Lentil Stew

First of all, please forgive the (moreso than usual) poor photography.  Somehow I was extremely organised today and managed to eat my test serve and box up the remaining serves for freezer lunches and only take one photo.  And it was with my iPhone. 

That being said, it was incredible and it needs to be shared.

I was de-gluten and dairy-ing my kitchen yesterday and I discovered that I had many many tins of lentils.  My plethora of lentils got me thinking.  I've seen many a blogger make lentil stew but I couldn't find any in my Diigo bookmarks.  I googled my way back through lots of posts but ended up finally seeing something that struck my fancy in Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton.

I started with Dreena's recipe for Lentil "Sniffle" Soup.  I didn't want a soup, I wanted a stew but I thought it couldn't be too difficult to adapt.

Lentil Stew
adapted from Eat Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton

a splash of olive oil
2 cups diced onion, carrot, celery and garlic (I had these precut and in the freezer)
another carrot, diced
half a massive zucchini, diced
half a cup capsicum, diced
a small head of broccoli, cut into small florets
a handful of beans, cut in half
an ear's worth of corn kernels
some sea salt and black pepper
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs baharat seasoning
1 tsp Italian seasoning (has thyme, basil, rosemary and stuff in it)
1 can lentils
1 cup cooked brown rice
2 cups vegetable stock
a big handful of kale
a big handful of baby spinach
2 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
a dash of worcestershire sauce
a dash of lime juice

Put all the ingredients up to and including the Italian seasoning into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until vegetables start to go tender.  Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 10-15mins.  Adjust seasoning to taste.

I couldn't be happier with how this turned out.  The apple cider vinegar and the lime juice gave the stew a great complex flavour and even though there was only a minimal amount of curry powder it had a nice kick that really cleared the sinuses.  It's filling and full of goodness, a perfect lunch.

Spiralise this!

I have been wanting a spiraliser since seeing the brilliant Robyn review them on her blog, Girl on Raw.  I love pasta but I’ve really been trying to cut back on the volume of pasta I eat and I thought that having a spiraliser meant I could combine my pasta with vegies and make a more balanced meal.  It makes sense, right?
Anyway, D listened to me whine and beg for a little while before he agreed to let me buy one.  We didn’t have much of a choice, as our local kitchenware store only had the Veggie Twister in stock.  It is a neat and compact little unit, but it is hard to clean.  I now have a Chef Avenue Three-in-One Turning Slicer too, and I find the Chef Avenue better for making noodles but the Veggie Twister better for actual spiralising.

I broke it in by spiralising some fresh zucchini.  So many blogs have been singing the praises of using spiralised zucchini in raw pasta dishes because the texture is very similar to pasta.  I loved it, it was so fresh and crisp.  I was surprised, as I didn’t think much of zucchini before this.

I topped my pile of zucchini noodles with Robyn’s Spicy Marinara sauce.  It’s really simple, just some cherry tomatoes, capsicum, basil (I used Gourmet Garden basil in a tube), sundried tomatoes, garlic, dates, oil, salt and pepper, chilli flakes and a dash of apple cider vinegar in a food processor.  Once everything is combined but still chunky, strain it through a mesh strainer.

I loved the marinara sauce too, although my tomatoes were quite sweet so in hindsight I would have left the dates out. 
The whole dish was fresh and vibrant and full of goodness.  I am really loving incorporating more raw food into my diet and recipes like this make it so easy.  It’s tasty and delicious and good for you too!
(Note: the online store links above are just to indicate the products I purchased.  I bought both of my spiralisers from Robyn’s Kitchen and have not used either of the sites linked above)

Roasted Baby Beetroot and Feta Salad

I came across some lovely bunches of baby beets at the farmer's market and had to buy them. I'm trying to expand my vegetable horizons by buying a vegetable I've never tasted or never cooked before and experimenting.



I've never had fresh beetroot before.  I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the stuff in the tins but I just knew freshly homecooked beetroot had to be better than the tinned stuff.

I used Haalo's recipe from Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once for Roasted Baby Beetroot and Goat Cheese Salad.  I tossed the baby beets in olive oil and roasted them whole with some garlic cloves until they were soft and then removed their skins while they were still warm.  I was expecting purple stained fingers and countertops, but luckily the whole endeavour turned out to be quite tidy.

I didn't have any goat cheese so I used feta instead but I really loved the pairing of salty feta with sweet beetroot.  Haalo's recipe uses the juice left in the roasting packet as a basis for the dressing, but my beetroot was disappointingly dry.  I used a tiny bit more olive oil and lemon juice to make the roasted garlic dressing.

I served the beetroot, feta and dressing on beetroot leaves and baby spinach leaves.  It was a lovely fresh salad.  I'll have to make it again.

Ginger Fried (Cauliflower) Rice

As part of our healthy eating lifestyle change, D and I are trying hard to cut down on our processed carbohydrates and increase our vegetable intake. I've been reading about cauliflower rice and I have been eager to try it myself.  I love rice (white, wild and brown, I'm not fussy) and I would love to find a healthy alternative for some meals.  D was on board, so we bought some cauliflower and decided to give it a go to make Ginger Fried Rice from Smitten Kitchen, which we love.

I used the Tony Ferguson recipe for cauliflower rice, which is simply cauliflower processed in the food processor until it resembles rice and then sauted in garlic, ginger and leeks until browned.  I found that this took quite a long time and everytime I've made cauliflower rice since then I've roasted them in the oven.  Much easier.

Well, I can't say that cauliflower rice was the perfect substitute for rice - something was off about the texture - but once you looked past that it was a lovely and light dinner.  A great way to eat vegetables!

Ginger Fried Cauliflower Rice
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Tony Ferguson

500g cauliflower
1 tbs olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup thinly sliced leeks, rinsed and dried
2 eggs, cooked to your preference
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbs soy sauce (I felt that the cauliflower needed more seasoning that the rice did)

Process the cauliflower in a food processor until crumbly or resembling rice in size.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the cauliflower and leeks.  Cook until the cauliflower is browned and the leeks are soft (next time I will roast the cauliflower rice in the oven before starting cooking, in which case I would cook the leeks ginger and garlic together and then add the toasted cauliflower rice).

Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.  Stir in sesame oil and soy sauce.  Served topped with egg and fried onions, if you like.

Mexican Dinner Party - The Sequel

Our internet situation seems to have stablised somewhat, D is back playing WoW and we haven't been disconnected since... (*goes to check, realised that we were disconnected on 22 April 2011*) ... well, before that we were connected for 43 hours!!!  Go back to the beginning of the month when we were struggling to stay connected for more than 5 minutes, this is awesome. 

We did some research and worked out that we could get cable internet at our house and we even applied, however since the ADSL reconnected itself we haven't been in any hurry to shell out the $400 connection fee.  That will be the next step if we start having problems again.

Internet problems aside, I had been working pretty long hours recently and I'd been getting behind in my blogging so I have an incredible number of posts to share with you.  Lucky it's a super long weekend, right?

This post is about the sequel to our Mexican dinner party, although I did mix it up a little.  The dishes served at Part II were inspired by Reeni's Mexican Inspired Dinner Party, which she posted as part of Project Food Blog.  I started seriously craving Mexican just reading Reeni's post and I couldn't wait to make it myself.

While it wasn't particularly necessary, I did spend some time tracking down the perfect cut of meat.  I finally sound skirt steak at Woolworths and bought all they had.  We now have a tray of leftover skirt steak chilling in our freezer.  I was scared I wouldn't be able to find it again.  Previously I've used rump, chuck and gravy beef however none of them were really suited for shredding.  The difference between these cuts of beef and the skirt steak was incredible.  The steak almost shredded itself!

Reeni's Spicy Shredded Flank Steak was a little more work that my previous go-to recipe, but it was definitely worth it.  Reeni's recipe still utilised the slow cooker, which I loved, but first the meat was rubbed in a fragrant spice mix and seared over a high heat.  The spice rub added a new flavour dimension to the meat. After searing the meat is added to the slow cooker along with a sauce made from onions, spices, garlic, tomato paste, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce and lime juice and then cooked for 7 hours.  Halfway through the cooking you are meant to shred the meat but I didn't notice any problems with shredding at the end and then tossing in the sauce.

It was fantastic.  We have made this recipe a few times now and we never have any leftover, it's that good.  I won't make shredded beef any other way ever again.  Wonderful.
  

The side dishes were pico de gallo, grilled corn with chilli lime butter and Mexican rice.  I also wanted to do something with black beans.  I looked at a number of different recipes before I settled on this recipes for Frijoles Negros from Epicurious.  It was so simple, except I used my pressure cooker instead of simmering for hours.  The beans were done in 15 minutes!!!  I've since made the recipe using a saucepan on the stove and canned beans and this is a quick easy recipe.



I have to admit, they don't look that pretty, but this was the first time I've ever made black beans and only the second time I've tried them so I was slightly apprehensive.  Once I tasted it though I was a black bean convert.  They are so tasty. 


To top off the meal, I made Reeni's Mexican Crema with heavy cream and buttermilk.  I loved the crema.  D didn't understand why I'd make my own when we could just buy sour cream, but everyone else loved it too.

It was a great night with good food and good friends.  Can't wait for the next one.

Pan-Seared Radish and Avocado Salad

I had lots and lots of radishes to use up and I was looking for a salad that included avocado.  I was lucky enough to find this recipe for Pan-seared Radish and Avocado Salad on Food Republik.  I've been burned a couple of times with radish salads because as it turns out, our radishes either aren't young enough or sweet enough to be eaten raw unless they are sliced very thinly.  I'd love to try some sweet radishes.

I've never tried cooking radishes before so I was intriged to see how they would turn out with the cooking bringing out their natural sugars.

Well.  Yum yum yum yum yum. Cooking the radish really did develop all of the radish's sweetness. The dressing is so simple, you just squeeze some lemon over the hot radishes while they are in the pan and then drizzle over your salad greens and avocado, where everything wilts together to a creamy sweet delicious meal.

The sweetness of the radish, the tartness of the lemon and the creaminess of the avocado worked so well together. It was amazing.  I have to make it again, soon!

See this post on Food Republik for the recipe.

Farmer's Market Finds

One day I might even get around to posting what I did with them!

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is a very long delayed post. This is the final assembled version of my chocolate avocado mousse that I told you about. After leaving the macadamia sludge in the freezer and the mousse in the fridge for a day or two while I procrastinated (yes, I even procrastinate when it comes to desserts) I finally pulled everything out to soften before I attempted assembly.

As you can see, I wasn't all that successful. It's harder than it looks to get everything even. In hindsight, I probably would have been better served had I returned the macadamia sludge to set again as then the base would have been firmer and wouldn't have been as sensitive when I added the mousse. Secondly, I would have paid better attention to my ratios as I think there was visually a little too much macadamia sludge to chocolate mousse ratio.

I should probably stop calling it sludge. If you saw it though you would agree it me. It looks like sludge. It's the tastiest sludge you ever did eat though.

Once you've layered the base and the mousse, Skye recommends putting the desserts into the freezer and removing them about half an hour before serving. Skye also recommends using a glass that's about twice the size of a shot glass. You should listen to Skye. I used a small glass but it was substantially larger than two shot glasses. The dessert is very rich and I could not finish the glass. Luckily, it refreezes really well.

I really really enjoyed it. Even if I thought it was a little off-balance visually, I was very glad that I had over-estimated how much of the macadamia base to use. The creamy nuttiness was a perfect counterpoint to the deep and rich mousse. Having the dessert frozen and then slightly defrosted really brought out the wonderful textures. I'll definitely make it again, but I might experiment to try and make the mousse slightly less rich. I'm not sure how, but I'll think of something.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

adapted from Wild Sugar by Skye Craig

Mousse

2 avocados

7-8 tablespoons light agave nectar

1/4 tablespoons coconut oil

50g dark chocolate - I used a 65% couverture

1/4 cup coconut milk

3-4 tablespoons cacao powder (Skye's note: (use 3 and then taste to see if you can still taste the avocado. If you still can, it possibly needs more cacao and agave. Different brands of cacao powder have varying strengths. Keep adding more agave and cacao powder until it is the perfect sweetness and chocolatey enough for you. You shouldn’t be able to taste the avocado.)

Macadamia base
1 cup raw macadamia nuts
1-2 tablespoons light agave nectar

Base:

Pulse the macadamia nuts in a food processor. Once the nuts are about half the size of the original chunks, take half of the mix out and set aside in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of the light agave nectar and continue to process the remaining mix in the food processor until it forms a smooth paste. Pull the smooth nut mix out of the food processor and combine with the nuts set aside in the bowl.

Mousse:

Place dark chocolate into food processor and pulse until chocolate is in small pieces. Set aside in bowl. Combine avocadoes, cacao, agave, coconut oil and coconut milk in a blender until smooth, creamy. Taste and adjust if need be, as produce is always different. If you want your mousse to be sweeter, add more agave nectar. Less sweet, more avocado. More chocolatey, add cacao powder, less chocolatey, more avocado. Fold in chocolate.

This is the dessert that started it all: You Make Me Blush from Wild Sugar.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and with Miso Butter, Bacon and Roasted Onions

I was one of those kids that hated brussels sprouts. There was nothing good about their flavour or texture. Ever since then, I have been suspicious of the little mini-cabbages, no matter how cool they look on their stalks. Many many blogs out there in the wide world of the internet have tried telling me that I just have not had sprouts properly prepared. Apparently, sprouts are great friends with bacon and adding bacon can do marvellous things.

While shopping the other day, I noticed that there were some bright green baby brussels sprouts. These tinier mini-er cabbages were not as intimidating as their larger counterparts and in a fit of courage, I bought some. I had a few ideas about what I was going to do with them, but in the end I went with something Momofuku inspired. You know, something different.

I prepared the sprouts as if I was going to make brussels sprouts, kimchi puree and bacon, cutting them in half through the core and then browing them on the stovetop and then finishing the cooking in the oven. I then switched gears and starting making corn, miso butter and bacon minus the corn. I figured that if there was ever a recipe that would change my opinion of brussels sprouts, this would be it.

I can't say that I am a brussels sprout convert, but I can definitely see their potential. I don't think I cooked the sprouts for long enough as they were still a bit hard.

Momofuku Vinegar Pickles

So, I've been posting about my Momofuku journey for most of August now. What I haven't told you is that all of the posts came from one crazy weekend of Momofuku obsessive cooking. When I said way back at the beginning of the month that I couldn't spare my oven for six to eight hours of pork shoulder cooking, it was because it was in serious demand.

The last recipe from that mammoth weekend of Momofuku was two of the twenty-five pickle recipes in the Noodle Bar chapter. There are salt pickles, vinegar pickles, soy sauce pickles, fermented pickles...

Hee. Pickles is a funny word.

Anyway, most of the pickle recipes are very easy. I chose to pickle my cucumber and daikon using the vinegar pickle method, where the vegetables are brined in a water/rice wine vinegar/ sugar/salt mix.

Chang says that the pickles are at their peak optimum flavour after a week. I discovered I very much liked the cucumber pickles and promptly ate the first cucumber I prepared this way. I had more restraint with the second cucumber, only eating half. I prepared a third cucumber and managed to get this lot in the fridge without any further incidents.

I used Lebanese cucumbers for my cucumber pickles.

Momofuku Roasted Corn with Miso Butter, Bacon and Roasted Onions

I am going to make a very very shocking statement. I think this recipe may just be my favourite in the entire Momofuku cookbook. It is incredible. Smoky, salty, sweet - amazing.

I used tinned corn kernals and I am unashamed. I love corn in all its forms, including in a can. In fact, using canned corn means that there's no excuse for having this dish all year round. Except, of course, for the butter and bacon but that's only if you listen to my arteries.

Diced bacon is cooked until it's just-before-crispy. Then the bacon must be protected at all times from D, as bacon cooked this way is his favourite, while you cook the corn. Add the bacon, some of the Momofuku roasted onions, Momofuku miso butter, salt and pepper and some Momofuku ramen broth until everything emulsifies and you have a saucepan of something akin to corn nirvana.

I hadn't made the ramen broth when I first made this dish, so I substituted bacon dashi. The flavour packed into the rest of the ingredients more than makes up for the lack of flavour in my dashi.

Chang vows that this particular dish will never again reappear on the menu at Momofuku Noodle Bar because the last time they ran it, he claims "[they] were a corn restaurant that just happened to sling some noodles on the side". Since you can't get the dish at Momofuku, you will just have to try it at home: Gourmet has posted the recipe here.

Ginger Scallion Sauce

Chang says that Ginger Scallion Sauce is one of the greatest sauces or condiments ever. He says that you can serve it with almost anything and that you need it in your life.

He is so effusive about this sauce that it made me feel guilty that I didn't like it.

I first made this sauce before I bought the cookbook after Ellie made it on Almost Bourdain. It was way too acrid for my tastes. I like spring onions, but this was just too much. I have to say I was disappointed. I wanted this sauce to change my life. And I wanted the sauce so I could use up the spring onions I always seem to be wasting.

Then Steph made the sauce on Momofuku for 2. Steph had issues with the taste of the sauce too. She did say that when she had tried the sauce previously it tasted distinctly different, so maybe there is something off about the recipe. As I first made the sauce before I bought the cookbook, I didn't know that Chang has said that you can add hoisin sauce if you like - maybe that would make a difference.

I haven't tried the hoisin sauce addition yet, because Steph came to my rescue like a food blogging superhero with her own Green Onion Oil/Ginger Scallion Sauce. In this recipe the spring onions are cooked and the flavours meld together really well, instead of just being a giant mouthfull of onion. I loved this sauce. This sauce could be one that could possibly change my life. Well, maybe not my life, but definitely my noodles.

Napa Cabbage Kimchi

I have never had kimchi before. I'm a big baby when it comes to chilli and I'm very fussy with strong smelling foods. Despite this, I've always wanted to try it.

Steph from Momofuku for 2 (I like this blog, can you tell?) mentions in one of the comments that the Momofuku kimchi isn't super spicy and it doesn't have the "super-funk" that other kimchi usually has. Great. I'm in.


The cabbage is first tossed with a sugar and salt mix and left to sit. The sugar and salt 1:1 mix is used so often in the cookbook that I made a big batch of it and now have it in with my spices.

I couldn't find kochukaru in the three Asian supermarkets I visited, so I ended up substituting cayenne pepper. I also couldn't find jarred salted shrimp which is supposed to help kickstart the fermentation. I left it out and kept my fingers crossed.


After mixing everything together it tasted pretty good. It was still nice and fresh tasting and I'd be happy to eat it as it was but it wouldn't be kimchi. I put the whole thing in a glass jar and put it in the fridge. This kimchi is supposed to reach its prime in two weeks.


Unfortunately, I forgot about it. Chang says that the kimchi will stay good for about four weeks but it will get stronger and funkier as time goes on. Now I'm afraid to taste it. I'll let you know if I manage to summon up the courage.

Roasted onions and bad photos

D loves onions. Loves loves loves onions. According to D, onions make everything better. Unless they are spring onions. Or leeks. D is an onion purist, you see.

The roasted onions recipe in the Momofuku cookbook is very straighforward. Slice onions thinly, season gently and then cook them over a medium high heat until they reduce in volume. Drop the heat to medium low and cook until the onions are soft and caramelised.

There is nothing bad about these onions. They are pretty awesome.

Ginger Fried Rice

It was the leading picture in Deb's post on Ginger Fried Rice that sold the recipe for me. Gorgeous grains of rice lightly coated with a glisten of oil and soft ribbons of leek covered with oozing egg yolk blanket by the fried egg and finished with crispy pieces of fried ginger and garlic. I had to make it, even though D doesn't like leeks.

I promised him he wouldn't even know and told him to think of them as a very mildly flavoured onion. He said that if he was supposed to think of them as onions then why couldn't I use onions. I asked him to just try it.

He did try it and liked it so much that we had it for dinner the following night too. The flavours all work together so well. It's such a comforting dish, easy to eat and so tasty. It works with or without the egg and with or without the fried ginger/onions and it reheats really really well. It's amazing.

Thanks so much Deb, I love this dish!

Visit this post Ginger Fried Rice at Smitten Kitchen for the recipe.

McCain Sweet Potato Chips

On 19th July 2010, this blog will be three years old. I can't say that the blog has brought me fame and fortune (not that it was ever intended to) but it has been fun. It's been the best excuse to go exploring various providores and markets and also to try different foods and learn new things. Thank you to all of the people who come here and read about my little adventures.

Recently, the people at McCain very kindly provided me with some sample packets of their new Sweet Potato Fries to try. No one has ever asked me to sample their products before, so I was very excited.


D and I love sweet potato. The texture and the flavour are all there. D also loves the sweet potato fries you can get from burger restaurants like Burger Urge and the now defunct Chimis. We have tried making sweet potato fries at home in the oven but have never been able to get a crispy chip. We've tried parboiling, all different types of temperatures, different kinds of cuts, different ways to distribute the chips on the tray... We've been able to get a nice roasted sweet potato in the shape of a chip, but that's about as far as we've gotten. So, we've had quite a bit of experience in trying to find a nice sweet potato chip.

The McCain Sweet Potato Superfries come in two varieties, the straight cut and the crinkle cut. They are designed to be cooked in the oven like the other varieties of Superfries, which makes them very convenient. Both varieties only require 15-20 minutes in a 230 degree C oven, which straight away makes them quicker than preparing fresh sweet potatoes.

In terms of other comparisons, the Sweet Potato Superfries are higher in fat than their regular potato counterparts (unless you buy the beer battered ones). They also have a few additional ingredients like canola oils, potato and tapioca starch and baking powder and also some additional sugars. The Superfries are 76% sweet potato.


After 20 minutes in the oven both trays of fries were starting to colour nicely. You could get a more even colour if the fries were more evenly distributed on the trays. My oven is pretty crap so I left them for a few more minutes but I think they could probably do with a little longer.

The winners for us were definitely the crinkle cut. They got nicely crispy on the outside with their soft orange sweet potato centre. The straight cut didn't really measure up for us, staying pretty much like roasted sweet potato and the chips we make ourselves. If I was going for a roasted sweet potato chip, I'd just use fresh sweet potato and not worry about the additional ingredients or higher fat content.

We will buy the crinkle cut chips again though. We loved them. In fact, D saw them at the supermarket and bought the three packets remaining in the freezer so that we would have some stored away if the product doesn't catch on.

While McCain did provide the samples for us to try, the opinions are my own. We really did like the crinkle cut Superfries!

The Breakfast Salad

I'm trying to get more vegetables in my diet by incorporating them into more meals other than lunch and dinner. I love fruit and my snacks tend towards the fruity variety, but I'm now trying to replace a majority of those fruit snacks with vegetable based ones. I hadn't really thought about breakfast, but then I came across this Breakfast Salad on Culinate via foodgawker.

I loved the idea of having a fresh, cool and herby salad topped with a gooey poached egg and creamy goat cheese. All the textures really appealed to me and I've already told you how proud I am that I can now poach eggs.

Cindy spoke to my own heart saying that she loves this salad using cucumbers, capsicums and ripe tomato. It was a perfect combination for me. I added some mint, basil and parsley because I was chopping them for my lunch, but I forgot to toss the vegetables with a little flaxseed oil and rice wine vinegar. I can definitely say I didn't miss it. I do have to make this again and try it properly with some roasted sunflower seeds, but it's currently the dead of winter and this salad is supposed to utilise the vegetables at the peak of their prime.

I'm sure this could be adapted to winter vegetables, I may have to give it a try and see what happens.

See this post The Breakfast Salad on Culinate for the recipe.

Roasted Asparagus and Blender Hollandaise

I love hollandaise. Eggs benedict is one of my favourite breakfasts although I only tasted it for the first time maybe four years ago. In that short time, I have discovered that I like my hollandaise to be more eggy than fatty, I like a hint of lemon rather than a strong lemon flavour, I prefer it to be on the thicker side than thin and runny but not oozy and viscous and I hate the ones that are "fake yellow" - the ones that taste like plastic. Luckily, more often than not, the hollandaise tends to be pretty good.

I've tried making it myself before using the traditional method of whisking your butter into eggs over a double boiler but I wasn't too impressed with the results and I was horrified by the amount of butter that went into such a small amount of sauce. I refused to make it at home again. It was easier to be an ostrich and stick my head in the sand about the amount of butter when you didn't see the butter going into it.

Despite all this, I still wanted to eat hollandaise at home. We don't go out for breakfast as often as we used to in an attempt to conserve our funds and when we do, cost is a more important consideration than selection. This tends to mean that the places we go to eat when we do go out for breakfast aren't the eggs benedict kind of establishments. I miss it. Plus, I've finally learned how to poach eggs properly, but I'll talk more about that in a future post.

I went on a quest to find some jarred hollandaise sauce that would meet my sauce standards. I was surprised that even though I visited quite a few delis and providores, I could only find one brand of hollandaise. You think this would have made me think that it probably wasn't a good idea to have hollandaise in a jar, but that didn't hit me until afterwards.

Anyway, I bought this jar of hollandaise and brought it home. I poached my eggs and everything was ready for my sauce, so I lightly warmed some hollandaise in a glass bowl over my poaching water. It looked lovely and it was a light creamy colour. Unfortunately, it tasted awful. Absolutely terrible. The worst plastic tasting hollandaise sauce I've ever tasted. I couldn't eat it and we ended up throwing the whole jar away. The whole $12 jar.

I started researching to see if there was a passable hollandaise sauce that could be bought by the jar (apparently not) and while I was looking around I found a post on a blog where someone commented that they couldn't go past something called blender hollandaise. A quick Google search showed that blender hollandaise was - surprisingly - hollandaise sauce made in a blender. No double boiler, no whisking. It's just some egg yolks, mild English mustard and lemon juice in a blender and you drizzle in some melted butter as if you were making mayonnaise. So easy.

I found a few recipes with varying ratios of egg yolks to butter, but I like this recipe from AllRecipes the best. I made it as written the first time and it was amazing. It wasn't greasy, it was thick and luxurious. It gave some of the restaurant hollandaises a run for their money.

As I said before, I prefer my hollandaises to be on the eggy side. This recipe had (comparatively) a small amount of butter and the next time I made it I cut the butter back to 50g with no ill effects. It was even better the second time.

I had bought some beautiful asparagus that morning and it was just asking to be eaten. I mixed them with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and then roasted them for 10 mins in 180 degree C oven. I topped them with my blender hollandaise and it was just lovely.

I did have some hollandaise left on my plate after I demolished the asparagus and it was so awesome I contemplated scraping my leftover hollandaise into a jar so I could have it again. It seemed such a waste.


Blender Hollandaise
adapted from this recipe on AllRecipes.com

2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp mild english mustard
squeeze lemon juice
80g butter (I have since made this again with only 50g butter and I like it much better)
another squeeze lemon juice to finish
salt and pepper to taste

In the container of a blender, combine the egg yolks, mustard and lemon juice. Cover, and blend for about 5 seconds.

Place the butter in a glass measuring cup. Heat butter in the microwave for about 1 minute, or until completely melted and hot. Set the blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. It should thicken almost immediately. Finish with another squeeze of lemon juice. Season to taste.

Keep the sauce warm until serving by placing the blender container in a pan of hot tap water.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Garlic

These Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Garlic were more foodgawker inspired cooking. It was borne from late night foodgawker browsing where I thought that roasting a whole pile of tomatoes was an incredible idea, no matter that I had no further plan as to what to do with them once I'd finished with them.

I bought a lovely bag of roma tomatoes from the market and cut them into 3 thick slices. I sliced some cloves of garlic thinly and combined them with some olive oil, salt and pepper. The tomatoes were amazingly tasty just like this, but I tried to restrain myself so I could put some in the oven.

Our oven is terrible. I cooked the tomatoes for five hours in a low oven (but still higher than directed in the recipe). My tomatoes did not dry out much and retained a more semi-dried texture. The smell was incredible. The whole house smelled like roasted garlic all afternoon.

We had some of these chopped up and stirred through pasta for dinner. The tomatoes were wonderful, they were pure concentrated tomato flavour. I have tried these again to a lesser extent, on a higher heat for 40 minutes to blister and soften the tomatoes and then had them on toast with scrambled eggs.

See this post on Eat Real for the recipe.

Jazzed up potato chips

During an old episode of Ainsley's Gourmet Express 2, Ainsley made some potato wedges scattered with bacon bits roasted in the oven, topped with some grated cheese to finish. Curiously, he had these as a side to a seafood soup.

I remember visiting New York Fries when they had a store in the Myer Centre and that was my first experience with cheese topped potato chips. I think the serving was something simple like cheese and gravy but I remember I wasn't impressed. The cheese made it sticky and gooey and the chips were soggy. I have never really wanted to try it again. Don't get me wrong, I love chips and gravy, but I do have quite high standards.

Ainsley's take, however, looked quite appetizing. I mean, so many people love bacon. I was cleaning out the freezer and I found a nearly-empty bag of frozen chips and some diced bacon, so I decided to give it a try.

I added the chips and bacon and cooked them for the full recommended cooking time and at the end grated over some sharp cheddar cheese (not very much) and put the tray under a hot grill for a few minutes until the cheese melted.

It was quite nice, but it was difficult to get a mouthful that had a bit of everything in it. Are you supposed to put enough cheese on top to make the bacon stick to the potatoes?