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.

Potstickers - The simplest dumpling with the biggest following - CCC - Creative Cooking Crew Challenge Dumpling

When I knew about the January challenge for the Creative Cooking Crew back in December I thought about making the most complex and technically challenging dumpling known to man and then I thought - why, a dumpling is simple fare and doesn't need all kinds of 5 star treatment to shine.

My dumplings are just that - simple. I made a spinach dough and I stuffed them with a nicely 5 spiced roasted minced duck and I served them two ways - one in light and savory duck broth and as pot stickers with a soy/ponzu sauce and a little Sriracha - both were delicious. Check back for the link for my partners in this little dumplingfest.

Poached Pears for Creative Cooking Crew Cooking with Spirits

Definitely poached pears are one top drawer dessert, and without a doubt it is one of the easiest desserts you could ever make. Poached pears with a red wine caramel and creme anglaise only takes time to make it nice. You will read a lot of recipes that will tell you to poach the pears for about 15 minutes or so but to really get them tender and tasty I suggest no less than 45 minutes at a nice steady simmer.

So how do you make these? Easy. Get some bosc pears and peel them and cut the bottom so they standup. Fill up a nice flat bottomed pot with red wine and about a 1/4 ratio of water to wine to cover the pears - so for example: one bottle of wine and a 1/4 bottle of water. Season the liquid with orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon, star anise, clove, a bay leaf and some sugar - you need to taste the liquid to make sure it is tasty but dont go crazy tasting this delicious elixer or you wont have anything to poach the pears in. Simmer pears in this liquid for 45 minutes then let them cool in the poaching liquid over night.

The next day gently remove the pears and reduce the liquid until it is a nice thick caramel and let the pears come up to room temperature.

This is a pear in the unreduced liquid.

Make a creme anglaise, which is a nice vanilla sauce made with milk, cream, egg yolks and vanilla bean.   Put some of the wine caramel on a plate, put some creme anglaise on a plate and put a pear on top of the sauces and garnish with a mint leaf and you are good to go.

Invite 35 of your best friends over to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Poached pears will be on your menus - I guarantee it! Dont forget to check out what the others are doing!

In a Pickle - CCC - Creative Cooking Crew made the challenge "pickle"

Green eyed green horned flying purple pickle eater - is that how the song goes? Well if it doesnt I made some purple pickles for nothing. This is an easy recipe that you can make in less than 24 hours.

Boil some beets until soft.

Boil some eggs until they are at your desired state of semi-hard boiled.

Put eggs in a glass or a jar or a bowl and add sliced garlic, rosemary, hot green chile and then cover halfway with the hot boiling liquid from the beets and then cover completely with white vinegar, add a slice or two of fresh beet to kick up the color and set aside 6 hours or over night.

You dont want to leave the eggs in the pickling agent for too long or they will become like bouncing rubber balls, so this is something that you can add eggs too often and eat often.

There are probably a few bars around New York City that still have a big jar of these pickled eggs behind the bar for the hungry beer drinker that wants a little pickled nutrition while he pickles himself but I dont thing there are any that offer purple pickled eggs. I made these once (not pickled but colored with beet juice) and turned them into deviled eggs for a breast cancer awareness event. Check out the others and lets see what got pickled.