Baked Eggs... in a Pepper!

How does that look? Pretty delicious, right?

It definitely looks 100x better than my first baked eggs attempt which involved very flat, dry eggs in ramekins, one of which had a sort of bizarre bubble like growth on it; I was saving that whole debacle for one of my kitchen disasters posts except that I never got around to it, so here you go:

Since a year or so has elapsed, I thought I'd get right back in there. I was partly inspired by my previously made Fancy Schmancy Springtime Eggs, a rare Pinterest attempt that worked pretty much like they said it would:

ANYWAYS... back to this weekend's brunch. I started with half a pepper, this sort of strange looking white bell pepper is some kind of Long Island pepper that I am entirely unable to find on the internet, but which exists in large piles at my produce stand. It is not quite as sweet as a red or yellow pepper but not as tart as green- you could use basically any pepper of your choice but colored yellow/orange/red would taste better.

As you can see, I lined the bottom with very thin slices of cheddar, which is optional. You could put almost anything in here- other cheese, (cooked) bacon, green onions, whatever!

I then carefully cracked 2 eggs into the pepper- from my disappointing ramekin experience, I learned that the eggs do puff very slightly, but not as much as you might expect. These eggs went basically to the very top, and it was fine.

You might notice that there is suddenly tinfoil in the picture- I used that to brace the pepper so it didn't roll and dump egg everywhere. I sprinkled the top with sea salt, pepper, rosemary, and parmesan cheese.

I cooked the eggs in a 400 degree oven- it really took a lot longer than I would have expected- about 35 minutes for the eggs to cook through. I would recommend checking the eggs frequently (just poke them- you want to be sure the white is set all the way through so that should be pretty firm). I don't like extremely runny yolks, so mine were a bit more on the done side.

Although it took a while to bake, this looked great- definitely brunch-worthy. In addition, it makes almost everyone happy- the vegetarians, the low carbers,  the paleos, the gluten frees- this, my friends, is a people pleaser. I think the vegans are out of luck, but that's about it. Give it a try!

I had it with some avocado, and a side of mango with lime (mmmmmmmmmm).

Cheater 'Eggs in Purgatory': Seriously, it Does Not Get Easier Than This!

You may remember this shakshuka (aka Eggs in Purgatory) from a few weeks ago:

It was delicious, and pretty easy, but it did involve some amount of chopping and having the right veggies on hand. I have now discovered a miraculous short cut that will change this from 'delicious brunch item' to 'emergency weeknight dinner'. What is this magical ingredient, you ask?

I bought this by accident, and it is now going on my grocery list forever. Here is what I did in version 2:
1. dump can of tomatoes in non-stick pan along with 1/4c water
2. sprinkle with smoked paprika (which is soooooo good) if you have it, or else cayenne. and salt.
3. cook tomatoes until they turn from bright red to darker, stirring periodically
4. make 2 holes, crack in 2 eggs.
5. cover pan and cook until egg whites are firm
(optional- grate some cheese on top)
6. Eat.

2 ingredients, 15 minutes, healthy dinner... this is what weeknight staples are made of!

Savory French Toast- A New Spin on Brunch

This weekend I had bread, eggs, and avocado, and found myself trying to think of something to make. Of course, there is always scrambled eggs and toast, but I wanted something a little different. I finally landed on some form of French toast, and this is what I got!

First, to make French toast, you basically take 2 eggs, beat them well, and if you have it (and, it's better this way) put in a little of whatever type of milk you have on hand. You could definitely use only egg whites, just use a bit more so the volume is the same. Then, soak the bread. Be sure to move it around so all the parts of both sides are in the egg mixture for a while. When the egg is all soaked up, you're ready to cook! If this was sweet French toast I'd sprinkle with cinnamon, but instead I sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Now, you heat a griddle, or a good sized frying pan, and spread around your butter product of choice (I used Earth Balance). I don't really think cooking spray is going to work here. Drop the bread on the pan, and cook until the bottom is brown, then flip. You want it to be brown on each side, but you don't want to cook it longer than you need to or else it'll be dry.

Now... the toppings!

I went with a trio of toppings.... 1. smashed avocado (yes, that is like half an avocado, I didn't want to waste it! as a side note, in order to preserve the other half the avocado, rub a lime or lemon wedge all over the cut surface and it won't turn brown) 2. salsa 3. cheezy mixture- mine was a wedge of laughing cow cheese smushed up with a little salsa. you could also use cottage cheese, or ricotta, or cream cheese- any soft cheese to add some creaminess. Since there is no syrup, you want to be sure you have enough topping to make it all moist.

This was slightly weird, but really pretty good- it was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual scramble I always make, and it definitely highlighted the avocado (mmmmmmmm avocado. when I was a child, I was afraid of avocado and refused to eat it- I now refer to those as 'the lost years'.). 

If you were having a brunch, you could even make the base French toast recipe, and then provide different toppings (sweet vs savory) for people to choose from. If you're going to make a lot of French toast, I'd stick with the 1 egg/bread piece, but you can soak more pieces in a 9x13 pan.

Give it a try!

Eggs in Purgatory

Well, there has been some blizzard cooking going on around here for the last few days. I'm not even going to show you my one millionth attempt to make bread (other than my faithful beer bread). I actually was so irritated that it didn't work (why why why won't my bread rise in the oven???) that I made a second, only mildly better, batch. But, what DID emerge from all of this is what I think will be a new go-to recipe that I'm pretty excited about.

I went to brunch this morning and on the menu was "shakshuka", basically eggs poached in a tomato mixture. The version I had was based on tomatillos (side note: spell check would like me to change 'tomatillos' to 'automatism'), so was green and spicy and delicious. I knew I had to try to make it myself!

I didn't have tomatillos, I actually only had cherry tomatoes, but this recipe does not seem to be very picky.

The stuff (generally speaking):
1 tomato, chopped (or, a bunch of cherry tomatoes)
1/2 bell pepper, chopped fine
onion, chopped (I only had spring onions, and used 2)
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp paprika
salt to taste
oil for cooking veggies
2 eggs
bread, to sop things up

What to do with it:
This amount of veggie worked for 2 eggs, if you want more eggs, increase as needed.
Pan selection is actually relatively important- since the egg will be cooking in the tomato mixture, not on the bottom of a pan, you want a pan that is small enough that a reasonable amount of veggies will pile deep enough to sit the egg in.  I used my little cast iron pan that I normally use for eggs.

Heat the oil, put in the garlic and onions for a minute, then throw in the tomato, pepper, and spices. Cover, and let it cook together until it tastes like the tomatoes are cooked. Honestly, all of my vegetable volume selection was geared towards filling the pan, but keep in mind they will all cook down a bit too. Once they are cooked, clear a spot for each egg and crack it in gently. Turn down the heat, cover, and heat. You really want to be sure the white gets firm, but the yolk should be soft or runny. I did a lot of poking the white with my finger to figure this out.

What's really good is that the yolk kind of runs into the tomatoes and makes them really rich and delicious. It's also good to have some bread handy, to sop up the tomato and egg.

This is one of those things that I can imagine being really flexible- you could probably throw in almost any choppable vegetable, and I'm sure you could make it with canned tomatoes, which puts it in the magical realm of things you can make on the fly with stuff from the pantry. You can also get away with pretty minimal oil which makes this both delicious and healthy! I'm sure I'll be having it again!

Fancy-schmancy Springtime Eggs- aka Brunch in 5 Minutes

Ok, in terms of cuteness vs. easiness, these eggs pretty much have all the odds in their favor. I saw them (of course) on Pinterest, and they originally came from Apron Strings. If you can get a 4 lobed pepper, they're not just cute, they look like little flowers! (and they'd be a lot cuter if I liked my eggs less cooked like the rest of the world seems to)

Anyhow... basically, here is your giant ingredient list, hold onto your hats!
Eggs
Bell peppers.

All you do here is slice the pepper into about 1/2 inch thick rings (through the widest part of the pepper). Heat up the pan on medium heat, spray with cooking spray or put in a little olive oil, put in the pepper, and crack the egg right into the pepper. A little egg will leak out, but it's easy to remove later.

You can flip them but you have to wait until the egg has cooked enough to stay together when you flip it. If you like runny eggs (which I don't) you could actually cook it on low until the egg seems solid and then serve as is! Use salt/pepper/chili sauce and whatever you normally would put on a fried egg.

Basically, it's not necessarily out of the ordinary in terms of taste, because it's still just a plain egg and bell pepper, but it definitely is an easy way to make eggs a little more special!

Eggs Florentine Salad

I've been wanting to learn to make Eggs Benedict, because I have a joke with someone (lets call him Feesh) about how one of these days, we're going to finally make them for each other. I somehow had this idea that all of the parts of it (poaching eggs, making Hollandaise sauce), were beyond the capacity of a normal person and entirely in the realm of restaurants. Then, on Sunday, I watched Feesh poach eggs like it was no big deal! That was the moment when I realized the legendary E.B. were close to being within our grasp, and decided to tackle Hollandaise as my end of the bargain.

Looking around, I found a recipe by Tyler Florence that looked pretty do-able. Basically here is what you need:
4 egg yolks (aye caramba)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 melted cube unsalted butter (aye caramba #2)
a pinch of salt
some cayenne, or a dollop of mustard

You whisk the eggs and the lemon juice until they double in size and become thick (they really do, they also get lighter). Then, you need a double boiler. Or maybe you're like me, and you don't have one, so you do a double boiler hack, as seen here:

Yes, this is a pan with simmering water, and a metal bowl, which I held over it with my own little hand.

 Hold the bowl over the simmering water (or, you know, use the double boiler with simmering water), and whisk the eggs. Stir in the melted butter gradually, stirring all the while. It will get smooth, and pale, and increase in volume. This site had good recommendations for what to do if things go awry. Fortunately, mine did not scramble or separate and the sauce was a lovely pale yellow.

 Then, I poached the eggs (look at me go!), I didn't even have Feesh there for backup, I just had to remember what he did. Basically, I started some water at a high simmer in a small saucepan, and added a teeny bit of olive oil. Then cracked an egg into a cup, and carefully slid it in the water (repeat for egg 2). Then I cooked it for... awhile. I do not like my eggs runny.

Note the combo of poached eggs and awesome sauce. This is the money shot.

Now, it was a little much to do the whole E.B. thing, ham and all, so I opted for a "lighter" option (as if something involving this many eggs could be light), in a French-inspired salad.

 What you see here is a bed of spinach, with the poached egg on top, some sliced Persian cucumber, and some slices of roasted red potatoes to give it a Salad Nicoise type vibe (it looks like a lot of slices, but the potatoes were teeny), and a dressing of black pepper and the Hollandaise.

 This was... delicious. I think this would make an amazing entree on a hot summer night, or for a nice fancy lunch- I had it with a nice glass of wine and certainly felt very ladylike.

Tumeric Scramble

Today, I was reading an article on "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating". Although, actually it turns out I'm eating a lot of them. Except beets. Beets are gross.

At any rate, one of them is tumeric, and as you may remember I am the new owner of half a pound of tumeric. I use it for curry-type dishes, but the article suggested mixing it into eggs. I love eggs on the weekend, so figured why not.

Basically, I browned a bit of onion in olive oil, tossed in some frozen spinach, and added eggs (well, really, part egg whites, and 1 whole egg), salt, pepper, and tumeric.



You can tell there is something in there because the eggs are a bit more yellow that you'd think, given that they're mostly egg whites. (one of my secret favorite things about tumeric? if you squirt it with cleaning fluid, if it gets on the counter, it changes from bright bright yellow to bright red). These were really good, the flavor was subtle, but it really added a little something extra to the eggs... this is the kind of thing secret recipes are made of! try it!

I'm back, baby!

Ok, so I've been on a bit of a hiatus recently- basically, I am changing jobs, I moved apartments, and everything has been generally chaos... I haven't cooked or made jewelery, and poor little Charlotte has been all aflutter. But, things are settling down, and I'm back!

Want some proof? I give you... veggie quiche, the healthy(ish) version!

This was my dinner.. mmmmm.... even though it requires the oven, it still feels summery.

What you need:
--2 eggs and 3 egg-whites (or some combination basically equivalent)
--half a cup of milk (I used non-fat)
--half a cup of shredded cheese (whatever you have, also, it could be feta crumbles)
--veggies- whatever you have on hand. I used about half a bunch spinach, half a zucchini, half an onion and some miscellaneous pieces of red bell pepper
-- a decent sized potato (or a couple red potatoes)

As you can see from the ingredients list, this is not an exact science.

First, we're going to make a crust, you could use a pie crust, but we're going to use potatoes to avoid something full of either butter or trans fats.

Spray a pie pan or a cake pan with some olive oil. Slice the potato fairly thinly, and cover the bottom and sides with slices. They should pretty substantially overlap because they will shrink. Spray with a bit more olive oil, and cook at 375 for about 15 minutes, until they look sort of cooked, but not brown- like this:

In the meantime, saute the veggies until basically cooked (start the onions first, then add zucchini, then last wilt the spinach)- mine looked like this:

Beat the eggs with the milk, and add the cheese. Then put in some salt and pepper. Dump the veggies in the potato shell. Then pour the egg/milk/cheese mixture over it. Bake at 375 for about half an hour - 45 min, until it is nice and puffy and brown, like this:

Let it sit for a minute, then serve (mine is with strawberries, because its the season, and they were 99 cents... NINETY NINE CENTS when I was at the store).

AND, for my budget cookers, I calculated the total cost here- this ENTIRE THING cost $4.27, and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't get much better than that! (as usual, the cost estimation assumes you're a savvy shopper- I have a grocery store discount club membership and shop accordingly. I also calculated just the cost of the actual items used- like, only 5 of the eggs not the cost of the full dozen). Anyways, for 4 servings, you have a very manageable $1.06- what else can you ask for?