Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Baked Eggs in Potatoes

My friend Julie and I have gotten into the great habit of cooking together at her place and listening to fun new music and having wonderful conversation : ) This should be the norm for cooking and hopefully will be just as soon as my mom figure out our new living situation, which is coming along swimmingly, btw.

In the meantime, though, I look forward to every time we do dinner! She is gulten-free AND corn free, which is a particularly difficult combination here in the Midwest. So! Challenge accepted : ) 


For this, I didn't use the rosemary because it was Asian themed, as I served it on a bed of sauteed baby bok choy with ginger and garlic. Delicious! But the Rosemary wouldn't fit. This is definitely something I'd make again, though. Simple and can be served on top of many varieties of green things! Salads, zucchini noodles, carrot-slaw, truly anything. If you don't have time to cook it all in one night (recommended) you can pre-bake the potatoes the night before, as I did (but you'll end up with wrinkly potatoes!)

Baked Eggs in Potatoes
inspired by Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

4 potatoes
4 eggs
8 oz. mushrooms
2 Tbs butter
1 sprig rosemary, dried
salt and pepper
4 Tbs cheese, grated, to garnish

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 425F.
2. Poke potatoes with fork making deep holes. On a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat, toss potatoes in olive oil and salt.
3. Bake for 45 minutes, until potatoes are fork-tender.
4. Set a medium, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium flame and take oven down to 375F.
5. Chop mushrooms into small cubes. Melt butter in skillet, then add mushrooms, rosemary, and a generous pinch of salt. Cook mushrooms all the way down stirring occasionally, then remove the sprig of rosemary.
6. Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the centers of them until there is a cavity large enough for an egg and 1/4 of the mushrooms to fit.
7.Assemble potatoes by putting 1/4th the mushrooms into each potato, cracking an egg neatly on top and sprinkling each potato with 1 Tbs of cheese.
8. Bake potatoes for 20-25 minutes, or until white of the eggs have set.
9. Let potatoes cool, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper, and serve.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Classic Egg Salad.... with a twist

Ahh... egg salad. The perfect bachelors dish.

"What do I have in the fridge? Some eggs, a loaf of  bread... and a shit ton of condiments. Let's do this!"
That was basically my thought process when figuring out what to make for dinner tonight/lunch tomorrow. I have a nice loaf of sour dough (Happy Sour Dough Day!) from Farm-to-Market I took out of the freezer a couple days ago and I'm trying to use up before it goes stale. I also have some excellent local organic eggs I got from Howard's Organic sitting in my fridge, waiting to be purposed.

 The funny thing about good eggs is, they taste like chicken. Having been vegetarian for so long, I can tell a huge difference between conventional eggs (watery, really) and REAL eggs (tastes like chicken when fried). I made some scrambled eggs to use up the rest of my sweet potato/caramelized onion mash I had in the fridge to bring for lunch, and just having the eggs sitting on top, not mixed in, was too chicken-y/overwhelming-y. I needed to figure out a good way to cover up their real flavor (sad, really!) and this egg salad did the trick.

What I was thinking while making this, though, is that one day I'd love to make my own egg salad sandwitch, ENTIRELY: raise my own chickens, make my own aioli with oil I press and garlic I grown, use my own canned pickles from my garden (using vinegar i make!), and bread from wheat I grow and grind and yeast I cultivate (probably a sour dough like this!) The more I cook, the more these thought keep happening, and the more I'm convinced I need to open up a farm-to-table once I retire. An not any farm-to-table, a MY farm-to-table vegetarian science-themed restaurant. More to come on that....


I once had these incredible curry deviled eggs that my Aunt made for a family get-together, and thought the same thing could apply to egg salad, which is normally not the most exciting of dishes. It definitely worked, and incorporated some of that good turmeric that 'Science Confirms [Turmeric] as effective as 14 drugs' (anyone else see that and others floating around lately?)

Simple, quick, delicious, healthy, and all ingredients you have in your fridge, right now.

Curry Egg Salad
makes 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:
4 slices good sourdough
1 large handful baby spinach, washed
3 eggs
1 pickle spear, minced
2 Tbs vegenaise
1-2 tsp good mustard, depending on how much you like it
2 tsp curry powder
fresh ground black pepper, to garnish

Instructions:
1. Place eggs in a small pot, cover with water an inch above the eggs, set on high flame and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring flame down to medium until water is just simmering and cook eggs for 12 mins.
2. Pour off water, fill pan with cold water to level of eggs, and set aside to cool.
3. In the mean time, combine veganase, mustard, pickle, and curry.
4. Once eggs have cooled down enough to peel, do so and chop small.
5. Mix to combine with veganase mix.
Assemble sandwitch
1. Layer slice of bread, half of the spinach, half of the egg salad, 2-3 turns of the pepper grinder, then second slice of bread. Repeat for second sandwich.