Devilled Eggs

 If they're scrambled I can only eat two eggs. If they're deviled, I can eat forty.

Devilled eggs is one of those party dishes that everyone jokes about, but most secretly enjoy.  Until recently, I had never made devilled eggs, but that changed when my team held a disco themed virtual Christmas party.  I know that they did not eat food at discos, but disco food was one of the prize categories, and I assume that they meant food from the disco era AKA the 1970s.  So devilled eggs and pineapple hedgehogs it was!

I made these devilled eggs using Nigella Lawson's recipe, which rather fancily pipes the egg mixture back into the whites.  They were rather good, a good mix of creamy and spicy, which is just as well, as I had to eat them.

If you would like to make these eggs, you will need:

12 large eggs (or however many you want to make
and adjust other ingredients accordingly)
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mustard
a good pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 drops tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons boiling water

Bring water to the boil in a saucepan, and add the eggs to it one by one.  Boil the eggs for one minute, then switch off the heat and leave the eggs to sit in the saucepan for 12 minutes.  Fill a bowl with ice cold water and transfer the eggs to that bowl, and leave to sit for 15 minutes before peeling the eggs.

Halve each egg lengthways and gently remove the yolk.  Put the yolks into a mixing bowl.  Choose 18 of the best looking white-halves and place them on a serving platter (you need more yolks than whites).

Add the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, paprika and tabasco to the egg yolks and mash them all together before blending with a stick blender to combine thoroughly.  Ass as much of the boiling water as is required to bring the yolk mixture to piping consistency.

Put the yolk mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe the yolk mixture into the cavity of each white, and sprinkle each one with extra paprika.

Serve.

TWD - Meringue Snowballs

Happy New Year for Tuesday with Dorie!  This year's first recipe is Meringue Snowballs.  These are basically just meringues, which Dorie suggests are shaped using an icecream scoop to make them round.

I made these at my Mum's while I was on vacation, so I had to use the equipment available to me.  For this reason, I just spooned out my meringues.  I made a third of the recipe to yield three meringues.  I flavoured my meringues with vanilla and coloured them with rose food colouring.

My meringue snowballs turned out OK, don't you think?  They are not round, but they looked and tasted good.

To see what everyone else made to kick off the New Year for TWD, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

All Day Breakfast (Bauernfruhstuck)

Rise and shine, it's brekky time!  I have never been one for skipping breakfast, as I wake up ravenous pretty much every day.  During the working week, my breakfast is consistently cereal with fruit because that is a quick and easy option.  However, on the weekends, I will sometimes take the time to experiment with other things for breakfast because I have the time to cook, and I have whatever is in my fridge at my disposal.

A novel way to try a fry up is Anja Dunk's recipe for All Day Breakfast.  It is a hearty way to start the day, hence its other name, the farmer's breakfast, as it would provide enough nutrition to keep a hard working farmer on the go.  

The All Day Breakfast is a little like a frittata, in that it is based on eggs, and then you add whatever you like to them.  For example, I did not have the suggested ham on hand, but I did have sliced silverside, which I popped into my dish.  This dish also features potatoes, so if hash potatoes are a big part of your breakfast, you can also cover off that base in this one delicious dish.

To make your own all day breakfast in a size sufficient to serve 4-6 people (I obviously made a serve for one), you will need:

25g butter

500g thinly sliced cooked potatoes

6 thinly chopped spring onions
6 thinly chopped slices ham
100g blanched green beans, chopped
5 eggs, whisked
100ml sour cream or cream
80g grated cheese
40g grated Parmesan (I skipped this as I didn't have any)
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Melt the butter in a large oven proof frying pan, then add the potatoes.  Fry the potatoes for 5 minutes until they start to turn brown at the edges.

Add the spring onions, ham and beans to the pan and fry for another 2 minutes.

In a large jug, whisk together the eggs, cream, cheeses and parsley, and season with salt and pepper.  Pour the egg mixture into the frying pan, tilting the pan from side to side to ensure the egg mixture is evenly spread across the pan.  Fry the mixture for 2 minutes.

Put the frying pan into the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the mixture is golden brown on top and the eggs are set.

Eat and enjoy!!

Meringue Roulade - Liliana Battle

For our recent team lunch, in addition to the Strawberry Tart, I made a meringue roulade, which is a very easy gluten-free dessert.  My research showed that the recipe for the meringue base is basically the same, whatever source you use.  However, I was very taken with the presentation of Liliana Battle's Fig and Almond Roulade in her new(ish) book The Sweet Life - Home Baking and Sweet Treats Italian Style. Sadly, figs were not readily available to me, so I used mixed berries (raspberries and blueberries) instead.

I think this is such a pretty dessert, and so light and airy to eat.  The only disadvantage with it is that you need to eat it as soon as possible after filling it, because the meringue starts to weep.  That means it is not the best dessert to prepare in advance, but I threw caution to the wind, as I had a half day's work ahead of me before our lunch and I needed to travel to get to the lunch.

The meringue is filled with a lovely mix of whipped cream, toasted flaked almonds and fruit (in my case, berries, in Liliana's case, chopped fresh figs). Liliana also flavours the cream with honey rather than icing sugar, which gives that sweet honey taste to the dessert. Swoon!

If you would like to dig in to a meringue roulade yourself, you will need:

4 egg whites
165g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pure icing sugar to stop the meringue from sticking (Liliana said to use more sugar)

Filling

400ml thickened cream
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g toasted flaked almonds
8 fresh figs (6 chopped for the filling, the other 2 cut into wedges to decorate the top), or berries

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease and line (with baking paper) a 30cm x 33cm baking tray.

Whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until foamy, then gradually beat in the sugar.  Beat in the vanilla extract, and continue to beat until the meringue is thick and glossy, the sugar is fully dissolved, and stiff peaks form.

Spread the meringue evenly over the prepared baking tray, and bake for 15 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Remove the meringue from the oven and allow it to cool on the tray.

For the filling, whip the cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold through the honey and vanilla.

To assemble, lay a piece of baking paper on the table that is bigger than the meringue. Sprinkle the baking paper generously with icing sugar (or caster sugar, if you prefer Liliana's method).  Turn the meringue out onto the sugared baking paper and very carefully remove the baking paper that lined the tray in which the meringue was baked.  Take it slowly as it has a nasty tendency to want to stick and tear.

Spread three quarters of the whipped cream over the meringue, spreading nearly right up to the edges, then scatter over the 6 chopped figs or berries, and flaked almonds (reserving some berries and almonds for the top of the roulade).

Starting at the long edge of the meringue closest to you, roll up the meringue tightly, using the baking paper to help you roll it up (without getting it caught in the roll).  Once the meringue has been rolled into a log, carefully place it in a serving tray.

Decorate the top of the roulade with dollops of the remaining whipped cream, the fig wedges or berries, and some flaked almonds.  Drizzle with extra honey if desired. 

TWD - Sunny-Side-Up Meringues

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Sunny-Side-Up Meringues.  They are so called because they look like fried eggs.

These meringues are baked with a cavity formed with your finger in the middle, and the cavity is filled with Citrus Curd.  I even made Dorie's Mixed Citrus Curd because I had an orange I had bought for something else just for the skin, so it seemed a shame to waste it (it cost the princely sum of $1.50!). The curd recipe makes two Bon Mamon sized jars of curd.  This is quite a lot of curd for someone like me and there are lots of leftovers.

There is not much else to say about these - they are easy to make, although a little time consuming (1 1/2 hours baking and 2 hours cooling in the oven).  The sharpness of the curd cuts nicely through the tooth aching sweetness of the meringue.

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Egg Tomatoes for the Anniversary of Margaret Preston's Birth

Today marks the anniversary of Margaret Preston's birth on 29 April, 1875.  Margaret was an Australian modernist artist.  She worked in many different mediums in a career that spanned Europe as well as Australia, but is most famous for her beautiful paintings and wood block prints. 

Her art evolved in style over the years, but she always favoured still life as the subject matter of her paintings.  I first came to know of Margaret's work through a joint exhibition of her work with that of Grace Cossington-Smith in Brisbane in the late 1990s.  At that stage of my life, I thought it was the done thing for a young educated woman to visit the art gallery.  The work of both Margaret and Grace delighted me, but I found Margaret's work particularly striking.  I loved it so much that I bought a print of one of Margaret's still lifes and had it framed for my mother, and it still hangs in her kitchen.

Margaret also championed various aspects of domestic arts, including interior decorating and cooking.  I was delighted to find a book called Margaret Preston - Recipes for Food and Art late last year, which I have been slowly reading before bed over the last few months.  That book, as suggested by the title, is a biography of Margaret Preston that not only discusses her life and art, but also contains numerous recipes from Margaret's own recipe books. 

To mark the anniversary of Margaret's birth, I decided to make a recipe from one of Margaret's recipe books.  I wanted to make something that I had all the ingredients to hand (as winter is nearing and it was cold and dark by the time I started cooking), and which was practical in that I could eat it all without needing to have someone share it with me.

I decided on Margaret's recipe for Egg Tomatoes.  The title of the recipe might not sound inspirational, but the end result surprised me at how tasty it was.  I had indulged in some rich food with friends earlier in the day, so an Egg Tomato was just the nutritious, light supper that I needed.  Even better, you can make it easily for one, two or however many people you need to - you just have to have one egg and one tomato each.

The recipe for egg tomatoes is very easy. For each person, you need:

1 ripe tomato
1 teaspoon seasoned breadcrumbs
1 egg
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

Cut the top off the tomato, and scoop out the flesh.  Pour out the excess moisture, and sprinkle with salt.

Place the teaspoon of breadcrumbs in the base of the tomato, then crack the egg on top.  Season with salt and pepper, place on an oven tray, then bake in the pre-heated oven until the egg is set (mine took around 40 minutes).  Eat and enjoy!

EwE - Mango Stuffed Challah French Toast - Stuff It!

For Eating with Ellie this week, Peggy chose the theme of Stuff It!  I lucked in, because I have just bought a new Ellie book that had the perfect recipe in it. 

I already owned two Ellie books, but because Ellie is not well known in Australia, her books are not readily available other than through mail order sites, and they are expensive - $40 plus a book.  However, one day a couple of weeks ago, I just happened to wander into The Book Grocer on Bourke Street at lunch time.  The Book Grocer sells remainders for $10 each.  I was really just passing time when I ran my eyes over the shelves - and lo, there was a stack of Ellie's Comfort Food Fix.  Bonus!!  I clarified the price ($10!) and I was sold.   Some of the other Ellie cooks have used this book and I knew it had some great recipes, so I am so pleased to add it to my collection.

For the Stuff It! theme, there is a recipe in Comfort Food Fix for Mango Stuffed Challah French Toast.  Perfect!!  I already had the mango (it is summer here), although I had to buy the cheeses and the bread.  I hit a snag with the challah, because I tried 4 supermarkets and no-one had it.  My local Woolworths normally sells challah, but of course, when I went to buy it, they did not have it.  Having already done the rounds of supermarkets near where I work the day before, I was not going to walk miles up the road to see if Glicks, the Jewish bakery, was open on a public holiday, so I looked around for alternatives.  I chose a pane di casa, which to my surprise was a very nice loaf, even though it was the supermarket's own brand.

I made this for brekky the next day before work (yep, I did!! so quick), and loved it.  When Ellie says that it is ambrosial, I'd have to agree with her.  A thick slice of bread has a pocket cut into it, which is stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, ricotta, diced mango, honey and cinnamon.  It is then pan-fried in egg and milk.  You are supposed to top the whole thing off with maple syrup, but I forgot, and anyway, it didn't need it - the French toast is just the perfect amount of sweet as is.

While I don't think it would be wise to eat this every day, despite it being lower calorie than regular French toast, it was delicious, and perfect as a sometimes treat.  When mangoes are out of season, I think tinned peaches would be a fine substitute (or tinned mango, but I often find tinned mango to be tart).

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.    

EwE - Eggs in Baskets with Smoked Turkey and Asparagus Topping - Barnyard Fun

Peggy chose Barnyard Fun as this week's theme for Eating with Ellie.

I made Eggs in Baskets with Smoked Turkey and Asparagus Topping from So Easy.  My barnyard components were turkey and eggs.  This entails cutting a hole in a piece of toast, cracking in an egg, frying it up and topping it with asparagus and smoked turkey.

This was delicious, especially when the egg yolk burst to form a sauce.

To see what the others made this week, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

Vegetable Quiche

Just before I came home for Christmas, I had a few ingredients left in the fridge that I needed to use up or throw out.  Among these were a half-used pot of cream and 5 egg yolks.  The other trick was that I needed to make it a vegetable quiche, as I had no filling ingredients other than frozen vegetables.

Out of this, a Vegetable Quiche was born.  I searched online for quiche made with egg yolks and cream, and combined a few of those to end up with the eventual recipe.

The crust is the Master Savory Pastry from Tart Love, a book that I had owned for a few years but never used.

I also grew my own gorgeous edible flowers from seed.  I knew that they would have wilted before I returned from holidays, so I frivolously used them to decorate the top of my quiche.  Better to enjoy the flowers than lose them, right?

To make this quiche, you will need:

Crust:

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons salt

250g unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes

3 tablespoons ice water

Put all of the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse until combined.  Add the butter and pulse until pea-sized crumbs form.  Add just enough of the ice water to bring the pastry together.

Place the pastry onto a well-floured bench and roll out between two sheets of baking paper to 1/4 inch thick.

Place pastry into a greased 9" tart pan, and press up against the edges.  Freeze for 1/2 hour.

Remove the crust from the freezer and blind bake in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees Celsius.  Remove the rice/pie weights, brush the crust with an egg yolk mixed with a dash of water, then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until the crust is golden and fully baked. 

Filling:

100ml pouring cream
150ml milk

4 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups grated cheese

1 cup cooked frozen vegetables

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Beat the egg yolks, milk and cream together.  Put the cheese into the base of the pie shell, and pile the cooked vegetables on top.  Pour the egg mixture over the top, and place the  quiche into the oven for 60 minutes or until the quiche is set and golden brown on top.

Jamie Oliver's Mexican Pan Cooked Brekkie

On the weekends, I like to treat myself to a cooked breakfast.  Jamie's Every Day Super Foods has some terrific breakfast recipes, and they mainly use ingredients that I would normally have on hand, so it's no trouble to cook them.

A couple of weekends ago, I made Jamie's Mexican Pan Fried Brekky - Eggs, Beans, Tomatoes and Mushrooms.

You fry up some tomatoes and mushrooms, then crack eggs into the pan which you slosh around a bit so that the whites coat the pan and form a dish for the rest of the components, then add black beans and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are done the way you like them.  Breakfast is ready!

This is a lovely, healthy, hearty breakfast, and is also vegetarian.  It's a great way to start the day.

EwE - Grilled Portabello "Benedict" - Eggs-actly

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Eggs-actly, chosen by yours truly.  Yep, I was trying to be a smarty pants, but I love the theme.

I chose Grilled Portabello "Benedict" from So Easy.  If you like hollandaise sauce, move away now, because this recipe doesn't have any.  Instead of an English muffin, the base is a grilled Portabello mushroom.  Instead of a huge slice of ham, there is a slice of pan-grilled bacon.  Instead of a fried egg, there are scrambled eggs.  And instead of hollandaise sauce, there is basil pesto.

I was really pleased with how tasty this dish was - it's a winner in my books.

To see what the other Ellie cooks made for Eggs-actly, visit the LYL section of the EwE website. 

EwE - Breakfast for Dinner - Black Eyed Peas, Greens, Eggs and Ham

Do you like green eggs and ham?

 

I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.

Dr Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham 

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Breakfast for Dinner, chosen by Peggy.  I selected Black Eyed Peas, Greens, Eggs and Ham from Weeknight Wonders as my dish.  I was excited to try this dish for two reasons.  First, I had never had black eyed peas before, and I was astonished to find them readily available in canned form in my local supermarket.  Second, while I realise that this is greens, eggs and ham, not green eggs and ham, I couldn't stop thinking of the book by Dr Seuss.

This is a really easy one-pan dish that you can whip up easily for breakfast or dinner.  I substituted the kale for spinach (because I hate kale and it is massively overpriced), but otherwise was faithful to the recipe, which I can tell you was delicious, hearty and filling.  A judicious splash of tabasco sauce on top, as suggested by Ellie, really helps to make the dish.

To see what the others made for this theme, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

Two Ingredient Banana Pancakes

If you are looking for an easy breakfast for the weekend and like bananas, I can highly recommend the two ingredient pancakes made with bananas and eggs (recipe here).  I know I am late to the party on these, but I finally got around to trying these last weekend.

Take heed of the tips in the post - they certainly are challenging to flip because they are so liquid.  However, I have to admit, the end result is worth it:

I used the extra baking powder ingredient to make my pancakes fluffier, and topped the end result with yoghurt, berries and nuts.

These pancakes were seriously delish - whenever I have a banana on the turn, this will be a great way to use it up.

WWDH - Potato and Cherry Tomato Frittata

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, Chaya chose the Potato and Cherry Tomato Frittata - recipe online here.

This was a quick and easy dish that I prepared for a weekend breakfast, and served with a dash of tabasco.  I learned from Donna's other frittata recipes not to overcook it otherwise the frittata goes dry.

I liked this one.  To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the WWDH website.

EwE - Spinach, Herb and Goat Cheese Frittata

 

 

For Eating with Ellie this week, Peggy chose Spinach, Herb and Goat Cheese Frittata.  Ellie has published the recipe online here.

 

I made a serve for one.  I think the goats cheese made this dish - it would have been a bit ordinary without it.  I also added a dash of tabasco on top to give it an extra kick.

 

This is the kind of thing I make for breakfast all the time, so I was on board with this.  To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Eggs in a skillet with spicy tomato and bell pepper sauce (Shatsuka)

For Eating with Ellie this week, Chaya chose eggs in a skillet with spicy tomato and bell pepper sauce.

This dish was terrific - canned tomatoes are cooked up with onions, garlic and capsicum, an egg is broken on top, goats cheese is sprinkled on top and the whole  thing is garnished with parsley.  I made a serve for one for Saturday lunch and I loved it.

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

WWDH - Asian Chicken Omelette

Sarah has chosen Donna's Asian Chicken Omelette for Wednesday with Donna Hay this week.  The recipe is from Donna Hay Magazine, although you can find the ingredients online here.

I didn't bother putting the raw snow peas, bean sprouts or chilli on top, as I knew I wouldn't fancy them.  I added coriander to the omelette, and used hoisin sauce on top instead of kecap manis.  I still found it a little dry, so I added some chutney to the chicken.

This was a nice enough meal, in fact the kind of thing I'd normally eat for breakfast.  It would be nice with a salad.

To what Sarah, Margaret and Chaya thought of this dish, visit their websites.

WWDH - Crispy Sage Potatoes with Fried Eggs

 

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, I chose a breakfast inspired dish - Donna's Crispy Sage Potatoes with Fried Eggs.  As the name suggests, it involves fried potatoes flavoured with sage, with a fried egg cracked on top.

This was really quick and simple to prepare, and very tasty.  What's not to like?

To see what Margaret, Chaya and Sarah thought, check out their websites.

FFWD - Coddled Eggs with Foie Gras - err, Duck & Orange Pate

For French Friday with Dorie this week, we made Coddled Eggs with Foie Gras - except that in my case, the foie gras was replaced by Maggie Beer's Duck and Orange Pate.  I was happy with my substitution, not just financially, but ethically as well.  I have never had foie gras, and now that I know how it is produced, I am not keen to start.

These coddled eggs are unusually made in a steamer  rather than being baked.   The eggs are steamed until the whites become opaque, but  leaving the yolk runny:

 

The pate is placed in the bottom of the ramekin before the egg, cream, herbs and salt and pepper.

I found this dish lacked a little punch.  I prefer Spanish eggs, which have a bit of punch.

To see what the other Doristas thought of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the website. 

WWDH - Zucchini and ricotta frittata

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, Chaya chose Donna's Zucchini and Ricotta Frittata.  I made a third of the recipe for two servings.

I don't have a broiler, so I had the delicate task of flipping the frittata in the pan to brown the other side.  As you can see, it got a little mangled in the process, but it still tasted fine, of course.

I actually liked this way more than I thought I would.  I had visions of it being very eggy, but the cheese (I used cheddar instead of parmesan) and ricotta really lifted it and made the frittata creamy rather than eggy.  I would make it again, and perhaps add other veges.
To see what  Chaya, Sarah, Kayte and Margaret thought of this dish, visit their websites.