RPI Eggs: Super Simple Poached Egg Sunday Breakfast

Happy Thursday darlings!

The best part of my day? I logged into Blogger, checked the blog's stats for the day, and opened up my draft for RPI Mission Eggs... I was greeted by this:

Jingle bells, batman smells, Robin laid an egg.

Batmobile lost a wheel and Joker got away.

Oh the joy of sharing a blog with a close friend who you wished lived closer. I've heard this song eight million times and was always kind of annoyed by it. Until now. Now it's the endearing gentle message my dear friend Haydn left me in my draft copy of RPI Eggs - a small but significant message that he hopelessly misses me. I miss you too, Haydn. Stupid, giant, Canadian country.

Something else that is dear to my heart? Eggs. Particularly, super simple Sunday breakfast eggs. When we established eggs as our Rock, Paper, ingredient mission this month, my mind immediately started digging into the various culinary fascinations of eggs - custards, cakes, aioli, souffle, blah blah blah. Ultimately, I chose to showcase the true nature of the protein powerhouse known as the egg. And stayed true to chicken.

Small side note: Duck eggs scare the squeezebox outta me. Much too large. Much. too. large. Pretty much anything that is larger in size than the average/normal freaks me out.

All you need for this recipe: eggs, bread, left over veggies. Maybe a little cheese. Golden. 

Super Simple Poached Egg Breakfast

(printable recipe) - serves 2.

Ingredients:

4 Pastured Eggs.

1 Tsp Vinegar.

1 Bunch Kale or Chard.

1/3 C Chicken or Veggie Stock.

Leftover Roasted Winter Veg.

2 Pieces Baguette or Sourdough Loaf, cut on an angle.

2 Shavings of Salty Grainy Cheese (ie Grana Padano, Parmesan, Pecorino Romano)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Coarse Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to a high broil. Once hot, place sliced bread on a baking sheet, brushed lightly with olive oil, and slide under heat. Broil until golden. Remove from oven and lay the cheese on warm toast. Set aside.

Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F. Re-heat winter veg in oven until hot. 

Heat 2 Tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Once hot, throw in the greens, season well with salt and pepper and stir well to coat. Add the stock and while stirring often, allow the greens to cook through and the stock to evaporate.

To poach eggs: Bring a deep saute pan of salted water to a light boil over medium-high heat. Once the water starts to bubble, add vinegar. Crack eggs into individual bowls and gently slide into the semi-boiling water. Using a slotted spoon, corral the whites around the yolks to help them keep their shape. Cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the egg whites are cooked through and the yolks runny. Remove from water and gently place eggs on top of cheesy toast.

Throw it all on a plate and chow down my friends, chow down.

Yes - eat.

How do your friends let you know they love you? How do you show you love them?

Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears

The Lowdown:

I'm not sure if it's because school is nearing, or if it's because summer is slowly fading away, or it's because some of my closest friends are moving away, but for some reason I have lost my drive and motivation to cook. It's almost as if a forcefield or warding spell was erected around my kitchen, like garlic to a vampire (not the fruity type of vampires that seem to be all the rage these days, the real vampires that used to cause nightmares). Not only have I stopped cooking, but shopping has taken a hit as well. My freezer is as empty as I've ever seen it. Who would have thought that a cooking funk was a real ailment.

By no means did this recipe get me over the cooking funk, but it was easy. Yes, that is the only reason that I did it. Although poached pears are delicious. Okay, so there were two reasons. Plus pears are in season now so their flavours are so much more pronounced. Okay, okay, so there was three reasons. Either way, it was easy and simple enough to get done despite a bad case of the cooking funks.

I'm not going to lie, I may also have a case of the writing funks too. So for that, I'm going to leave this short. Well, they say a photo is worth a thousand words, so I'll add a few of those to get my word count up. Enjoy. When my cooking/writing funks are over I will bless you with my regular sour wit. Cheers. 

The Playlist:

1 bottle Shiraz (minus a glass for yourself)
1 cup Organic cane sugar
1 tbsp Cinnamon
2 tbsp Vanilla
1 tbsp Allspice
4 Anjou pears, pealed/halved/cored

The Skinny:

1. Combined all of the ingredients in a medium sized sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling add pears and reduce heat to medium-low. Allow to simmer to 8-10 minutes per side (or if fully submerged cook for 15-20 minutes).
2. When pears are soft to poke with a fork, remove from heat and allow to sit. The longer they sit the more flavourful and colourful they will be.
3. Reheat pears in liquid then remove pears and simmer the wine down to about half of the original volume.
4. Serve pears with a bit of the wine syrup (apparently blue cheese goes well with this too).

Stay Rad -h

Featured on:  Chef in Training, Premeditated Leftovers, 33 Shades of Green, Food Renegade,

Black Currant Scones

The Lowdown:

I am definitely not a breakfast person. I am definitely not a baking person. In fact, the amount of times I've that eaten a breakfast-style meal (other than the odd omlette) and/or baked can probably be counted using my fingers. Baking to me lacks creativity. Breakfast to me lacks about everything I like. More often than not I'll have a sandwich or last night's leftovers for breakfast. Breakfast and I are not best friends. Perhaps we are merely acquaintances that say hello as we pass by each other, but avoid the unpleasant small-talk.

However, with every rule there is always an exception. Like when a parent "counts to three," but then they add the halves and quarters of seconds to extend the amount of time. If you ask me, it's a great way to teach fractions. But in reality we all know that parents only do it because they have no idea what they'd actually do if they ever reached three. My exception to baking is the scone (pronounced skon). Similarly, my exception to my lack of interest in breakfast is the scone.

Scones and I go way back. No, we didn't ride tandem bicycles together; and when we are seperated I don't get the blues. But the thought of me using somebody else's recipe may strike a bit of discussion with my father. Every Sunday, and most holidays, usually started with scones. Our scones to be exact. That is, until I discovered that I could make a lot of poor decisions on a Saturday night and wake up hungover on a Sunday morning, making me unable to operate an oven. Either way, it was the easiest recipe to find, because the cookbook opened to that page on its own. Not that it mattered, I knew it off by heart. Even still, when I go to visit, we usually end up making them. By we, I mean my little brother, because that's about all he contributes to in the kitchen.

So, a big thanks for {Sweetly} Serendipity's Black Cherry Scones envoking that same feeling that I can almost remember from all those years back. Oh right, I almost forgot to mention. This week, Kristy and I are both re-creating a recipe from the same blog (normally we choose our own separate blog). Obviously, {Sweetly} Serendipity was the blog chosen. You forced me to bake this week Kristy. You win this time. Next time, I think I choose a goat only blog. Oh, how I love power.

The Playlist:

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Baking soda
4 tbsp Shortening (or butter)
1/4 cup Milk
1/4 cup Sour cream
1 cup Black currants

The Skinny:

1. Preheat oven to 400*.
2. Mix dry goods together in a large mixing bowl. Add shortening and, using a pastry cutter, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until it is the size of rice grains.
3. Mix the sour cream and milk together in a small bowl then add to the flour mixture. Turn using a wooden spoon until a solid ball forms. Add the currants and gently mix them into the dough.
4. Flour a surface and push the ball into a 1.5" thick pizza dough shape. Cut into desired number of pieces (I made 8), then place on a parchment papered baking sheet.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Featured on: Premeditated Leftovers, Chef in Training, 33 Shades of Green, 

Stay Rad - h

Poached Egg Over Creamy Polenta (with mushrooms, blue cheese & pistachios)

There are times in a young woman's life when she just needs to let go and dive in...

...When she's gotta let her (short) hair down....

...Throw caution to the wind....

...And just do it...

...When she just needs to take a chance...

...And indulge her fantasies...

That happened...

...When I read Sonia's recipe for Poached Egg Over Creamy Polenta (with mushrooms, blue cheese & pistachios) @ The Healthy Foodie.

Holy Hannah Montana!

Seriously. I saw this recipe and food orgasm'd. Twice.

Anyone who knows me know I love me some good polenta. Toss in a few mushrooms, a couple bold flavors like blue cheese and pistachios, and top it off with a creamy decadent poached egg - and you've got yourself a lover for life. Whether you want me or not. 

Simple. Divine. Comforting. Gourmet. And all at the same time. I love it.

Poached Egg Over Creamy Polenta

(with mushrooms, blue cheese & pistachios)

adapted from The Healthy Foodie 

Ingredients:

1 C Fine Ground Cornmeal.

6 Cups Salted Water or Chicken/Veggie Stock (or mixture of both).

80g Fresh Mushrooms (I used a mixture of oyster & shiitake).

1 Zucchini, cut into quarters and BBQ'd briefly (these were leftovers I just chucked in).

40g Pistachio, shelled & roughly chopped.

40g Blue Cheese, crumbled.

1 Tsp Fresh Thyme, de-stemmed & roughly chopped.

1 Lemon for juice.

3/4 C Parmesan Cheese, grated.

Kosher Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

1 Poached Egg.

Drizzle of Truffle Oil (optional).

What to Do:

In a large saucepan, bring the juice of half a lemon and the stock or salted water to a light boil over medium heat.

Add corn meal with a Tsp or two of salt and pepper in a slow steady stream, whisking continually. Once you have added all the cornmeal, reduce the heat to medium-low. Whisk/cook for about 10 minutes or until cornmeal has reached the desired consistency and cooked through. Don't stop whisking though or it'll clump!

Take off heat, stir in fresh thyme and parmesan. Mix well. Cover and set aside until plating. 

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil in a  medium non stick frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until nice and golden on both sides, about 2-3 minutes total.

Meanwhile, poach the egg. In a small pan heat some salted water over medium-high heat. As it heats, crack the egg into a small bowl. Add a little vinegar (about a Tbsp) to the water and the juice from half a lemon - this will keep your whites from flying around when you pour the egg in. When water starts to simmer, gently slip the egg in the water and push it back with a large spoon to help it take shape.

Cover lightly and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until white is completely set and opaque but yolk is still runny. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and allow to drain well.

Laddle polenta into a bowl or shallow serving plate. Top with the mushrooms and poached egg. Sprinkle generously with blue cheese and chopped pistachios on top. 

Garnish with a few sprigs of fresh thyme, a small sprinkle of salt and pepper, and if you like - a little truffle oil. Serve while hot!

Eat.

 What dishes or ingredients give you double food orgasm?

This post is linked up with This Chick Cooks; Cast Party Wednesday; Simple Lives Thursday; Full Plate Thursday; Tastetastic Thursday;Fresh Bites Friday; The Hearth & Soul Blog Hop via The 21st Century Housewife; Tasty Tuesdays; Slightly Indulgent Tuesday; Tuesday Talent Show.

RPI: Mango Infused Crepes w/ Stawberries & Bananas

The Lowdown:

This is the first installment of Rock, Paper, Ingredient (RPI), which is a clever little scheme devised to expand mine and Kristy's culinary adventures. You can, of course, get the formal description from the Rock, Paper, Ingredient sub-heading on the menu bar. Version 1.0 of RPI required that we use mango in one of our creations. I dont' really care for mangoes. That's right, I said it. They are pure evil to peel (unless you know the handy dandy trick), they have a weird odor, and they take over the flavour of pretty much everything. However, through many failures, I have learned how to disguise the flavour of many ingredients and force people to eat things that they don't even know they are eating. I'm so devious. But seriously, if you'd just eat your damn mushrooms I wouldn't have to hide them in everything! Ya, so, anyway.

After a few attempts at some other recipes that utilized mango, I was drawing a blank. The other recipes would suffice, but they just didn't have the right feel to them. Don't get me wrong, there were no leftovers, so they must have been good. However, they lacked the creative edge that I wanted to display for the RPI Version 1.0. Then, like everything else that I devise, inspiration came in the oddest place - Bob Marley's, "Sun is Shining." Don't ask me how mango infused crepes relate to Bob Marley, or the Sun is Shining, but for whatever reason, they do in my odd little world.

The Playlist:

(printable recipe)

1 cup Wholewheat flour.

1/2 tsp Salt.

2 Eggs.

1/2 cup milk (I substituted soy milk because I'm a lacto).

1/2 cup water.

2 tbsp vegetable oil.

1 Mango, cubed.

1 tbsp Oil (for frying).

12 Strawberries (my lucky number).

2 Bananas

The Skinny:

1. Place flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. Blend mango and milk until smooth.
3. Add mango/milk mixture, oil, and eggs into the flour.
4. Mix until no flour clumps remain.
5. Slowly add water and mix until desired consistency.
6. Heat oil in a shallow frying pan on medium heat (crepe pan if you have one).
7. Pour 1/3 - 1/2 cup of the crepe mixture into the pan and tilt in circular motions.
8. Cook the crepe on either side for 1 - 2 minutes.
9. Place fruit inside and roll.
10. Garnish as desired.

 H

This post is linked up with This Chick Cooks