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Madame likes to start her morning with a strong cup of tea and breakfast in the sun room. Her eggs are prepared to perfection, standing on top a coral base, with the buttercup yellow sauce lovingly sprinkled on top.But, back to reality, madame doesn't have a cohort of servants seeing to her every need. The only person close to being her 'servant', though he strongly objects to doing any manual labor of any kind, is off at an early-morning gig at the pool. So, the madame must tend to herself, and see to her own breakfast. For you see, the madame is me!107. Eggs Royale - *Toast*The combination of poached eggs on top smoked salmon with a hollandaise sauce is a classic one - but it really isn't anything I have myself eaten. If it had been served at the hotels I stayed in in my life, I probably slept right through it, or would have brushed it off as being too euro-trashy to bother with.Ah, how times have changed! Well truth to be told, I have no choice but to make the Eggs Royale, because they are in CL, and I really don't have any objection to eggs, smoked salmon, and a sauce made with copious amounts of butter!So, madame got up not too late this morning and went out searching for smoked salmon. You'd think that living in Lox-ville, it would be easy to find! After hitting dead ends at two stores, she finally decided to go to a small Russian deli. She purchased the smoked salmon, at a steep price, and understood why the title of the recipe included the word 'Royale'.Coming home, she realized she had forgotten to buy the required lemon for the sauce. Luckily, servant #1 was willing to pick one up on his way home, but his benevolance came at a price - madame had agreed to make him his 'lemony cookies' later on. The things one does to keep her servants satisfied!When servant #1 finally arrived at the quarters, madame set off to make for the first time not only the hollandaise sauce, but also the poached eggs!According to Mr. Tom N-D, she would start on the sauce first. (Ok enough of this third-person; I'm getting a headache!)Well, the sauce was a BITCH to make. I followed directions carefully. I whisked together three egg yolks, some vinegar and lemon juice till pale.
Then, in a small pan, I melted a stick and a tablepoon of butter (!!!) until fizzy and sorta clarified.
The hot butter was then to go into the egg mixture slowly while whisking away. I don't know at which point this was supposed to become thick, but it didn't. And I don't know why. I started freaking out and put the mixture in a small pan and slowly starting heating it and whisking the mixture. Nothing was happening! So I raised up the heat full blast; when it looked like I would have scrambled eggs, I quickly switched off the heat, put the mixture back into the bowl, and start whisking like mad!! And it became thick - wooohoooo!
I seasoned the sauce with some salt and pepper and left it covered on the hob.Then I started making the eggs! Never ever poached eggs before so was a bit worried! I boiled up some water with salt and vinegar; then I let it simmer and created a sort of vortex in the water by stirring with a wooden spoon. As soon as I would want to add my egg, the vortex would disappear, so I had to call on servant#1 to help me. He was really crap at stirring; it is so hard to find good help these days, but I had no choice. Well the water was sort of vortex-y and I dumped in the broken egg. It sunk to the bottom of the pot, and I hoped it would still become some version of a poached egg.Well it all turned out to be fine! I put the egg on top a piece of bread with some smoked salmon, and then I drizzled on the sauce.
The egg was a great texture - just set but not overally so. The sauce was a lot punchier than I expected - durr! it has lemon in it! The smoked salmon and bread were of course fabulous. So a pretty good dish! I am not sure if I would bother making it again though, as it seemed to be a lot of stuff happening at once, and I am not sure I am comfortable eating a sauce with three egg yolks in it and a stick and a tablepoon of butter!
But a nice upmarket type of breakfast - and I'm glad I made it!! And now I could say I could make hollandaise sauce, sort of, and poached eggs! What a clever madame I am!
Last night when I was posting pictures of the fabulous bread from Sullivan St. Bakery, I thought that I'm having a sort of unspoken competition with Lisa, each of us showing each other things we know we love but can't get...So, truthfully, it must have started with me....I was not afraid to make Lisa incredibly jealous with my pizza shot from a few days ago...Then, the next day, she showed me a pic, on her blog, of a dolphin jumping up from the water by their house. (She knows how much I love dolphins, and how I didn't see a flippin' flipper the whole time I was in Florida!)Yesterday was the picture of the bread she and Troy adore.Today, she got Troy into it too - he posted a picture, on his blog, of Rafa's favorite tipple - a rum & coke - and a huge one at that. If I show that pic to Rafa he will faint immediately. Hmmn, then now it's my turn. I wonder what I should rub their faces in....Muahahahahaha.Happy weekend, all! :D
Lisa and Troy will probably kill me, but I had to talk some more about The Good Bread. That is, the fabarooni ciabatta from Sullivan Street Bakery. They first tasted it on their short trip to New York last month, and then again when I brought a loaf to Florida.Since the bakery is right by my job, it would be a crime to not indulge in some lovely bread!At lunch today, I picked up a couple of medium loaves of the ciabatta... When I was coming home it was pouring down rain, so I obviously couldn't get any ingredients for dinner... I was faced with the dilemma, 'what do I do with this bread before it goes stale?'. I went straight to the Toast chapter!
106. Roast Tinned Tomatoes - *Toast*I've said in the past I am not a fan of roasted things - apart from chicken! I just find that when veggies get roasted they get all mushy and weird-tasting. Wow, what a mature statement! But I can't be too picky in this project - I am entering now into 'the recipes I wouldn't normally make' phase of the project.So, roast tinned tomatoes are exactly made as you would imagine.You empty a tin of whole plum tomatoes into a colander being careful not to break up the tomatoes. You drain it a bit and then put it in a pan oiled with olive oil. A bit of salt is added along with balsamic vinegar, more oil and salt. Finally, a sprig of rosemary goes on top, and it is ready for the oven.
The tomatoes roast for about 25 minutes until wrinkly and slightly charred, and then they just go on top some toast.I added some grated parmesan too, as cheese was an option.
This was actually pretty good! It still tasted roast-y, but not bad at all. The bread was a perfect vehicle for the tomatoes, so good choice indeed in making this recipe tonight.
This is why I love living in Brooklyn!
Trio is back. As I told you some time ago, Trio was closed when an SUV rammed into it. Well they're back; and I should know, as I've been stalking them these last few months! As you could tell from the picture, Rafa was very excited to get started in our pizza love-fest!
If you're wondering what is the fuss with this particular pizzeria and this particular pizza pie, uh, you gotta know it to love it. TRIO ROCKS!! Woooohooooo!
Last night was one of those nights where I had no intention of cooking at all, and faced with a nearly empty fridge, I remembered a very simple sauce recipe in the Pasta chapter.105. Garlic and Tomato Sauce (Aglio Dorato) - *Pasta*The sauce for the pasta just combines life's best ingredients -- tomatoes and garlic. I don't think there is any other combo that is a match made in heaven as these two. I wonder who was the first caveman that discovered it.... or it was probably much later on. I haven't really brushed up on my historical anthropology! The technique for making the sauce is long, but surprisingly, not time-consuming. It is not one of those stirring type of recipes, where you need to hover over a hot stove. That was good news for me, since our heat wave continued last night. I was keeping cool in the living room watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune while the sauce was cooking. Here's the process:5 minutes - heat up a cup (yes!) of olive oil on low heat10 minutes - slowly cook 8 peeled, but whole, garlic cloves on a low, low heat(extra 5 minutes of cooking garlic until they become tender)
15 minutes - simmer on a slightly higher flame the sauce, to which you added the pulp of some peeled whole plum tomatoes (San Marzano tomatoes, but of course!)
The sauce is then left to cool for about ten minutes, and then it is pulsed in a food processor till blended and emulsified.
I had to process it twice because I found that the sauce tended to separate a bit. At this point I also added some salt and pepper.I boiled up some linguini, drained it, and then added a few tablespoons of the sauce to the pasta. Then I just sprinkled on some grated parmesan and pepper, and that was it!
Mmmm, so so good! I thought that the pasta would be oily, like while eating it I would get little oil puddles on my coffee table (I'm a messy eater!), but it wasn't at all. The sauce was like a warm winter coat on the pasta; the two just blended together perfectly.If the kids (and adults!) are not too garlic-phobic, I recommend this as a weekday family meal. A big bowl of pasta in the center of the table, some garlic bread, and some wine for the parents! Also, since you only use a bit of the sauce for each serving of pasta, the rest of the sauce could be kept in the fridge and used in the future. I think I will probably have this again this weekend. YUM!
I told you it was hot in NYC!!
Here is a fellow Brooklynite taking a 'cat nap' on a bench on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach. (Photo courtesy of NY Times) I'm not sure how accurate this portrayal is of old men on Brighton Beach. Most seem to wear G-string speedos. Ewwwwww!Speaking of Brighton Beach, watch out for more adventures from the Magical Culinary Tour coming this summer! I'm going to list prospective destinations here so I have no excuse to not actually follow through with them!
- Astoria, Queens
- Arthur Avenue, Bronx
- Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
- Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
- Boston, Massachusetts
Let the fun begin!
Vacations are bad! They make you feel like you can rush through the world at the speed of light, that you are more glamorous and beautiful than you really are, that the world can just stop for an instant. The seconds you dunk your head in the water and then pop out could be hours, but they are mere minutes, in reality.I feel like these last few days I have been in a bubble. I wasn't lazy, I was keen on life, 'full of beans', as my friend would say. I was even able to mostly ignore the awful pit in my stomach over what's going on in my homeland. Now I'm faced with reality head-on. Thank god my sister and her family were able to relocate further south in Israel. They are staying with my dad, who is in Israel for the next month or so. I hate feeling like awful things are happening all the time, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.Cooking-wise, am I ready to give myself another jumpstart? It is hot here... and not the 'aww, summer's getting on my nerves' type of hot, REALLY HOT! When I arrived at JFK last night it was something like 90ยบ, and it was almost midnight!So, what will I cook in this hot weather? I really want to get through some more salad recipes; perhaps a Thai curry here and there. I'm not giving up and so far heading towards my target date. We'll see what the future brings...As far as I know, I think anyone should sign a Terms and Agreement type of notice when buying airline tickets; I hereby promise that I will not believe that vacations are never-ending, and that I never have to come back home. Employers will be just as annoying upon your return. And as tempting as it is, don't scratch mosquito bites!
This is my last day here! Waaaaah!
Lucky me though got to go on an awesome kayak ride....
We got to see some flamingoes -- how cool is that?!
After some shopping, I made lunch!
104. Prawns and Red Curry - *Thai*
Our shopping expedition including getting some coconut milk and Thai red curry paste.
I started cooking by defrosting and deveining some shrimp. I also zested a lime and chopped up some parsley.
As always, I started on the rice first. I spritzed some lime into the rice water to give it a bit of a zing.
So, for the shrimp, I heated up some oil in a wide frying pan and added the shrimp. After letting them cook for a couple of minutes, I added the red curry pasre and a dash of coconut milk to make sure the shrimp was coated.
I added the coconut milk, lime juice, zest, soy sauce (we don't like fish sauce) and some sugar. I let the mixture simmer for a little bit.
Then I spooned the curry into a few bowls and garnished each with chopped up spring onions and parsley. (No go with the coriander - fine by me!)
The curry was fantastic!! I have a very sensitive palate and it was definitely on the spicy side. Troy and Lisa, huge spiceophiles, loved it, but had to add some extra chilli flakes to their bowls!! Yikes!
Well I think that just proves how insane they are, but I love 'em anyway!
Quite appropriately, Troy put on 'Hot Hot Hot' while we were eating... I'm off in a sec to the pool for my last swim to cool off!!!
See you back on the other side!
My time in Florida is winding down. I wanted to make just a few more recipes before I left tomorrow, and we had leftovers for dinner, so I thought a perfect snack for after would be brownies!!!
103. Very Quick Brownies - *Afters*
These were indeed very quick to make. I got to use my friend's lovely red KA for this; I almost feel like I'm cheating on my cobalt blue boyfriend, but I'm a baker, does he really expect me to be faithful?!
So, first I started by melting some chocolate and butter together in a pan. I used a combination of 70% cocoa Green & Blacks and milk chocolate.
In the mixer bowl I whisked the eggs and sugar together. To this I added the melted chocolate and then folded in some self-raising flour.
Then, it was just a matter of buttering and flouring the pan (since I didn't have any parchment), and scraping in the mixture. The pan was a bit too big for a brownie pan so I had to do some clever tilting maneuver!
I was fortunate enough to have some kids around to lick the bowls and scraper! Perhaps a bad idea to give them chocolate so late, but I didn't have to tuck them in. Muahhahahahaha.
I set the timer on the oven and put the pan in to bake. The recipe says 20 minutes, but I was planning on checking it after 15 since I knew the mixture would be thin due to the wide pan. And then, this happened...
We sat outside in the gentle breeze, watching the sun go down... It would be my last before my wonderful trip was over. :'( When I came back into the kitchen, there were three minutes left till the brownies were 'done', but I saw that they were far too dry for salvaging. Those who know brownies know that a mere minute makes all the difference; I was walking a tight rope already by using a big pan. Argh, shoulda known better!!
I have to say, though, that my audience loved them!!! They were perfect, they said, with vanilla ice cream. I went a bit overboard with the 'presentation'. Here is the artist at work:
I look a bit demonic with that grin! The things some powdered cocoa would do to a girl!
Voila! The finished product!
Well, all in all, not a bad effort, and as long as the hosts are happy, so am I!
So this is indeed my last night here; I leave tomorrow evening... I have been silly the last few days, and probably laughed and swam more than I have ever in such a short amount of time. The company is great; so is the weather and the cooking. It's really any foodie's dream, but then again, you also gotta have friends like these, and they are so damn special, that would be pretty hard to come by every day. I am lucky!
Good night! :D
Back home in Brooklyn, I don't have a big audience for sweet treats! Rafa doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and let's face it, eating one dessert after another is definitely something my widening hips can't handle!My friend has four young boys, so I think I was in good company here to try out a kid favorite - s'mores!Tom's version of s'mores are a bit different than the traditional- which are traditionally made on the campfire - graham crackers sandwich together marshmallows and chocolate. Fantastic! Tom's versions has all the same ingredients, just mixed together in a different way so they are actually a sort of traybake, as the Brits would call it. Lisa and I joked that we should have a bake sale here and make a fortune! Ah, maybe next time! These s'mores were all for us!101. Something 'Smoreish' - *Afters*The first thing I did was melt some butter and mix it up with crushed graham crackers!
Then I melted some milk chocolate in a pan (Tom calls for 'dark' but since my audience was pint-size, I thought I'd keep it kiddie-friendly) and started to melt some mini-marshmallows into it. When it was slightly melted, I just mixed it all up with the graham crackers and butter combo. In a buttered pan, I scooped this mixture -- but wait, I had a few distractions before I did that. The kids saw chocolate and marshmallows and they came runnin'!
So once they got a fix of the yummy concoction, I spread the mixture into the pan, with some help! ....
And let it set for about a couple of hours in the fridge. We had some awesome pool time and then a lovely lunch -- the s'mores were dessert!Needless to say, they were a BIG hit, with the grownups and kids! They were a good bartering tool to make the kids finish their lunch first. I put my negotiating skills at work!
Whatever was left, I cut up and put in a tupperware container - I AM the suburban domestic goddess! LOL.
I could get used to this kinda thing!
The Western Florida tour has officially begun!I woke up in the crack-ass of the morning (yes, like 4AM, start feeling sorry for me now!) and made my way to JFK. About three hours later I was riding way too fast in a very fabulous corvette!The rest of the day was spent seeing the wonders that suburban Florida had to give! I was very much looking forward to a lovely and quiet dinner with the Von Trapp family. I had decided to make a family favorite; pasta!
100. Spaghetti with Ricotta and Herbs - *Pasta*As most of the pasta dishes in CL have proven to be, this one was really a doddle, especially with the help of a very eager basil picker!
You basically boil up some spaghetti and get the sauce ready while it is cooking.The sauce consists of ricotta watered down by some pasta water, with olive oil, basil, lemon juice, and some salt and chilli flakes mixed in. Since I wasn't using sheep's milk ricotta, I added some parmesan to zest up the flavor.
After the pasta was done I just tossed it with the sauce and brought some parmesan to the table for serving.
The pasta was loved by all. I have to admit to adding loads of parmesan as the pasta still required it. The dish was fantastic!! Even a feisty four-year old went in for seconds!After dinner, we decided to partake in some lovely bananas.
My, they make them big in Florida! ;)And then we had a quiet night just chilling! Click here to see what I mean.
Forgive me, Tom, for I have sinned. Due to the fear of OD'ing on Sour Skittles, I have yet again delved into my new Apples for Jam book. I couldn't help it -- I didn't have enough ingredients to make any of your meals, plus I was hit with a fit of childhood nostalgia!I made the very simple Vermicelli Soup with Lemon and Butter. This soup reminds me of my youth, especially in summertime, because in the humid heat of summer I remember playing outside with my friends. My mom would call me to come inside for lunch. I ran into the kitchen, starving, to be greeted by a hot chicken soup! You would understand my pubescent curiousity as to why my mother would serve me soup when it was boiling outside. I think she once told me it would cool me down - who was I to argue; it's not like I knew how to make anything myself.The soup, mellow and comforting, made from scratch - I don't think my mom ever used stock cubes - had some lovely vermicelli noodles in there, with green flecks of parsley. It was the best lunch! And now I have found it to be a fantastic dinner!
Tessa Kiros' version of this soup has butter and lemon mixed in with the stock, and then mint and parmesan added at the end. I love lemon and mint in soup! I first fell in love with lemon in soup when eating Nigella's Happiness Soup. It really makes the soup at times!Eating it I remembered coming in on that warm day - I must have turned 14 that week. I was wearing a green Champion t-shirt (remember when Champion anything was popular?) and white spandex leggings with the bottoms cut off and some lace was there in its place. With great sorrow, I should let you know that these cut-off leggings seem to be making it back into fashion. Lord help us! Well vermicelli soup should never go out of fashion - it is ultimate comfort. Growing up, whenever my mom would serve me soup, she would add the cooked vermicelli separately, at the table. She would ask me how much I wanted - I said 'Eeshaw, eeshaw!' -- 'More, more!' Some things have never changed. Ultimate carb heaven!
** I should mention that the Cupboard Love project is going on the road. Next stop, western Florida! Now, this 5-day trip could go very very well, or very very badly, project-wise, of course. I could come back making loads of recipes, or I could just lounge at the pool for all that time and make nada. Only time will tell, so watch this space!
Here's a little lesson about picky eaters: Most of us don't like certain foods, not because we have tasted it and not liked it, but instead because we didn't like the look of them, they smell funny, everyone seems to like them and we need to be 'different', etc. Salmon, for me, is an interesting case. For a long time I used to love to eat it cooked; and then one day, I had a horrible kedgeree-making experience and I have gone off salmon altogether. Mind you, I still love salmon in sushi form, and of course, smoked salmon. Hey, I'm a New Yorker!
98. Grilled Salmon - *Grills*99. Posh Mushy Peas - *Grills*I mentioned previously that in CL's Grills chapter, Tom shows various ways of cooking different types of fish and seafood. For the purpose of finishing this project on time, I decided to lump fish into one category, and seafood into another. With the grilled shrimps already done a few days ago, I thought I'd finally tackle my fish aversion, namely for salmon!I picked up a nice piece of salmon fillet and decided I would pair it with some mushy peas. Tom's recipe for the peas actually comes from Nigella. He says he had seen her prepare it on TV but cannot find it in any of her books, so he made up his own from memory. Tom, psst, if you're reading, How to Eat! I started on the peas and salmon at basically the same time as neither took very long to cook at all. I blanched a garlic clove in some salted boiling water for a few minutes, and then I added some frozen peas and a couple of mint leaves.
While this was simmering, I oiled a hot pan and seared a salmon fillet skin-side down for about three minutes. 
I turned it over briefly and then tranferred it to a baking pan. I know that salmon tends to be sort of bland unless heavily seasoned, so instead, I took some advice from the ladies at Nigella.com and made a paste of mustard and maple syrup. I brushed this on the salmon before putting it into the hot oven.
Then, since the fillet was quite small, I only baked it for about 3-5 minutes. It was perfectly done, and not too dry!While the salmon rested I quickly processed the drained peas, garlic and mint with some sour cream (Tom says creme fraiche, but for only a teaspoon, I didn't want to make a special trip), butter and salt.Then all I had to do was serve up the salmon with the mushy peas.
The salmon was yummy - it was perfectly cooked, and the glaze definitely gave it a special flavor. The peas were good too! I love the combination of flavors, not to mention how gorgeous they look together on the plate!
Well I guess I'm growing -- I finally ate salmon after my two-year hiatus! Next, anchovies! Yeah right!!!!
The egg was a great texture - just set but not overally so. The sauce was a lot punchier than I expected - durr! it has lemon in it! The smoked salmon and bread were of course fabulous. So a pretty good dish! I am not sure if I would bother making it again though, as it seemed to be a lot of stuff happening at once, and I am not sure I am comfortable eating a sauce with three egg yolks in it and a stick and a tablepoon of butter!
