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I miss writing, especially here. Been gone, but where?

These were the days of my life since… last October. I am a foodie, but a keener of the sort. I have loved food since the start – easy hobby I figured. My mom didn’t really “love” food, but she loved the people eating it, and it showed. She gave me a head start on the whole ethnic palette idea – foreign color, flavor, and texture on a regular basis. I explicitly remember the breaded and baked calf brains served with a highly acidic, but still un-cured green/white cabbage salad. I was 7. I was not happy.

Taken from www.rawfish.com.au/brains-and-bacon/ - this is about what it looked like, but my mom served this with a cabbage salad and did not use any bacon.

Pied de Cochon make a great calf brain omelet soufflé thing – fantastic

Anyway, I started cooking and eating everywhere/everything. Traveling as a foodie is too good, especially if stop as you go… so after taking to as many markets, tables, sidewalks as there are types of bread, I decided to take a few sporadic plunges.

The Ritz Carlton – as far I know, my mentor. I worked there as a banquette server, always between the kitchen and the client. The kitchen was – the best. It’s where I saw my first 400 liter stock pot.

Other restos followed. I served mostly, but that implies always near the kitchen. Italian, Sushi, Chinese, tapas, bars and pubs – all different; all fascinating.

I eventually managed a couple for restos, but most recently, in the last year in fact, I was a chef. I cheffed for fifty, everyday.

They loved it. I loved it. Here a short list of some of what I served: Sample Menus

Why am I telling you all this? Because I went from foodie to pro, and thought you should know. Plus, I just sort of want to say thanks to all the people who truly love food and have shared with me their experience and passion – professionals and foodies, diners and dishers, servers and savants… thanks. My palette will forever know the amalgamation of texture and flavor one uses to taste the art of life…

…and with that, one of my favorites from the last year:

Crepes Terrine with Spinach, Mushroom, and Smoked Turkey

Crepes are my favorite and are in fact the first thing I learned to make after the fried egg. I know it as a breakfast food or dessert and love the way you can fill them up and roll them on your plate, blanketing them in any of many syrups, sauces, or jams. But the rich and sumptuous crepe is far more ready for a savory setting than I had earlier thought, dans la forme d’une… terrine? Sorta. Not exactly right, but serves the purpose.

So, first – prepare you fillings:

Mushrooms and Spinach

I like to use a mix of mushrooms that have been roasted and chopped with a bit of salt and pepper or a mushroom duxelle – nothing too fancy required, but feel free to experiment. Be wary of over flavoring as the finished dish is quite complex from a flavor perspective. Same goes for the spinach – roasted with salt and pepper. I mixed both of these with some onions rendered in butter for some extra flavor. Again, any approach to creating a delicately flavorful filling is good.

Smoked Turkey

I did this dish with shrimp when I was working (cooked then minced with green onion and garlic), but the deli-slice is far easier to work with. Use any you like, i.e. smoked turkey, but nothing too crazy. Finding something with little salt and fat is a good start.

Cheese

Buying sliced cheese is fun, but pricey. I like to get a few small chunks, grate, and mix (at work, this was replaced with a saffron roux and wilted spinach with onion). I also included a few intermittent layers holding brie as their prize. Remember to save some cheese to top the terrine.

Crepes

¾ cup all purpose flour (you can use any basic flour, but the texture will change)
1 cup milk
3 eggs
½ tablespoon sugar (optional, but I like the bit of sweetness)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter

Whisk the eggs and milk together – you can optionally do all this in a blender or using a hand blender. Add the sugar, mix again. Temper the hot butter and add to the mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix for a last time. Store this in your fridge for one hour. This is required for a moist and tender crepe as the flour will have the time require to sponge-ily absorb the wet stuffs. Drink flour, drink (evil laugh)…

Heat a non-stick pan, butter it, and drop a teaspoon of the batter in the middle. Leave there until firm and then wipe it around the pan and throw it away (well, eat it, but for some reason the first crepe is never a nice one). Heat up your oven to the minimum setting and leave the crepes in there with a slightly damp towel overlying to keep them from drying.

Once done, and in an oven safe vessel, start the layering. Make sure to double or maybe triple the crepe count at the bottom so that you have something of a base. Use an intermittent method, is this case, mushrooms, turkey, cheese, mushroom, turkey, brie, as so on…

Top the last crepe with your reserved cheese, some crushed oregano, and finish in a 350C oven for a few minutes, just to melt the cheese. Remove, let rest 10 minutes, and then slice with a bread knife or another super sharp or toothy knife – enjoy.

You have the option to top with a hollandaise or other like sauce, but I like a drizzle of truffle oil and maple syrup. Serve with a sharp crisp white wine.

Now, I was sort of mentioning a shrimp based approach, but there are many options here. Enjoy ham, smoked salmon, spinach, avocado, other cheeses, other sauces, and of course – any dessert manifestation.

Weirdest breakfast ever? Probably!

Soli invented this concoction last weekend, and while it was perhaps the strangest breakfast sandwich I’ve had, it’s also one of the best. So here’s to trying new things, I guess!

The recipe is simple, if you dare give it a go yourself. Slice one baguette in half – toast it, and give it a good rubbing with a garlic clove. Top that with some beans you’ve had simmering away on the stove (Soli added sauteed some onions and vodka as a base for the beans), and at the end of cooking, toss in some cheese curds.

Prepare yourself some french style scrambled eggs, aka Ramsey eggs. There are various methods (it’s a method, rather than a recipe) floating around, but the basic idea can be found on this YouTube tutorial. The end result are eggs that are so light and creamy, you’d believe you’re eating buttery, rich clouds.

While all that’s going on, pop in some BBQ’ed eel in the oven (Soli sprinkled some brown sugar over the top) and bake it up until it’s moist and delicate inside, with a sweet crust on the top.

Got all that? Well, top your baguette with the beans, followed by some thick slices of eel, then a complete smothering of your dreamy eggs. It’s quite the taste sensations – full of rich sweetness, salty, melted cheese, robust beans and crunchy garlic bread. Heaven must be one weird place.

I hate eggs. Can’t stand them, especially perfectly poached, atop a crispy French baked starch, delicate, slightly sweet, partial to the moment, and often impossible to resurrect. Who wants that?

No, no, love them…

I only recently learned that you can take a pound of mushrooms, cook them, and eat them, so mushroom duxelle is becoming my Marmite, only delicious (kidding, actually sorta like Marmite).

Mushroom Duxelle
1 lbs mushrooms (your choice)
2 tbs butter
salt
pepper
¼ cup wine or 2 ounces of vodka (optional as this is breakfast)

Heat skillet; add very clean, finely chopped mushrooms, salt, and butter (the butter, seeing as the mushrooms won’t stick in the beginning, can be added at the end). Give it 10 -15 with some good heat behind it. Add a good splash of wine and move it around until it reduces.

I’ve reviewed poaching eggs before, try Eggs if you need to follow up.

The croutons… don’t know what happened, by a stroke of tasty genius hit me. These are, by far, the best crouton ever! But they are somewhat rich, so maybe they won’t fly in all crouton-ish applications.

Fried Croutons
French Baguette (in France them just call them baguettes)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

So cut up your fresh baguette into pieces the size you like, but not too small. We are going to need a bit of moisture and a small piece would dry out too quickly. Melt the butter in a bowl large enough to hold all your croutons. Add the oil, salt, and pepper, and whisk it up. Toss your croutons in the quasi-emulsion. Bake in an toaster over (or oven) at 350F for about 15 minutes.

Using this method, the croutons fry while toasting. I can’t say I’m sure, but it seems the butter adds a light nutty flavor and nice kind of crispy browning while the olive oil goes the distance in adding a firm chewiness.

Plate up! and DO NOT go back to bed; common problem I have – rich sleepy weekend breakfasts that insist Monday race itself back. This dish is light and breezy. Out the door and off to market

ADD: Omitted from this post was the drizzle of truffle oil to finish. Truffle oil is the best money you can spend, if you think you like truffles. Dizzle here, teaspoon there, infusions, finisher, starter, star and support, pfft… anyway. I hate to know there is none in the kitch.

Soli has a good backlog of dishes he has made (from soup to poached eggs to filet mignon) that he still needs to post about, so I’m going to lighten the load a little here and write briefly about the amazing and simple breakfast he made a few weeks back: Egg-In-A-Hole (or Egg-In-A-Basket or Toad-In-A-Hole or Bird’s Nest, depending on who you speak to).

I loved this breakfast. Soli punched some holes out of normal, Italian white bread, threw the bread (and the holes!) into a buttered pan, and cracked an egg into each hole. Some pepper, some salt, turn the stove on…and then you’re done.

Soli did pop the pan into the toaster oven for a bit, to melt the cheese he had sprinkled over the top.

The end result was perfectly cooked eggs stuck nicely into toasted bread, with cheesy bread circles on the side, and you don’t even need a fork or knife. Good morning!

Summer is still hitting us hard (not that I mind!), so we’re spending a lot less time in the kitchen. However, this morning, on my first day of vacation, Soli prepared me a fantastic breakfast that had me go straight back to bed after. Wow, I love vacation!

I don’t think there’s much of a recipe for this – Soli created it rather quickly. We toasted up some St-Viateur bagels, as well as popping a tray of fresh spinach sprinkled with olive oil in the toaster oven. While all of that was cooking, Soli made a mushroom duxelle made with chopped mushrooms, butter, smoked sea salt, heavy cream, a shot of champagne (hey, it’s vacation!), and some chunks of brie. With this simmering on the stove, he poached some eggs and sliced some home-smoked salmon from the fish store, Waldman’s.

In under an hour, we had this meal plated and then sprinkled with freshly ground pepper and some chipotal peppers. It was a great breakfast – the slightly wilted, roasted spinach was perfect, the salmon nice and smooth, and the cheesy, creamy mushrooms had me licking my plate.

Hello vacation!

Again, I love eggs – maybe too much when it come to the Benny! Although traditionally considered a reasonable breakfast, I’ve managed, on more than one occasion, to sedate myself back into a jellified bedlust by noon, just because I love it too much.

Hollandaise Sauce (serve 2 – 3)
3 eggs yolks
1/2 cup butter (clarified)
1 lemon and zest
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

While techniques vary, you basically want to first melt butter (option to clarify), combine and whisk yolks and other ingredients, and slowly temper the yolks incorporating the butter, being careful not to cook the yolks with the hot butter. A tablespoon of tepid butter pieced into the yolks helps to safeguard against cooking. WHISK! MORE! I went crazy with lemon, over a 1/2 cup, because I enjoy the tang and I wanted to thin out my sauce.

Eggs and Spinach (per person)
1/4 pound spinach
2 eggs
1 English Muffin
salt and pepper to taste

Pretty much every weekend, Soli makes me breakfast. After seeing some breakfast potatoes online, I requested them in this past weekend’s breakfast. And look what I got!

I think the recipe is pretty standard. Chop up some potatoes, parboil them, toss with some oil and pan fry them up. Also in them were some sauteed onions, garlic salt and pepper. A shot of vodka was thrown in towards the end – nice touch!

Fry up some eggs, prepare some baked beans, add a couple pieces of bacon and a pickle, and there it is. The breakfast of champions.