FauxFu

Madame doesn't care much for Tofu. There are, however, some dishes that just wouldn't be right without it. Especially miso soup..

We were watching a cooking show and she idly said, what else could we use in this porl/miso soup - instead of the dreaded tofu. Well, we had some edd whites lying around, so I thought put them in icecibe trays and microwave them. So I did, and FauxFu was born.

She loved them.

Ingredients

Whites of 6 eggs (after you have used the yolks for something else)

Method 

Mix all the egg whites together until you have a uniform liquid. 1/2 fill each cavity in your ice cube tray with egg white microwave on high for 30 seconds or so - check after 20 seconds to make sure they are not getting cooked too quickly

Using the point of a paring knife, extract the cubes of egg white from the cavities. Use in place of  firm tofu in several recipes

One Dish Asparagus

Asparagus and Mushrooms - A Light Dinner

Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course

Time 15 minutes

Skill Easy

This dish came about because asparagus is so good this time of year - and we wanted a quick and easy one dish meal. Mushrooms and asparagus are a match made in heaven. Some shallots and a couple of eggs, oh my!

You can use plain white button mushrooms, creminis, shiitakes, or any other exotic mushrooms for this. Be careful of the woody stems of shiitake mushrooms though.

The clever bit of this recipe is that the liquid from the mushrooms steams the asparagus and the eggs. If using white mushrooms you probably won't have to add any water.

You can, of course add any herbs/spices that interest you. I think a little nutmeg would be nice. Could also see thyme (a natural complement to mushrooms) being a nice addition.

Ingredients

1 T neutral (I used olive) oil

1 Medium shallot diced very finely

12 oz Mushrooms (sliced) - 1/4" (5 mm) thick slices. Use the stems too, but see caution above

1/4 t cayenne pepper (optional)

2T Dry sherry or white vermouth

3 T water (if necessary)

1 lb Fresh asparagus 1 1/2" (3 cm) pieces cut on the bias

2 - 4 whole chicken eggs

Salt/pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil in a medium (8") skillet. I prefer not to use non-stick, but that is a preference. Add the shallots and sweat for a minute or 2 until they are translucent.

Add the mushrooms to the skillet and sprinkle a little salt over them to encourage them to release their liquid. cook briefly (3 or 4 mor minutes) until the mushrooms have wilted and given up some of their liquid.  Add the cayenne (if using) and stir to incorporate. Add the sherry or vermouth.

Place the asparagus stalks on top of the mushroom/shallot mixture and put a tight fitting lid onto the pan. Steam for 30 seconds. Add the asparagus tips and, again, place the lid on and steam for a further minute. Check the liquid and if the pan is looking dry, add up to 3T water.

Break the eggs and individually place the eggs on top of the asparagus. Keep the eggs well separated, The recipe will accept up to 4 eggs, but you may not want to do that many.

Place the lid back on the skillet and allow the contents to steam for 3 1/2 more minutes - until the egg whites are set and the yolks are the consistency you want. The asparagus will be just cooked

Remove the lid adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve immediately, making sure that any juices in the bottom of the pan are scooped up and drizzled over the dish.

Asparagus and Shiitake

This recipe is (very slightly) adapted from Americas Test Kitchen. The episode was broadcast a week or so ago, and can be found here. Slight modifications included adding some of our "secret ingredient" (aka habanero vodka) for some heat and the habanero floral flavors and poached eggs for added body.. This is a simple (but not necessarily easy) dish. It only takes a few minutes, but you do have to resist the urge to fiddle with it. I don't know how critical the quantities are - I probably had more shiitake than the original recipe called for, but that was fine by me!
The poached eggs are not in the original recipe, but poached egg yolks and asparagus are such a great combination.

Ingredients

14 oz bunch of asparagus (no more than 1/2" diameter) cut into 1 1/2" lengths. Woody bottoms removed

6 oz Shiitake mushrooms sliced into strips the same thickness as the asparagus

1 T Neutral oil

2T Soy sauce

1T finely minced (or grated) raw ginger

2T Dry sherry

1t Habanero vodka

1T Jaggery (indian brown sugar)

1t Toasted sesame oil

2T Water

2 Eggs, poached

2 Scallions (green parts) thinly sliced on the bias for garnish.

Method 

Heat the oil in a 12" non stick saute pan over high heat until almost smoking. (Thin wisps of smoke are OK). Add the asparagus/shiitake in a single layer, turn the heat down to medium and leave to fry while you make the sauce/glaze, and start to poach the eggs.

Whisk together the soy sauce, ginger, sherry habanero vodka, sugar, sesame oil and water in a small bowl. 

When the asparagus.shiitakes have been in the pan for 2 or 3 minutes, turn them over to cook on the other side. The idea is to get a little char on the asparagus. When they are charred all over, add the sauce, stir and cook to evaporate. The steam from the liquids will finish cooking the asparagus.

Pile into bowls and serve with a poached egg on top of each bowl.

Maybe garnish with some scallions (green parts).

Devilled eggs - but the technique is important

I saw this video a couple of days ago, so immediately had to find an excuse to try it. It works as advertised (much to Madame's surprise).

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 T mayonnaise

1t habanero vodka

1t sweet pickle juice

1T tarragon mustard

salt/pepper to taste

Method

Using this approach , cook the eggs for 10 minutes. Immediately plunge into iced water. Use the technique from the video to peel the eggs (and it works flawlessly). Scoop out the cooked yolks, mix with the remaining ingredients and reintroduce to the whites. Serve cold with some grilled bread.

You can, of course, add any flavorings to the egg mixture

Blueberry Semifreddo

This recipe is adapted from one that I saw in Fine Cooking Magazine. I have made it a couple of times and it is absolutely delicious. It isn't hard to make, but it does use a few bowls! It was the perfect end to an energetic, loud, boisterous dinner with friends at the end of July.
The date is important because we had recently been blueberry picking (yes Virginia, blueberries do grow in Texas) at the delightful BlueBerry Hill farm in Edom. So we had lots of blueberries, some home made blueberry peach ginger jam. We used a blackberry liqueur called creme de mure, but cassis would work equally well. You want a fruity liqueur in this dish since the other flavors are a bit bland.
The dish is made in several parts and then assembled and frozen. When unmolded it looked like this.

Thanks to Julie Collins for the picture

 



Ingredients

1 cup blueberries
2/3 cups sugar (divided use)
1/4 cup blueberry jam
1T balsamic vinegar
5 egg yolks
1/4 cup fruity liqueur (creme de cassis or creme de mure)
very small pinch of salt
2 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
1 1/2 ups heavy whipping cream (very cold)
1/4 cup blueberry jam
1T balsamic vinegar

Method

Place the utensils for whipping the cream into the freezer.
Warm the blueberries with 2T sugar and the tiny pinch of salt until the juice runs out of the berries. Strain the juices and immediately chill the juice in the fridge. Similarly with the blueberry jam/balsamic vinegar mixture, warm it to gently, strain the juice and chill./. These are used at 2 different stages.
Make a zabaglione with the 5 egg yolks, half the remaining sugar, and the fruity liqueur. This involves setting a water bath on the stove and bringing to a simmer. Place the sugar, fruity liqueur, egg yolks  into a non reactive, heatproof bowl and mix to break up the yolks. Place the bowl above the simmering water (taking care to ensure that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water), whisk the egg yolks until light and fluffy. The whisk will leave tracks in the mixture when it is done. Then add the chilled blueberry juice and whisk to incorporate. Remove the mixture to an ice bath.
Wash, clean and dry the beaters. You are about to make meringue, so the beaters and bowl must be very clean with no traces of fat. I wipe the bowl and beaters with a little vinegar to degrease them before making meringue since there will be a little acid required anyway. The bowl and the eggs need to be at room temperature to start with.
Whisk the eggs lightly until just foamy. Add the cream of tartar and whisk some more until the eggs start to look quite white. Add the rest of the sugar, whisk more and then place the bowl over the simmering water. Whisk for at least 5 minutes - until the egg whites show stiff peaks. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue to whisk until the mixture is room temperature. Cool the egg mixture.
Whip the cream until just past the floppy stage. Don't overwhip.  Chill.
Using cling wrap, make a sling along the long sides of 2lb loaf pan.
Fold the egg whites into the zabaglione in three additions. Fold the cream into the egg mixture, gently only working long enough so that no white streaks remain. Add the chilled jam/vinegar liquid on top of the mixture and swirl with a couple of strokes. Don't mix more than that or you will lose the effect. Place the mixture into the prepared bread pan. Fold the cling wrap over the top to seal, and freeze until set. This will depend on your freezer, but at least 6 hours, preferably more. When I make it, I give it 24 hours.
To serve, unmold the loaf onto a suitably sized plate, remove the cling wrap, decorate (or not) as you wish.
We served this with a Pedro Ximenez 1985 La Bodega sweet sherry

 

Poached egg ravioli

Madame was on a trip and whenever she is away, it seems that I dig into the egg files for another way of using them. This time was no exception. We had had New Year's Eve dinner at Boulevardier in Dallas where Madame had a raviolo filled with a poached egg. It was delicious, the yolk still just runny, but cooked, oozing over the besciamella. So, I thought to myself, how hard can this be? Answer - very hard! But so worth it.
The goal was to make some fresh pasta, roll it thinly, put an egg into one sheet, another sheet on top, seal it up and poach it. Piece of cake! NOT. However after several trials I found a workable solution.
First I tried poaching whole eggs, chilling them in an ice bath before making the ravioli. The result? Too much filling and not a great texture. Next, just separate the yolk, put that in the Ravioli and poach the ravioli for various amounts of time - finally settling for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Once the ravioli had been figured out, it was time to decide how to serve it. I opted for a simple salad - greens from the garden, a few tomatoes, some kalamata olives and some crumbled frico (parmesan tuiles) left over from a different party.

Ingredients (Pasta)

100 gm (a little less than 4 oz) tipo 00 or all purpose flower

1 whole egg

a little salt

1 T good quality olive oil

1T water

Method (Pasta)

make a volcano with the flour and salt on the work surface. Break a whole egg into the crater. Pierce the yolk, and then stir incorporating a little flour from the edges. Once the mixture has become thick, add the oil, and stir some more. Add  the water (if necessary), turn the dough over and collect it into a ball. Ignore any bits that stick to the work surface. Knead for a few minutes - gentle kneading  - pressing with the heel of your hand, then turning a quarter turn and repeating. Wrap the dough tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour - up to 24 hours.

Ingredients (Ravioli)

1 batch of pasta (above)

4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue or other uses)

Method (Ravioli)

Roll the pasta out very thinly indeed. It should make 2 strips 3 " wide and 3' long. On one strip place the egg yolks well spaced. Moisten the edges and the gaps in between the yolks before draping the second sheet. Press the second sheet to seal (where moistened). Make sure you get all the air out, and also make sure you use enough flour to prevent sticking. Crimp the rims of the ravioli and slide into simmering water for 3 minutes. At 3 minutes the pasta is cooked and the eggs are beginning to thicken.

Serve over a simple salad.

No wimpy food!

I have just come back from a few days in Boston - well Cambridge really where everything I had to eat could be summed up in one word - wimpy.

The Marriott used a kind of yellowy offering from a chemistry set to make a rather bland omelet - have they never heard of salt, I wonder? Anyway this yellow egg-like liquid made some of the worst tasting, rubbery breakfast food ever. The last day, I went to Sebastien's across the street - at least I knew they would use real eggs and the eggs were better. The fried potatoes were OK, but the textures were all off - and, again no salt. Anyone would think it had been the Boston Salt Party, not the Boston tea Party back in 1773.

Even the much vaunted Legal Sea Food was off its game a bit. My tradtional favourite there - the baked scrod - was no longer the work of art that it had once been. It now tasted like it was mass produced in some central kitchen where they had again lost the salt cellar.

I was therefore much relieved on Friday evening when our neighbors invited us for Tamales, which of course, are traditional amongst the Latino culture here for Christmas. Aha, at last food that tasted of something! Good hot sauce too, and some wonderful charro beans. Washed down with a couple of beers - ahhhh yes.