Awesome Brunch Recipe: Poached Eggs, Potato Hash and Kimchi
It sometimes feels like cheating when I write a post that’s essentially a mashup of a bunch of previous posts. But then something like this happens:
What to do with Kimchi? Poached Eggs with Kimchi and Potato Cakes (Recipe)
Our fridge is getting really full. We do a lot of fermentation this time of year and store it, once complete, in the fridge where fermentation slows down the fermentation and the food is kept alive (if that sounds odd, think of yogurt). We still have a jar of fermented green tomatoes, our awesome herbes salees, 3 liters of sauer kraut and another 3 liters of fiery carrot and cabbage kimchi. There’s also many half eaten jars of jams, pickles and other delights from the great wall of preserves. You get the idea – the fridge is getting FULL!
How to Make the Perfect Poached Egg (Without Vinegar)
I haven’t been a big breakfast person for most of my adult life(with the exception of my Father’s pancakes). The truth is that, most days, I’d prefer reheated pasta, cold pizza or even a hamburger to start my day. I generally avoid such temptation but I’m not saying I don’t think about it.
Those days may have changed. I’ve finally managed to make awesome poached eggs with repeated success. And, like most things cooking, I’ve found it to be surprisingly easy.
Purple Potato Panckes …Perfection! (Recipe)
I know the idea of a purple meal slightly turns some peoples stomachs – but when you find yourself with a pile of purple potatoes, why not just dive in head first?
This is a real simple breakfast/brunch recipe. It will work with any type of potato and you can add anything you want – as long as you keep it simple. There’s nothing to bind everything together here so adding too much complexity will put the integrity of your pancakes at peril (meaning they will fall apart – at which point you could make a hash).
Bacon, Brie, Leek and Onion Quiche (Recipe)
I don’t know why I found quiche so intimidating to make – it took FOREVER to get up the nerve to try to make it and I quickly found out that it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I feared.
Tricks for the Best French Toast
When it comes to French Toast, there`s a few short tricks that lead to the most amazing results imaginable…
Duck Egg Quiche Recipe
I am not a Quiche purist.
The great thing about Quiche, to me, is that it is an idea – maybe even a philosophy. There’s no great rules and the ones that do exist can all be broken. As long as I have dough (optional to some), cheese (optional to some) and eggs (pretty much a given though I’m sure there are exceptions), then I have a Quiche.
Quiche is an amazing vessel for any home-dried goods you have. Dried mushrooms, celeriac, chives, ramps, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, fire-roasted peppers and more all make great additions. If you’re a meat-eater you may also enjoy homemade bacon (especially if smoked).
You can use fresh ingredients as well although the prep time increases slightly – using dried ingredients makes this a super fast dish that can be assembled in minutes.
How to Cook Steel Cut Oatmeal – Warm the Soul (and your toes)
I had heard the term – in fact, I’d even eaten ‘steel cut oatmeal. I just had no idea what made it different from other oatmeal.
The stuff that I was raised on was called rolled oats. It was essentially crushed whole grain. It was healthy and cooked relatively fast.
I had heard people rave about ‘steel cut’ like it was some form of superior oatmeal. Claims ranged from health benefits to taste. I was, more than anything, simply curious about it.
Slow Scrambled Eggs – 90 minutes and a lot of patience for `perfect scrambled eggs`…
It was time for an experiment.
I had intended to take 30-40 minutes to make scrambled eggs to add to fried rice. It turned out that they took 90 minutes. I`m not sure I can reconcile the effort or energy that was consumed but this is definitely worth trying.
The results are unlike anything I have ever eaten. The entire bowl tastes like butter and richness (I know that`s not really a flavor but I swear it`s what it tastes like). It may sound odd that I was trying to make amazing scrambled eggs to add to fried rice but that was kind of the idea; take an `accent` flavor to a higher level and feature the scrambled eggs instead of the rice.
I have heard about slow-cooked scrambled eggs before. A friend swears by a double-boiler method. I had read a different technique from Mark Bittman - heat a pan for a minute on medium, melt butter and reduce the temperature to low. Pour in beaten eggs, a bit of cream (we used milk) and season with salt and pepper (we used 4 fresh from farm eggs and white pepper) and stir whenever `curds` appear. We stirred it every 3-5 minutes. It should take 30 minutes.
Our stove is apparently a little lower than his. It took 90 minutes and some playing with the temperature to get them complete.
The results are amazing. The texture is unknown, the flavor bursts of butter and farm freshness and the richness makes Midas look financially destitute. The delay means that my fried rice will be delayed a day but I believe it is worth it.
Here`s the blow-by-blow process in photos (the numbers are the time):
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`Perfect` poached eggs – especially for large groups
Breakfast is not my specialty. I don`t love eating it and that personal ambiguity converts into my cooking ability for all things morning. I`m on a personal mission to alter that and become competent for morning food.
Poached eggs have eluded me. I have tried large pots, small pots, vinegar, egg rings, fast boils, a low simmer and hardly a boil at all. I have drained the runny white, prayed to the egg gods and more. I usually end up with a small bit of poached egg and a large amount of egg white soup.
That changed yesterday:
