Thanks for people’s comments on my previous post, both the ones posted on-site, and the ones emailed to me. It’s always interesting and helpful to hear the perspectives of others, especially when it comes to something so clearly…questionable.

Today, I’ll stay on the safe side and write about a great meal Soli threw together on a whim about a week back. We had picked up a Portuguese chicken a few nights before, and foolishly ordered a family-size pack of fries to go with it. Now, their fries are amazing, and I am an avid French-fry-addict, but even given these two truths, there was no way we would ever be able to finish these behemoth bag of fries. After a few nights of them sitting in our fridge, Soli decided to use them in a frittata.

I’ve got to start eating frittatas more often! They’re one of those dishes I always forget about, but shouldn’t, because they are so easy to prepare and pretty much anything in the fridge can be tossed in there with great results. This one was a concoction of lardons, a whole pack of frozen spinach and greens, a chopped onion, a sliced zucchini, a can of corn, a few handfuls of our spicy Portuguese fries, a whole lot of eggs, and some shredded cheese, all baked up in a cast iron pan and served alongside some ketchup and hot sauce. Simple, quick, delicious, and the perfect way to use up food that’s just sitting in the fridge.

There’s no real recipe here, just play it by ear. First, we thawed the frozen spinach and greens, and squeezed out all the excess water. Heat your French fries briefly up in the oven at around 400 degrees F. Next, chop an onion! We heated some butter and olive oil in a cast iron pan, and added some bacon that had been cut into cubes, then added the chopped onion. Next, we added a sliced zucchini and the can of corn niblets. Throw in the thawed greens, and heat. While it’s heating, beat together 10 eggs and add the shredded cheese. Add the French fries, and pour the egg and cheese mixture over everything. Pop it in the over at 400 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until the eggs are firm and are puffing up. Cut into triangles and serve with salad or lots of ketchup and hot sauce!

One of the dishes I made for our Christmas dinner was a jalapeno pepper pie. It’s a nice, crustless quiche-like frittata dish that packs a little spicy punch and has the flavours of Mexican cuisine thanks to all the fresh cilantro. Roasting the jalapeno peppers first brings out their sweetness, though they still have a great hint of spiciness.

It’s not a complex dish (taste or preparation wise) and takes no time to make it. If you like frittatas, you’ll probably like this; after all, what’s not to love about cheese and jalapeno and eggs? I think this would make a great breakfast dish, though I don’t recommend making it beforehand hand then reheating…I think it would be much better fresh out of the oven!

Jalapeno Pepper Pie
adapted from She Wears Many Hats
Printable Recipe

8 jalapenos
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
4 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves (depending on your love for cilantro)
5 eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 400°F.

2. Chop the ends off the jalapenos, cut length wise, de-seed and toss with a little olive oil, place on a baking sheet, cut side down and bake in a 400°F oven for about 15 minutes.

3. While the peppers are roasting, shred your cheeses.

4. Prep the cilantro, by rinsing and giving it a quick rough chop.

5. Next beat the eggs together along with the cream, salt and pepper.

6. When the jalapenos are finished roasting, reduce oven to 325°F, and let the jalapenos cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, peel the skins off of the jalapenos. They should easily peel off, if not cover with a kitchen towel, bowl or aluminum foil and let steam for another few minutes. Once the jalapenos are peeled, chop them up.

7. Place the chopped jalapenos in a single layer in the bottom of a greased pie plate, followed by the shredded cheeses, then the cilantro, and finally the beaten eggs with salt and pepper.

8. Bake in 325°F for about 40 minutes. Serve warm.

It seems that the hotter it gets here in Montreal, the less we feel like writing about all the great food we’re making at home. And I’m afraid that problem won’t be solved in the near future…we are soon off to visit Iles-de-la-Madeleine, about to stuff our face with lobster, mussels, scallops and clams. We haven’t left on a vacation in a few years, and haven’t smelled the ocean air in even longer, so this is an exiting adventure we’re really looking forward to. We’ll come back with plenty of lobster tales (pun so obviously intended!).

But for now, here’s a quick breakfast Soli whipped up one day. If you have the makings for a traditional eggs ‘n bacon breakfast, as well as some puff pastry, then this is a snap to make, and is amazingly good. A good breakfast tart is a wonderful thing to wake up to!

For this breakfast tart, we used some quality bacon, fiddleheads, mushroom, cheese and eggs. The end result was perfectly cooked eggs, slightly bitter fiddleheads, creamy goat cheese and sauteed mushrooms atop a flaky puff pastry crust. This recipe is extremely versatile though; substitute any ingredient with your own preference.

Could breakfast get any better? Oh! Yes, it can. Drizzle with maple syrup when you’re done and it’s ready to eat.

Breakfast Tart with Fiddleheads, Mushrooms, Bacon and Cheese
adapted from Yum Sugar

1 sheet puff pastry dough
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water
4 oz. cheese (we used a decadent goat cheese)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
8 bacon slices, cooked until crisp
4 eggs
1 tbsp butter
1 cup fiddleheads
1 cup sliced mushrooms

1. Thaw the puff pastry dough according to the package instructions.

2. Preheat an oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

3. On lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into a 10-by-8-inch rectangle. Place the pastry on the prepared baking sheet. Using a paring knife, score a border 1/2 inch in from the edge of the pastry. Using a fork, prick the center of the pastry. Brush the border with the egg wash and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

4. Saute fiddleheads and mushrooms in the butter until soft.

5. Place the toppings (bacon, fiddleheads, mushrooms, goat cheese) on the tart crust. Bake the tart for 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking.

6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on a level heatproof surface. Using a fork, prick any large air pockets in the pastry. Crack the eggs onto the tart, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until the egg whites are set and the yolks are still soft, 7 to 10 minutes.

6. Transfer the tart to a platter and serve immediately.

I have a terrible habit… cooking for 50 when only five are around. I think I topped out at 12 liters in my last attempt at soup. Small pots help keep me honest, but I seem to always find a way. This is true with spaghetti – mounds of it left over – always.

This is not a bad thing, especially considering the convention of the frittata!

These are many ways to approach this. I like the day old spagettes, but any older and you might want to freshen the mix by inviting some fresh veg into the equation. Try wilting spinach, frying onions, or adding fresh tomatoes.

Spaghetti Frittata

Start by sparking the broiler and getting an oven safe skillet to medium-high heat.

In a bowl, whisk as many eggs as you need (i.e. about 1 per serving @ 6 – 10 servings). I’ve seen recipes that might discard every other yolk, but I don’t. Depending on your original pasta sauce, you might not need to season the eggs – a softer sauce might require you to add salt, pepper, etc… use your judgment.

Now the fun part – it’s best to work with a slightly warmer leftover so pull your spaghetti earlier or warm in just a tad in the microwave. Fold the spaghetti into your egg mixture and ensure and even coating.

On your medium-high hot skillet, gently and evenly add the mixture. Let in cook on the stove-top for 5 -7 minutes and follow up with another 3 – 5 minutes under the broiler. I like to pull it in the last 2 minutes to add a coating of any gritty sharp Parmesan. Keep an eye on it as broilers are mean, loud, and pushy

Slice like a pizza – um – a pie? A pie.

Serve with a salad or a quartered and salted tomato – all doused with your best olive oil.

The play of textures in this crispy, flavorful, and tender point is bliss and makes a great snack, light meal, or easy take-with-you lunch idea.

I miss writing, especially here. Been gone, but where?

These were the days of my life since… last October. I am a foodie, but a keener of the sort. I have loved food since the start – easy hobby I figured. My mom didn’t really “love” food, but she loved the people eating it, and it showed. She gave me a head start on the whole ethnic palette idea – foreign color, flavor, and texture on a regular basis. I explicitly remember the breaded and baked calf brains served with a highly acidic, but still un-cured green/white cabbage salad. I was 7. I was not happy.

Pied de Cochon make a great calf brain omelet soufflé thing – fantastic

Taken from www.rawfish.com.au/brains-and-bacon/ - this is about what it looked like, but my mom served this with a cabbage salad and did not use any bacon.

Anyway, I started cooking and eating everywhere/everything. Traveling as a foodie is too good, especially if stop as you go… so after taking to as many markets, tables, sidewalks as there are types of bread, I decided to take a few sporadic plunges.

The Ritz Carlton – as far I know, my mentor. I worked there as a banquette server, always between the kitchen and the client. The kitchen was – the best. It’s where I saw my first 400 liter stock pot.

Other restos followed. I served mostly, but that implies always near the kitchen. Italian, Sushi, Chinese, tapas, bars and pubs – all different; all fascinating.

I eventually managed a couple for restos, but most recently, in the last year in fact, I was a chef. I cheffed for fifty, everyday.

They loved it. I loved it. Here a short list of some of what I served: Sample Menus

Why am I telling you all this? Because I went from foodie to pro, and thought you should know. Plus, I just sort of want to say thanks to all the people who truly love food and have shared with me their experience and passion – professionals and foodies, diners and dishers, servers and savants… thanks. My palette will forever know the amalgamation of texture and flavor one uses to taste the art of life…

…and with that, one of my favorites from the last year:

Crepes Terrine with Spinach, Mushroom, and Smoked Turkey

Crepes are my favorite and are in fact the first thing I learned to make after the fried egg. I know it as a breakfast food or dessert and love the way you can fill them up and roll them on your plate, blanketing them in any of many syrups, sauces, or jams. But the rich and sumptuous crepe is far more ready for a savory setting than I had earlier thought, dans la forme d’une… terrine? Sorta. Not exactly right, but serves the purpose.

So, first – prepare you fillings:

Mushrooms and Spinach

I like to use a mix of mushrooms that have been roasted and chopped with a bit of salt and pepper or a mushroom duxelle – nothing too fancy required, but feel free to experiment. Be wary of over flavoring as the finished dish is quite complex from a flavor perspective. Same goes for the spinach – roasted with salt and pepper. I mixed both of these with some onions rendered in butter for some extra flavor. Again, any approach to creating a delicately flavorful filling is good.

Smoked Turkey

I did this dish with shrimp when I was working (cooked then minced with green onion and garlic), but the deli-slice is far easier to work with. Use any you like, i.e. smoked turkey, but nothing too crazy. Finding something with little salt and fat is a good start.

Cheese

Buying sliced cheese is fun, but pricey. I like to get a few small chunks, grate, and mix (at work, this was replaced with a saffron roux and wilted spinach with onion). I also included a few intermittent layers holding brie as their prize. Remember to save some cheese to top the terrine.

Crepes

¾ cup all purpose flour (you can use any basic flour, but the texture will change)
1 cup milk
3 eggs
½ tablespoon sugar (optional, but I like the bit of sweetness)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter

Whisk the eggs and milk together – you can optionally do all this in a blender or using a hand blender. Add the sugar, mix again. Temper the hot butter and add to the mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix for a last time. Store this in your fridge for one hour. This is required for a moist and tender crepe as the flour will have the time require to sponge-ily absorb the wet stuffs. Drink flour, drink (evil laugh)…

Heat a non-stick pan, butter it, and drop a teaspoon of the batter in the middle. Leave there until firm and then wipe it around the pan and throw it away (well, eat it, but for some reason the first crepe is never a nice one). Heat up your oven to the minimum setting and leave the crepes in there with a slightly damp towel overlying to keep them from drying.

Once done, and in an oven safe vessel, start the layering. Make sure to double or maybe triple the crepe count at the bottom so that you have something of a base. Use an intermittent method, is this case, mushrooms, turkey, cheese, mushroom, turkey, brie, as so on…

Top the last crepe with your reserved cheese, some crushed oregano, and finish in a 350C oven for a few minutes, just to melt the cheese. Remove, let rest 10 minutes, and then slice with a bread knife or another super sharp or toothy knife – enjoy.

You have the option to top with a hollandaise or other like sauce, but I like a drizzle of truffle oil and maple syrup. Serve with a sharp crisp white wine.

Now, I was sort of mentioning a shrimp based approach, but there are many options here. Enjoy ham, smoked salmon, spinach, avocado, other cheeses, other sauces, and of course – any dessert manifestation.

Weirdest breakfast ever? Probably!

Soli invented this concoction last weekend, and while it was perhaps the strangest breakfast sandwich I’ve had, it’s also one of the best. So here’s to trying new things, I guess!

The recipe is simple, if you dare give it a go yourself. Slice one baguette in half – toast it, and give it a good rubbing with a garlic clove. Top that with some beans you’ve had simmering away on the stove (Soli added sauteed some onions and vodka as a base for the beans), and at the end of cooking, toss in some cheese curds.

Prepare yourself some french style scrambled eggs, aka Ramsey eggs. There are various methods (it’s a method, rather than a recipe) floating around, but the basic idea can be found on this YouTube tutorial. The end result are eggs that are so light and creamy, you’d believe you’re eating buttery, rich clouds.

While all that’s going on, pop in some BBQ’ed eel in the oven (Soli sprinkled some brown sugar over the top) and bake it up until it’s moist and delicate inside, with a sweet crust on the top.

Got all that? Well, top your baguette with the beans, followed by some thick slices of eel, then a complete smothering of your dreamy eggs. It’s quite the taste sensations – full of rich sweetness, salty, melted cheese, robust beans and crunchy garlic bread. Heaven must be one weird place.

I am not a formally trained chef. Actually, I think the only things I’ve formally learned regarding food came from a Home Economics class back in High School. Would you like to eat a firm scone in crookedly collared sweatshirt? I learned out of necessity (no surprise if you know me at all). I remember… hungry, young, broke or lazy or both… and all I’ve got is a zucchini and a tomato. What to do?

Each and every “hungry, young, broke or lazy or both” challenge brought me closer to understanding the nature of flavor locked inside every morsel of complied energy available in and around my kitchen (um i.e. zucchini).

Enter the sandwich… a complication of the “now”:

Fancy Sandwich
1 French baguette
1 zucchini
1 bunch asparagus
1 tomato
4 eggs
2 green (spring) onions
½ cup of cheese (your choice)
butter
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 tbs hot mustard
1 tbs polish mayo (sweeter than regular)
salt
pepper

Ok, take the zucchini and asparagus and slice, snap, and roast (350F 10 minutes). Take the tomato and onions, slice and dice, and mix with mustard, mayo, salt and pepper (add salt and pepper everywhere as you move through all these ingredients). Crack and whisk your eggs, add the cheese (grated), and cook in melted butter. Rremember, less in more when it comes to heat and eggs (I understand that an egg can be slow poached for hour or more!).

Cut the baguette in half, brush with the olive, and toast at 225F for 5-7 minutes (I slightly over baked mine – crispity crush). Remove from the over and rub with a garlic glove.

The flavors of this sandwich were exquisite. Very delicate and moist. The zucchini and asparagus marry very well. The “salad” bridges the profile by refreshing the palate and carrying the flavor of the rich, cheesy egg across the entire spectrum… t’was impossible to stop eating

Plate it on a tea towel as one big bad-ass sandwich; take a picture; write a post.

I hate eggs. Can’t stand them, especially perfectly poached, atop a crispy French baked starch, delicate, slightly sweet, partial to the moment, and often impossible to resurrect. Who wants that?

No, no, love them…

I only recently learned that you can take a pound of mushrooms, cook them, and eat them, so mushroom duxelle is becoming my Marmite, only delicious (kidding, actually sorta like Marmite).

Mushroom Duxelle
1 lbs mushrooms (your choice)
2 tbs butter
salt
pepper
¼ cup wine or 2 ounces of vodka (optional as this is breakfast)

Heat skillet; add very clean, finely chopped mushrooms, salt, and butter (the butter, seeing as the mushrooms won’t stick in the beginning, can be added at the end). Give it 10 -15 with some good heat behind it. Add a good splash of wine and move it around until it reduces.

I’ve reviewed poaching eggs before, try Eggs if you need to follow up.

The croutons… don’t know what happened, by a stroke of tasty genius hit me. These are, by far, the best crouton ever! But they are somewhat rich, so maybe they won’t fly in all crouton-ish applications.

Fried Croutons
French Baguette (in France them just call them baguettes)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

So cut up your fresh baguette into pieces the size you like, but not too small. We are going to need a bit of moisture and a small piece would dry out too quickly. Melt the butter in a bowl large enough to hold all your croutons. Add the oil, salt, and pepper, and whisk it up. Toss your croutons in the quasi-emulsion. Bake in an toaster over (or oven) at 350F for about 15 minutes.

Using this method, the croutons fry while toasting. I can’t say I’m sure, but it seems the butter adds a light nutty flavor and nice kind of crispy browning while the olive oil goes the distance in adding a firm chewiness.

Plate up! and DO NOT go back to bed; common problem I have – rich sleepy weekend breakfasts that insist Monday race itself back. This dish is light and breezy. Out the door and off to market

ADD: Omitted from this post was the drizzle of truffle oil to finish. Truffle oil is the best money you can spend, if you think you like truffles. Dizzle here, teaspoon there, infusions, finisher, starter, star and support, pfft… anyway. I hate to know there is none in the kitch.

Soli has a good backlog of dishes he has made (from soup to poached eggs to filet mignon) that he still needs to post about, so I’m going to lighten the load a little here and write briefly about the amazing and simple breakfast he made a few weeks back: Egg-In-A-Hole (or Egg-In-A-Basket or Toad-In-A-Hole or Bird’s Nest, depending on who you speak to).

I loved this breakfast. Soli punched some holes out of normal, Italian white bread, threw the bread (and the holes!) into a buttered pan, and cracked an egg into each hole. Some pepper, some salt, turn the stove on…and then you’re done.

Soli did pop the pan into the toaster oven for a bit, to melt the cheese he had sprinkled over the top.

The end result was perfectly cooked eggs stuck nicely into toasted bread, with cheesy bread circles on the side, and you don’t even need a fork or knife. Good morning!

Summer is still hitting us hard (not that I mind!), so we’re spending a lot less time in the kitchen. However, this morning, on my first day of vacation, Soli prepared me a fantastic breakfast that had me go straight back to bed after. Wow, I love vacation!

I don’t think there’s much of a recipe for this – Soli created it rather quickly. We toasted up some St-Viateur bagels, as well as popping a tray of fresh spinach sprinkled with olive oil in the toaster oven. While all of that was cooking, Soli made a mushroom duxelle made with chopped mushrooms, butter, smoked sea salt, heavy cream, a shot of champagne (hey, it’s vacation!), and some chunks of brie. With this simmering on the stove, he poached some eggs and sliced some home-smoked salmon from the fish store, Waldman’s.

In under an hour, we had this meal plated and then sprinkled with freshly ground pepper and some chipotal peppers. It was a great breakfast – the slightly wilted, roasted spinach was perfect, the salmon nice and smooth, and the cheesy, creamy mushrooms had me licking my plate.

Hello vacation!