Eggs in any style and of any sort – as simple as genius – was the theme of this month’s IMBB, picked after assiduous considerations by Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant. Which, in all honesty, left me a bit clueless. I love eggs, I use them all the time. But I never thought of them as a leading act – obviously a big mistake… After giving it a good deal of thought, two egg-specialties crossed my mind. As one of them is savory, one is sweet and none of them time consuming in the slightest, I decided to just do both.
Rise and shine – Eggs – part one, a little something for breakfast (savory):
Actually, I’m almost ashamed to call it a recipe or dish, because it’s in principle just a boiled egg. BUT, sometimes it’s about the little things, which really could make all the difference.
We call it “eggs in a glass” (I don’t know, if this is the proper translation, the German term is simply a description of how the soft-cooked egg is being served – well, in a drinking glass) and Oliver is definitely hooked on them. The long and the short of it would be: Cook an egg to your desired state, peel it, put it in a glass, salt it, smash it and eat it. Done!
But hey, aren’t we on a culinary mission or what? To ensure we only use highest quality eggs, we have developed a routine, that has become a standard procedure and inseparable with the indulgence of eggs, which is: Visit the farmers market stand of your preference and purchase freshest eggs possible. The labels “free-range” and “organically fed” should indicate fair and healthy living conditions for the hens. I personally prefer buying eggs from the little stands, which offer a wide variety (usually in smaller amounts) of different farm products from their very own little grange. At Vikualienmarkt we have such a small stand, that sells fresh butter, bacon and some local specialties and of course: yummy tasting eggs. What comes with it, is an occasional anecdote about farm life every so often we shop there. Last time the owner told as about the fact, that brown hens are much more clever then their white buddies. Pardon me? How did he come to this conclusion? He told us, that from his own observation the brown hens always manage to break out or hop over the fence, wile their not-so-clever pale friends marvel at them, making lots of noise, but just don’t get it!
After poking a hole in the egg’s wide end (should prevent the egg from breaking) carefully put it into a pot of simmering hot water using a spoon. Leave it there for… hm… this is the tricky part. I like my egg whites solid, but the yolks should be liquid to semi-liquid. The best way to find out the right duration for you is simply trial and error. Since we buy our eggs at the same stand in the same size, we finally figured it out: 8 minutes cooking time for “my” perfect results, 8 and a half minutes for Oliver’s perfect eggs. Well, that’s all assuming that the eggs are not stored in the fridge, which otherwise would change the required time again… lots of room for ‘error’ ;)) Now remove from the pot and hold them briefly under running cold water as it will stop the cooking process (besides, it’ll also support the next step). Try peeling the egg without burning your fingers or dropping the egg – an almost impossible mission. By the way, the fresher the egg the less easy it is to peel. Place the egg in a drinking glass and – here comes some family tradition into play – add some salt, cress, paprika (the spice) and mash the egg(s). The paprika delivers an entirely different experience for one’s taste buds – believe it or not, everyone I introduced this to fell for it. Even Oliver, usually rather skeptical about my eating habits, loves it!
Eggs – part two, something sweet for dessert:
Tiramisu was the first dessert I ever made myself, and it is still one of my absolute favorite ones. The self-made version, of course! I’m always quite disappointed, when I choose Tiramisu at a restaurant – either it has a much too strong alcoholic taste or the lady/sponge fingers are too dry…
There are a lot of people, who worry about the use of uncooked eggs. I have made this dessert at least 50 times in the past, always used fresh uncooked eggs and have never ever had the slightest problems with it at all. The only question that usually comes to mind is “Do I keep a little rest for tomorrow, or not?” – typically I decide for the latter. :)
Put the egg yolks, the sugar and the hot water in a bowl and beat well for at least 5 minutes. A KitchenAid (or any other kitchen machine) can do a great job here… The mixture should change its color from yellow to very light yellow, almost white and its texture should be both creamy, yet quite stiff (hope this makes sense?). Add the mascarpone and beat again until the mixture has a consistent look.
Fill a form or glass with some of the mixture, just enough to cover the bottom. Pour the cold coffee in a flat bowl and soak the ladyfingers for some seconds, then arrange them on the mascarpone-egg mixture. I love my tiramisu quite juicy, so I soak the ladyfingers for a little longer, but that’s just a personal preference. Add another layer of the mixture, again soaked ladyfingers, …end with a layer of the mascarpone-egg mixture and dust with lots of unsweetened cocoa powder. Chill for at least four hours. And don’t keep (chilled) leftovers for longer than 24 hours, just a precaution because of the uncooked eggs. But there have NEVER EVER been leftovers!
This tiramisu recipe is a very basic version, without alcohol (what the original recipes calls for) and admittedly – quite rich. I tried different others, but always came back to this one. A caffeine-free one I tried for kids also worked out fine, just substitute the coffee with self-made (unsweetened) chocolate milk – they loved it ;)
Tiramisu
Recipe source: Own creation
Required time: prep. 20 min., chilling ~4h
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Ingredients (serves 4):
5 egg yolks
130 g sugar
1 tbsp hot water
500 g mascarpone cheese
15-20 lady/sponge fingers
300ml cold coffee/espresso
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
There is a clear winner, technical knock-out in round 2, if you will. The soba noodles with the cilantro and sesame seeds beat the Vietnamese spring rolls by far. Perhaps the recipe was to blame, or my bold move to think, leaving away the duck would be ok for a vegetarian version of these rolls. So really it’s hard to say why they didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned. The taste I found too bland, the rice paper too sticky. Perhaps it was doomed from the start? I’ve had these rolls, no, much much better than these, in Atlanta a few years back. The kind that’s not deep fried and instead wears a transparent rice paper wrapper. It must have either set my standards too high or I’ve simply miserably failed this one…the absence of duck could’ve been the secret to making this a delish course, but frankly, I doubt it. ;)
(in lack of proper results, I omitted the recipe)
To redeem myself I thought of another Asian inspired dish. Our recent shopping spree at a local Asian food store sure came in handy. Walking through the isles, loosing track of time and feeling like little kids in a candy store, we couldn’t help but to purchase a whole set of different noodles. They all looked so intriguing with a promise to magically turn every dish into a delicious dish and besides, N. always falls for nicely designed packaging! With the soba noodles at hand and a recipe I came across earlier this week I got started. The original recipe, presumably the most simplistic one imaginable – right out of another brand new cookbook (N. just acquired ;) & already decorated with lots of pink and yellow post-its – merely contained noodles and parsley. I thought of substituting a good deal of the parsley with cilantro, toss the noodles in a mix of peanut and sesame oil and add a few sesame seeds to the seasoned mix. Soooo easy and soooo good. It would probably also make a perfect cold summer snack, but it was gone too quick…O.
Cook soba noodles to package directions. Meanwhile chop parsley, cilantro and red chili. Lightly brown all of the sesame seeds in a separate pan.
Heat up the mix of peanut & sesame oil in a pan, add the spicy chili and the drained soba noodles.
Blend well, season to taste with kecap manis and soy sauce and finally add the herbs & the sesame seeds.
Sesame Soba Noodles
Recipe source: Own creation
Required time: overall ~20min.
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Ingredients (amounts by guess and by gosh):
soba noodles
sesame seeds
peanut & sesame oil
cilantro
parlsey
red chili
season with kecap manis & soy sauce
Today has been sunny and warm and best of all, I had a day off. All good reasons to be in a great mood and to top it off, it’s Sugar High Friday again! Well, like I need a reason to live out the sweet tooth I have… This month’s edition is hosted by Jarrett at life in flow with the lovely theme “Tantalizing Titillating Tempting Tarts”. Since I just bought a book on quiches and tarts, I was more than eager to finally try one. I narrowed down possible options to four and asked O. for a final word. As one of them contained an Asian ingredient, my question was rather rhetorical…
Finely mince the lemongrass by hand or use a food processor. Combine with the double cream/heavy cream in a pot and bring to the boil. The original recipe uses only double cream, as I ran out of it, I used 300g and substituted the rest with 100g heavy cream – which worked fine. Take the mixture of the heat and let it rest for about an hour.
Butter a tart pan (the one I used was 26cm in diameter, while the original recipe suggested 22 cm) or use parchment paper. Sieve flour into a bowl, add butter and salt. Mix well, then add the coconut rasps, the icing sugar and enough water to get a smooth dough. It’s fun doing it with your hands, sometimes…, but you can, of course, also use your favorite kitchen machine.
Roll out dough in a large enough circle and press into your tart pan. Use a rolling pin to trim away any excess dough by rolling it across your pans’ edges.
Line the tart with parchment paper, fill it with dried beans (or rice, as I didn’t have any dried beans – anything dry of this size should work I guess) and chill for about 30 minutes in your fridge. Meanwhile preheat oven to 190 ° Celsius. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven. Take out beans/rice or whatever you used and bake for another 10 minutes, until the tart shell gained a nice golden crust, then allow to completely cool down.
Whisk yolks and sugar to a foamy cream. Sieve double cream (with the lemongrass bits) into a pot and blend with the egg yolk cream. The lemongrass you can toss. Cook the mixture at low heat and let thicken.
Soak gelatin in cold water for a few minutes and let it dissolve in the hot cream while stirring. The recipe calls for 4 sheets, I used 3 and would probably reduce it to 2 the next time. Remove pot from heat and let chill. Once cooled down, add filling to the tart shell and put it in the fridge for about 3 hours.
Before you serve it, peal the mangos (how many/much you need also depends on the size of the mangos of course) and cut in thin slices (this was one of the hardest parts for me, how can you get equal looking slices from a mango?). Arrange on cake, add some icing sugar and caramelize under high heat until the mango develops golden spots. I skipped the last part and used a blowtorch for single pieces, which worked fine… until the cream began to melt again… Note-to-self: If I use a blowtorch for a already cut piece of cake, I have to be really quick ;) — so the backup plan was to simply use little mango cubes instead.
Résumé: The taste of the lemongrass cream was an absolute surprise. In combination with the mangos and the coconut crust definitely one of the best tarts I have ever had. On the other hand it’s rather time-consuming and I yet have to find a solution for cutting and arranging the mango pieces on top, so the whole tart is covered AND looks good.
Lemongrass Mango Tart
Recipe source: Sarah Banbery "Quiches & Tartes", p.54, adapted
Required time: prep. ~45 min., baking ~30 min., chilling ~3h
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Ingredients for the tart shell (serves 4):
225g flour (Thank you Lis :)
1 pinch of salt
125g butter, chilled
50g coconut rasps
1tbsp icing sugar
water, cold
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Ingredients for the filling (serves 4):
3 stalks lemongrass
300g double cream
100g cream
4 egg yolk
100g brown sugar
3 sheets gelatine
2 ripe mangos
1-2 tbsp icing sugar
A very popular event in the States, that is just about to be adopted over here in Germany. With the huge success of Sex and the City almost everyone (who was their target audience again? ;) has at least heard of it – a party thrown for the mother-to-be who is joyously expecting her first child. A great event for a girls get-together (reverse discrimination because this party is for females only?), that is all about the soon-to-be-mom and her soon-to-arrive-baby. Girls, games, chitchat, presents, food and loads of fun!
My first baby shower experience took place in Atlanta, USA, a few years ago, and probably couldn’t exactly qualify as one, because some hubbies “snuck in” (is there a trend?)… Actually, it was very entertaining if not exhilarating to watch them blush in various shades over discussions on c-sections, breast-feeding and other delicate topics!
The setup for the baby shower last Friday was completely different: The host did a perfect job in decorating the party scene with pink items everywhere and all the invitees brought delicious food. Somehow in contrast to one of the games: Baby Food Taste Test, including several masked jars with different flavors of baby food. Urgghhh! Out of the five jars, only two I could get friends with. The other three had a rather strange smell, I hardly could focus on their taste anymore. I remember my mom telling me over a thousand times how difficult is was for her to feed me this sort of baby-food and that she had to ultimately change my nutrition – seems she must have finally gotten the hint, that even a baby can have some culinary standards! Probably not, I guess I was just being difficult… ;)
Luckily, I was being tasked with helping out on the dessert front – which I always love to do! Lately, I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of fruit panna cotta. Starting off with a panna cotta cream basis (reduced cream, sugar, vanilla bean, soaked gelatin) and then added different fresh fruit purees (raspberry, green grapes, apricots, passion fruit). The results varied quite a bit in taste (intensity) and texture, even though I added the same amount of fruit puree in every jar. The one with grapes, for instance, had problems to jell, even after four hours. But over night they all developed a very creamy, smooth consistency. For the baby shower I prepared little ceramic pots with half raspberry, half passion fruit panna cotta, which were my two favorite tastes out of the recently tested four. As an eatable decoration I dipped a handful of physalis in melted chocolate, which were also chilled. To appease my creative demands, some cutout-happy-baby-prints on toothpicks gave the finishing touch.
I keep thinking about further and even more extravagant variations, but O. ask me to have a break. No more panna cotta for the next weeks… ;)
Basic Panna Cotta with fruit variation
Recipe Source: mix of various recipes
Prep time: about 20 min., chilling: best over night
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Ingredients (serves 4):
400 ml cream
2-3 tsp sugar (depending on the sweetness of the added fruit puree)
1 vanilla bean
2-3 sheets gelatine (I prefer less - for smoother results)
50-100g fruit puree (trial and error works best, also depends on the used fruits)
physalis/chocolate for decoration
