Sunny-Side-Up Eggs with Leeks

Blog's Category:  My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food

Sunny-Side-Up Eggs with Leeks  

Intro

I was always wondering why just white part of leeks are usually used. Being curious and "unruly child of the culinary world", some time ago, I decided to use all of the plant and have no regret since. Really, why not to use these beautiful dark green leaves? They must have a ton of nutrition.
And of course I love eggs, they are my #1 breakfast ingredient. Leeks seems to be the perfect companion for eggs. So, please review the recipe below, make it and you just must agree with me :)

Taste Description

Subtle oniony flavor and buttery texture of cooked leeks is a perfect pillow-bottom for a couple of good quality eggs. Cooked sunny-side-up style, runny yolks multiply your overall buttery experience of a whole dish. If you are not on a "low-carb", feel free to use piece of crusty bread with it - it's a heavenly breakfast, I have no doubts.

How to Serve
Of course, it has to be served right away. Don't forget about bread! Two eggs and one leek will make a generous portion for one. Share it, if you want it to be lighter on your waist :)

Sunny-Side-Up Eggs with Leeks    

• 1 large leek, chopped (include green part of a leek too) 
• 2 eggs
• salt
• black pepper, freshly ground (optional)
• 1-2 tbs grated cheddar (optional)
• 2 tbs of ghee or butter

- In a large bowl, wash your chopped leeks thoroughly.

- With your hand, fish out leeks from a bowl right on a cold skillet with a ghee or butter (there is no need to wait until skillet will get hot).

- On a medium heat, cook leeks, stirring until it's soft but not browned up just yet. Add a little bit of a salt, stir.

- Make two indentations on a bed of a leek and break eggs into it. Sprinkle with a dash of salt, drop a bit of a cheese (mostly on whites and leeks). Poke whites areas to allow whites to drip down and cook faster. Cover skillet with a lid ajar and cook on a lowest heat setting for a couple more minutes or until whites are completely cooked but yolks are still runny.

- Take off the heat, slide eggs with a leek onto the plate or eat right from a skillet. Enjoy!

Variations
- I cooked leeks on a ghee, but more classy option would be butter. Although, I'm sure, using ghee is healthier and almost the same great taste as when using butter. Notice, I say "almost" :) So it's your choice: to cook leeks on ghee, butter, or any vegetable oil such as olive oil. Taste will be slightly different but still good in any case.
- This egg recipe does not require any other ingredients than those few I listed above. You can omit cheese if you wish. Unless, of course, you just need to use up couple mushrooms, or handful of feta or other cheese lingering in your fridge without purpose. Those can easily be added to the dish.

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IN PICTURES

Start piling leeks and ghee or butter on a cold skillet. Make sure your heat is medium-low - in this case you'll escape the need of heavy cleaning around your skillet from a "fat fireworks" (hate this stuff..I bet, you too) 

Leeks are soft and tender - it's time to break a egg :)

Chicken Egg-Drop Soup

Blog's Category:  My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food

Chicken Egg-Drop Soup  

Intro

When my papa cooked his soups he liked to add eggs to almost all of them. My favorite were the pieces of larger blobs of egg whites and, as a youngest in a family, I had privilege to fish them all out.  Ohhh.. memories..
Last Saturday I decided to make quick soup to utilize cup of plain rice leftovers and several pieces of  a raw boneless chicken thighs. I was looking for a way to spruce it up and recalled my father's egg-drop soups. Well, I've got a recipe...As this impromptu soup come out very good and got great reviews of my family, I though, that sharing it with you would be not such a bad idea, right?

Variations
- Replace rice with a handful of noodles, or with a cup of frozen peas, or a can of navy beans - I'm sure it will work here as well.
- I used just one egg for a whole pot of soup but I don't see why you would not use another one!
- Fresh herbs can be omitted or replaced with a dry herbs but I would not do this - fresh herbs in an egg-drop soup are such a perfect pairing that I'd hate to lose it .

Taste Description

Very refreshing (thanks to fresh herbs), very whimsical looking and fun to eat (thanks to eggs) and of course full of flavors, comforting and fulfilling. It does not burst with sharp tastes, aromas or spiciness. It will rather envelops you into the softest and cuddliest flavors ever.

How to Serve
Serve hot or warm. It will be good the next day and day after. Can't tell any further as a large pot of this soup mysteriously disappeared after two days in a fridge.

Chicken Egg-Drop Soup    

• 1 onion, chopped
• 5-7 chicken thighs (any other parts of chicken will do as well)
• 2 cups of cooked rice(or 1 cup of uncooked rice)
• 4 potatoes
• 1-2 raw eggs
• 1-2 cups of fresh parsley or dill, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt
• black pepper, freshly ground

- Peel and cut potatoes into 1" cubes, cover with a cold water and set aside.

- In a pot, on a medium heat, cook onion on olive oil until translucent.

- Add chicken pieces and cook stirring until onion and chicken starts to brown up.

- Add couple quarts of water, bring to a boil and then continue to cook on medium-low for about 10 minutes.

- Add potato along with a water it was in. Bring to a boil, add salt to taste and simmer until potato and chicken are completely cooked.

- Add rice. Simmer for 10 more minutes.

- Take an egg and, using knife, make small holes on a both ends of an egg. Shaking egg above the pot, pour slowly egg into the soup. Use a spoon to distribute egg evenly in a soup while pouring the egg.

- Bring soup to a boil, add fresh herbs and take soup off the heat. It's done, enjoy! 

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IN PICTURES

Do you see this large egg whites clouds - they are my favorites.

Yams, Zucchini and Cashew Curry

Blog's Category:  International, My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food

Yams, Zucchini and Cashew Curry

Intro

This week I was so into Indian food. I've made idli with peanut chutney (just the latter was really tasty but idli were so-so). I have made also gun powder, this special south-indian ground spice mix with overwhelming aroma which I use now on all my rice and other sides as topping. Actually gun powder deserves its own place in my blog and I'm planning on posting it. But this post is all about dish that come along as a "satellite" recipe to my main, idli, chutney and gun powder, recipes of my Indian Food weekend. As it often happens to me, this curry, carelessly made by "one left hand" come out as exceptionally balanced and delicious treat. And healthy too!
With a winter still here, this sunny, just slightly hot curry (you see - hot..sunny) is the best what you could eat to warm lovely yourself up.

- Theoretically, any vegetable will work here but I like this particular (random to start with) combination. So I would recommend to stick to ingredient list - there are not that many items on a list anyway.
- I didn't use any fresh or dry herbs, but I think they won't hurt, especially fresh ones. 

Taste Description

Interesting that taste of the curry has fully developed just the next day. Let me explaine: the curry was nice and tasty right after I cooked it and served at our "extended" family dinner last weekend. I was pretty pleased with bright, a bit spicy curry. It balanced out my somewhat mediocre idli I put on a table at the same time. Although the very next day, this same curry tasted twice as delicious as was day before - flavors developed , multiplied and become one, whole, organically married union. My biggest concern were green chili that, I afraid would overpower with a hit but surprisingly they were not spicy at all and actually become my favorite ingredient in this curry. Some awesome transformation happed overnight!

Couple notes
-There are curry leaves in this curry that are not edible here - just put them aside while eating the curry - it's not that hard. I have a feeling that they play a key role in that mysterious "overnight curry development".
- Some elbow grease involved in the curry eating process such as, just mentioned, tossing out curry leaves, pulling out chili peppers by their stems before eating them. All this work I see rather as a fun, just keep plenty of napkins handy to wipe beautiful yellow sauce stains from your cheeks, fingers and may be even nose :)

How to Serve
As it takes time for flavors to develop, cook this curry a day before. Serve very warm with a side of plain jasmine rice. Curry will keep in a fridge for a 3-4 days.

Yams, Zucchini and Cashew Curry 

• 1 large yam (sweet potato,) peeled and diced
• 2 zucchini, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1.5 - 2 cups raw cashew pieces
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 3-5 green chili
• 1 tbs cumin seeds
• 1.5 tbs turmeric powder
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup fresh (frozen) curry leaves
• 1 tbs sugar
• 3-4 tbs olive oil
• about 1 tsp salt

- In a large skillet, on a medium heat, dry-cook cashew and green chili, stirring constantly, until cashew begin to become beige. Be careful not to burn them.

- Add cumin and mustard seeds and cook stirring for a couple more minutes.

- Add olive oil, onion, garlic, yam, zucchini and turmeric, cook for a two more minutes.

- Add about 1 cup of water, salt and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally.

- When yams are completely cooked and soft, add both tomatoes, chopped and canned one, curry leaves, stir. Cook for about 10 minutes or until tomatoes reach desired tenderness. Add sugar to balance-out tomato acidity. Taste and adjust seasoning (salt, sugar).

- Turn heat off - it's done! Enjoy! Then enjoy the same curry even more the next day!

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IN PICTURES

As you can see, I didn't bother myself cutting off chili pepper stems. Later on, eating a curry, I actually counted it as a fun pulling chili by the stem before biting on it.

Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

Blog's Category:  My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food

Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

Intro

Sometime, when you put together recipe in a most spontaneous intuitive way, you get very good results. That was the case here - I had large eggplant, some leftovers of my marinated pepper and not much desire for chopping, mincing or any other knife work. Here you can see what come out of all of this. Recipe is pretty simple and easy but there is a key element in here - make sure that eggplant is cooked completely - very soft. Comply with this and you will get no-fail, easy, beautiful and delicious appetizer.
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Variations

- All ingredients are pretty much "set in stone". Just one I could think of is using jarred (store-bought) roasted capsicums (red bell pepper). But I would rather microwave fresh capsicum with a small amount of water than using stuff from a jar (which is usually way too sour or burnt).

Taste Description

Capsicum puree is a king here, along with fresh parsley it makes all the flavors

 here, sweet-&sour, garlicky and fire-y.  Roasted smooth eggplant with a somewhat chewy skin gives an awesome texture and base-taste to a dish.

How to Serve
Serve cold as appetizer. It looks very colorful on a banquet table! Also it's a great make-ahead dish - it will keep in a fridge for 3-4 days for sure.

Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

• 1 large and meaty eggplant
• 2 roasted capsicums (red bell pepper)
• 1 tsp sriracha hot sauce
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 4 tbs vinegar (you will need it just if your capsicum is not sour)
• 1 tbs sugar (or honey)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt
• 1 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

- Preheat oven to 375F. Cut stem off and slice eggplant in a half lengthwise. Make diamond-shaped cuts in a flesh of eggplant, sprinkle with salt and 2/3 of all your olive oil (about 1/3 of cup).

- Roast eggplant in an oven until it is completely cooked and very soft inside. Test by poking tough end (where stem was) - it should be completely, "butter", soft. If top of your eggplant is way too brown but flesh is still not quite cooked yet, cover eggplants loosely with a foil, add cup of water in a bottom of a pan / baking sheet and continue to cook until its completely soft.

- Meanwhile make capsicum puree by processing capsicums, sriracha sauce, garlic, vinegar, sugar, dash of salt and remaining olive oil. Add some water if needed to get a semi-thin puree. Taste and adjust seasoning.

- Remove eggplant from an oven, let it cool down.

- Transfer eggplant on a serving plate and cool down completely. Using sharp serrated knife, cut each eggplant half across into 1" sections and spread them out a little bit.

- Pour capsicum puree on a top of eggplant, sprinkle with parsley. Enjoy!


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Eggs Stuffed with Anchovy Pesto

Blog's Category:  Hors D'oeuvre, My Successes

 

Eggs Stuffed with Anchovy Pesto

Intro

This recipe naturally developed from Jacques Pepin's anchovy appetizer I have posted recently. Pungent anchovy mix, which I call here pesto, seems to me as a perfect merridge to boiled eggs and mayo. Speaking of devil, mayo, as you noticed one of my favorite condiments and I feel better watching Jacques Pepin using it "shamelessly" in many dishes too :)
Stuffed, or devilled, eggs are a great way to entertain crowd in a creative way. It may be endless number of its variations - here one of them - eggs, stuffed with cream of mayo and yolks and topped with anchovy pesto.

Variations

- As I said, endless :)

Taste Description

Delicious... Bright, salty, pungent, slightly garlicky pesto is smoothed out with a most delicate cream of yolk and mayo... and all of this encased in sturdy protein of boiled egg whites. Yummy stuff..stuffing...stuffed..aff..am..yumm..

 

How to Serve

Serve as hors d'ouevres, on a pretty plate..  as a finger food... This dish can be made in advance - day before, and kept in a fridge, covered with plastic wrap.

Eggs Stuffed with Anchovy Pesto

• 7 eggs, hardboiled
• 2 tbs good mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup roasted unsalted almonds
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4-5 small anchovies
• 1 slice of country bread, torn in pieces
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• fresh parsley (optional), finely chopped

- Cut off thin slices from both ends of the each egg (to make them stay up firmly). Then cut eggs in half across, remove yolks.

- Using immersion blender, blend yolks and mayo into smooth cream.

- Using sandwich bag (see picture) fill egg white with yolk cream half way up.

- Make pesto, processing anchovies, garlic, almonds, bread and olive oil in a blender. Add a bit more olive oil if mix is too dry.

- Using melon baller (see pictures) or just your finger, top each egg half with pesto ball.

- Sprinkle with parsley and enjoy!

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IN PICTURES