Braised beans. Take a 400g can of butter beans (drained), 400g can of tomatoes, 1 cup of chicken stock, two teaspoons of minced garlic, misc herbs to taste. Put them all in a saucepan or deep frying pan and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the tomato sauce has reduced by half and is nice and thick and stewy. About five minutes before you think it’s ready, stir in some baby spinach leaves. Serve with toast, or with bacon, mushrooms and a poached egg for an epic Sunday breakfast.
I’m not sorry about the pun!
This weekend I made POACHED EGGS. This is important because a) I haven’t attempted them since I was an apprentice a good 7 years ago, and b) up until a few weeks ago, I haven’t eaten runny eggs for a very, very long time. I’m talking over twenty years.
It all started when I was making a salad and I didn’t quite boil an egg for long enough, so it was still a bit runny inside. But, I ate it; and to my amazement there was no upset stomach, nor overwhelming “eggy” taste that usually turns me off! Then there were no holds barred! The next day there were soft boiled eggs, mushrooms, bacon and spinach for breakfast. A week later there were fried eggs, sunny side up (is there a better term for fried eggs not flipped? I don’t particularly like that phrase). Then, this weekend just past I attempted the poached eggs. I failed at my first two, the recipe I was using as a reference on Taste.com.au suggested to crack the eggs onto a plate first but I found that it completely destroyed the egg white as it entered the water. It could have been the eggs that I was using (it recommends to use the freshest eggs that you can) but I found cracking the eggs into rapid simmering water helped the egg whites to set better.
So, here’s what I did:
Bring a deep frypan full of water to a fast simmer.
Add a pinch of sea salt flakes and two teaspoons of lemon juice.
Slowly and carefully crack your eggs straight into the water. I did two at a time.
Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Remove eggs from the water with a slotted spoon, hold over a sink or other surface to drain slightly.
Serve with hot buttered toast (Rye! It’s good!) and bacon. Enjoy!
See, you don’t need a Sunbeam Eggo after all!
Christmas Lunch
Pork belly, turkey, ham and the usual vegetable accompaniments. Nothing that huge or exciting, but it was a wonderful day nontheless.
Delicious Cake
A fluffy marvel of epic rich chocolate proportions, as made by my nephew’s workmates.
Souvalaki and other BBQ delights at @kahlerisms’ NYE Toga Party
Not pictured: Beer Chicken, which was amazing. I am going to procure his recipe and publish it here at some stage.
Pictured: Your togate host, complete with home made fake plastic Camellia leaf laurel.
Eggy Breakfast
My first attempt at poached eggs. A delicious success!
I am lousy at writing restaurant reviews. I had some good breakfasts last weekend. Both delicious, both completely different scenes. Poached is around the corner from my humble abode and I have found myself eating a greasy, eggy hangover curing breakfast there on semi frequent occasion. Batch is quite the nice little cafe however the music was a bit loud, and the other Saturday morning patrons talking loudly as a result made it difficult to hold a conversation. According to my breakfast date, this isn’t usually the norm. Being a uni student, she has the luxury of the occasional weekday breakfast there and apparently it is much quieter ambience wise.
Batch:
Shop 1 320 Carlisle Road
Balaclava VIC 3183
Blueberry Pancakes with Maple Syrup
(not quite pictured: Avocado & Fetta mash. This looked so amazing, I had food regret).
Perfectly fluffy pancakes with hidden blueberries lightly dusted with icing sugar. Not hard to screw up. I loved the little vial of maple syrup, and the peppermint leaf tea was a nice little touch, too.
Poached:
169 Lygon St
Brunswick East VIC 3057
T: 03 9387 2396
Omelette with Gypsy ham, tomato, fetta and mushrooms
My breakfast: I thought I’d give the egg battle another go, but I failed miserably. In saying that, the omelette was sufficiently delicious, but my stomach just doesn’t like to co-operate with my egglust.
Eggs Florentine
I would have to be feeling pretty self destructive to attempt any type of poached or soft boiled egg. I have it on good authority from my breakfast date that the Eggs Florentine is AAAAAAAA+++++++ would eat again.
