Gourmand: a person whose chief pleasure is eating and rates quantity higher than quality.
Gourmet: cultural ideal associated with the culinary arts of haute cuisine.
It's official that I'll be off teaching Yoga on the insanely beautiful and impossibly romantic Cocoa Island in Maldives. Therefore, this is probably the last breakfast menu from now until September. Unless they let me use the kitchen. Or I can sneak into the kitchen and learn a thing or two from the chef and cook at the resort. My search for the best pancake/ pancake topping continues into this week. I have to say the result is pretty darn good! The batter was made with buttermilk and there are two toppings to serve with : Banana Caramel Sauce and Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar. I was literally visualizing and tasting the Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar the whole last night. My imagination was good but the real thing was even better! There was also the Sun Dried Tomato Goat Cheese Scrambled Egg and Mexican Jacket Potato that were good enough that you would never want to pay for them in restaurant ever. I also whipped up some frozen Sweet Baked Camembert and Blue Cheese Turnover that would last Adrian 8 breakfasts while I'm gone. Beyond that? Hmmm.....
I used to love scrambled egg. My ex-boyfriend taught me to make my first scrambled egg: lots of Parmesan and cheddar cheeses. Somewhere along the way I turned to omelet; I figured they are essentially the same since I put milk to omelet, too. Also, it's easier to handle and doesn't require as much attention as scrambled egg. So this is my first scrambled egg in a long time. It kind of rekindled my love for scrambled egg again because Adrian thinks it's great.
The key to good scrambled egg comes with heat control; the lower the heat and the more constant the stirring movement, the creamier the end product. You also want to remove it from heat when the egg is just slightly undercooked. If this technique is followed, the eggs should be moist in texture with a creamy consistency. If any liquid is seeping from the eggs, this is a sign of under cooking or adding overcooked high-moisture vegetables.
Ingredients 4 eggs 4 Tablespoons cream (for use of other liquid, such as milk, it should be 2 tablespoon of liquid to one egg) Goat cheese, shaved Sun dried tomato, chopped 1 Tablespoon of herbed olive oil that the sun dried tomatoes are soaked with (or butter) Fresh thyme and tarragon, chopped salt and black pepper to taste
Beat eggs, cream, and salt and pepper together.
Fold in sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese.
Heat olive oil over high heat. Stir in the egg mixture. Quickly turn the heat to low when egg coagulate. Stir the egg mixture frequently to form small and soft curds.
Remove from heat while the egg is still slightly undercooked. The egg will continue to cook and set.
I have been stoked with pancakes since last week's Banana Pancake with Coconut Syrup Peanut Butter. I have practically been waiting to do another pancake since. Nothing special about this week's pancake but the sauces: Banana Caramel Sauce and Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar. They were good individually, but also superb with mixed. The best part is, they are super easy to make.
I made quite a few changes in the recipe, which I'll show in bracket and italic.
Separate the white and yolk of the eggs. Beat the yolk with sugar until pale and creamy.
Stir in buttermilk and melted butter to blend (I used coconut oil).
Fold in the flour (whole wheat flour + 1 tsp salt + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder), cinnamon and sugar.
(I prepared this a night ahead and stick the bowl into the fridge for overnight)
Stir in ricotta cheese. Whisk the egg white until soft peaks are formed. Carefully fold the egg white into the flour mixture. DO NOT OVER MIX.
Melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Scoop 1/2 cup of the mix for one pancake. When the bottom is about to set, (Optional: sprinkle some berries or chocolate chips over the top) flip to fry the other side. You may transfer the pancake to a 100C oven to keep warm while you work on the sauce.
Banana Caramel Sauce Ingredients (enough for 2 pancake) 1 Banana, chopped
2 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
Melt butter over low heat. Stir in sugar and banana. Stir infrequently until the sugar is melted.
I'm a miss-matcher of sort. When Adrian says something like "I don't like XXX" Next, you'll see me searching frantically over the internet for the XXX recipes. In fact, just this evening, he mentioned his distaste for frozen English muffin and declared that I would make it my mission to bake some good ones. My man knew me too well.
Anyway, I digress. So far, I have successfully changed his taste for Chocolate Fudge and Eggplant (sort of). This time, it's scone. Not that he hates it but the dryness.
I like the sound of tarty strawberry with the acquired goat cheese - seemed to taste good as I imagined it. I was a little hesitant with whole wheat flour but it turned out well. In fact, it gave the scone a sort of bonus crunchy bite. I also used brown sugar instead of white sugar.
I halved the recipe and still got 6 good-sized (about palm big) scones. The scones were served with homemade strawberry jam and overnight sour cream (lemon juice + cream). Adrian claimed it to be the best scone (and sour cream) he ever had. They were perfect with the strawberry jam and second with raspberry (short of strawberry jam supply).
I also made Mulled Hot Chocolate again, which was even better than the last one!! However, coffee lover takes note: the spices in this hot chocolate don't seem to fare well as mocha material. It was ok for me because I dislike espresso but not something for a coffee snob (like Adrian).
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup butter, chilled and cut into large pieces
1/2-3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries
Preheat oven at 200C.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Toss chilled butter into the flour mixture. Using your fingers, rub the butter pieces with the flour until the mixture resembles coarse sand. It's ok to have some pea-sized pieces.
Stir in milk, goat cheese and strawberry to combine.
Divide the batter into 6 portions and flatten into 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet. Cut each round into triangle.
I'm going to be teaching Yoga at Cocoa Island in Maldives for the month of July and August. That's a total of 7 weeks away from my husband. Big Deal! What's he going to do with food? I've got to make sure there's 'something' in the fridge for him. Here's two easy to make sweet turnovers. They are perfect for breakfast with a cup of espresso (Adrian's take). Despite the incessant assurance and encouragement from Divya (my Canadian Indian neighbour), I'm still hesitant about making my own dough. Hence, I took the easy way buying the ready made puff pastry from the store. I have to say they are really good. I just don't like waiting to defrost.
Sweet Baked Camembert Ingredients: Puff pastry sheet Homemade raspberry jam Dried cranberry Almond slivers Camembert Maple syrup Ground cinnamon
Prepare puff pastry sheet as instructed. I divided one sheet into four quarters and used a quarter of a round camembert for each quarter of the pastry sheet.
Sprinkle each quarter with dried cranberry (or raisins) and a couple tablespoons of raspberry jam. Top with slivers of almond.
Fold the pastry into desired shape. If you are not baking them yet, wrap each pastry with plastic or cling film and store in zip lock bag in the freezer.
To serve, preheat oven to 180C. Defrost the pastry at room temperature.
Make a few small holes on the pastry using a fork. Drizzle the top with maple syrup and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.
It's the same steps for the blue cheese turnover except it's paired with chopped pecan and dried figs.
Sweet Baked Blue Cheese Ingredients Puff pastry sheet blue cheese chopped pecan nuts (or walnuts) 4 Dried Figs, quartered Maple syrup Ground cinnamon
One skill I'm yet to develop as a cook is to buy quantify things. I'm such an idiot comes to estimation. I'm always afraid of not having enough. Hence, there's always extra ingredients. That's exactly what happened to the salmon fillets that I bought for the superbly deliciousAlmond Crusted Salmond Fillet with Lemon Leek Cream Sauce. Seriously, I was calculating and analysing while I stood looking at the various sizes of salmon. I spent long enough time in front of the fish monger that he was seriously getting annoyed. Still, I came home with one too many fillet. It was lucky that I had the foresight to seek Adrian's advise before I went ahead and cook. Although that dinner was a real kick. The extra salmon fillet was already in marination when I had it figured. But I trusted Adrian that it would do no harm freezing it.A week later, I took it out and make a Lemon Butter Caper sauce to go with it. It's still good. Not as good as the Almond Crusted Salmon though. Having said that, I do like the combination of lemon and caper with the fillet. I didn't have lemon and used big lime instead. It worked fine.
Ingredients:
2 (5 ounce) salmon fillets
salt and pepper
4 lemon slices
Lemon Caper Butter (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 200C.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and oiled lightly.
Place salmon fillets on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Place 2 lemon slices on top of each fillet. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and tent with aluminum foil for 10 more minutes. Fish will continue to cook during this time. It will flake easily when done.
Remove lemon slices and discard. Gently slide a turner or serving spatula between the skin and the flesh of the fillet to remove the skin, it should separate very easily. Transfer fillet to a serving platter and spoon lemon caper butter over the top.
Lemon Caper Butter
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons capers drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
juice of 1/2 of a lemon
salt and fresh cracked pepper
In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat.
Once butter has melted add garlic, capers, lemon zest and lemon juice. Cook for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
