Breakfast - CCC (Creative Cooking Crew Challenge)

This months challenge for The Creative Cooking Crew is BREAKFAST - now if you have been following this blog even a little bit you will know just how fond I am of breakfast and brunch and brinner (which is Breakfast for Dinner). I love to make poached eggs.

Eggs benedict with quail eggs, steak, shrimp, wilted spinach asparagus and a salad of grape tomatoes and cucumbers. This is a breakfast sure to delight even the most seasoned of "brunchers" with its wonderfully seasonal variety.

 

I froze the steak so that I could cut it into perfect little squares and then I grilled it while it was still a little frozen so I could get it nicely rare while still giving it deep grill marks. If you have never poached a quail egg before let me just tell you that it happens in less than a minute so be prepared. This breakfast  was a hit and I would serve this to anyone at anytime. Thanks again Creative Cooking Crew for another great challenge.

Lets throw one more into the mix - this was so good I had to make it again.

Creative Cooking Crew Challenge - RICE

Rice is one of those things that you either make all the time or you don't - I make rice in all its forms all the time.

Forbidden rice pudding - this has coconut milk and toasted peanuts.

Risotto of all kinds all the time - this is a summer risotto with squash blossoms and baby zucchini.

I also just make rice that we have with stir fry - one is my take on General Tso's chicken and the other is a mix of chicken and shrimp.

Indian food is a popular favorite around here and this is my version of Madras chicken. So you can clearly see that rice is my friend. For this months challenge I didn't get too far out of my comfort zone of using rice as a side dish. I made chicken and rice.

I took some seasoned chicken breasts and some seasoned venison and some asparagus tips and I rolled them together with a little transglutaminase and then I vacuum sealed them and let them "rest" in the bags for about 40 minutes to seal everything up nice and tight.

I then took these sealed pouches and immersed them in a hot water bath for about 10 minutes at about 150F to tighten everything up all nice and cozy. While all this was happening I sautéed up some kabocha squash and I sliced up a pear and a beet that I had boiled earlier and let cool. I also made a blackberry gastric because everybody likes a little acidity wouldn't you say. As odd as this might sound I tried to imagine what the venison and the poultry would be consuming in a free range world and tried to match up my flavors based on that.

 

I took the simmered chicken, venison and asparagus rolls and first browned them in a pan whole then I sliced them into medallions and browned the bottoms to add a nice little caramelization to an already tasty dish. All of this went on to a plate with some black Thai sticky rice, and while this rice is usually used for dessert I found its subtle sweet flavor and nuttiness a nice addition with some puffed rice for crunch and here you have it - chicken and rice.

Here is my chicken and rice - for the Creative Cooking Crew Challenge - Rice. Check out all the others HERE - thanks Laz for organizing this!