Egging It On

As far as quick meals go, eggs are the shit. I eat them all the time for breakfast and midnight snacks. Yummy breakfasts are a quick way to put me in a good mood and start my day off on a good leg. Plus eggs are fast & easy and make me feel good about eating something other than carbs and getting some protein in my nearly-meatless diet. So here are my 3 favorite ways to make eggs. All of them take less than 15 minutes:

Scrambled

I know this seems like it should be really self-explanatory, but there's actually a right way to make scrambled eggs, and when done like that, they hit a whole new level of delicious. If done right, they should be one super fluffy mass, not little eggy clumps like regular scrambled eggs, and all a consistent pastel yellow color.

1. Crack a couple eggs in a bowl, add a teaspoon or so of mayonnaise (this makes them creamy), and whip them up into a frenzy.

2. Melt a little bit of butter in a skillet over LOW heat.

3. Pour in the eggs. Stir them pretty much constantly with a wooden spoon until they start to hold their shape but before they get dry and lose all their shininess.

4. Season as you wish. With these, I usually keep it pretty simple with cracked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Total time: Under 10 minutes

To make it extra fancy, do this first (I made this concoction while stoned one night and fell in love):

1. Slice up some red pepper and onions and garlic and whatever else you want to put in. I love adding tomatoes.

2. Turn the heat on med-high and add some butter (I swear by cooking with butter instead of olive oil. It makes everything taste soooo much better).

3. Toss in the sliced up veggies and sauté them until they get darker, the onions are brown, and all the veggies are tender.

4. Turn down the heat, let the pan cool down, and then add the eggs and some grated cheese (I usually do sharp cheddar), then continue as above.

5. When it's all done and in your plate, add a bit of crumbled feta. If you have feta, don't skip this step. It really makes it all like 5 times better.

Total time: About 15 minutes

Note: these scrambled eggs weren't made totally right. But cut me some slack, please--I was in another state of mind.

Over Easy

This is my typical breakfast egg dish. Filling and delicious.

1. Take a slice of good bread, or half a bagel (I usually use fresh dumpstered bagels. Soooo good.) and toast it.

2. Melt some butter in a skillet over med-high heat. Don't let the skillet sit on the flame too long before you go to the next step--the egg shouldn't sizzle when you put it in the pan.

3. Crack an egg in the pan. Fry it until the bottom sets--it should slide around freely when you wiggle the pan. You don't need a spatula or anything for this.

4. Once the egg can slide around, gently flip it upside-down by sliding it up the side of the skillet with a flick of the wrist. You can see this guy do it here.

If you're worried about making a mess when you flip it, it's actually pretty easy. The first time I tried, I had to mop egg yolk off the floor, but the second time, I got it :-P

5. Fry it on the second side for like 30 sec or so, or until the egg can once again slide around freely.

6. Slide it over your freshly toasted piece of bread/bagel. I usually season mine with salt, pepper & chili powder. This morning, I added some sautéed tomato slices and some baby swiss before I put on the egg. It was totally delicious.

This is pretty messy to eat, but who cares. It tastes good.

Total time: About 7 minutes

Souffle-type thing

1. Get the smallest pan you own (unless you're making a lot of eggs).

2. Put some butter in it and melt it over low heat.

3. Whisk some eggs and add them to the pan.

4. Let it sit until it starts to set a little. Then grate some cheese in there. Then let it sit some more, until it's cooked through to the top. Don't stir. You can cook it covered if you want, but I haven't.

5. Take a spatula and slide it around the edges to loosen the egg from the pan. Then slide your souffle thing onto a plate. I like to put mine on a slice of bread. Maybe with some pesto. Seasoned, as per usual, with salt & pepper. Yummy, and somehow makes me feel very sophisticated.

Total time: About 10 minutes

And there we go. Anyone have any of their own favorite ways to cook eggs?

Recipes from the Corner: Fast & Easy

So I know I've been MIA for a couple weeks. Do I have a good excuse? Uhmm....I've actually been making food again? Actually, that's not a very good excuse. And you're about to see why.

Some of you guys have been saying you'd like to see more quick & simple recipes. Well, I'm about to post a small slew of them. These are pretty quick (which is why they're a bad excuse for me not doing work), very simple, and pretty tasty. Here's some of what I've been whipping up the past couple weeks:

Steamed sweet potatoes

1. Take a sweet potato.

2. Put a couple inches of water and a steam basket in a pot, cover it and let it come to a boil. 

3. In the meantime, peel the potato (unless it's organic, in which case you don't have to)

      --This is because all of the chemical pesticides and other junk that go into growing our produce get concentrated in the skin

4. Cut the potato into cubes of about 1/2" each side

5. Steam them (covered, of course) for about 7 minutes, or until done.

6. Add salt, pepper, or whatever else you want. If you like them kind of sweet & savory, add things like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. I always eat mine with sour cream. Mmmmm. Try it!

Total time: About 12 minutes.

Roasted asparagus with lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 350°

2. Take some asparagus spears and wash them.

3. Break each one near the bottom. Just bend it until it snaps. Throw away the bottom part -- this is pretty tough and not very fun to chew. It'll break naturally where it becomes tender. 

   --If you're making a bunch of asparagus and don't feel like breaking them all, just break one and use that as a guide to cut the rest

4. Pour some olive oil on an oven pan and roll the asparagus around in it until it's coated

5. Sprinkle them with salt & pepper and whatever else you want

6. Roast them for about 10-15 minutes. I like to do 15 because they come out more tender & flavorful. They should be starting to turn a little brown. 

7. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice over them.

Total time: About 20 minutes

Roasted asparagus, steamed sweet potatoes, some homemade borscht courtesy of my parents (!!) and the vastly superior sour cream, Daisy. Sooo good. And it only took about 25 minutes to make it all. Also, it's almost entirely made up of vegetables, which makes me proud, since I usually have a hard time getting those in my diet.

Sweet Sourdough Bread

So a couple weeks ago, I ended up at this guy Ben's house for a Boggle night. And when we got there, lo and behold, Ben had two loaves of sourdough bread rising in the oven.

As you've all probably figured out by now, I got into bread baking at the farm over the summer. And sourdough is delicioousssss. So I mentioned how awesome it was that he baked it. To which he replied with an offer I couldn't refuse: free 20-year-old starter that his mom had given him.

Score!!!

So here's the recipe, illustrated with some sporadically taken photos:

(Keep in mind that this recipe is specifically for my starter, and I don't know if it varies with others, but it's probably a good reference point regardless)

Feed the starter:  
1) Add to the starter

    --2 1/2-3 c warm water

    --1 c sugar

    --1/2 c potato flakes OR 2 T flour

2) Mix it up and let it sit in a warm place for 4-6 hours, or until it gets a bit of a frothy layer on top and starts to smell nice & alcoholic

Make the dough:

1) Mix the following

    --2 1/2 c starter

    --1/2 c canola oil (or any other non-olive oil)

    --6 c flour (all-purpose is actually fine here)

    --1 T salt

2) Pour the rest of the starter into a sealed jar and stick in the fridge

the leftover starter

3) Knead the dough until it's smooth and not sticky, adding water or flour as needed

4) Once you have a nice ball of dough, transfer it into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel

5) Let the dough sit for however long it takes for it to double in size (mine took about 8 hrs, but my house is kind of cold)

the risen dough

 

    --When you can press it with your finger and the dough doesn't heal (spring back), that means it's ready

Baking the bread:

1) Punch the dough down (literally) and knead it a little bit more, then cover it until the oven preheats

punch it, punch it, punch it!

knead it, knead it, knead it!

the risen and then kneaded dough

2) Preheat the oven to 550° and (optional) put a cast-iron skillet on the bottom

3) Fill a spray bottle of some sort with cold water and a cup with hot water (also optional, but preferred)

4) Turn out the dough onto a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with some polenta or greased

5) When the oven has been preheated, pour the hot water in the skillet, put the dough into the oven, and spray the sides of the oven with the cold water. Spray it again every 30 seconds for 2 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350°

dough in the oven

**The hot and cold water bit is optional, but it really gives the bread a nice crunchy crust, so I recommend it. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, don't worry about it--you can just skip that part.**

6) Bake the bread at 350° for about 30-35 min, or until the bottom crust is solid and sounds hollow when you tap it.

Yum :)

the finished product

The bread didn't come out quite as I expected: it actually was pretty sweet, and not very sour at all. The strange thing about this is that the longer you leave a starter out to proof, the more sour the bread gets. I had my starter sitting out for...about 18 hours, and it still came out pretty sweet. Curious. Maybe next time I'll leave it out for like 2 days, hah. But it's all good, it was still delicious. I also left the bread in the oven for about 5 minutes too long, so the crust was a bit burnt in some spots, but nothing you could really taste. 

As for the texture, that came out amazing! The loaf rose a lot better than I had expected, and I swear it weighed like 5 lbs. It was suuuupper dense and moist with a crispy crust. When I cut it open, steam rose with a delicious aroma. Mmmm. 

Try it! Not everyone can score sweet 20-year-old starter, but there are several recipes for it online :-)

 

Oh-My-Fucking-God Food: Rosemary Pita

Oh-My-Fucking-God Foods is a pseudo-regular feature I want to start having on this blog. It's pretty self-explanatory. If something is sooo good that when my friends and I bite into it, our eyes widen, and we can't help but exclaim "oh my fucking god," and then continue to repeat that (or some variation thereof) for several more bites, then that food belongs under this feature.

I made this rosemary pita about a month ago in a brilliant night of slightly improvised cooking with my friends Ben and Noah. The fact that I'm still thinking about it should be a testament to its greatness. It originated as a pita recipe Grace and I made all the time at the farm. At Ben & Noah's, we lacked several ingredients and had to substitute and bum wheat gluten from the neighbors. We also happened to have fresh rosemary lying around, so we added it. This turned out to be what I have to say is the most magnificent cooking accomplishment in months.

Rosemary Pita:

1/4 t yeast
1 t sugar
1/3 c warm water

1) Proof the yeast (i.e. mix all of the above together and let it sit until it starts to get a foamy layer on top)

2 c white bread flour
1 c whole wheat flour
(or 3 c all-purpose flour + 1 t wheat gluten (that stuff rocks!))
1 1/2 T sugar
1 t salt

2) Mix that

3) Add the yeast mixture, along with:
1 1/8 c water
1 T olive oil

as much fresh rosemary as you see fit

4) Knead the dough until it's smooth and no longer tacky.
5) Then, put a little olive oil in a large bowl, transfer the dough to the bowl, & cover with plastic wrap.
6) Let it sit for like 1-4 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
7) Take it out, cut it into 8 pieces, form them into balls, cover them with a wet towel, and let the dough rise a little more, 10-30 min. Also, preheat the oven to 500˚.
8) Take a cookie sheet, spread it with a little bit of olive oil & baking soda.
9) Flatten out the dough balls (best to do this by stretching and slapping them between your palms, so they don't stick to the counter), slap em on the cookie sheet, and bake them for about 5 min on the first side (until they can be taken off the cookie sheet and the bottom is golden brown). Then take them off, flip them, and put them directly on the rack for like another 2 min.

Devour!

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Carbs (especially complex carbs, like those in whole wheat) are the basis for a healthy diet (despite what Atkins would have you believe) and should make up about half of your daily calories, so here's one of my favorite bread recipe to start this blog out right:

Materials:
Two large mixing bowls
A spatula
A long, sharp knife
A baking sheet
A skillet without any plastic or Teflon (preferably cast-iron)
Some sort of bottle to spray water (I use a washed out dish soap bottle)

Ingredients:
4 c unbleached bread flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 1/4 t salt
1 3/4 t instant or active dry yeast
19-24 oz ice cold water
1 t sugar (if the yeast isn't instant)
A tiny bit of cornmeal or polenta

Instructions:
(1) If the yeast isn't instant, proof it (that means activate it) by mixing it with the sugar and 1/2 c of warm water. Stir it until the yeast is dissolved, then let it sit for a few minutes until you get a foamy layer on top. That means it's been proofed and is ready to use.
(2) Combine the flours, salt, yeast & 19 oz water (if you proofed the yeast, only add 15 oz) and knead the dough (it might be too sticky to knead by hand, so use a spatula or something) until the dough sticks to the bottom of the bowl but not the sides. Knead in more flour or water if you need to.
(3) Pour a little bit of olive oil in a really large bowl & swirl it around, then carefully transfer the dough into it. Cover, and refrigerate overnight (at least 8 hrs, not more than 2 days).

(4) Take the dough out and let it finish rising, covered, until it reaches room temperature (2-3 hrs).

(5) Preheat the oven to 550° if you can, but if it only goes as high as 500°, that's okay. Put the skillet, nearly filled with water, into the bottom of the oven.
(6) Carefully turn out the dough onto a floured surface, trying not to deflate it too much. Divide it either into 6 baguettes or 2 larger loaves. When you cut the dough, make sure to use the knife as a wedge instead of a saw. If the dough is too sticky, try running the knife under cold water for a second, then coating it with some flour.
(7) Sprinkle the baking sheet with a bit of the cornmeal/polenta. Place the loaves/baguettes on the baking sheet and cover them with slightly wet plastic wrap. Let them sit for 10 minutes.
(8) Fill the spritzer bottle with cold water. Put the bread in the oven and spray the sides of the oven with the cold water. Wait 30 sec, spray it again. Do this twice more, so you've sprayed the sides a total of 4 times.
The reason for the water is that it creates steam, which, combined with the high temperature for a short time, is going to give you a really nice, crunchy crust.
(9) Turn the oven down to 450°. Let the bread cook until the bottom crust has hardened enough that you can separate them from the cookie sheet (~7-8 min for the baguettes, ~15-20 min for the loaves).
(10) Slide the bread straight onto the rack and cook until the bottom crust is solid (tap it to check) and the bread is a nice golden brown (~5 min).
(11) Let the bread cool & devour shamelessly!

This bread is an adapted version of a recipe for Pain de l'Ancienne from a bread baking book called The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Pete Reinhart.
I know it's kind of complicated, but trust me, the result is well worth it.
I picked it up when I was volunteering on an organic farm in the mountains in NC over the summer. They're building a mud oven in their yard right now. Needless to say, I wish I was there.



Enjoy :)