Brunch it up brunch it down brunch it all around - Brunch

Brunch, its funny how something that has been around longer than me always seems to find a new crowd that thinks they discovered something new. If you look it up you will find the word BRUNCH was first used in print in 1895, thats a lot of weekends ago, in fact you should look it up and read this nice little article in Smithosonian so I don't have to go into all the details. So with out further ado - here is my brunch for today.

If you have only read my blog once then you would have already found out my love for two things - blossoms and eggs and here we have a little of both.

Look at that delicious Zaatar on that pita bread - that will be a recipe for another day - today I am going to tell you how to make perfect poached eggs.

Perfect Poached Eggs

You need to start with two quarts of water in a deep sauce pan and one tablespoon of white vinegar, I have tried other vinegars and simple white vinegar works the best. 

Bring the water to a gentle boil then turn it down to a simmer, too much violent action in the pot will destroy the beauty of the egg and it won't cook right.

Crack your eggs into a monkey dish, a ramekin or a small tea cup and pour them gently into your water one at a time, I like to only poach two eggs at time if I am not rushed so that I can get a perfect egg.

Once you crack it into the water take a slotted spoon and gently fold it over itself so that it is in a rough quenelle shape.

Let the eggs cook for about 3 minutes for a perfectly cooked white and a nice runny yolk, longer if you like them more cooked less if you like a softer white.

Remove them with a slotted spoon and serve immediately. If you are making poached eggs for the masses then you would drop them into the hot water just long enough to set then you would put them in a cold water bath to shock them - as you are ready to use them you simply warm them up in the hot water to finish the cooking.

Have fun.

who doesnt like brunch doesnt know

Brunch is probably one of the best inventions in the land of meals, everyone loves brunch, people love to say brunch and they love to eat brunch and I am one of those people. I love brunch and I can honestly say that brunch loves me.

I had the most overwhelming craving for hash brown potatoes this morning. The thought of the crunchy yet creamy texture of these luscious spuds was all consuming. I knew my guests would be as happy to have this as I was to prepare it so while everyone was still snoozing I set to work on making a simple brunch of poached eggs and potato.

Poached eggs are so dramatic. Poached eggs demand attention. Poached eggs are spoiled little brats.

Red chile is one of the best flavors to pair up with eggs and taters. New Mexico red chile is like eating sunshine and who wouldnt want a little sunshine on the first day of the year.

Eggs Benedict

Ok, finally got through the most boring week I have felt in a long time and now it is Sunday and the weekend is almost over...damn. Anyway I make a wide variety of egss benedict, from florentine to norweigian to morroccan style, all with equal zip and zing; some with hollandaise some with bechamel, I will even make a dilluted cheese sauce (bernaise).

Culinary history tells us that eggs benedict originated in New York about 100 years ago. There are at least two stories about the original eggs Benedict, though both date to 1890’s New York City. One story names Delmonico’s as the point of origin, in 1893. A Mrs LeGrand Benedict (and possibly her husband) were tired of the usual fare at the restaurant, and negotiated the new dish with the help of the maître d’hôtel. The more interesting story credits Mr Lemuel Benedict, who requested toast, bacon, poached eggs, and a small pitcher of hollandaise to help treat a hangover one morning in 1894 at the Waldorf-Astoria. If true, Mr Benedict also appears to have been the first to recognize the therapeutic effects of eggs Benedict. So, take your pick: 1893 or 1894, downtown or midtown, restaurant or hotel, wife of the elite or Wall Street broker, fighting tedium or fighting intoxication.

So today I will look through the kitchen and decide how I am going to make these poached eggs today. I have bread and I have a flat bread style pita and I could make bisquits and I have tortillas both flour and corn but I do not have english muffin so they will be some variation on the original. I could use a cutter and cut the bread into shapes or just tear it rustically...who knows.......I have decided to use corn tortillas layerd with discs of potato in a sort of enchilada style napolean stacked chile bechamel covered eggs benedict a la nuevo mejico with a simple side salad of tomatoes and leafy green lettuce and diced cucumber....and thats that!

its hard not to heart heart day

Let me be perfectly honest - valentines day when I was a kid was probably the same for me as it was for you, full of anguish and anticipation and all those other things that kids felt except..and this is very assuming of me...except I got way too many valentines stuffed into my little shoe box. This little valentines heyday of the simplicity of the little cards only lasted until 4th grade after that things only got worse, and by worse I mean more of the same. Lets fast forward many, many years and we get to where we are now and let me tell you payback is a bitch. I no longer get way too many valentines and thats just fine with me since the whole she-bang got me a little burnt on the notion but I do make sure to treat the valentines in my life right.

Nothing says you care more than a nice brunch and nothing says brunch better than poached eggs and nothing says poached eggs better than poached eggs in a hash brown potato cup and nothing helps you say this better than salmon and hollandaise sauce.

There I said it.

So if you want to impress someone and you want it to really look impressive then serve this up one after another after another until they can take it no more. They will be impressed.

traitor

I got bored with omelettes, since I make them every morning for the little guy, I"ll tell you whats poppin' I opted for eggs benedict. I like these so much and I make them in so many ways it makes me dizzy. This crazy couple took the omelette to task and not only whipped up a nice one but got to EAT IT OUTSIDE if that isnt deluxe then I dont know what is.



I quartered red potatoes and drizzled olive oil and salt quick bounce around a hot saute pan and then popped them in the oven at 250 on a cookie sheet. Potatoes out of the way I filled a sauce pan with water and put some rice wine vinager and salt to boil for the eggs I have tried plain vinager and even red wine vinager believe me when I tell you I have tried other vinagers and I like rice wine -just enough 'other' flavor. On the boiling sauce pan I put a steel bowl and melted some butter to make the hollandaise. Hollandaise is quick after you separate the yolks. In a separate pan I sauted some collard greens and garlic slivers. Hollandaise made, potatoes roasted and 15 minutes have elapsed. Pop the english muffins in the toaster, poach the eggs assemble the dish, buttered toasted english muffin, a dab of collard greens, poached eggs, hollandaise, sweet shrimp (ama ebi) scallions, fresh ground pepper - and eat.



20 minutes from when I thought of it it was prepared, and 20 minutes after that it looked like this. Big breakfast in an hour, now what will I do?

breakfast for lunch

I wish I could say I invented the concept of breakfast for lunch but alas I did not, brunch has been around since 1896 if you believe wikipedia. You can read a whole lot more about the origins of brunch right here and its an English word no less that the French refuse to accept so they say 'le grand petit dejeuner' or something like that meaning the 'big little breakfast.' I can tell you right now that it isnt "lupper" and that is a word that never got off the ground.



For me brunch happens when I get going on breakfast too late and I dont feel like preparing lunch foods and a typical brunch for me includes poached eggs.



Poached eggs with grits, extra special grits with provolone cheese, morel mushrooms and morel mushroom "broth" which is the soaking liquid that resulted from rehydrating the mushrooms.



Who can resist good and fresh free range eggs and cheesy grits, throw in some morel mushrooms and I am on a cloud.



This brunch was so good I would even consider it for lupper or even brinner.

the egg man

This is the first time I have ever made eggs benedict and I was a little concerned about the results. Yeah right! I make these so often they should be called 'eggs me' or something like that.



This particular version is a mix of some of my favorite things - it is fathers day after all. I made the hollandaise with a little gorgonzola mixed in for some extra oompf.



The poached eggs are sitting on top of some thin slices of salmon filet that was seared quickly and rests gently on a lightly toasted english muffin. The potatoes are a mix of potato, haricot vert and kabocha squash, toss a few lentil sprouts around and the whole dish flies right together like magic. This was my fathers day brunch and it was all I needed. Happy fathers day to all those dads out there and also to the single moms who fill those shoes too!

bunny business

We ate Eggs a la Dogg which in this case were poached with a new poaching technique I picked up from Gordon Ramsey, while Julia and Jacques laid the foundation , Gordon actually brought me to home plate - any way, poached eggs placed on a nice round piece of toast that had some smoked salmon and tomato with a hollandaise that was thyme infused topped off with a nice steamed and seasoned shrimp. The potatoes were slow roasted with sea salt, thyme, fresh ground mixed pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Super thin cucumber slices were only treated to some of my special wine vinager and salt.



I make the vinager in this crock (I will post all about it another time). Stuffed to the gills we then headed off to the parade.







We saw some hats and that was that.




We then posed a little bit before heading to Grand Harmony Palace for some dim sum. Grand Harmony you either love the place or you hate it there is no middle ground.

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.

couch cowboy

Or 'eggs equilibrium' which one will it be? I pulled these two word combos out of that little word widget on my side bar - sometimes the pairings are hilarious and sometimes scary, it makes me think that these are my thoughts. Its time to cut the cheese I made way back in June but I dont have a special occasion or anyone to share it with so I will wait a few more days.



Friday we un free food fested with a nice variety of comestibles and yesterday (Saturday) we went to the beach on what was probably the first sunny nice day with no rain in I dont know how long because its pouring again today!



We always take egg salad sandwiches with us in the cooler, look at those perfect yolks - a little mayo a little dry mustard some salt and pepper and slap it on toast.



What does all this mean - it means grits thats what! Chocolatey and delicious grits - mmmmm. Just kidding, while chocolate grits might be ok I have to say I havent tried it - there was some kind of chocolate malt o meal (wheat) when I was a kid, and they still make it, but I didnt like it too much. If you google chocolate grits you get all kinds of things like chocolate grit ice cream, white chocolate grit cake to name a couple so I guess I am never really that far off. No, I am talking about good ol' cheese grits and how to do you kick up corn, with more corn, thats how. I added some sweet Jersey corn to these grits and before you say I wasted some good cob corn you need to keep in mind that once the corn is picked it is only truly sweet for a couple of days before the sugar starts turning to starch - thats why the corn always tasted better 'yesterday.'




Frog legs and grits, catfish and grits, shrimp and grits, eggs and grits, what'll it be?




Good old poached egg sundays and a heaping pile of grits.



The eggs were poached in a miso broth to give a more subltle and unique flavor that is a change from the regular vinegar water poach I usually do. The grits are great and I cant wait to have some with the catfish or some frog legs later on for early dinner.

The winner is.....

Let me start off by saying that the poaching egg question was tricky because I did initially learn from Julia Child about the vinegar in the water and gently placing them into the boil but then Jacques Pepin added to that by suggesting you fold them over upon themselves and then trim them to look neat but it was Gordon Ramsey that made it all too easy by whisking the water into a whirlpool therefore the eggs completely tumble into the beautiful shape you see. So the correct answer is all three. The dessert is a clafouti, in this case a strawberry clafouti. If you google "cabbage rolls" you will see the word "galumpki" but if you google any of those other words you would see that they are bastardized versions of "galumpki" so while "galumpki is the correct answer it all boils down to how you say it.



Who won? Greg @SippitySup was number 27 in the random.org number generator - congratulations! You won my first ever give-away sponsored by CSN Stores.


Greg chose the Chicago Cutlery (these would have been my choice as well, I like the handle). While the answers were not necessary to win, the rest of the 'correct' answers are 1) my version of a big mac 2) alfredo and whole wheat spaghetti 3) I needed to make someone a snack 4) galumpkis 5) a, b, or c - most people picked a - Julia Child 6) clafouti and 7) your choice.

Greg please e-mail me with shipping instructions so I can get these wonderful knives out to you lickety split mister sippitysup!

The first photo is from a previous post - poached eggs in little stacks with potato, zucchini, tortilla, tomato and corn.