Scrambled Eggs - Gordon Ramsay Style

I love watching foul-mouth Scottish Michelin star chef Gordon Ramsay and he's a good inspiration for trying new recipes (but that's for another posting).

I was never big on eggs, but I saw this version of scrambled eggs that he makes here and now I make this all the time. Pretty cheap and it makes a nice light lunch or supper.





Butter adds a nice richness to the eggs, and he uses creme fraiche at the end, but I simply substituted mayonnaise. I love it on toast and spice it up a bit with whatever spice suits my mood (dill or chili powder).

But it was pointed out to me, that the result is basically egg salad.

Sunday Brisket

I'm loving the Korean grocery lately and picked up a brisket ($4.00). The hardest part about making somethig like brsiket is the planning. It takes maybe four hours so you can't just decide you want brisket and whip it up, like a steak or some pasta.

I set it all up in the pan on Sat. night, with potatoes. Spices: Chopped garlic, crushed red peppers, salt and a good dose of All-purpose Soul Seasoning (which I really am finding lives up to the "all-purpose" billing).



For braising sauce I went with soy sauce, olive oil, oyster sauce and a bit of water. On Sunday I came home from my ride and stuck it in the over. Four hours at 300 degrees C. Slooow Cookin'. Here's the "after shot".



It came out nice and spicy and it all came apart in strands like it's supposed to. Here's it is plated, unfortunatley the pic came out blurry.

Breakfast Burritos

These are some superfast breakfast (or anytime!) burritos. Fifteen minutes from inspiration to ingestion !

You Need:
-sausage (chunkified)
-BBQ Sauce
-Eggs
-Tortillas
-Hot Sauce (optional)
-spices (salt, pepper, dill, whatev.) for eggs

Lasagna ... not al Forno

This is a different take on the usual baked lasagna (which is good but a hell of a lotta work).



I boiled up five sheets of lasagna, meanwhile I warmed up some pesto sauce. I cut each sheet in half and layered the sauce and pasta. You can do this with any sauce and add cheese too if you want.

I might cool off while you assemble it, so you might have to do a re-heat in the microwave.

I topped it with a breaded chicken cutlet, but you could also opt for meat or cheese sauce for some extra filling.

Weekend Roasts

First up some chicken thighs. I coated these on hot sauce, barbecue sauce and maple syrup and roasted for 45 mins at 400 degrees in the toaster oven.



I think the oven was too hot, the skin burned and got too dry, but the meat was still nice and moist. But I liked the hot and sweet taste. So I picked up a pork butt the next day -- I figured that would be the best way to put that maple syrup to use.

I rubbed some Italian spices and thai crushed pepper on to it, along with the maple syrup and roasted it at 325 degrees for 90 minutes. It was super tender and the sauce was spicy and sweet and perfectly complemented the pork.

It was pretty damn good, and the pork came apart really easily. It would make really good sandwiches, but I just ate half of the roast on it's own.



This is a pretty pasty dish that's easy to roast up, but you have to be careful not to roast it too hot (burnt!) or to long (dry!). After a day in the fridge it fired up, and sliced up it was not bad -- but didn't taste nearly as decadent as it did straight out of the oven.

Things I have Georged: NY Striploin

Georging a steak can be tricky, my george gets very hot and it's very easy to overcook shit. In general cooking time is half of what it is on a grill or bbq. A thin burger ... 3 mins. 6 or 7 minutes on the George is an eternity.



Euro-trash had a sale on the NY striploins, so I picked up about a 14 oz. for $4, marinated in salt, olive oil + pepper for a few hours, for steaks the taste is all from the marinade, and then ... 5 mins on El Jorge, and perfect med. rare.

Oh yeah... the steak was super tender and pretty tasty.

Pizza Salad

We're making a pizza for dinner tonight, but because I'm trying to be healthy, I made a salad out of all the toppings that are going onto the pizza (except pepperoni): sweet onion, tomato, artichoke, and a bit of stringy mozzarella cheese. Dressed it up with some sherry vinegar and olive oil, a bit of dried basil, and some pepper. It's pretty good. I wish I had some bocconcini at home though - that would really make it work.

Recipe: Roasted Garlic

The first time I tried roasted garlic was at Kilgour's on Bloor st. Normally I don't like too much garlic, but what blew me away was how much milder the taste became and how soft and speadable it was.

I decided to gie it a go at home, I know there are specially designed garlic roasters, but all I did was :

1) remove the outer peel of the garlic
2) wrap it in foil
3) roast it in the oven (or toaster oven) at 400 deg for about 40 mins.

You can easily do this if you're roasting or baking something already.

If you're wondering if it's done, you can just feel the garlic to see if it's squishy. You can slice off the top of the garlic and just serve it that way. The cloves pop right out. I remove the cloves and put it on a bit of melted butter, then I spread those soft buttery cloves on toasted (or grilled bread).

Baked fish

Tonight I cooked up some frozen sole fillets in the oven. I was inspired by that fish sandwich that Amit made, but I cooked it up a little differently. I threw the fish in a glass dish with some olive oil and lemon juice, covered it with aluminum foil, and baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, I cut up some onions, red pepper, and tomato. When the 10 minutes were up, the fish was still pretty transparent. I guess if you defrost the fish first, you can probably skip the first 10 minutes. I took it out and added the veggies as well as some lemon zest, salt and pepper, and thyme. Covered it again and cooked it for another 10 minutes, then removed the foil and cooked for 5 minutes more. It turned out really well. Covering the fish allows it to steam so you don't dry it out, and that blend of vegetables worked well. I used the juice of half a lemon, which was quite a bit, and that also helped to get rid of any fishy taste. Served it with rice. I'd make it again - the whole thing took about 30 minutes including the time it took to preheat the oven.

Recipe: Easy Tacos

Today I whipped up some easy tacos.



I like mexican food and it's pretty easy to make, but the problem is you always need a lot of ingredients.

-ground beef
-onions
-torillas
-jerk seasoning
-bbq sauce
-corn
-refried beans
-corn
-tomatoes
-cheese
-hot sauce

I just sauteed up some onions and ground beef, and threw in some jerk seasoning to spice it up and some bbq sauce to sauce it up and some corn to make it corny.

I just spooned that mixture onto some warmed up corn torillas (flour tortillas would work okay too), topped w. some refried bean from a can, some chopped up tomatoes and a bit o cheese and some mexican hot sauce.

It's pretty good if you set up "stations" and people can assemble their own tacos. Yipee.

Sole Sandwich

I baked up a sole fillet, they're a but pricy at $3.00 ea, it could feed two -- or one Amit. 28 mins at 400 degrees with olive oil and lemon works out perfect, and put it on a good bun. I melted a bit of shredded cheese on it and a smack of ranch dressing.

It looks pretty lame but it is sooo damn tasty ! Despite the price I think I will make it again. Though it is kinda extravagant.

Things That I Have Georged: Endives

I like to checkout different greens. Most of the less-common greens (like kale, escarole, endive) are chewier (some peeps might say tougher) and more bitter than the more common stuff (iceberg lettuce, spinach).


I picked up these endives for $1.99/lb. and georged them up with just some olive oil and salt. They are kinda smoky and crispy and a little bit bitter. I nice satisfying crunch.

Today was one of those days. I got home from pushin' pedals at 10:00, and was all set to grab a daily special or a chicken burger at Mayday Malone's. IT's nice to have that convenience around the corner, but inevitably with a coupla beers and the meal all said and done would be about $18, so it adds up.

So instead I whipped this up. I sauteed some onion in olive oil and threw in a sliced chicken breast. I little bit of tomato sauce and some basil and it was ready to go on some pasta. If I have some anchovies or artichokes or olives I might throw that stuff in too, but today I kept it simple. Pretty cheap, pretty easy -- if you're not total lazy-ass fuck.



...with the endives on the side.

Breakfast

On Thursday, I hosed and so I had some time to make breakfast at home. The result was a breakfast sandwich of a fried egg, a slice of smoked gruyere, crispy bacon, and some marinated artichokes on a toasted english muffin. I should eat these every day. Eventually, I'll be fat enough to apply for worker's compensation and just wear a mumu all day.

On Saturday, we went to a maple syrup festival in Warkworth (some small town just north of Cobourg). Had pancakes and really tasty sausages drenched in maple syrup. I guess I could eat this on the days when I'm out of bacon for a breakfast sandwich.

Recipe: Curry Noodle

This is a pretty simple dish I whip up now and then. You just need:

Onions
Chicken (boneless pieces)
Soy Sauce
Ramen Noodle
Vegetables
Curry (paste or powder)
Hoisin Sauce (optional)
Chilies (optional)



I sautee up the onions, then add the chicken. Here I just sliced up two chicken breasts and I put in a bit'o soy sauce.



The other spices I'm using are Hoisin sauce (why not?), Thai chili stuff and Trin-EE-Dad curry powder.







This gets added along with some frozen peas and corn. At the same time I'm boiling up the noodles from three packs or Ramen.





When the noodles are cooked spoon them into the curry mixture. The bit of water that gets carried in with it contributes to the sauce. And there you have it :

Things That I Have Georged

Yams:

Smoked salmon pasta

Inspired by a discussion with Amit, I decided to make some smoked salmon pasta today. Last night I bought a big piece of raw smoked coho at Costco (hence the big piece). Picked up some fresh pasta at St. Lawrence market and veggies at the Farmer's market this morning to set the stage.


Here's how it went: Started boiling up some salty water. Sauteed some chopped bacon until crisp, added sliced onions for a few minutes, then added diced tomato. Cooked it until most of the liquid was gone, then added a few tablespoons of half-and-half with the heat way down low. Once it thickened, added a few slices of the smoked salmon and took it off the heat. At this point the pasta was done so I mixed it in too. Topped it off with capers and fresh dill.

Crostini Party

Okay the food blogging has taken a hit since I've been camera-less for a week or so, but here's one easy meal I've been making lately.

This relies heavily on the George; the iPod for food and there isn't much cleanup afterwards.

A simple meal is to make crostini, but as a meal, not just as an appetizer, and with more variations than the traditional (like bruschetta). I don't even know if it's technically crostini but that's what I'll call it for this purpose.



I slice a baguette lengthwise into 4-6" sections (like mini subs) drizzle with olive oil and toast or I grill it on the George. The tricks then is to have an assortment of toppings (fatty, smoky or pickley things make the best toppings).

Cheese (I usually use fresh cheese like queso fresco or morzarella)
Cold Cuts (I prefer Salami and proscuitto, I buy the meat sliced thin thin and then cut into strands)
Grilled vegetables (Something soft, mushrooms, zucchini, pepper)
Guacamole (Just avacado, lime and garlic)
Smoked Fish
Marinated Vegetables (Olives, artichoke hearts, peppers, onions)

I will usually combine one fatty topping with one salty or meaty topping and often there's garlic in the mix. Examples : Guacamole and slices of salami, cheese and artichoke heart.

I haven't tried it yet, but you could imagining setting out the toasted bread and all the toppings at a party and let peeps assemble their own.

Christmas eve

So I had picked up some beef shanks from Eurotrash (midway down the page) a couple of weeks ago and had this grand plan to make braised beef shank with mashed potatoes and kale for Christmas Eve. I was going to braise the shanks in red wine along with some mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. So at around 4pm on the 24th, I started to chop the veggies and take out the defrosted meat. I took out my Lagostina pasta pot and put it on the heat to get it ready to brown the beef. I realized that the meat hadn't fully defrosted so I stuck it in the microwave for a couple minutes while I prepared the spice rub - some paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne - and then put the rub onto the meat:
All rubbed up, the shanks were ready to be browned. I grabbed my Becel oil and poured it into the pasta pot. I heard a "fwoosh" and watched as the oil caught on fire - I guess the thick base of the pasta pot allowed it to heat up beyond the fire point (?) of the oil!! In my haste to put out the fire, I didn't cover the pot but instead reached for the fire extinguisher (in my defense, the flames were up to the fume hood). The fire extinguisher did the trick, but it also left yellow dust everywhere:
The dust got into cracks everywhere in the kitchen, and all over veggies and meat that were going to go into the braise (so we had to chuck it). As well, the fume hood was tinged with a gray that could only be removed by several applications of Vim. So after about 3 hours of cleaning, we decided to go for Japanese food.

And I had to toss the pot. Damn.

Recipe: Sauteed Green Beans

This is a simple recipe inspired by something I had at Lee (check out the ridiculously pretentious flash page). It's a pretty versatile side dish.

The ingredients are pretty simple and you can always have them on hand.



Oyster Sauce (this happens to be Mei Wei Yuan Golden Mark Oyster Sauce)
Green Beans (frozen works fine)
Garlic
Something Spicy (ground chilies in this case)

I also include red peppers too, but I didn't have any handy.

Mincde up a garlic clove and sautee that up. Add some of the hot stuff (chilies or ust hot sauce), defrost the beans and toss that in. When the beans are cooking dump a bunch of the oyster sauce on it and watch that shit thicken. I like it nice and saucy. And there you have it.

Recipe: Pupusas

This is an easy recipe the latino favorito, pupusas. Pupusas are simply a stuffed flat bread. You can use all sorts of filling, but this recipe is for black bean.

For the filling sautee some finely chopped onions with some black beans (from a can). Toss in some latinish spices or pepper if thaz what you gots. Warm that shit up and kinda mash up the beans, but don't mash the crap outta them.

Start with Corn Masa Mix, this is just ground up corn and you can get it in Latin American grocery stores and most non-ass supermarkets. It's what's used for tortillas, pupusas, tamales, all that crap. Sometimes they call it masa repa.



Use the masa and just add water make a pasty dough. Take a small ball and make a disk about 4 inches (101.6 mm) across and put a golf ball sized quantity of bean goop in the centre. Fold it up like a dumpling and flatten it out.

The trick is getting it flat and even as possible without the bean leaking through. So now you have a layer of bean sandwiched between corny outer shells.

Just toast those units up on a griddle (or a dry frying pan if that's all you gots) and viola!



This stuff is good topped with some salsa (aka chopped up tomatoes w. onions and cilantro).