Eggs as Dessert

These pretty looking eggs are all natural and are available from Fair Food Farmstand

"You've got to go slowly or you'll end with scrambled eggs," warned a helpful friend last week when I mentioned that I was planning to make creme caramel for the first time.  (Tired of writing about savory egg dishes, I thought now is my chance to go sweet...)

While I despise both the ready made refrigerated version of creme caramel or 'flan' as it is marketed in retail grocers, and also the packet version to which you "simply add milk," I'll happily order creme caramel or a creme brulee anytime I see it on the dessert menu at a good restaurant.

With my friend's warning ringing in my ears, I set to work.  Found a five-star recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com/ and pre-heated the oven...

As I'm trying to use less refined food, I'm only cooking with brown sugar these days.  I didn't expect this to be a problem until I started boiling up the proto-caramel mixture and read the directions which said "boil until the syrup turns golden brown."  Useful that.  The sugar water started off brown - so how can one tell when it's done?

I guessed.

Same recipe instructed me to "whisk" in hot milk mixture to the egg yolk and sugar and vanilla, yet exhorted me to avoid whisking "to prevent excess bubbles."  Now I'm really confused. Why use a whisk if the intention is to avoid aerating the mixture?  Why not use a wooden spoon and gently stir in the hot milk?

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  So I must report back on the end results...

Naaaaaah.  This recipe didn't work for me.  I thought the creme caramel custard was too sweet by far and even though I was using mexican vanilla essence, which according to Penzey's Spices is supposed to be the best quality, I thought it needed more vanilla than the recipe called for.

Win some; lose some.  These looked good (I grated cinnamon sugar crystals over the top of each ramekin, which at least made it look a little more interesting..."

Do you have a creme caramel recipe you'd recommend? 

Or do you add a little something extra to your recipe to give it a sparkle? 

Egg-splosion

If you've read this blog regularly, you know that I am not a great fan of eggs.  Scrambled, yes, omelets and frittatas, sure, especially if they're filled with cheese and other flavor masking ingredients.

But if forced to choose between skipping a meal and a boiled/poached/fried egg, I'd absolutely wait for lunch.

Recently, however, I've been forced to start making soft-boiled eggs.  My teen daughter has taken to heart the old adage "Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince, Dine like a pauper" and has requested soft boiled eggs, toast, fruit, milk--essentially, a regal repast to start her day.  While I'm thrilled at her attention to health, I was less enthused by her egg selection seeing as I had no idea how to make a soft boiled egg.  But, never one to shy away from culinary tasks, and feeling confident in the kitchen, I cracked Betty Crocker's Basic Cookbook and followed directions.

The first attempts put to mind the children's story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Despite my vigilant attempts to time the beastly orbs, I was invariably greeted (justifiably, I readily admit) with comments from my daughter ranging from "This is too runny"  to "This is hard-boiled".

The procedure seemed simple enough:  put an egg into a saucepan of water, making sure it is covered by at least 1 inch of water.  Bring to boil  Remove from heat, and leave in hot water for three minutes.  Place in egg cup, slice off top, and consume.  My results were hit and miss, until this morning.

I grabbed a saucepan, and followed the instructions.  But I have to admit, I don't think I fully covered the egg by one inch with water.  When I removed it from the pan and cut off the top, the egg was purely liquid.  My husband suggested that I pop it into the microwave for a few seconds.  I thought that sounded genius, so I gave it a 30 second zap.

Imagine our dismay when the egg exploded in the microwave, spewing yolk and white everywhere.

I made a second attempt at my daughter's breakfast, less catastrophic in terms of the mess, but still substandard in terms of the result.  I then threw in the proverbial towel.  I told my daughter I would be pleased to make her spectacular omelets, cheesy scrambles, even poached or fried eggs every morning til the end of days.  But my soft boiled egg career is at an end.

Have you had any allegedly simple cooking tasks that you simply couldn't master?

Happy Passover: Two Secrets to Fluffy Matzoh Balls

Our Seder is quite relaxed.    My husband, having married a non-Jewish woman (my good self), is pretty low key about his faith, so his holidays are more about family getting together for a festive meal than strict religious teachings.  And food is really my religion so it works well.

With Passover on the near horizon, I am busy planning the menu, which always features matzoh ball soup.  This dovetails well with our feature on eggs, because one of the secrets, shared with me by my husband's beloved, late Aunt Sarah, a famously great cook and hostess, involves eggs.  Drum roll, please:  Separate them.

When you prepare the matzoh balls, use whatever recipe you like, but separate the yolks from the whites and whip the whites to a light, frothy near-meringue.  Then gently fold them into the remaining mixture and proceed with the process as planned.

The other secret Aunt Sarah taught me was to use seltzer.  Many recipes call for water or chicken stock.  Ignore them.  These result in leaden balls that seem more appropriate to bouncing off pavement than eating. 

So when we sit down to our feast this weekend, and my spoon cleaves through the soft, fluffy matzoh ball like a hot knife through butter, I'll tip my toque to Aunt Sarah in thanks for sharing her secrets, even with a shiksa.

Happy Passover!

Souffle for Supper

I am  a fan of the savory souffle, although I make them very rarely due to the precise timing they require and the dire consequences if there is a delay in serving them.  Case in point:   One evening long ago, I was preparing a souffle for my newly wedded husband.  He called me from work, and said he would be leaving shortly and promised to be home in 30 minutes.  Perfect timing to cook the souffle, so I proceeded accordingly.  I whipped, folded, grated, and baked as the recipe required, and was ready to pull my masterpiece out of the oven just as hubby should have been walking through the door.  Well, the appointed hour came and went, my souffle became a sou-flop, and we ended up eating a very flat eggy mess later that evening.  An important client had phoned as my man tried to exit stage right and he couldn't get a message to me in time.  (Though I am reluctant to date myself, let's just say this was before the days of email, texts and cell phones, so he really couldn't have avoided the debacle.)

Should you have a more predictable schedule or refrain from cooking until the eaters are all under one roof, I heartily recommend this

Parmesan Polenta Souffle:

1 Tbsp butter
1 1/3 cups parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp cornmeal
4 egg yolks
salt/pepper to taste
5 egg whites

Heat oven to 425.

1.  Butter a 6 qt souffle dish and dust w/ 2 Tbsp cheese
2.  Bring 1 2/3 cups water to boil w/ olive oil  and sprinkle in corn meal in a slow steady stream stirring constantly.  Cook polenta on medium high for 10 minutes until mixture is thickened.  Remove from heat.
3.  Beat in egg yolks, and all but 1 Tbsp cheese.  Season w/ salt/pepper and set aside.
4.  Beat egg whites with pinch of salt on high until they hold peaks, are stiff but still creamy.  Gradually blend the egg whites w/ polenta mixture, folding gently.
5.  Spoon mixture into prepared pan, smooth top and sprinkle w/ remaining cheese.
6.  Bake 25-30 mins til souffle is puffed, brown and firm. Serve immediately.

I love this dish with a tomato salad like this tricolore from By George in Reading Terminal Market:

or baby arugula in a  balsamic vinaigrette:

Never one to shy away from bread, I heartily recommend a baguette or ciabatta to accompany this simple supper (or brunch if you are a bruncher, though I am not.)

Just make sure that your guests are in shouting distance when the souffle exits the oven.  My sou-flop was many years ago, but I am still scarred by the incident.

And speaking of eggs, we found this clip of screaming eggs rather amusing...kind of how I felt when my souffle collapsed. Enjoy!

Eggs for Dinner, alla Carbonara

As the half of the Philly Food Lovers team that is not a huge fan of breakfast, nor a major consumer of eggs in the morning, I gravitate toward other uses of these nutritional orbs.   I love using eggs for dinner--they are quick to prepare, generally healthy,  and bridge a wide swath of dietary restrictions --they cover ovo-lacto vegetarians, kosher eaters, and are carb-free.  Look for Claire's frittata recipe this weekend; she serves it for brunch; for me it's dinner.

Pasta alla Carbonara, heaven in a bowl.

Today, however, I am here to share one of my go-to pasta dishes:  Pasta alla Carbonara, or "Coalminer's Pasta"  (sorry, Dr. Atkins,  South Beach Dieters and vegetarians but this one contains both carbs and meat.)  I am especially partial to this dish because it is made with very basic ingredients, which I pretty much always have on hand.  I can rustle this up for a small or large crowd with miminal notice.  If you don't have the guanciale or pancetta (both of which are Italian versions of  bacon) as suggested in the recipe link, regular old bacon works just fine.  I have even used turkey bacon when my pantry or my company required it, and the dish was still delish.

Like many foods, the history of this one is hazy.  The most common story credits the "carbonara" or "coalminers" with developing the dish as something that could easily be prepared over a fire during their shifts with a few ingredients grabbed from the kitchen (or henhouse) en route to work.  The generous sprinkle of pepper is said to mimic the inevitable specs of coal that would drop into the dish as an occupational hazard while the miners were preparing and eating it.  Another theory claims that the dish was invented by necessity at the end of WWII.  The Allied Forces, when liberating Italy, dropped food parcels containing American staples--dried eggs and bacon--throughout country as a part of the relief effort for the formerly occupied land.   The Italians took these ingredients, mixed them with the pasta and pecorino cheese they had on hand and Carbonara was born.  (leave it to the Italians to make something so fabulous with such rudiments.)  Thank you Foodies'Kitchen for this info.

To source the ingredients for this simple dish, hit the Market.  By George will set you up with pasta:

Fresh fettucine from By George.

Depending on your choice of smoked meat, whether the authentic Italian version or an Americanized/poultry substitute, you have a wide selection of Market butchers who will provide what you need.

In terms of sides,  keep it simple.  Choose a crusty loaf of bread--either a semolina, or baguette from LeBus, or perhaps this country white from Metropolitan Bakery:

Metropolitan Bakery's Country White Bread

Philly Food Lovers Caesar Salad would be a grand accompaniment.    Iovine Brothers will provide all you need for this simple, crowd pleaser.

Stay tuned for guidance on wine from our friends at Philly Wine Finder and dessert from our friends at Flying Monkey Patisserie.

Buon appetito!

Eat Local: Save a Few Pennies

January is a lean month for all of us. 

Financially, it's the time when we need to cut back a bit in the aftermath of Christmas splurges.   Physically and calorifically,  we need to start eating more healthfully after over-indulging during the Holidays.  It's also the time of year when fresh fruit and vegetables tend to shoot up in price -- because most produce is being air-freighted in from far-flung places. The folks at Fairfood Farmstand suggested buying local, and leaning (pun intended) on the staples in your refrigerator.

Jamie Oliver, one of the best loved cooks in the U.K. is a proponent of healthy local eating.  Lucky for him he owns a farm or two and can walk into his garden and dig up what he needs, when he needs it!  If, like us, you have a quilt-sized back yard and a couple of flowerboxes, you aren't sauntering out to the back forty when you need some fresh kale.   If, like us, you live in striking distance of Reading Terminal Market you can access local produce right now.   Squash, potatoes, hardy root vegetables like sweet potatoes and parsnips, mushrooms, cranberries, kale and apples are still available from local growers.

Mr Oliver is a quirky, opinionated chef, who speaks as he finds.  As you'll see in this video clip showing him making a pea frittata on a camping stove in a market in the U.K. 

We told you he's different...

If you like the sound of this guy, then you might also like to know that he's just published "Jamie's America:  Easy Twists on Great American Classics" - a fabulous collection of recipes he compiled while travelling around the U.S.


We trust that our Jamie wouldn't steer us wrong, either health-wise or taste-wise with his pea fritatta, but  if you still have your doubts about the nutritional quality of eggs, then read on....

According to incredibleegg.org, eggs should be an important staple in our diet.  Their egg-sperts crack the myth that an egg a day is associated with an increase in cholesterol:  "Nutrient-rich, all-natural eggs are a welcome addition to any diet. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein, healthy unsaturated fats and antioxidants, and contain only 70 calories."   These nutrient-packed orbs are also essential in supporting:

• Weight management
• Muscle strength
• Healthy pregnancy
• Brain function
• Eye health

Eggsactly.