Salmon and egg brunch salad

I have been wondering whether there is more traffic accidents on Friday than on any other day. At least based on my limited experience of living out in the countryside and driving to work for the last seven or eight months or so, it seems that on Fridays there is always an accident somewhere along my route. And with the weight of traffic being much heavier on Fridays anyways, it makes the trip home last forever. It is so frustrating to see all the routes turn red in an instant on Google Maps when people fill up the alternative routes once the main dual carriageway is blocked. The road infrastructure in this country is so incapable of sustaining the weight of traffic. We will have a brand new A14 in say 10 years or so, but it isn't much comfort right at this minute when the only option to get to work in a sensible time is leave home no later than 6.20 am in the morning. And even at that time I rarely get to do 70 on the A14 for long stretches at a time. 

Traffic has become one of my pet peeves, how people are so hell-bent on "Me, Me, Me, I need to get through here quickly" and no thought on the big picture of how your behaviour affects the traffic flow in general. When I lived in Cambridge and could walk everywhere I barely noticed the traffic jams, although they were always there. But they didn't touch my life in any way. Now, it's just such a gamble every time I look at Google Maps before leaving work. Is that red stretch on my route bad enough that I should take the alternative, longer route? I used to try and logically plan my choices, but I have learned that here the traffic situations change in an instant and looking at maps before leaving work amounts to no good, as by the time I have reached the car park there is another accident out there somewhere and another route is blocked. People, be careful out there! Everyone gets home quicker if we have some patience and don't do idiotic and stupid manoeuvres that cause high risk situations to occur. Ok, stepping off the soap box now. But promise me you will drive carefully!!! 

Ok, on to the main star of today's pos. This salad is a great healthier alternative to your usual salmon and poached egg muffin. Perfect for a delicious lunch or weekend brunch. Loads of flavour, healthy fats and protein along with several of your five a day. As easy to make for one, or scale up and make for a bigger party.

Salmon salad (for one):
big handful of mixed greens (I included spinach)
cucumber, chopped into sticks
handful of cherry or plum tomatoes
2 slices of smoked salmon
1 boiled egg
2 tbsp mozzarella pearls

For the dressing:
1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp finely chopped dill and chives
black pepper

The howto:
Pile all salad ingredients onto a plate. Mix the ingredients for the dressing, pour over the salad. All done! Can food get any faster than this?

The verdict:
I like to make my salads with lots of things in them. The lettuce and cucumber are there just for the background whereas the main stars of the show are always something delicious like chicken or smoked salmon, and some cheese too from time to time. Salmon and egg is one of my favourite salad flavour combinations. Healthy fats from the fish and lots of protein from the egg. Also, the right way to eat a salad is to eat the lettuce and cucumber first, and then leave all the goodies to finish with. I should maybe start assembling the salads upside down, with all the filling at the bottom and the greens on the top to make it easier to eat in my preferred way... Although that wouldn't make a very pretty photo now would it? 

Brunch mushroom

I think I'm suffering from post-birthday depression. Or maybe it's just the miserable weather. Or the fact that the roads were really congested today when I was trying to get home. Or maybe the fact that my crafting mojo is gone and no-where to be found except for a few half-forced cards. I just think it's one of those days, or weeks. But hopefully the sun will return soon along with Mr Mojo and all will be well in the world again. I should be excited about my upcoming holiday, and plan holiday clothes and places to see and things to do. But to be honest, I think both me and Sis are looking forward to a really relaxing holiday with nothing to do but slouch poolside or on the beach, eat too much and read a ridiculous amount of books while going to bed early and sleeping in late. Which brings me to the big question - should I get a Kindle? Usually I read all my books on my iPad, but it's not very good in sunlight. But is it worth getting a Kindle just for a holiday? The Nook is a more reasonable price, but the books are so expensive. Choices, choices... Maybe I'll just go old school and buy paper, but I hate accumulating stuff. Well, at least other than crafting stuff. After having moved from one country to another you have a newfound appreciation for digital books, music and movies. If you could only get digital cookware as well...

Ok, enough rambling, and on to the main star of the show. As usual I wanted to cook something special for our weekend brunch. I had spied this recipe during the week and just had to try it. Anything with an egg in it will get a go in the InvisiblePinkKitchen. This recipe is slightly modified from the original, which can be found on a blog called This Gal Cooks. I added onion and bacon as I happened to have some lying around. I also replaced all the dried herbs with fresh ones from my garden. By the way, just to assure you, we do eat other things beside brunches from time to time in this house. One day I will post a dinner or lunch recipe, just to prove a point... But not next time, next time it's all about baking again (oooh, what a cliffhanger, eh?).

Sausage and sweet potato filled mushroom (serves 2):
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion
1 small sweet potato
sausage meat from 1 sausage
1 rasher of bacon
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper

2 portobello mushrooms with stems removed
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated parmesan
2 eggs 

The howto:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Chop the sweet potato into small cubes and slice the bacon. Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the sweet potato, sausage and bacon, and cook until cooked through. Break up the sausage while cooking, to the consistency of minced meat. Add the finely chopped herbs and pepper and cook for another few minutes. Take off the heat. 

Brush the oil on the top of the mushrooms and sprinkle lightly with salt (can be omitted). Turn the mushrooms around (i.e. tops down) and spoon the filling into the caps. Make a well in the middle of the filling and sprinkle generously with parmesan. Gently crack the egg into the well. Cook in the oven for about 15-20 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolk. Mine were perfect after 15 minutes.

The verdict:
I thought this looked rather good when I saw the recipe, but I wasn't quite sure if it would really work with the sweet potato in there. Well, trust me, it does. It makes a really delicious brunch or lunch. I particularly liked the fact that the mushroom was cooked through, but the egg yolk was still lovely and runny. It was a bit tricky to try and get the egg to stay in the well in the stuffing, make sure to slide the egg into the well very slowly to increase your chance of success.

I actually prepared a good double serving of the filling, and made four mushrooms. Two for brunch and two as sides with dinner the next day (yes, it works for that as well. If you feel too weird to have an egg with dinner, just leave it out). And I still had some stuffing left over, so I took it with me to work for lunch the next day. That is good value from one cooking session and from relatively cheap ingredients as well.

Oven poached eggs

This is a really old post I wrote ages ago, but then never got around to posting. I'm not quite sure why it never made the cut,mad this is one of my absolute favourite egg breakfast/brunch recipes. Seeing it now, I also realise I haven't been cooking it for a long, long time. After I get back from my holiday (more about that in the next post), I will be making this for brekkie. As much as I love having bread and cheese and sweets for brekkie, my body is screaming for protein. I can't wait to get some eggs in me. And chicken and salad. I can't believe I just wrote that. But this whole paella-ice cream-churros-cheese and bread diet is quite tough to be honest. I love it tha my body is finally craving the right things.

It should have become quite obvious that I love me a good old breakfast. Proteins, fibre and at least one or two of your five a day. And this works just as well as vegetarian lunch, its quite hearty. The recipe is stolen from Epicurious, and only modified minimally.

Oven poached eggs with chickpeas (serves 2):
1tbsp oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 medium chili
piece of fresh ginger root
1 tbsp dried cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
chopped flatleaf parsley
chopped coriander
4 eggs
100g feta

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Chop onion, garlic, chilli and ginger root and saute in the oil. When the onion is starting to get soft, add spices and fry for another minute or so. Add tomatoes, chickpeas and herbs, and let cook for 10 minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken a bit. Transfer to a oven proof dish, make indentations in the tomato sauce, and break the eggs in them. Sprinkle feta on top, and bake in the oven until yolks are the consistency you like (about 6 minutes for runny yolks).

According to my estimate, which was dine using MyFitnessPal, one serving contains 513kcal (25g fat, 30g carbs of which 6.7g sugars, 22g protein).

The verdict:

This is one of my all time favourite egg brekkies. It combines so many things I love. Tomatoes, cumin, chickpeas, eggs and feta, all delicious. Obviously if you want to be super-healthy, you could always skip the feta, but I like the savoury touch together with the tomato. And the chickpeas, oh the chickpeas. I love the combination of chopped tomatoes and chickpeas. First you have the sweet tomatoes, and then the silky smooth chickpeas to bite into. And make sure not to over-cook your eggs, the yolk should be nice and runny so that the lovely, golden goo spreads all over the tomato and chickpea yummyness.

I should never write a blogpost when I'm hungry, this is pure torture. So I better stop, as I'm very unlikely to get food anytime soon... Sigh, one of those (many!) times when I decide being single is so much better than the alternative. At least you get food whenever you want. Can you see I have some pent up negative energy here? Well, I get very grumpy if something comes between me and my food, and if that something happens to be football, that just makes me outright furious. Well, if you don't hear back from me, I perished of hunger in a hotel room. Otherwise I'll be back soon to blog about my holiday food experiences. Expect a lot of sugar highs!

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Souffle success

You know how food is much cuter if you make it in tiny servings? Individual tiny ramekins, small muffin sized pies and all that stuff (the only thing which is not cuter if it's small is cookies. Cookies are supposed to be huge, tiny cookies are just annoying). Well, I have these adorable pink ramekins, which I originally bought for making souffles. And I have used them quite a bit, but never got around to the actual souffle bit.\

And yes, I know I promised when I moved into this apartment that I would not be buying any kitchenware. My kitchen is so tiny I can't even fit a quarter of all my baking and cooking stuff in there. So the rest are just scattered all over my sofa, desk and floor. And I can honestly say that I have been showing great restraint when it comes to buying kitchenware, so it's rather sad how little I can fit into my kitchen. I only got a crock pot, a big Le Creuset dutch oven, a huge box full of various cupcake and cake moulds (most of which I am yet to use) along with loads of mugs, plates and no less than 50 different cookie cutters. When my contract at work is up in August, I have to get a new job that pays more, just so I can afford a place with a decent kitchen.

I don't even have a proper food processor. That's the next thing on my wish list. I want a Kitchen Aid. Along with a new camera. Oh and the new retina display MacBook Pro. Hmmm, to be honest, I don't need a new job, I need to win the lottery or marry rich.

Anyways, pink ramekins. Tiny cute ramekins have 'souffle' written all over them. I have to admit, I have never made souffle in my entire life. All I know is that it is really difficult, the souffle is a temperamental creature with a mind of it's own. It can fail for the most minuscule reason. One wrong move with that spatula and it goes flaccid like... oh well, that was not a good mental image, so I'll keep it to myself.

I went on a crazy souffle hunt all over the interwebs. How did people cook before google and Pinterest? I would have loved to cook a dessert souffle, but alas, no dessert before I reach my first target weight (I make small targets so that my weight loss feels achievable). So it had to be a savoury souffle. Well, all I wanted was to see if I could make a souffle that would be fluffy and rise above the top of the ramekin, so savoury one would do just fine. A cheese souffle would have been my favourite, but I started adding up calories, and realised I had better settle for something else. So I came across this recipe for bacon and asparagus souffle by Furey and the Feast. Strangely enough this recipe didn't include whipping the egg whites into a hard foam and then gently folding them into the batter. So I decided to modify the recipe and actually do that. Also, the recipe used heavy cream, and I just couldn't justify all those empty calories so I switched to full fat milk instead. Anyways, I was convinced that all these modifications, combined with my souffle-making virginity, would lead to a completely disastrous result. Very surprisingly, it didn't. So I'm starting to wonder if all those stories about the difficulty of making souffle are just a bit exaggerated. All I'm saying is, if I can do it, so can you.

Bacon and asparagus souffle (2 or 3 individual souffles):
3-4 rashers of bacon
1 onion
100g asparagus
4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
100ml grated parmesan or other cheese
160ml full fat milk (or cream)
black pepper

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Butter two or three ramekins (I used 250 ml ramekins, and this recipe filled three of them to the brim). Cut off the tips of the asparagus, and reserve for garnishing the souffles. Cut the rest of the stalks into coins. Cook the bacon until crispy, and place on a paper towel to cool. In the bacon fat, sautee the onion until translucent, then add the asparagus, and cook for a few minutes. When the bacon has cooled, cut it into small pieces and divide onto the bottom of the ramekins. 

Bacon in the ramekins, whites whipped. Ready for
the most delicate part of the souffle-preparation.

Very gently fold in the whipped whites.

Mix yolks, milk, cheese and pepper, add the onions and asparagus. Whip the egg whites hard, until peaks form and keep their shape. Quickly fold the whites into the yolk batter. Be very gentle and try to use as few strokes as possible, you don't want to beat the air out of the whites. Quickly divide the batter into the buttered ramekins, and add asparagus tips on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes, be sure not to overcook so that the souffles stay soft in the middle.

Ready to go into the oven. Whites still fluffy!

And out of the oven, not perfect but not too shabby.

The verdict:
So my souffles didn't quite reach the extreme heights you see in the impressive pictures usually accompanying souffle recipes. But they did rise above the edge of the ramekins, so this was not a total soufflop. For a first try, and given that I made a lot of changes to the original recipe, I would say I did quite good. Eating the souffle from the cute little ramekin made it so much more fun than making one big souffle and then just scooping a serving onto a plate. The souffle had a good texture, soft and gooey in the middle and firmer around the edges. The flavour was rather mild, as could be expected from the combination of onion and asparagus. The bacon at the bottom added a nice savoury touch. 

Next, I'm definitely going to try a cheese souffle, and I also want to try a dessert souffle. Problem is, there are too many to choose from. Right now this caramel souffle from Martha Stewart's home page is one of my favourites (there is a really helpful video on the web page, in case you are attempting your first souffle). I would also love to try rhubarb souffle as well as a lemon souffle. Again the same old problem, so much to cook but no-one to eat it all. Sigh, I'm going to end up a very lonely and very fat old lady. All because of those tiny little ramekins. And there they are in my kitchen, looking all cute and innocent. They are the devil's doing, that's all I'm saying!!

Reindeer surprise

Holiday!! Holi-holi-ho-ho-ho-ho-hooooliday!! It started over half an hour late, my last meeting at work just went on and on and on and on and on. My brain had already shut off fifteen minutes into the meeting, and as the meeting went on for another hour, I spent quite a long time essentially brain dead. It felt like a century. But then finally it came, that sweet moment of freedom. I wanted to scream "FREEEEEEDOM" and run down the corridor to the door. I did resist temptation. I think my colleagues find me weird enough as it is. 

I had the perfect start to the holiday: an hour of combat. Great class, as usual, great energy. I'm lucky to have such a great instructor. And I got to do my favourite muay thai. Oh my how I love the moments when you stand back, wait, and then get to yell "Hyper Hyper" and get going again. Awesome. The best track ever to get out any pent up negative feelings. Certainly helped me get rid of any residual aggression that I don't want to take along to my holiday. Now I'm totally de-aggressed, exhausted (did my usual 20 mile cycle ride in addition to the combat) and well fed (I made a tomato and bacon omelette and some banana ice cream). Next, I need to pack. Tomorrow I'm off to Finland for a week. Going to go to the summer house for a while, which is why this will be my last blog post for a while. And it's not because there wouldn't be cell phone coverage and I couldn't get online. But we don't have electricity (!). Hard to blog when you can't charge your iPad. Oh well, I will just have to make up for it when I get back home.

I really look forward to seeing my family and Finnish friends. Even better, one of my friends is getting married (which is my original reason of going to Finland). I'm thrilled that I finally get to wear my full length cream dress with red and pink flowers. It's a dress I had been eying out at Monsoon for ages, but of course it was too expensive. Then I stumbled upon it in the end of season sales, so I just had to buy it. It was the will of the shopping gods. But I haven't had an opportunity to wear it until now. I also get to wear my fascinator I bought for Ascot. Oh how I love dressing up a bit. Summer weddings are lovely.

Anyways, now that I have explained why I will disappear off the face of the blogosphere for a while, I'll leave you with one last recipe. And quel surprise, it's a brunch recipe. However, for once it's not from Pinterest (yes, I heard that sharp intake of breath there in the back row). It's actually from the deep dark recesses of my mind. I wanted to empty my freezer before my holiday, so this recipe was part of that effort. Last time I went home I brought some smoked reindeer with me. I still had one pack of it left in the freezer, so I wanted to create a nice brunch using the reindeer. I also had some leftover cheese in the freezer which I wanted to use up. So this just came together. And it gave me an opportunity to try my new pink silicon pie mould. I have big silicon pie pans, but I needed a mid size one for cooking for two. And this was so cute I just had to buy it. Worked picture perfect. And cooking breakfast in the oven gives you extra time to get back into bed and snooze for a while longer, which is always appreciated on a lazy Saturday morning.

Reindeer and eggs (serves 3-4):
100 g smoked reindeer meat (ok, if for some strange reason you are struggling to find reindeer, you could replace with any other smoked meat. If you use bacon, you need to cook it first)
5 eggs
1 shallot
125g grated cheese (I went for a mix of dutch edam and chilli cheddar as that was what I had in the freezer)

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Finely chop shallot and reindeer. In a bowl, use a fork to mix the eggs to make them fluffy, add onion and meat and the grated cheese. Pour into a pie pan and bake for 20ish minutes.

One serving (a quarter of the recipe) contains  231 kcal (15g fat, 1.4g carbs and  21g protein).

The verdict:
What is it about smoked meats and eggs that go so well together? And especially in the morning? The reindeer definitely adds things to this dish you wouldn't get with regular bacon, it does have a very distinct taste of game. Which goes brilliantly with the onion. This got the approval of my culinary consultant, who had never had reindeer before. So if you happen to be around any places where you could get reindeer, do pick up a pack or two, it's really good! Incidentally, tomorrow I'm off to the land of the reindeers, and incidentally my freezer is empty. Will bring home a few packs of reindeer and pop them in the freezer as I have a list of things I want to use it for. Including my mum's famous reindeer jelly. It's epic. Although I'm not sure if it will turn out the right way with UK cottage cheese, which is not nearly as good as Finnish cottage cheese. Maybe I should just use my home-made farmer's cheese instead. Now there is an idea! Stay tuned. The InvisiblePinkOne will be back in about a week and a half.

Friday quickie aka the avocado that never was

Today, after work, I was supposed to clean my apartment. Vacuum, do the dishes, scrub the ladies room. I was going to do laundry and then read a few papers and edit the book chapter I'm writing so that I could finally send it off to my boss (it's only four days late so far...). And above all, I was supposed to eat healthily. I have been trying to be good all week, but on Tuesday I baked chocolate-courgette bread (which I will post about soon), and yesterday I got a lovely lovely parcel from back home with all sorts of goodies I couldn't keep my hands off. Particularly, I got rye bread, which I have been eating for two days now (with butter, of course!) and Dominos. Dominos are the best biscuits ever! They are like Oreos, but much better. And this year there is a new Domino, the Domino Super, which has more of the white creamy dreamy filling than the traditional one. So of course I asked my mum to ship some over ASAP. And they were pretty much gone at the speed of light.


Anyways, when I got home from work (after biking 10 miles, and doing my weekly grocery shopping and cycling home from the store in the pouring rain for 15 minutes) I ate a Domino, two tablespoons of jam straight out of the jar, dates and a piece of banana cake. Dates are evil! Almost as addictive as raisins. I don't know what evil came over me today at the grocery store to make me buy some. I know I can't keep my fingers off them. Sigh. Oh well, after this, surely I cleaned and ate healthily? Oh, are you kidding me. I did pop a sweet potato into the oven, but they take like... forever... to cook. So meanwhile I just whipped up a batch of creamy lemon bars (which I will blog about next, I promise). Not that I made them for me, I'm seeing a friend tomorrow who likes all things lemony. And surely I won't touch them tonight. Of course not! Well I do have to taste a little bit. But not because I would want to, but just to make sure they are good enough to give to someone else. That might or might not require me to sample half of the batch. But it's important to get samples from all over the baking tin, so that I can be assured the pieces from the middle are as good as the ones on the sides. Anyone know where the closest carboholics anonymous meeting is? And do they serve coffee and doughnuts there? Which reminds me, I really want a doughnut pan, there are so many lovely recipes for baked doughnuts on Pinterest, it's driving me doughnuts!

Ok, so that was today's random ramblings over and done with. So, onto todays quickie. It's just something my twisted mind thought up because I had some left over sweet potatoes that needed to be used, as well as an over-ripe avocado. So I thought a nice oven baked sweet potato with tuna-avocado salad can never go wrong. And because I recently made a lovely soup with roasted cauliflower and roasted garlic (once again something for a future post), I thought while I have the oven all fired up, why not roast an onion in there as well to throw in the tuna salad. Of course the avocado turned out to be so over ripe it wasn't edible anymore (which is so annoying as they are crazy expensive). But this crazy concoction still turned out pretty amazing. And it's quick to whip together, the only thing that takes time is to bake the sweet potato. But you can use the time wisely, like I did  by baking something. Or maybe even clean if you are a better person than me. 


Baked sweet potato with tuna and roasted onion salad (serves 2):
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
1 tin of tuna
2 hard boiled eggs
1/2 sweet pepper
2 spring onions
(1 avocado)
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt
dried coriander (or whatever other herbs you like, dill would probably be great too)
fresh basil leaves or some other herb
(possibly some olive oil if you are not using tuna in oil and not adding the avocado)


The howto:
Wrap the sweet potatoes and onion in foil individually, and bake in 175 degrees for an hour. Meanwhile boil the eggs. When sweet potatoes and onion is baked, unwrap the onion, but keep the sweet potatoes wrapped to keep them warm. Make the salad in a food processor. Start by adding the onion, eggs, sweet pepper, spring onions and spices, and grind until smooth. Add tuna and quickly pulse. If you happen to have an avocado which is still the proper avocado colour and does not collapse into itself when you touch it, add it to the salad, and pulse quickly, just enough for everything to be mixed. Serve immediately.


The verdict:
The whole idea with the tuna salad was supposed to be the avocado, as I thought it would bring a nice creaminess without having to add mayo. However, now I will never know. Well at least not until I make it again. Because I certainly will. Just the baked onion and eggs did add quite a bit of creaminess, and I think next time if I add the avocado, I will only use one egg. I could also imagine replacing tuna with chicken would work quite well. Maybe add some curry in that case to the spices. Not too shabby considering that all ingredients are pretty much things I always keep stocked at home anyways. I think my traditional Friday night lentil soup has got some serious competition. 

The mysterious crescent dough

I have mentioned my obsession with Pinterest quite a few times. All I'm saying is, type 'weekend breakfast' in the search, and see what happens. To me, that is what heaven looks like. Time stood still for several hours while I browsed through the results. And I swear, my keyboard was getting sticky from me drooling over all those amazing pictures. I had such a hard time to decide where to begin.


One ingredient that seemed to come up over and over again was Crescent dough. I had never heard of the thing before, but apparently it's something you buy ready made in a can in the US, and it seems to be everybody's favourite dough for everything from Nutella stuffed crescents to Crescent wrapped chicken casserole. So I got very curious, and tried to find out if you can get it over here in the UK. No luck, and nothing even resembling it. Thankfully the interwebs are full of recipes on how to make it yourself, so I just had try it out for this weekend's lazy brunch. I have no way of telling if it turned out the way it is supposed to. Next time I'm over on 'the other' side of the pond, I have to go and get me some of that dough just to try it. 


So this is basically a recipe where you take everything that is unhealthy in a breakfast, and stuff it into a bread. I have baked similar things before from one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks using regular bread dough. I love the idea of stuffing your breakfast into bread (and yes, I'm allowing myself another cheat here, but I am also going out for a run later...). There is absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe, which is probably why I loved the idea so much. The crescent roll dough recipe is from The Home Cooking Adventure I only made a quarter of the recipe and it turned out to be the perfect amount. I also had to guesstimate the amount of dried yeast as the original uses fresh yeast which I can't seem to find anywhere in grocery stores here. The dough rose nicely, so I think I got the amount of yeast  about right. The bread idea from Baking Time With the Hungry Hypo and The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife.


Bacon and eggs in Crescent dough (6 servings, at least in theory...)
80ml milk
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
140g white flour (I used bread flour)
1/2 egg
pinch of salt
15 g (1 tbsp) butter, softened


6 rashers of bacon or pancetta
2 1/2 egg, scrambled
60g cheddar, grated


Heat up the milk until warm (not hot, see the instructions for your yeast for details), mix sugar and dried yeast and add the milk. Let stand until frothy. Add flour, eggs, salt and butter, and work into a soft dough. Let rise for an hour. 

While the dough is rising, fry the bacon, scramble the eggs and grate the cheese.


When dough is done rising, preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Divide the dough into six parts, roll them into the shape of triangles and place in a star shaped pattern. Add the bacon onto the stars, and add the eggs and cheese to the base of the star. Fold the points of the triangles over to form a round bread. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

One serving contains 210 kcal (11g fat, 17 g carbs and 16 g protein). To be fair, I found one serving to be a rather small breakfast, so I had two servings in one go... I did use rather thin rashers of pancetta, so you might want to redo the nutrition content estimates if you are using more sturdy bacon.


The verdict:
So what was my first impression of the mysterious crescent dough? Let's just say I didn't fall in love with it. It was easy enough to make, and it was very nice to work with, it had a really great texture. But to me it was nothing special, just a basic white flour yeast dough, a bit boring really. Not saying it was bad, just that maybe my expectations were a bit too high after seeing it in all those recipes on Pinterest. I guess the reason people like to use it is mostly out of convenience if you can just get it right out of a tin (although I don't even want to think of all the horrible vegetable fats and preservatives that go into it...) To be fair, I did overcook my bread a bit, so it got a bit dry, and I will definitely give crescent dough another chance some other time. And of course, I need to get my hands on the real deal someday to be able to compare.


Other than that, this is carbs and fat for breakfast, so what's not to love! Haven't had any other cheese than feta for quite a while (not counting the huge ball of mozzarella I had on Friday of course...), so I would have loved this just for the cheddar alone. Add eggs and bacon, and it's brekkie genius. Also much more convenient and less messy to take away than a normal sandwich, in case you are one of those people who eat your brekkie on the go.


By the way, I needed to get an early start and knew I wouldn't have time to go through the whole dough making process in the morning, so I did everything the night before. Prepared the dough, made the bread and then just left it in the fridge over night and popped it in the oven in the morning. Worked perfectly!

Bacon and brie quichegg

I might have written a word or two about my love of weekend brunches in the past. During the week, my breakfast is either a yoghurt and berry smoothie, omelette or effins. But in the weekend, I want to spoil myself a little (well, usually I spoil myself way too much). I work out  on Saturday mornings, and when I get home after that, I want to cook something really delicious and sit down, relax and enjoy my brunch while browsing the latest entries of my favourite food blogs. For these brunches I often allow myself cheats I don't have in the week, like sugar, wheat or cheese. This is one of my recent favourites, and while it's not exactly low calorie, it has everything you could ask from a perfect Saturday brunch. It's quick and easy to make, bakes while I'm having a shower, it has bacon, eggs and cheese and it tastes heavenly. The leftovers make a great lunch during the week if served with a fresh green salad. It also freezes well, and can be quickly re-heated another weekend for brunch. I have stumbled upon this recipe in several blogs, but I'm linking to recipegirl as that is where I first saw it.


As a short postscript, the recipe calls for Canadian bacon. I have absolutely no idea what that is, but let me assure you, it works well with regular (in this case British) bacon. Also, another point is that technically I object to the use of the word quiche in the name of this dish (in the original recipe), as in my humble opinion, quiche refers to something with a crust. And apparently, so does wikipedia. If you look up quiche, the first sentence begins "Quiche is a savoury, open-faced pastry crust dish...". So I decided to rename this quichegg instead. But to be honest, a quiche by any other name is still a pretty awesome breakfast, no matter what Mr Shakespeare thinks about the subject. Although when I think about it, Mr Shakespeare might not have mentioned quiches in his work. Well, shame on him for that.


Bacon and brie quichegg (serves 4-6):
8-10 rashers of bacon
8 eggs
120 ml mayonnaise
120 ml grated parmesan
125 g brie
pepper
1 tbsp Italian herb seasoning (which I didn't have so I threw in a bit of oregano and a bit of garlic and pepper mix)


The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Line a pie tin with bacon (this will form the "crust" of the quichegg). Cut the brie into small cubes. Beat eggs lightly with a fork, mix in the mayo, parmesan, spices and the brie. Pour into the tin, and bake for about 30 minutes. The original recipe says to cover your quichegg with foil after 15 minutes, which I could not be bothered to do, and it turned out very well anyways. But if you feel your quichegg is turning too dark, then by all means, cover it up, I'm sure it can't hurt.

The verdict:
As I said before, this is the perfect brunch or lunch. Particularly after a night out, when you need something really decadent to get you going again. The combination of bacon and eggs is just one of those things which can never fail. Adding brie to that will make it more heavenly still. A word of warning, this is not a light food, but you could cheat yourself to think it's kind of healthy as it is low in carbs. Not low in fat or salt though... But if you are prepared to clog up those arteries, the taste of this will leave you happy the whole day. Maybe serve with some greens on the side to lighten it up a bit, it can be a bit rich on its own. I'm sure you could try different variations by swapping the cheese, maybe replacing the brie with mozzarella, a mild cheddar or maybe soft goats cheese. The bacon has such a strong flavour it might even be able to take a mild blue cheese, it would be a bit of a gamble, but it just might work if you are into blue cheeses.

Karelian pasties

My Finn food nostalgia goes on, but this time the rant phase is not quite as long, I promise. This is another food memory that goes all the way back to my childhood. Karelian pasties are savoury, rye crusted small pasties or pies filled with rice. They were traditionally made in Eastern Finland, but are now eaten all over the country. Most people buy them ready made from the store, as they are a bit laborious to make. 


My grandma (Mummo, Finnish for grandma) used to make these pies for us when we were kids. She has a summer house in Central Finland (the Finnish "lake district") and whenever we would go there, after a four to five hour drive, we would arrive to a table which was full with all sorts of goodies she had prepared for us. The Karelian pasties were definitely among our favourites, and no matter how many she made, we always ran out of them after a few days. I think there were times when she had made a batch of 100 pasties, and they did last us a while, but probably not all through the holidays. Mummo used to make the pies big as the palm of your hand, and they were always served with egg-butter in the traditional way. 


In theory making the pasties is really easy. You make a porridge of rice or barley (potato mash is the third official filling of the pasties, although other more unofficial fillings like carrot also exist), and a dough of rye and wheat flour, fill the pie and make the creasing around the edges. So far so good. Well, the first problem is making the dough just right. The internet is full of recipes for it. Basically, it's just rye flour, wheat flour and water. Mummo used to make it just out of rye flour. When I asked her how much flour and how much water, she would just say "a good amount". She could feel when the dough had the right texture, I can't. To make the pasties perfect, the dough has to be rolled as thin as possible, but if the dough is too stiff, it will tear, and if it's too soft it will just stick everywhere. One tip is, the more wheat flour you have in the dough the easier it gets to work with. But basically it's cheating, it should be doable using just rye flour. Also, my grandma could just roll out the dough to perfectly sized and shaped crusts, I cheat by rolling it out and then using a large cup or small plate to make round shapes. Also, because the crusts are so thin, they tend to dry if you pre-make many before filling, so the best approach to bake the pasties is to roll out one or a few crusts, fill them and crease them, and then repeat over and over again. It's a lot of work, but if you get it right, they are really delicious. Funny thing is that the pasties really are very variable in shape and size, depending on the maker. Mine tend to be small and very narrow, others make them much wider, some even make them in the shape of a full circle, although for me the boat shape will always be the only acceptable one.


Karelian pasties (small batch, about 10 small ones):
For the filling:
100g pearl barley
80ml water
350ml milk
a pinch of salt
For the dough:
100g rye flour
25g white flour
80ml water


The howto:
Bring the water to a boil, add the barley and let cook for a few minutes until the water has been absorbed. Add the milk and salt, and let boil for about 40 minutes until the milk has been absorbed and you have a thickish porridge. While the porridge is boiling, make the dough by mixing all ingredients together. Work the dough on a lightly floured surface to create a smooth and easily workable dough, add water of flour as needed. The amount of water depends on how fine your flour is. If you increase the amount of white flour and decrease the rye flour, the dough gets easier to roll and shape, whereas more rye flour will give a more crunchy crust if you manage to get the consistency good enough so that you can roll really thin crusts. I usually just hope for the best, expect the worst, and the result is something in between.


When the porridge has boiled and cooled a bit, make round crusts either by rolling out the dough directly to a round(ish) shape, or by using a big mug or small bowl as a cutter. Add filling, but not all the way out to the edges, and use your fingers to make small creases in the crust like shown in the pictures below.


You can find a clear video tutorial on how to shape the pasties here (accompanied by beautiful and delicate music...). 

Bake in a hot oven (about 230-250 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. When the pasties come out of the oven, brush a mixture of melted butter and milk onto the pies. Serve with egg butter (finely chopped hard boiled egg mixed with butter and a pinch of salt).

The verdict:
This was definitely not my best batch of pasties, but I have been craving them for so long that even these were devoured in minutes. The dough for the crust was a bit too hard, so I wasn't able to roll the crusts thin enough, and they turned a bit too hard when baked. Also, despite my recent love affair with pearl barley, I think I prefer the rice filling for the pasties. If you are using rice instead of barley, you should use pudding rice or risotto rice to get the right, gooey type of filling. I also think one of the secrets is not to use skimmed milk, but rather the full fat stuff. Also, you shouldn't make the porridge too thick, it makes shaping the pies a bit harder. All in all, these are a lot of work, but definitely some of my all time favourite things to eat, especially straight out of the oven, hot enough so that the egg butter melts all over them. 

A classic without a twist

It's spring, and everyone and their friend are blogging about asparagus. And at least some bloggers have original ideas (I think this asparagus and mascarpone pasta sounds really delish), whereas I'm just going to do the boring old pancetta wrapped asparagus with poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce. Well, it might be old to many, but not to me. I have to admit, I have never made poached eggs, or Hollandaise sauce. Actually, I'm scared of all sauces, I tend to mess them up, so I tend to stay away. However, today I got inspired by the chefs in Great British Menu taking cooking to the limits of their skills, and decided to tackle the Hollandaise. I stole the recipe from my favourite food blog Voisilmäpeliä.


Asparagus and pancetta (serves 1 as a main or 2 as a starter):
250g asparagus 
5-6 slices of pancetta


Hollandaise:
2 egg yolks
1/4 lemon juice (I used juice from 1/2 a lemon)
50g butter
salt
cayenne pepper


Poached eggs:
2 eggs
vinegar


The howto:
Get the kettle going, you will need lots of boiling water, both for the water bath for the sauce and the poached eggs. Start by preparing the asparagus. I used thick asparagus, so I started by peeling it and boiling for a few minutes (but make sure only two or three minutes, so it doesn't go too soft). If you are using fine asparagus spears, you don't need to do this. Wrap the asparagus stalks in pancetta, if you are using fine asparagus, cut the slices of pancetta in half lengthwise. Bake in 175 degrees C for about 10-15 minutes.

All set to go for the Hollandaise. Water gently boiling, butter melted
and yolk and lemon juice in the plastic bowl ready to go on the water bath.

While the asparagus is baking, prepare the Hollandaise. Start by melting the butter. Next you need to make a water bath. I used a saucepan and a plastic bowl on top as I don't have a stainless steel bowl, which undoubtedly would look much more professional. The main thing is the water should only be gently bubbling, not boiling too hard, and the top bowl should not be touching the water. Add egg yolk and lemon juice in the bowl, whisk on top of the water bath until it starts to get a bit fluffy. Then start adding in the melted butter in teeny tiny drops all the while whisking. Hollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, in the same way mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and oil. When all the butter is whisked in, the sauce should be light and fluffy. Take it off the water bath and season with salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Hollandaise about halfway through adding the butter.

The last thing to do is to poach the eggs. Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add a splash of vinegar. If you add more vinegar it's easier to get the egg to poach nicely, but there will be a stronger taste of vinegar. When the water is gently boiling, pour the egg into the water. Use a spoon to collect the white around the yolk if the egg spreads around too much in the water. Don't worry if it looks a bit messy, when you get the egg out of the water, it will look nice on the plate nonetheless! Two and a half to three minutes should be perfect to get that wonderful runny yolk.


One serving (half of this recipe) contains 409 kcal (36g fat, 7.4g carbs, 15.5g protein).


The verdict:
There is a reason why this is a classic. The salty pancetta with the soft asparagus and the soft buttery flavour and texture of the Hollandaise go together perfectly. Asparagus can be tricky, as you certainly don't want to overdo it. Baking it in the pancetta protects it in the oven, and I think it turned out perfect, sweet and juicy but still a bit chewy.


I was surprised at how easy the Hollandaise was to make. I guess the secret is the same as with mayonnaise, just make sure to drop in the butter little at a time and keep on whisking vigorously. To be honest, I don't know how a perfect Hollandaise should taste, but I was very happy with mine. I guess I need to find a nice restaurant and have some so that I have a reference point. I used a bit more lemon juice than the original recipe, and I liked that there was a distinct lemon taste, but I would guess the original should be a bit less lemony and a bit more buttery. Also, the sauce turned out very smooth and soft with the little pinch of cayenne adding a little bit of a kick. Apart from slightly overpoaching my eggs, I think this turned out pretty nice and I will certainly be cooking it again. I'm happy I have overcome my fear of sauces, at least my fear of Hollandaise. It really isn't at all as hard as you would think, so I warmly recommend trying it. If I can do it, anyone can.

Breakfast effins

To keep on the muffin theme for one more post, this is a brilliant breakfast (or light lunch) idea. Easy to take with you, eat on the go or (as I do) while reading the emails at work in the morning. Also, these muffins (or egg muffins aka effins...) are more along the lines of what I usually eat, compared to the previous three posts. I prefer to use fresh, free range, organic eggs. You can already see from the colour of the eggs they are different from the non-organic ones. Also, I think the organic ones make a more fluffy omelette, and taste better. But I'm not sure that observation would withstand a double blinded, placebo controlled study. But it won't stop me from buying organic.


Also, there are endless variations you could make of these. Next, I think I will try a Mexeffin, with onion, tomato salsa, black beans and koriander, or maybe a Italieffin with sundried tomatoes, oregano and parma ham.


Makes 12 effins


6 eggs
1 onion
30 g dill
1/4 stalk of broccoli
1 leek
50 g smoked salmon


Chop onions, leek, dill and broccoli. Stir fry onion and leek quickly on a non-stick pan (or a regular pan and use some coconut or rapeseed oil). Add the finely chopped broccoli to the pan for a short while. Beat eggs with a fork, add in the dill and the stir fried veggies, mix and divide into 12 muffin moulds. Slice salmon, and add a few slices on top of each effin. Bake in 175 C for 10-15 minutes, or less if you like your eggs soft.


Each effin contains around 60 kcal (fat 2.8g, carbs 2.2g, protein 4.8g)