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Perfectly poached eggs topped with parsley aioli and salmon caviar along with smoked trout on a garlic crostini with grilled plantains and mushrooms and a small salad are a New Years Day brunch anyone would love. 

Don't start the love till after you have had your "good luck" bowl of black eyed peas and collard greens - it just wouldn't be proper. Two quick tips: 1) black eyed peas cook fast 2) collard greens are best when simmered for a good long while to soften up and mellow out.

Recipes. I am often asked about recipes and on that same note I am often told how I should write a cookbook. This whole cookbook idea is nothing new to me here on the blog as I have mentioned it often. As much as I want to write a cookbook I simply don't feel strongly enough that there is a market for one more cookbook. This year I will give it the most thought I have ever given it and we shall see.

Innovations. Innovative cooking is all the rage. The curious thing about the word innovative is how loosely it can be construed. If you have never poached an egg before then you are being innovative. I am going to make it my mission to try to bring innovation to each and every one of you and do it in a way that is functional and feasible. Anything can be innovative and teaching is also a way of learning.

Lets grow together in the coming year. I have written this blog for a very long time now, 10 years to be exact. I have had waves of readers from the many to the few to the very many down to the very few. I have learned a thing or two along the way and I want to pick up a few more things to round it out. I am looking forward to your feedback and your help in 2015.

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.

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.

lots to look at not much to say plenty to do so lets eat risotto

Perhaps you are wondering where I am? Perhaps you dont even care? Perhaps I dont care? Whatever the case may be one thing is certain - I went from posting every single day down to -

will I ever post again. The answer to that is yes. I have been busy with all kinds of things, things that distract me from the luxury of posting my what nots on my blog. I have been cooking more than ever, I have started new projects, thought about others and completed some. I havent gained a pound and I havent exercised in forever. I joke that I am "a month away from buff" all the time but truth be told I have been "a month away from buff" for a couple of years now and I dont seem to be getting any closer.

Enough talk about me - lets talk risotto. "Risotto" you say "you make risotto all the time" and that would be correct and since I make risotto all the time it only gets better. I make it at home, I make it for clients, I will make it just for fun if you want. The secret(s) behind great risotto are many but it does start with good rice. I have used Arborio mostly until I discovered Carnaroli. Carnaroli is the rice of rices and thats all I have to say about that, if you can find it use it and you will know one more secret.

By now you have realized that this is not the place to come for recipes - recipes are all over the place - this is a place to learn technique, though if you are excited to see some recipes I am working on that as one of my other little projects.

Morel mushrooms and shaved Romano cheese make this creamy dish all that it should be.

By some small chance morel mushrooms and Romano cheese is not enough for you why not put some crumbled bacon on top.

This was so good I couldn't wait to have the leftovers for breakfast, and while it wasnt as creamy as the night before it sure was good with this double yoke poached egg. Get some good rice, make some risotto, practice on having some secrets of your own.

Dont forget your daily vote in the never ending poll.

BIG HUGE WHOOPS - Blogspot deleted the comments for this post!!!

teach to learn, learn to teach

You have heard it "those that cant do - teach - and those that cant teach - teach gym" as the old saying goes but I guess those people already know how to cook. As old as I am I learn something new everyday and I mean every single day and as a constant learner I am now learning how to teach, how to pass on what I know to future generations.

Cooking is one of those arts that you can never stop learning, you may be good at one thing but you might need help with another so there is a never ending supply of things to learn. Today I taught a young student interested in embarking on a career in the culinary arts two of my favorite things to make. Eggs and dessert and what better eggs than Davidsons - Safest Choice, all natural eggs.

Brunch is a no brainer in my world and thats only because I've made it hundreds of times and since it is something so second nature to me it is one of the easiest things for me to teach since it is all technique, no recipe here. We started boiling water and separating eggs for the hollandaise while we thumbed our way through some pages of the Larousse Gastronomique.

While things were whisked and resting and english muffin toast was toasting we got our plates ready with some cucumbers, carrots, avocado and salmon.

Watching her do the "oh my god this is gonna be good" wiggle that some people do when they know they are about to taste something delicious was enough good feeling to last me for weeks.

This tasted fantastic, no doubt, but she has such a refined sense of smell and taste for her age it is exciting to think of the wonderful future she has ahead of her and to listen to her dissect the flavors was very impressive. She had two I had one - she liked it that much. Toasted english muffin with smoked salmon and avocado drizzled in copious amounts of hollandaise with a carrot and cucumber salad, you have seen this one before.

When we had our fill of eggs benedict we made a flourless chocolate cake out of the left over egg whites for dessert - this sealed the deal for the day. Chocolate, raspberries and cream foam how can you not like it? "Give a man(woman) a fish he(she) can eat for a day, teach a man(woman) how to fish he(she) can eat forever, show a man(woman) how to cook fish and everyone is happy" thus spoke Christo!

Too much to say and too few words to say it

Being busy has its advantages and it has its disadvantages as well. I can only think of the disadvantages, though, when I am set on complaining. For me one of the greatest catch 22's of the advantage/disadvantage conundrum is how it triggers creativity. On many occasions it lights a fire and then on an equal number of the same occasions it puts the fire out. So where am I now? I'll tell you. I have so many pictures and no words to go with them.


A couple of posts ago I had mentioned the wonderful people at Goose Valley and the delicious rice they had sent me, well I made some more and this did not disappoint. The grains had a definite strong tooth feel and the flavor was spectacular, this wild rice is the best.


The natural wild rice was served up with some European Soldier beans from MarxFoods, an egg and a little hot chile, if you are so inclined.


After braising some pork belly for a couple hours or so in five spice seasoning and rice vinegar and rice wine and brown sugar nothing seemed more perfect than having it on a nice warm tortilla.


The pork was so tender and so succulent and so rosy pink even after hours in the braising liquid in the oven - I am going to work on this a little and definitely make it again.



Catching up to this mornings breakfast enchiladas with eggs and mache.


Nothing makes me feel like I am back in New Mexico more than stacks of corn tortillas, cheese, beans, red chile and fried eggs - and for fun we threw a few little green leaves in there. So you see folks I am losing my whimsical edge, I need to swim in the ocean to get my mojo back. (the first photo is a little steam action we did over the weekend with some blue crabs, we also had some fish and oysters)...Tomorrow its the Share our Strength event called Taste of the Nation in Princeton, New Jersey, photos and info to follow.