Corkage

Falling in love again…

Eggs, potatoes and tomato sauce.  Just a few of the things I have loved that I fell in love with all over again this weekend.  This weekend was full of lots and lots of home cooking.  I started with eggs, one of my primary culinary loves.  I need to have a dozen eggs in the fridge at all times, to make creations like this one on Saturday mornings:

Saturday Morning Scramble
5 Grade AA Large Eggs
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsps Diced Yellow Onion
! Tbsp Chopped Fresh Parsley
1 Tbsp Heavy Cream

Melt the butter in a medium pan and add the onions.  Sauté on medium low until soft and golden in color.  Crack all 5 eggs into the pan and break up with a silicon covered whisk.  Continue stirring every few minutes until eggs begin to firm up.  Once eggs begin to come together, add parsley and continue to stir with the whisk.  This will make the eggs homogenous and fluffy.  Just before you think they’re finished add the heavy cream, drizzling over the top of all the eggs and mixing in with the whisk.  Cook for a few more minutes until moist and fluffy.  Serve immediately with a nice crusty bread.

For dinner on Saturday, I’d like to thanks Julia Child and Merrill Stubbs for teaching me the inns and outs of Potatoes au Gratin.  There was a bag of Trader Joe’s russet potatoes sitting in my fridge just calling out for the goodness of swiss cheese, garlic and milk.  Who was I to resist?  So I broke out my new Mandoline V-Slicer, and got to slicing.  I followed Merrill’s recipe for the most part, but I substituted swiss cheese for the gruyere.  I happen to agree with Julia on this one, I love swiss cheese for a classic recipe like this.  I do love Merrill’s steeping of the garlic in the warm milk trick though.  It makes that garlic flavor really pop.  Click the link above for Merrill’s version, but I would recommend swiss instead of gruyere.  We loved them so much we ate the entire batch that night.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so full in my life.  But it was delicious.  To go with these tasty spuds, a simple baby spinach salad with a light olive oil, garlic and lemon juice dressing.

After the heavy dinner on Saturday, we were in the mood for something a little lighter tonight, so I went with Tuscan Tomato Poached Eggs.  I made a few small tweaks based on what was on hand, so here’s how it goes:

1 15oz Can Whole Foods 365 Brand Organic Tomato Sauce
1 Clove Garlic, peeled and diced
3 Generous Pinches Chili Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 Eggs, Grade AA Large
2 Pinches Salt (I used Garlic Infused Sea Salt)

Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil and heat on medium low.  Add the garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes.  Add the tomato sauce, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.  While the tomato sauce is cooking, crack the eggs into a bowl or individual bowls depending on if you want them all to cook together or separate.  After 10 minutes, gently slide the eggs into the tomato sauce, cover and cook until whites are firm.  Serve immediately with lots of sauce and crusty bread.  Trust me, you won’t want to miss any of that yummy sauce!

A busy weekend full of yummy food.  Sometimes you just need to get back to the classics.

From Farmers Market to Plate: Day Two.

I had a dream last night.  It’s amazing how things can come to you in dreams.  I couldn’t get the asiago sourdough bread out of my mind.  I wanted to do something simple to highlight this beautiful asiago artisan bread from The Rustic Loaf.  It deserved a dish all of its own.  French toast seemed the perfect canvas for this moist cheesy bread.  We love breakfast for dinner, but I wanted to cut down on the sugar content of your typical french toast and maple syrup.

I had bought some ripe juicy sustainably farmed strawberries at the farmers market yesterday along with all the other tasty treats I toted home.  A simple strawberry puree with a tablespoon of sugar added, made with my brand spankin’ new immersion blender seemed the perfect complement.  Waaaay better than maple syrup.  I’ve always been a fan of dishes that mix salty and sweet together.  The strawberries with the asiago sourdough created a perfect balance.  I hate wasting food, so I used the ends of the loaf to make the cinnamon sugar crusts by slicing them into thin strips.  If you don’t have usable crusts, you can use one slice of bread sliced into strips instead.

Quick and Easy Asiago French Toast with Cinnamon Sugar Crusts and Pureed Strawberries

1 Loaf Asiago Sourdough Artisan Bread
2 Eggs
1/4 cup non-fat milk
1 pint strawberries
1 Tbsp Sugar plus 1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tsp  Cinnamon
1-2 Tbsps butter 

Prepare the strawberry puree first.  Wash and hull the strawberries, slice into chunks and puree in a blender or use an immersion blender.  Add 1 tbsp sugar and blend until smooth.

For the french toast, slice the bread, setting aside the ends.  Cut each slice in half.  Whisk eggs and milk together.  In a large frying pan melt 1 tbsp butter over medium heat.  Dip each slice of bread into the egg and milk mixture and place each piece into the frying pan.  Let the egg cook until light yellow golden then flip.  You may need to flip several times to the the toast cooked to your liking.  It will appear a little wet because of the butter, don’t worry.  The eggs are cooked.  Transfer to a plate waiting next to the stove.  Turn off the burner in between batches to make sure the pan doesn’t get too hot.  Melt fresh butter as needed while heat is off.

While the last batch is cooking, mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon and slice the loaf ends into strips.  After the toast is done, dip the strips in egg mixture then into the cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Transfer to pan and turn on again.  Cook on medium until gooey.  Place on top of each serving of toast.  Top with pureed strawberries and serve immediately.

As my husband said…”Oh my God, this is amazing.”  Fun, quick, easy and tasty.  This meal hits all the most important notes for a weekday meal.  I hope you enjoy as much as we did.  Tune in tomorrow for day three of from farmers market to table.  Stuffed onions or veggie couscous.  Hmmmm…