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.

Frei Brothers Reserve. “Places Worth Preserving” - Campos Garden

I was so flattered and excited to be asked to participate in Kitchen PLAY's partnership with Frei Brothers Reserve that will showcase recipes and photos in support of the Frei Brothers Reserve current Facebook photo contest. We all have favorite places and we all have favorite places that need to be saved, whether thats a park, a forest or in my case a community garden.

Campos Community Garden has been a little oasis in a land of bricks and concrete here in New York City for a lot of people in my neighborhood. We garden, socialize and teach in this little plot of land. Gardens like these can take two routes: 1) they can get grandfathered in and be recognized as part of the Parks Department or 2) they can be bought and developed and turned into a rent generator. Campos Community Garden, luckily, has been recognized as part of the Parks Department but even that status can change with each and every new mayor.

It is a little late in the growing season to actually enjoy the bounty that the garden offers but I was able to pull some radish and some carrots and some mint to use as garnish on my aged prime rib dinner.

Aged Prime Rib Dinner with Red Bliss Smashed Potatoes 

Wine and Mushroom Sauce and Mint Peas -

Paired with Frei Brothers Reserve Merlot

Per person:

12 ounce aged steak (I aged mine on a rack in the back part of my fridge for two days)

2 small red bliss potatoes boiled

1/3 cup sour cream

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup peas with shredded mint

shaved carrots and radish for ganish

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauce

3 large button mushrooms diced

3 TBS corn starch

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup red wine (I used some of the Frei Brothers Merlot)

Method

Heat your grill or grill pan to about 600 degrees.    Sauté mushrooms in butter until soft, add corn starch and wine and whisk until silky. Warm your peas then toss with mint. Smash 2 potatoes per person adding butter and sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Grill your steak for two to three minutes per side or until its at your preferred doneness - let rest.

Place your potatoes on your plate, spoon over the peas then place your perfectly grilled steak on top of the peas and potatoes spooning over your velvety wine and mushroom sauce and top with your shredded radish and carrots. Enjoy with Frei Brothers Merlot.

You will find the subtle vanilla and chocolate notes of this wine complement the mint and mushrooms and enhance the delicate aged beef giving each and every bite a full bouquet of flavor with an incredibly soft mouth feel. Frei Brothers Reserve is committed to crafting award winning wines through sustainable practices. Get involved and submit your photo of a place worth preserving at Frei Brothers Reserve current Facebook photo contest, a new winner every month and a grand prize trip to Frei Ranch and Yosemite National Park.

This post is sponsored by Frei Brothers Reserve in partnership with Kitchen PLAY - all opinions are my own.

Weak End

Time seems to have a mind of its own and when you dont have a camera you cant prove s$%t. Lucky for me my cell phone is equipped with the most lame little snapshot device, Banana has a nice phone with flash and video but no mine it is worse than a photo booth. We went to the Mall - is it supposed to be in CAPS or is it ok to say mall? Anyway we were at the newly fixed up Newport Center Mall in Jersey City, New Jersey. This mall is right after the Holland Tunnel, in case you dont study local geography. We ate cinnamon pretzels and bought kids school gear and assorted sundries, all the while looking for Wahl clipper accessories. See I cut my own hair as I have done since I was a teen and since my clippers comb things were wearing out I thought it would be cheap to go to the mall and get them there instead of paying the 9 dollar shipping to have them delivered. Nobody had them. After going to the 'specialized wig and barber outlet' we went to sears, pennys, khols, you name it. It was 6 dollars to come back to manhattan and 2 dollars to park not to mention gas and snacks - plus the other "shopping" we did- funny you can leave NY for free but no matter who if you come through the major bridges and tunnels its 6 bucks- the cheapest way in - you can try and wing around and do the I95 thing but it still costs you if not in gas, certainly in time and headace and 75 cent tolls. So we came home and ate.

King Crab, Steak and Grilled Corn a la Mushy. This whole meal was inspired by this guy in Tennessee by the name of Mushy. He cooks things his way and most times that is the best way. Whenever you nail a system -stick with it.




Oh did I forget to mention that I ordered the things anyway for 18.99 total - 8.99 for the set and 9.99 for shipping - funny huh?