Yummies for Breakfast - Taters and Curried Eggs

Howdy there. Despite my relatively busy schedule, I (Iain) am determined to make up for my dearth of posting during March and most of April by posting a lot right now. So now I think I bring you one of my specialties, perfected by repetition: eggs and potatoes for breakfast. And yes, I know I've been posting a lot of potatoey posts lately - that'll change, but for now enjoy them!

Breakfast Taters

Ingredients
5 potatoes
1 large white onion
4 cloves garlic
About a tablespoon of canola oil
Seasonings (see variations below)
Salt
Black Pepper

Music Listened To:
Matt Molloy's most excellent album, The Stony Steps

Procedure:

1. Prep the potatoes: cut into a shape of your choice. My favorite one is almost certainly the 1/2 in by 1/2 in square-ish shape (about 1/8 thick). Other favorites are the 1/8 in by 1/2 in strip and the disc (possibly the easiest to cut, and works well if your dealing with small potatoes). Also dice the onion and mince the garlic.


2. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the onion. Saute for a minute, then go ahead and add the potatoes with about a clove of the garlic. Add salt and pepper. Set the heat to medium. Stir occasionally and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes start getting soft.

3. Add your seasonings from the set of options below:

The Classic: Rosemary! Simple, yet delicious, and it goes well with the garlic.
The Red Classic: Like above, except add a good couple teaspoons of paprika before taking the potatoes off the heat.
Scarborough Faire: Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Hehehe.
Illegal in Arizona: Bad joke. Cumin, chili powder and either a diced red chili or cayenne powder.
Curried: Instead of oil in step one, use butter and add a teaspoon of turmeric before you add anything else. When you get to this stage, add curry powder and either a diced red chili or cayenne.


4. Time to make them crispy! Some recipes will tell you to make the potatoes crispy at the beginning and then cook them through. What I find is that this makes the potatoes generally soggy and un-crispified. That's why now, once the potatoes are already edible, we crank up the heat to maximum, add a little extra oil and get ready to scream "shut up!" at your smoke detector if it's as over-sensitive as ours. Start stirring nearly constantly. All the moist residue on the outside of the potatoes should start to evaporate and the outsides should start to brown. When most of the potatoes have been browned, you're good! Serve em up!


Curried Eggs

The process for this is rather simple, but I still wanted to share it with you. Heat some butter in your skillet and add to it a few shakes of turmeric and a couple shakes of curry powder. Spread the turmeric butter around so that the butter turns a bright orange or yellow. Crack your eggs into the skillet and immediately shake some salt, pepper and a couple more shakes of curry powder. Once the whites start to solidify on the top, flip the eggs and cook either just a second (over easy), for about 20-40 seconds (over medium, oh yes, that elusive over medium) or a good minute or two (over well). Serve em up!

Passover Panorama!

Well, on behalf of my rather odd housemates, I apologize (I think?) for that little April Fool's post. If you found it entertaining rather than odd/undesired, good for you.

Anyway, running right alongside April Fool's this year was pesach, the Jewish Holiday celebrating the exodus from Egypt and the 40-year journey across the desert to the promised land. The Israelites (in the Biblical sense of the word) had to run from pharaoh in a hurry and, as such, didn't have time for their bread to rise, so during the eight days of Passover Jews avoid all leavened products and basically grain in general. No bread, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, barley, etc. The exception is matzo. Now, matzo is not exactly what one would consider the pinnacle of fine food, but matzo, like tofu, can be combined with other ingredients to produce excellent results.

Iain, Bozzie, and I spent much of last week in Chicago with Iain's family, and while there I got to (re)introduce some fun foods from my childhood Passovers. Although the holiday ended last night (yay pasta!!), for those of you not currently sick of matzo these recipes should still be fun to try. And the macaroons are, of course, good year-round. This'll be a long post, because it involves several recipes (simple though they may be), so pick and choose as you like.

Matzo Brei Two Ways
Matzo Brei is a traditional passover breakfast dish, although it would also make a good lunch/dinner. Depending on how it's made (and the possibilities really are endless) it can be more like a scramble or french toast (in a liberal sense of the term), sweet or savory. My favorite varieties are savory scrambles and sweet french toast. I'm giving both recipes in proportionate rather than set measurements, since I was cooking for a crowd at Iain's house.

Savory Scrambled Matzo Brei
Ingredients

• 1 egg per piece of matzo
• a dash of milk (or glug, depending on how big the recipe)
• salt and pepper to taste
• scallions, chopped (optional)

Procedure

• break the matzot into small pieces and run them under cold water for a few moments before placing into a bowl
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour over the matzot
  
• Heat a skillet to medium with a little butter and pour the matzo-egg mixture in. Cook like scrambled eggs until the matzo is starting to brown a bit, seasoning with additional salt and pepper (and scallions, if desired). The matzot and eggs will cluster together deliciously.
• Eat!

Sweet French-Toast-Like Matzo Brei
Ingredients

• 1 egg for every 2 matzot
• about 1/8 cup milk per egg
• dash-glug orange juice (optional-- add it if you have it)
• pinch-3 of sugar
  
• 1 tsp.ish vanilla extract (or try almond or whatever)
  
• dash cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• knob of butter for the pan
• maple syrup or powdered sugar, for serving
  

Procedure

• Run the matzot under cool water for a moment and break each matzo into several large pieces (maybe 4. If they crumble into smaller pieces, don't worry too much)
• Whisk the eggs and add the other ingredients (except the matzot)
• Pour some of the egg mixture into a wide, shallow dish of some sort (this can be a big plate if nothing better presents itself).
  
• Place matzot in a single layer into the egg dish (this will need to be done in shifts). After 30 seconds or so, flip the matzot over so the other side is equally immersed.
  
• Heat a pan to medium heat, melting some of the butter.
  
• Carefully move the eggy matzot to the skillet, frying as in french toast until the bottom side is crispy. Flip so the other side gets equally crispy. Meanwhile, get the next batch of matzo soaking.
• Continue cooking in batches until done, replenishing egg mix as needed, and serve drizzled with maple syrup or sprinkled with powdered sugar.

(Vegetarian) Matzo Ball Soup!
So this is basically one of if not the most amazing passover dish in existence. I'm not sure what it is--the comfort of matzo balls, the simplicity of the broth--but somehow nothing else can quite match it. Most of the time matzo ball soup is chicken based, but obviously I wasn't going to do that. The vegetarian option, in my opinion, works just about as well. The soup itself is super simple, the matzo balls simple enough once one gets the hang of them.

Matzo Balls
Ingredients

• 1 cup matzo meal
• 4 eggs
• 1-2 tsp salt (ish--to taste, as always)
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1/4 c. water
  
• pepper to taste

Procedure

• Beat the eggs in a bowl, mixing in the matzo meal, salt and pepper, and oil.
• Add the water and mix well
• Cover the bowl and put it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes (Don't skip this step. It's important.)
• Pour water into a large saucepan and get it boiling.
  
• Gently, break off small pieces of batter (1- 1 1/4 inches in diameter) and pat them (again, gently!) into balls. The less you handle these things, the better. Stick 'em on a plate until they're all formed.
• Reduce the heat on the water to medium-low and drop in the matzo balls
• Let the matzo balls simmer, covered, for at least 40 minutes. Check them by cutting one in half and tasting. They should be firm and lightly chewy but not about to fall apart. Mmm.
  

Soup
Ingredients

• slug vegetable or olive oil
  
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 large onion (or two small), diced
• dash dill
• dash oregano
• dash thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• 1-2 quarts veggie broth (if using less broth, add water to make up the difference and increase the herbs)

Procedure

• heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.
• add the carrots, celery and onion and saute for a few minutes, mixing in the herbs
• pour the broth and water in and bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for at least half an hour until the veggies are softened as you like them and the broth is flavorful, adding more herbs as desired.
• add additional salt and pepper before serving.
  
• Serve by placing 1-2 matzo balls in each bowl, then ladling soup over the top.
• 

Chocolate Chip Coconut Macaroons!
This is without a doubt one of my favorite pesach treats. It is also ridiculously easy to make. Don't believe me? Just read.

Ingredients

• 1 14 oz bag sweetened coconut flakes (or half a bag sweetened and half a bag unsweetened)
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (fat free works equally well)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• about 2/3 bag chocolate chips (or mini chocolate chips)

Procedure

• Mix all ingredients together, stirring well.
• Drop bits of dough onto a baking sheet (maybe 1 TBSish?)
• Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350°F for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned
• Remove immediately to a plate to cool, or they will get very sticky very fast.

See? That simple. Even my kitchen-fearing grandpa can make them.

新年快乐！

大家好！欢迎你们看这些中国很好吃的东西： 胡萝卜鸡蛋饺子！

Ok, so unless you are one of very few Chinese-speaking people I know of who read this blog, the above will have ranged from a series of boxes to some cool but undecipherable symbols. However, as some of you may know, Sunday was the Chinese New Year, and it is now officially the Year of the Tiger. Over at the school where I work there's been a lot of fuss over it, which has been cute--lots of kids cutting out red lanterns and writing baby calligraphy and the like. There are many, many traditions surrounding the Chinese New Year, and one of them is eating dumplings, because they are shaped like old Chinese money. Since the New Year celebration is in many ways focused on gaining luck for the year to come, it's only natural that money-shaped foods would be common.

When I lived in China two years ago, there was a restaurant around the corner from my school that my friends and I called "Dumpling Restaurant" because that was basically all they served. My favorite dumplings had a carrot and egg filling. Last year, I tried to make these, and it didn't go so well, but this year I was determined to get it right. And I did!! Incredibly, they're not even all that difficult or time-consuming. I've not been this psyched about a kitchen adventure for awhile, and coming from me that's saying something. So, without further adieu....

胡萝卜鸡蛋饺子- Huluobo Jidan Jiaozi- Carrot Egg Dumplings

Ingredients
(Disclaimer: This recipe was more improvised than usual, and thus the ingredients are less specific than usual. But I swear it works.)

Wrapper:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup rice flour (Note: most recipes I saw online didn't call for rice flour, so it's probably fine if you use all wheat. But I found that the rice flour made a more elastic as well as tasty dough).
• dash salt
• water as needed

Filling:

• 3 eggs
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1 scallion, minced
• 1 in. ginger grated on the small side of the grater
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TBS sesame seeds
• dash of soy sauce
• dash of rice vinegar
• small dash of sesame oil
  
• pinch of coriander
• pinch of white pepper
• pinch of black pepper
• small pinch sugar
• drizzle of mirin (sweetened sake. use whatever sweetener, really).
  
• drizzle of chili oil

Dipping Sauce

• 1 seeded, finely chopped thai pepper (or whatever spice. That's just what we had).
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• generous glug or two of rice vinegar
  
• dash ginger powder
• dash soy sauce
• small dash sesame oil
• drizzle of mirin (Or some other sweetener.)

Procedure

The Wrapper

• Combine the flours and salt and mix in enough water (in small amounts) to get a soft but not sticky dough.
• Knead the dough in the bowl for a minute or two and leave it for half an hour.
• After you prepare the filling (below), break off small pieces of dough (between nickel and quarter sized, I found) and roll them, flouring as needed, into very thin circles--close to translucent, if possible. We found that a rolling pin worked best for this, but you can try your hands if you like.
  
• Fill the circles with just enough filling so that the wrappers can close easily. You might mess a couple up figuring the exact amount out; don't worry about it. Put the filling in the center of each circle, dab a little water on the edge, and fold the wrapper in half, using the water to help close it. Pleat the edges to seal.

The Filling

• Scramble the eggs with some of the salt, a pinch of both peppers and coriander, and perhaps a fifth of the ginger and garlic. Make sure to scramble them until they're quite dry.
  
• Put the eggs into a bowl and mix all the other ingredients in, adding spice as needed. Break the egg up into little pieces. I found my hands were the best instrument for this.
• Once you fill the wrappers (see above), steam for 12-15 minutes, or until the wrappers turn sorta transparent and taste wonderfully chewy. A bamboo steamer is best for this, but we don't have one, so instead we used a metal colander placed over a few inches of boiling water. Our method of keeping the dumplings from sticking to each other--strips of wax paper between each dumpling--worked marginally well. It's sort of astounding how possible it is to improv in the kitchen. Serve with dipping sauce (below).
  

The Sauce

• Mix everything together in a small bowl and taste it. It should be spicy and good. This was basically my attempt to recreate and combine the little bowls of vinegar, hot sauce, and minced garlic that accompanied all of my Chinese dumplings.

Enjoy. A lot. And once again, Happy New Year! 新年快乐！