Maybe the problem with success is that we don’t take enough time to define it for ourselves.
~ Eric Karjaluto, co-founder of smashLAB
I find this terribly simple and profound: soft-boiled eggs cracked into a bowl, topped with a mini mountain of toast fragments and too much black pepper.
Sometimes I think I could eat this every day.
One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have wholehearted enthusiasm.
~ Hannah Senesh
Once upon a time, I thought that making oeuf cocotte was fussy and “much work for little return”. Now, I make them occasionally and each time I am always surprised by how simple they are to prepare, how (deceptively) fancy they look and how comforting they are to eat.
Just chop up some of your favourite veges, herbs, bits of ham or anything you like to eat with eggs (and that will like being in the oven)… sometimes I like to first sear some tomatoes with a splash of balsamic vinegar and a bit of muscovado sugar.
Then dot the bottom of a few ramekins with butter, throw in your veges/ham/whatever, crack an egg on top and crown the lot with some cheese. Place the ramekins in a deep baking dish, and fill the baking dish with hot water till it comes halfway up the side of the ramekins.
Bake them for a few minutes, then serve as breakfast/lunch/a light start to dinner. Easy, huh? I think so too.
The recipe I include below documents the way I made it recently, but you can make delicious variations with ham, bacon, mushrooms… some recipes I have come across also use cream. This is a versatile dish that lends itself well to some experimentation!
Other yummies of late: (1) a particularly delicious chocolate fondue involving, I found out later, mascarpone added to the warm chocolate mix. Mmm! (2) a generous and very tasty chicken sandwich at Willow Glen in Gordonton. (3) my sweet brother’s “brownie cake” (midway between brownie and cake). Cute imagining him in the kitchen, probably looking very serious the whole time. (4) farmers’ market salad leaves. Crunch crunch crunch.
P.S. Happy Waitangi Day!
If you’ve broken the eggs, you should make the omelette.
~ Anthony Eden
In “The Kitchen Diaries” (page 117), Nigel Slater wrote about his version of a Spanish omelette – “lighter and crisper than the traditional one that uses thick slices of potato”, and which incorporates parsley, mint and tarragon.
It sounded delicious, and through some unplanned, beautiful coincidence, I had exactly those herbs in my fridge right as I read this page and found myself hungry. The tarragon was a complimentary gift from the kind man at the farmers’ market, and I had some mint and parsley left over from a dinner last week. I also had potatoes and eggs – whee!
I skipped the flour and broiling my omelette, and replaced six chopped scallions with a clove of garlic, some diced onion and a sprinkle of paprika (to suit what was in my pantry), and had myself a lovely late lunch while it poured outside.
And on that wet note, the lovely summer sun has departed, leaving crazy rain in its place. But not all is dismal: I attended my first rainy barbeque last night, at my friend Cam’s place. The meat was excellent, as was the company, and there was dancing and crazy conversations… the rain shall not take away the joy of summer.
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.
~ Walt Disney
This evening, I stood across the road from the supermarket, caught in indecision.
I thought about the semi-bare appearance of both pantry and fridge, and the fact that grocery shopping might help that.
I reflected on my heightened state of laziness and the unpleasant idea of being crammed in a box with frenzied folk and bright lights and signs saying BUY ME BUY ME I’M ON SPECIAL [even though I’m crappy and unnecessary].
(I sometimes fantasise about a life free of supermarkets and glad-wrapped chicken and self-imposed walking up and down rows of stressed and tired people, boxed food and trolleys. Anyway, that’s a post for another time.)
The lure of fresh air and sunlight won over all supermarket-related thoughts in the end, so I walked on home.
Back at home, I found a forgotten (but more importantly: very edible) potato, a few eggs and some other bits and pieces. As I mulled over the question of the evening, “what shall I cook from not much at all?” I was reminded of a line someone once told me: “laziness breeds creativity”…
Laziness doesn’t usually seem to yield positive results in anything, but occasionally, it does.
And while I don’t think I’ll try calling my dinner tonight “creative”, I daresay I was pretty pleased with it anyway.
* You may want to use some a mixture of light and pure/extra virgin olive oil or just light olive oil if you find the taste of pure olive oil too strong – I love the taste of olive oil, so I just used extra virgin.
** This was my first attempt at making aioli, but I have heard that it is crucial to add at least half the oil in very slowly so it doesn’t get ruined…
*** Lots of uses for aioli: serve with fresh vegetables, pan fried fish, crispy fries – mmm!
Posted in All, Eggs I love you!, P, Recipes included, Vegetables & salads
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street.
~ W. H. Auden
I have been eating this every day for breakfast this week. Kids, try this at home: lay a piece of your favourite bread on a plate. Cover it with fresh spinach leaves. Decorate with oily oh-so-good-that-you-want-to-swoon-over-it smoked salmon and healthy flecks of parmesan cheese. Squeeeeze a wedge of lemon over the whole lot. Poach an egg in salted water, and place on top of the lot. Sprinkle with black pepper if desired. Eat immediately with knife and fork.
Posted in All, Breakfast, Eggs I love you!, P, Recipes included
I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
~ James M. Barrie
The way you cut your meat reflects the way you live.
~ Confucius
Posted in All, Eggs I love you!, Impromptu, P
Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.
~ Charles Pierre Monselet, French journalist
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