 2 comments

by BS

You Can Still Soup in Summer

Who says soup’s not for summers? Rachel from over at Good Bite brings us a one-pot recipe that’s prefect for drowning the heat in.

The best summers in Texas are those spent indoors. For three months the heat blazes and iced tea becomes a daily necessity, along with light delicious fare. With summer staples like sweet yellow corn and squash readily available, thoughts of barbeques, picnics and bowls of caldo brimming with vegetables fill my head. Infinitely adaptable, simple and sublime, caldo vegetal is a Mexican vegetable soup that begins with a basic stock and results in a trifecta of spicy, tangy, cheesy harmony.

A veritable laundry list of vegetables are first sautéed in a great big pot with plenty of onions and garlic. Gently rubbing the herbs between my hands, the heady aroma of Mexican oregano infuses the squash, carrots, jalapeños and green chilies with a warm, earthy essence. Chicken stock fills the pot, mingling with smoky ground cumin, coriander and fresh cilantro. Sneaking in for a taste, the slow burn of the spicy broth and chilies serves up just the right amount of heat to slurp and savor the rich complexity of flavors. As the caldo gently bubbles on the stovetop, big rounds of corn bathe in the simmering broth. In shallow bowls, yellow squash and zucchini peak out from under the golden liquid as sprigs of cilantro and fresh limes lay alongside crunchy tortilla chips and sweet corn. Difficult as it may be to disturb this beautiful arrangement, a generous sprinkling of cheese goes on top followed by a less than delicate stir until the caldo is delightfully messy looking. Simple, delicious and completely casual, caldo vegetal is light summer fare at its best and a soup worthy of cranking up the air conditioning.

Caldo Vegetal (Mexican Vegetable Soup)

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by gansie

The Louder the Better

“Put down your plate,” my Aunt Lorrie whispers through laughter. She had taken me—and me alone, not my brother and my sister—to IHOP. I forget why I was singled out, but I felt special.

This was during the early years of my decade-long pancake obsession (from about age 6-16) and after the last of the pancake was in me, I slanted the plate toward my face and started to lick the remaining syrup.

This was clearly not appropriate in a Southern Jersey restaurant. Okay, no jokes. In any US restaurant. We just don’t show that sort of oneness with our food.

It’s probably from our stuffy British ancestors. But in America we have certain stoic standards of eating. Plates and bowls are kept on the table. No noises should utter from our mouths, except maybe a soft mmmm.

Being a dramatic type, I will show my appreciation through an extended closing of the eyes so that I may tune out the rest of the table to fully concentrate on the bite within me. I may utter a slightly-louder-than-normal mmmm. But that’s all. That’s all we do to communicate deliciousness. Well, and tip. But that’s another story.

Meanwhile, in Japan they’ve realized eating is a full-body sport. Chopsticks become an extension of the hand in a way that sharp metal objects cannot. It is fully expected that when eating one will bring a bowl of rice or noodles up to her face. Shoveling in rice. Slurping up noodle soup.

in Eggs / Food Travel / Veggie 3 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Thanks to everyone who has added to our list of 100 Things to Do with a Banana — keep those banana links coming — think we can get to 1,000?

PS – Now that we’ve got bacon, eggs and bananas, what other 100 Ways would you like to see on ES?

– Not quite 100, but some of you checked in with great ways to use up that spring bounty of asparagus. Maids:

I love asparagus in olive oil and salt with a dash of pepper flakes. Simple and delicious.

Jens:

in Eggs / Veggie 2 comments