Monday, January 25, 2010

Breakfast (and burritos! thanks Tressa!)

Thanks to a suggestion from one of my favorite readers, I now deter from my usual course of lunch items and provide you with an extra special all-stock-photo extravaganza (since i mainly blog about what i cook and eat, and i'm not making all of this food in this economy. also, lazy.)


breakfast



While you can generally scrounge up whatever for lunch or dinner, breakfast is generally the most important meal of the day. So I will provide you with some delicious options for your taking.



Number 1: Breakfast burritos

I am exceedingly excruciatingly fond of really really well cooked scrambled eggs, so that may impact this. However, our methods differ.

As follows:

1) Heat a skillet up to decent heat (mid-high), and put down 2 strips of good bacon. Cook to desired done-ness, but recognize that crispy, not chewy, bacon works best in a burrito or sandwich. seriously. I've had my share of sandwich related disasters.


2) When finished, lay on a sheet of paper towel, turn your stove down to mid-low, and pour out the bacon grease. Wipe down the pan with a little bit of paper towel, and put in some olive oil or margarine



3) Crack two eggs into a cup, with about a tablespoon of milk, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a smidge of dijon mustard. Scramble the crap out of them, and let your pan come down to a nice, light heat.

(serious business)



4) Pour into the pan, and immediately start stirring. This seems counter productive, but you'll be making amazing, delicious soft scrambled eggs. Do NOT overcook here, as these will seem less done than you think, but you want them lightly cooked rather than the kind you get in diners (like some places in downtown Guelph. Feh!)



(extra big for extra detail)





5)When finished, take these off the heat and into a bowl. Preheat your toaster oven to a baking setting around 400degrees. Don't have one? You'll be fine. Begin assembly of your burrito. I recommend the big tortillas for this one:

a) Put a very light coating of any condiments (ketchup, sambal oelek, dijon)

b) Grate (finely) some nice old sharper cheese, like a good old cheddar or gruyere

c) Put your eggs (still steaming hot), on the cheese.

d) Lay down the bacon (if using)


f) If in the toaster oven, pop it in until it starts slightly browning. GBD.

g) Serve with nice fruit, or tomato slices for maximum goodness.



Variations:

Cheesewise, cheddar will be a nice evenly balanced one. Gruyere will be stringy and a bit sharper, mozzarella more soft. All are good.

Add in some other things, like herbs to the eggs, tomato slices (salt and peppered) in the wrap,caramelized onions, sauteed spinach, or other veggies make a nice add-in.



Number 2: Yogurt and granola

1) Put fruit (blueberries, raspberries, cut up strawberries) in a mug/cup (1/2 to 1 cup)

2) Lay on a good bit of yogurt. (same-ish as the berries)

3) Drop a few heaping spoons of granola

4) Don't be delicate, and mash them all together and enjoy.

(if it's not this pretty, you're doing it wrong. or you don't work for good housekeeping magazine)



Variations:

Before the granola, blend that sucker up

Toast the granola by putting it in a hot dry pan, for added crunchiness and flavour



Number 3: Hangover delight

Tomato juice, LOTS of hot sauce, and some horseradish.



Variations:

Vodka.

Enjoy!

pizza hack attack

Yes, it's another post on pizza. This time though, I've got pictures (so it did happen for real!)

This one is of another nature though - I tried one of the crazy "pizza hacks" online, to replicate the impact of a zillion degree oven for five second pizza you get in a real pizzeria, and not your home oven.

Let's just say... mixed (tasty) results.

First, take a cast iron pan, and put it on a hot burner. Get your broiler going too, and hot as hell.

On a cutting board, lay out your dough to fit in your pan (thin. very thin.), put on the sauce (like the girlfriend and I's garlic insanity sauce), and cheese (I used a mix of mozzarella and a little bit of old cheddar).

You ready? Ok. Go.

Drop the pizza in the hot pan. Wait.. five seconds, and bump it under the broiler. Leave it there till the cheese gets all golden and tasty, and pull it out. Immediately remove it from the pan, drop some herbs, wait a bit, and cut and eat.

This is your reward. Eat it, and enjoy.

Oh, the "mixed results" were that it was kind of burnt on the bottom (you want it crispy, but not too blackened), and my apartment is full of smoke from using a crappy cast iron pan covered in food grease, before freaking out and replacing it with the good one. But.. ohnomnomnom.
:(

edit: oh, the stuff on the first pizza is my hot sauce from the pho post. so good on pizza. and technique credits to the crazies here

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

zuppadoop

Depending where you are right now, it's probably somewhere between 'cold' and 'hellish ice cave of hell - on ice'. We're leaning towards the former in Guelph, thankfully, but it's still worthwhile to make some tasty soup to warm yourself up.


For this, you will need:



  • one sweet potato

  • one red onion

  • one red pepper

  • half a head of garlic

  • about an inch of ginger. two if your girlfriend/boyfriend/partner/spouse/roommate is a really big into ginger. like this fella.

  • veggie stock, about eight cups

You can be really awesome and start the day ahead by roasting the vegetables and refrigerating them. This helps them thicken the soup later. Otherwise, do it, but don't worry too much about the day ahead thing.

You'll want the sweet potato peeled and in inch-ish cuts, the onion in thicker crescents, and the pepper however you want them (about the same size as the sweet potato). Yes, they'll blacken, but it's tasty. Toss these with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and so on and put them in a roasting pan together at 400* for an hourish, turning on the half hour.



Next up (or next day, if you're great), star by chopping the garlic and peeled ginger roughly, and cooking on a lowish heat with salt to get them nice and fragrant. When this happens, put in the stock and your roasted vegetables. Let this simmer for a bit, and crank out the immersion blender and blend that sucker to oblivion. If you're not the king of yard sales and don't own one, you can use a blender/food processor, but make sure that it's cooled down. Otherwise steam will work its magic and make you very, very displeased.



I returned this to the simmer, left it for a while, and for a little 'extra' tossed in some gnocchi. You can use a ravioli (plain-er tasting, like a ricotta or something) or other pasta, and use the soup as you would to cook pasta, but just go easy on it (and use fresh pasta, otherwise it might scorch the soup). the pasta will also do the double duty of adding a bit of extra starch to thicken the soup, and will be mighty tasty.



Sit, enjoy, and remember that the days are getting longer again.