This was truly an experiment and it was a good one. I generally have mediocre success with poaching eggs and I have never made hollandaise before. But here, everything seemed to turn out pretty well. I think this was mainly due to my sitting down and planning out how to make all this so everything was done around the same time. I did some stuff early (the bell peppers and the Canadian bacon) and made sure I mise en placed!!! it all. Ha!

I took my eggs out of the fridge about an hour before using, so they would be room temperature-ish. This may have helped. I also just accepted the fact that my whites might get a little messy. They did. There was still a little yelling. But, mimosas helped take the edge off all the poaching egg related stress (PERS).

The blender hollandaise sauce might be cheating a little but …who cares? I was super pleased with the results. Light and lemony, it was delicious! I made 2/3’s of the original recipe, as there were only two of us. And although I didn’t use it all, I thought that would be easier than only using one egg yolk plus less butter and taking the chance that there wouldn’t be enough of it in the blender to emulsify correctly.

Dilemma: I have about two tablespoons of hollandaise left in the fridge. I am tempted to make a veggie sausage patty-zuccchini muffin sandwich tomorrow am, and dip it in the leftover hollandaise sauce. Hmmm….

Eggs Benedict
2 English muffins, split & toasted
1 tsp olive oil
4 slices Canadian bacon
1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into strips
4 eggs
1 tbsp cider vinegar
salt & pepper
1 tsp fresh tarragon, chopped

Blender Lemony Hollandaise
Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence
2 egg yolks
1/3 lemon, zested
1/3 lemon, juiced
3/4 tsp dry mustard
2 tbsp water
Pinch cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stick unsalted butter, melted (yeah, 1 stick, that’s what I typed…)

Preheat the skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Next add the bell pepper strips and a little salt & pepper.

Saute for 5-6 minutes until soft and a little golden in places. Remove from the pan and cover with foil.

Return the same skillet to medium heat and add the Canadian bacon slices. Give them abut 1 minute per side until you have some color. Remove from pan and cover with foil. If you are making breakfast potatoes, add more oil to the same pan, return to heat and cook the potatoes in this same pan. This is what I did, mmmm… Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, if you are doing other things (potatoes) get them within a few minutes of being done.

Then, fill a nonstick skillet up with about 3 inches of water. Add some salt and the vinegar. Crack you four eggs into ramekins. Bring your pan of water to a simmer. When bubbles are starting to appear (but it’s not boiling), pour the eggs in, turn off the heat, and cover it up with a lid. Set a timer for about 3.5 minutes

Hollandaise: Put the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, cayenne, water, salt and pepper into a blender.

Blend together and then slowly start pouring in the hot, melted butter with the blender running. Stop the blender when all the butter has been incorporated.

Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Thin the hollandaise with a little warm water, if it is too thick.

Putting it Together

Put two halves of an English muffin on a plate and top with the Canadian bacon slices. Then divide the bell pepper slices between the muffins. (If you need to rewarm the peppers and bacon, just put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Use a slotted spoon to remove your eggs and place an egg on each muffin slice. Top with some hollandaise and chopped tarragon.

* There weren’t a lot of pictures of the actual egg poaching and hollandaise blending because it’s hard to do all that and take pictures too!

I came across a recipe by Michael Chiarello for white bean waffles a while ago and was very intrigued. So much so that I completely changed the recipe to be black bean waffles. Recently I had some time, a can of black beans and a waffle maker. Here’s what happened…

Black Bean Waffles
For the beans:
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 dash tabasco
1 handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the waffles:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cups milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat your waffle device of choice. In a small pot combine the beans, chili powder, cumin, tabasco, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and teaspoon salt.

Add the beans, their cooking liquid and the cilantro to a food processor and pulse to puree. Add the eggs, milk, and olive oil to the bean mixture and puree until smooth. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry slowly to avoid any lumps. Let the batter rest briefly and griddle the waffles according manufacturer’s instructions.

Now, what can you do with these little snacks? Well, the first night we had a couple of wedges on the side with some grilled turkey breast tenders. Very good.

The next day (a Saturday), two waffle wedges each were re-toasted, stacked with spinach leaves, avocado, poached eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa and served as a kind of faux, mexican eggs benedict. I completely recommend this option.

To poach an egg quite easily –

1. Fill a large skillet with a few inches of water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar and some salt. Put on a lid and bring to a boil.

2. Crack your eggs into ramekins.

3. When the water is boiling, gently pour each egg from the ramekin into the water.

4. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and poach for 2.5 - 4 minutes, depending if you like runny yolks or not. I did about 2.5 - 3 minutes for medium runny yolks.

5. Scoop eggs out with a slotted spoon, briefly draining on a towel-covered saucer if you want. This can get tricky, though, as you still have to lift the poached eggs from the towel to the plate.

Stack everything together and you have a wonderful morning treat. Top with chopped cilantro and green onions if you have any.

Keep the rest of the waffles in the fridge and heat up in a toaster for a quick snack.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge — #14, for those keeping track — is all about salads. This event is also being guest hosted by running with tweezers.

The cookbook that I chose is Donna Hay Modern Classics Book I, which is probably one of the most beautiful cookbooks I own. It’s paperback but the pictures, oh the pictures. I want to eat the pages. Well, okay, not really, but wow, she makes everything look so good

I was especially lured by the photo of the niçoise salad on page 53. “Okay”, I said to myself. “That’s what I’m making.” And so I did.

Niçoise Salad
This serves 4 — easily halved to serve 2
12 baby new potatoes, halved
10 oz green beans, trimmed and halved
14 oz ahi tuna steaks
olive oil for brushing
5 oz baby spinach leaves
2 tomatoes, sliced into wedges
2/3 cup black olives, halved (I used niçoise olives!)
salt & pepper
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Dressing
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
salt & pepper

Place the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until almost soft. Add the beans and cook for 2 more minutes, until the beans and potatoes are tender.

Drain and cool under running cold water.

Next, brush the tuna with a little olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Grill (outdoors or on a grill pan inside) for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the tuna is seared nicely but still rare inside. Set aside for five minutes and then slice.

To make the dressing, place the oil, vinegar, mustard, parsley, in a bowl with a little salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Place the spinach, tomatoes, olives, potatoes, beans, eggs slices and dressing in a big bowl. Toss to combine. Then, place the tuna slices on top, along with the egg quarters. Serve immediately.

I also toasted up some baguette slices with a little olive oil and garlic and had those on the side with some leftover hummus. It was especially good to place some of the tuna slices on a hummus-topped bread.

Thanks again to Weekend Cookbook Challenge, Running with Tweezers and Donna Hay!

***

Do you love Firefly? Then you must go buy this. jwa’s hopefully buying a copy and bringing it home from work tomorrow night. Oh and speaking of all things Joss, I have it on pretty good authority that the Buffy Singalong is coming to Portland the 4th weekend of June (Friday and Saturday nights). Dates will be officially announced March 15th.

***

One more unfood-related item. We just saw Act a Lady at Portland Center Stage. If you can get to it before it closes, your really should. It was so funny! An accordion! Men dressing as ladies! Fancy-Paris talk! Ghosts!

This was also the first time we were at their new space in The Pearl. I really like it.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, (which I almost forgot about — oops!), is all about party food. So, to accomplish this, I turned to a book all about parties, entertaining and proper hostessing — I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, by Amy Sedaris. It’s very funny, kitschy, deadpan in tone and is sprinkled with hilarious photos of Amy and (quite honestly) some very unappetizing food photos. Ah, so what? I love this book. There’s also some handy and practical advice for entertaining:

A good trick is to fill your medicine cabinet with marbles. Nothing announces a nosy guest better than an avalanche of marbles hitting a porcelain sink.

or

Have toilet paper.

Genius!

While looking through the book I was tempted to make a cheese ball (one of her “famous cheese balls”), but figured another stick of butter is one of the last things jwa and I need right now. Instead, a recipe in the book submitted by Paul Dinello caught my eye. Paul’s Zucchini Fritters. The suggestion for serving these is at a “grieving party” but I say they just make a tasty breakfast, dinner snack or happy party snack! No one has to die!

The original recipe also included no measurements. Apparently Paul finds cooking without specific measurements, “exciting.” Huh. Okay. So, I’ve listed the measurements below that I used when making these. Help yourself. For the more adventurous, disregard those and just wing it like Paul. Oh and I added the mint and red pepper flakes and halved the amount of onion in my version. I just couldn’t help myself from making a couple of tiny changes, that is my way.

For a party, I’d make little fritters to serve as finger food. To make a meal of fritters, form larger patties, as I did, and serve three to a plate. The below amounts will serve about 3-4 as a meal. On the side, I whipped up some plain yogurt with garlic, tomato and cucumber. Excellent.

Paul’s Zucchini Fritters
2 medium zucchinis
2 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
1/2 a white onion, diced
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs
6-8 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh mint, chopped
Dash of red pepper flakes

Grate the zucchini. It’s important to get as much water out of the shredded vegetable as possible. It helps to salt it and then place a heavy lid on top it and press down. You can also wrap the grated zucchini in a tea towel and squeeze until you can’t squeeze anymore. Paul says, “When you think you’ve got all the water out keep pressing, because I can tell you, you haven’t.” He’s right about that.

In another bowl mix six tablespoons of the flour, eggs, onion, garlic, parsley, mint and feta. Combine with the zucchini and some salt and pepper. Add more flour if it seems too liquidy. Oh and don’t forget the red pepper flakes.

Coat the bottom of a hot frying pan in olive oil. For best results, make sure your pan is good and hot before adding fritters. Scoop a fist full of mixture from the bowl and shape into a small patty and place in skillet.

Let cook about 4 minutes on each side for larger fritters, 2 minutes per side for smaller ones.

I made medium-sized fritters and I got about 10 from this recipe, but if you made them slightly smaller (and depending on the size of your zucchinis), you could probably get 12. I’ve also doubled the original recipe (which said you could get 20-40 fritters from one zucchini) but I’m not really sure how that’s possible. They would have to be pretty damn tiny fritters.

I took two leftover ones today to work for breakfast and ate them cold. Wow. Still so very good. I think I’m going to definitely make these again. Thanks (as always) to Sara for hosting!

A Salute to Honey, Part II
My first attempt at creme brulee came from a trip to Bath and Body Works in Pioneer Place. Right. See, they carry products from the Savannah Bee Company and I found some orange foot scrub that I liked. I went to their Web site to learn more about the company and found a recipe section.

From there, I discovered a lavender and honey creme brulee recipe that I changed to Rosemary and Honey. This was mainly due to having a HUGE rosemary plant in the front yard that I like to find uses for and because, well, I like rosemary. Especially sneaky uses for it like drinks and desserts.

The flavor was mild and a little sweet. You could taste the rosemary just a little and it blended very well with the honey. I used vanilla sugar in my creme brulee (for the top too) but plain sugar will work fine.

Honey and Rosemary Creme Brulee
(This will make 4 creme brulees. For 2, just halve the ingredients — that’s what I did).
7 egg yolks
2 oz. sugar
2 oz. honey
2 cups half and half (or, for a richer, devil may care version, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 1/2 cup milk — I did the half and half and thought it was good. Heavy cream would probably even be that much more so.)
3-4 sprigs rosemary
3-t tbsp vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put cream and milk into a saucepan with the rosemary sprigs. Bring to a boil and turn off. Let stems steep for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, sugar and honey until smooth. Pull sprigs out of the cream and milk mixture and whisk into eggs. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour into four one cup ramekins or brulee dishes. Use a spoon to skim off any foam from the top of the dishes. Set into a baking pan, add enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides. Place in oven and bake 25 - 30 minutes or until they are set. Test by jiggling the dish. You can also test it with a thermometer. A custard is set at 165 degrees — thank you, Alton Brown!

Cool in the water bath. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

The Brulee-ing

Before serving, sprinkle tops with a thin layer of granulated sugar and caramelize with a small torch or under a high temperature broiler. If you use a broiler (like I did) you may want to take out a little protection for your creme brulee container. I used ceramic ramekins and I was 90% sure that they were broiler-proof. Just in case, I cut out little aluminum foil protectors for the tops.

My broiling took maybe 60-90 seconds. I took them out of the oven and let them sit for about five minutes before eating. The real test? The crack. I saw Alton Brown do this on the Creme Brulee (or was it custard?) Good Eats. Crack your spoon down on the top. You should hear the sugar crack. I was so excited — ours cracked!

So, I guess the lesson is, if you don’t have a little torch, you can still make creme brulee. Just use the broiler and it should work fine! Also, shopping can help you find interesting recipes.

Vanilla Sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
1 split vanilla bean, scraped clean

This is a great use for used vanilla beans. After using a bean for something else, take the scraped pod halves and through in a zip lock bag with a couple of cups of sugar. Keep sealed air tight in a dark place (like your cabinet). Use in place of plain sugar whenever it strikes your fancy.