On Poached Eggs and Shakshuka

Have I ever mentioned how much I love eggs? I love eggs—poached, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, fried, in omelettes, egg salad, as accents in other salads, not to mention their essential use in baking.

I think my favourite egg dish is eggs benedict, but I always have trouble with the poaching. The egg white just drifts off and I can't get it to go around the yolk in that lovely oval nestling way that proper poached eggs should have. I have tried all kinds of techniques: creating a gentle vortex, adding vinegar in the water, precooking the egg in the shell fo 30 seconds first.

I think the biggest problem is that supermarket eggs are just not fresh enough. In Europe they believe that eggs should not be chilled, so that they are sold at room temperature, which does not help in keeping them fresh. They should read Harold McGee.

In my recent visit back home I picked up some silicon egg poachers that I hope will help me in my quest for better poached eggs. I have tried them once and they were OK, but I needed to peel the eggs out of them. Next time, I'll try a bit of oil spray.

But another variation on a poached egg is to simmer it in a sauce. So today I tried that Middle-eastern favourite, shakshuka, which are eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce.

This is a basic recipe, but I suspect it is infinitely variable depending on what you have on hand. Potatoes or aubergine can be substituted for the sweet red pepper, or you could add some spinach. One thing that I think is missing is an onion. Some feta sprinkled over it would also be yummy.

Shakshuka

Adapted from Jerusalem,
by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
(Halved the recipe, used different hot paste, omitted extra egg yolks and salt, omitted laban or yoghurt)
Serves 1-2
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 sweet red pepper, diced in .5 cm pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chili paste, such as harissa or sambal (I used sambal badjak)
.5 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
1 can (400 gram) skinned tomatoes
2 eggs
pita bread

1. In a medium skillet, sauté the diced red pepper, minced garlic, chili paste, tomato paste, and ground cumin for about 8 minutes, until the red pepper is softened.
2. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is fairly thick. Before adding the eggs, taste it and adjust the seasoning. I omitted the salt because I find canned tomatoes, tomato paste and chili paste generally have more than enough salt, and this proved to be the case.
3. Break the eggs into the sauce and gently simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs. (The author says to create a well for each egg in the sauce, but this means the egg makes contact with the frying pan and the yolk will cook from the bottom and be harder than I like.) I like the whites solid and the yolks runny, which poses a bit of a challenge, so I mixed the egg whites into the tomato sauce a bit and after 5 minutes partially covered the skillet to get the top whites to cook, while stilling keeping the egg yolks sunny yellow. 
4. Serve with some pita bread or turkish bread to sop up the sauce.

I ate this all on my own for supper, but it could easily serve 2 for lunch (especially if you add an extra egg and serve with a side salad).

Charred Eggplant Soup

I have acquired new cookbooks! Both are by the London-based Israeli chef Yottam Ottolenghi, who is famous for his restaurants and catering shops in London. I've never been to one, but he's also well-known for his eclectic and original recipes, often featuring vegetables in the starring role.

So my first recipe to try was using one of my favourite vegies—eggplant. He has a number of recipes that call for burnt aubergine, which means cooking them over a gas flame until they are charred  on the outside and soft and smoky-tasting on the inside. One of them is this soup.

This recipe is a bit labour-intensive but it a delivers a rib-sticking soup with a smoky, earthy, sweet and sour flavour that is really unusual. I liked it a lot, but the immediate hit of charred eggplant flavour might not be to everyone's taste.

The recipe also calls for a type of giant couscous that is difficult to obtain. None of the stores in my neighbourhood carried it under the names provided, but I did find some nameless pasta that was shaped  a bit like little balls, so I used that, since couscous is really a form of pasta. The soup would work very well without it, but it adds that extra heft needed for a main course soup.

Charred Eggplant Soup

Adapted from Jerusalem

(I reduced the amount of oil and increased the chicken stock.
I also didn't bother skinning and seeding the tomatoes.)

5 small eggplants (about 1.3 kilos in total)

3-4 tablespoons oil

1 onion

1 tsp freshly-ground cumin

1 tablespoon tomato paste

4-5 medium tomatoes (350 grams), or used canned tomatoes

4 smashed garlic cloves

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons sugar

1.5 teaspoon salt

400 ml chicken stock

400 ml water

1 tsp freshly-ground pepper

100 grams pearl pasta (as I call it)

fresh dill for garnish

1. Line 3 gas burners with tin foil to catch the juices and keep the stove-top clean. Place one eggplant on each burner and set the flame to medium or high (depending on the size of the burner). Cook for about 15 minutes, turning regularly until the outside is charred and the inside is limp and soft. The skin will burst and some juices leak out. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then scoop the flesh out or peel the charred skin off. Place the flesh into a colander, rinse to get the last charred flakes off, and allow to drain.
2. Cut the remaining 2 eggplants into about 1.5 cm cubes.
3. In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat. Add the diced eggplant, stirring thoroughly to distribute the oil over the eggplant. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the eggplant browns and turns soft. At first the eggplant will absorb the oil, but as it cooks, it will release it again. If it is not browning at this point, turn up the heat so that at least some of the cubes get some nice colour on them. If necessary, add a bit more oil.
4. When the diced eggplant is brown and cooked, remove it from the pot and set it aside in a colander to drain, and sprinkle with some salt. Keep any remaining oil in the pot or top up to about 1 tablespoon.
5. Now add the onion and ground cumin and sauté for 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for another minute.
7. Add the tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, salt, stock, and water. Simmer for 15 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, cook the "pearl" pasta until al dente. Mine took about 10 minutes.
9. Add the charred eggplant into the soup and purée using a hand-held blender. If the soup is too thick, add some more water or stock. Then add most of the cubed eggplant and most of the pearl pasta, reserving some of both for the garnish. Heat through for about 2 minutes and adjust the seasoning (sweet, sour, salt, pepper).
10. Serve the hot soup in bowls garnished with the remaining diced eggplant, pearl pasta and fresh dill.

If you plan to freeze the soup, it might be worth omitting the pasta and only adding it just before serving, since pasta tends to expand and go mushy when left to sit in soup.

I think this soup would also be great with a bit of heat and might consider adding some chilli flakes the next time I make it.

If you don't have gas burners, put the eggplants under the broiler for about an hour, turning regularly. I haven't tried this; it's the author's advice.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Holland has good bakeries, but the Dutch are not home bakers. Flour and sugar are only available in 1 kilo packages, baking powder comes in small envelopes, baking soda is not sold at all, and the rest seems to be box kits. And chocolate chips are unknown. On the plus side, you can buy ready-made  amandelspeis (somewhere between marzipan and frangipane), the almond filling used in a lot of baked goods here.

For chocolate chip cookies you need to either chop a chocolate bar in pieces (we do have good chocolate here!) or rely on visitors from across the pond. So when one of my colleagues emailed me from Vancouver that he could pick something up from the grocery store, I asked for chocolate chips.



I started with the recipe on the back of the President's Choice Milk Chocolate Chips. It calls for cooled melted butter (!?), 1.5 cups of chocolate chips, and a cookie size of 2 tablespoons to produce 24 cookies. I assume they are huge and the dough is just an excuse to hold the chocolate chips together. Because I used 1.25 cups of chocolate chips and a cookie size of 1 tablespoon to produce almost 60 perfectly sized cookies that were abundantly filled.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from President's Choice
Yield: aprox. 60 cookies.

200 grams (3/4 cup)    butter
240 grams (1 1/3 cup) light brown sugar
1                                   egg
1                                   egg yolk
300 grams (2 cups)      flour
1/2 teaspoon                baking powder
1/2 teaspoon                salt
160 grams (1 1/3 cup) chocolate chips
60 grams (1/2 cup)      toasted pecan nuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F/ 170 C, placing 1 rack in the top third and one rack in the bottom third of the oven. (I only have one rack, so I used a roasting pan. Next time I'll try the roasting pan in the top third, as the cookies on the top rack get done more quickly.)
2. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
3. Melt the butter and chill to room temperature.
4. Beat the sugar, butter, and eggs together until they form a creamy liquid.
5. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl, and then add to the liquid ingredients. 
6. Mix the cookie dough until everything is thoroughly combined (I used an electric mixer).
7. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.
8. Use a teaspoon (5ml) to measure out the dough and drop onto cookies sheets, spacing them about 5 cm/2 inches apart. I was able to get 15 on each sheet.
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Half-way through, switch the cookie sheets, moving the bottom one up and the top one down. Also reverse them, so the front is move to the back. 
10. When lightly browned, remove to a cooling rack. The cookies will still be soft but will harden as they cool.
11. Serve with a glass of cold milk or a cup of tea.

Shortcuts are Good, or The Thrifty Cook

"Shortcuts are good" and "who's got time for that?" These are common expressions adopted from a friend of my sister. She must be a practical, busy woman.  I use it to explain why, despite my cooking hobby, I do not make everything from scratch. I use commercial pasta sauce,  canned beans, bagged salad greens, frozen potato croquettes, bouillon blocks, jarred fond, and lots more convenience foods.

But I also make some of my own convenience foods, usually just trying to be less wasteful. Or I try to prepare things in the weekend ready for lunches and quick suppers in the rest of the week.

• The skin of every lemon that comes into my house is scrubbed and grated before it is squeezed for its juice. The lemon rind goes into a little jar in the freezer, and every time I need some, I just scrape out the amount I need.
• Extra lemon juice is saved in another little jar, or frozen into ice cubes containing a tablespoon each. They defrost in no time, ready for use in salads, sauces, or baking.
• Chicken, beef, and lamb bones are simmered in some water, maybe with some vegetables and parsley stems, before being discarded. I freeze the resulting broth in ice cube bags or small containers for use in soups, salads and sauces. This reduces the need for bouillon cubes.
• If I have a largish bunch of basil, I'll make pesto and freeze it into ice cubes, ready to be defrosted and used on crackers, pasta, or tomato salad.
• I clean and save handy-size glass jars so that I can save extra dressings, sauces, and odds and bobs of dried goods. My favourites are peanut butter jars (for broth and blanched vegetables), Bonne Maman jam jars (for nuts, seeds, rice, sugar, orzo), Conimex sambal jars (for dressings, lemon juice, and lemon zest), and AH fond jars (for everything).
• Canadian milk bags are also a great way to save foods. They are sturdy plastic, in a convenient size, perfect as lunch bags or freezer bags. I never buy plastic lunch or freezer bags. (Thanks Mom, for saving these for me!)

So what are some of your tips and tricks for shortcuts and thrift?

Vegetable Pie

One of the standard recipes in my repertoire is Greek Leek Onion Pie, but I'm always left with half a package of phyllo dough left over. Its long skinny shape doesn't fit into my small freezer, so I've been thinking of ways of using up the remnant. And I have to say, I think I've come up with a winner.

I made it with one of my favourite combinations of vegetables and some aged goat cheese, but I think you could make it with a wide variety of vegetables as long as the moisture level isn't too high.

Vegetable Pie
4-6 servings
Note: I use an oil spritzer to grease the casserole dish and every layer of pastry. This lets me use very little oil for an even coverage. If you don't have one, I suggest brushing every second layer of pastry with olive oil.

1 sweet potato (ca. 285 grams)
1 medium aubergine (ca. 300 grams)
2 medium onions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 red pepper
2 small onions
80 grams aged goat cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon fresh dill
salt and pepper
olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Grease a casserole dish, and place a layer of phyllo pastry in the bottom, centered with the overhang on either side. Spray with oil and repeat with four more layers.
2. Slice the sweet potato, eggplant, onion, and tomatoes into 1 cm slices; mince the garlic, and cut the red pepper into side strips.
3. Layer the vegetables, one vegetable at a time, into the pastry-lined casserole, seasoning each layer with some of the basil, dill, salt and pepper. I started with the sweet potato on the bottom, followed, by the onion, eggplant, garlic, red, and tomatoes. 
4. Top the vegetables with sliced cheese.
5. Fold the overhanging pastry over the vegetable filling, and spray (or brush) the top with oil. Sprinke some more herbs and paprika over the top, then cover with aluminum foil.
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 30-45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
7. Serve with a salad of chopped tomatoes, cucumber, and spring onions.

Strawberry Cake

This is the story of a very forgiving, easy cake, and I have the photos to prove it. I discovered this recipe last summer and made it twice, with different, equally delicious results.

Today I discovered the strawberries I had sitting on the counter had to be used today, with no further delay, and this recipe came to mind again. Only this time, I mis-read the recipe and used 50% more flour than I should have. And it still turned out fine. Denser, but still delicious.

June is the time that local strawberries come on the market, and there is no point in buying them any time that they are not local.  Since this recipe uses fresh strawberries, it is an ideal summer cake.







The first time I made this recipe I followed it exactly, including a mix of all-purpose and barley flour. It turned out perfect, with a soft crumb and delicate flavour. I made it in a cake pan, and the batter ended up buckling around the fruit on top.

The second time I made it in spring-form pan, but the fruit ended up sinking to the bottom, but it tasted great and I just managed to take a picture before the rest of it was consumed.

The third time I made it in a deep dish pie plate, I didn't have any barley flour and it was too early in the morning, so I rushed though the instructions and added 2.25 cups of flour instead of 1.5 cups. I also used buttermilk instead of milk. The cake ended up being denser, perhaps more muffin-like than cake like, or like a cobbler. I can imagine serving it with some warm custard served over it.

Strawberry Cake

Once again, this recipe is adapted from  Smitten Kitchen.

225 grams (1 1/2 cup)   flour (up to 50% barley flour)

1/2 teaspoon                  baking soda

1 teaspoon                     baking powder

1/2 teaspoon                  salt
85 grams                        butter

190 grams (7/8 cup)      sugar

120 ml (1/2 cup)           buttermilk

1                                    egg

1 teaspoon                     vanilla extract

300 grams  (3/4 pound) strawberries

1 tablespoon                 sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter a 9-10 inch cake pan, a 9-inch deep dish pie pan, or a spring form pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla and mix until just combined.
5. Gradually add the flour and mix until just combined.
6. Pour into the greased pan, then stud the strawberries over the batter. Depending on how many strawberries you have, they may totally cover the batter, or be spaced a bit.
7. Sprinkle a tablespoon og sugar over the top.
8. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 325F and bake for another 50-60 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a tester comes out clean.
9. Once it cools, you can sprinkle some icing sugar on top. This looks especially nice if the fruit dropped to the bottom and the top is quite smooth.

This is what the batter is supposed to look like

This is what the batter looks like with too much flour (and strawberries!)

Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread

The number of over-ripe bananas accumulating in my freezer had reached critical proportions (8!) so I thought it was about time to do some baking.

I have 2 favourite recipes for banana bread, but I've made them so often I decided to look for some new inspiration, and naturally came to think of peanut butter.

Peanut butter and bananas are a great combination. For breakfast or dessert, I've been known to just slice a banana in half length-wise and smear peanut butter between the two layers. And of course toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches are classic, so I thought a PB riff on banana bread would not be misplaced.

This  turned out to be a vegan banana bread, made with peanut butter and seroendeng. (I have an industrial-size jar of seroendeng that needs to be used up, and the amount of nasi goreng I can consume is limited.) I also made a classic banana cake with eggs and butter.

My testers (aka colleagues) turned out to be very divided on which one they liked better. Half preferred the one and half the other, and the comments were very interesting. One thought the peanut butter flavour was too dominant, another couldn't identify what the extra flavour was; one preferred the banana-y flavour of the cake, another found it too straight and mild.

My personal opinion? Mwah. I find that vegan cakes tend to be slightly drier than normal cakes, and denser. There is just no substitute for eggs. It tastes best smeared with a bit of butter (which of course makes it non-vegan). Ultimately, I think my other regular banana bread recipes have the edge over this one, but for those who like spiced banana bread, this makes a good variation.

Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I adapted this from here, omitting the chocolate chips, substituting brown sugars for white, and adding cinnamon and seroendeng.

2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
6 tablespoons warm water

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/5 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup seroendeng, optional *

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup yellow sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (demerera), loosely packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter


* Seroendeng kering is an Indonesian condiment of toasted coconut, peanuts, sugar, and salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
2. Grease a 9 cup cake form, such as 12x4.5 inch loaf pan, a bundt cake pan, and dust with flour or fine bread crumbs.
3. Combine the ground flax seeds and hot water in a small bowl and set aside. I use a coffee grinder to grind the seeds. (This is a  substitute for 2 eggs,  so if  you are not constrained, feel free to use eggs instead. )
4. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and seroendeng in a medium large bowl.
5. In a large bowl, mix the oil, brown sugars, vanilla, bananas, peanut butter and flax seed mixture (or 2 eggs). Mix thoroughly (I used a mixer). 
6. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the dry ingredients are just wet. Do not over-mix.
7. Spoon the batter into the greased pan and (optionally) sprinkle the top with another tablespoon or two of seroendeng. Bake for 50-60 minutes.