Tag: Eggs

Gift of Eggs and Kimchi Fried Rice

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My friend, Linda gave me a dozen fresh eggs this morning. My obessive love of eggs is no secret. What a happy gift!

At the end of the morning yoga session while everyone was enjoying a peaceful savasana, I was planning lunch. My leftover rice from last night already had quiet ambitions of becoming a kimchi fried rice topped with a fried egg. Now, I had fresh eggs to make that dish sing.

I first learned about Kimchi (a Korean cabbage pickle) with rice watching Food Network. Thank you, Ina Garten and guest.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kimchi-fried-rice-with-fried-egg-recipe-2131583

My version is simply leftover rice, mixed with kimchi, heated and then topped with an egg. The pickle is spicy-tart and makes the rice moist, crispy and flavorful. The deep orange yolk of the fresh egg works as a sweet-salty sauce.

So simple, so good.

Thanks to Linda, lunch was fantastic.

Wishing you a happy lunch,

Hungryphil

 

 

Food Poem- There will be things you do by Kim Dower

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you won’t know why.
Maybe waiting to tie
your shoelaces

until everything else
is in place.
Could be you’ll slide

your egg yolks aside
eat every bit of bacon,
toast, whites while the forsaken

yellow orbs stare at you
from the side pocket
of your empty plate.

People will ask
why do you save
your yolks for last

and you won’t know—
won’t recall
the cousin from the south

came to visit one summer
ate his eggs so odd
your family said

stuck with you
like the way
you love to be kissed

on the back of your neck
can vaguely recollect
your mother’s kisses

after your bath
too gentle for memory.
There will be things you do

you won’t know why
like the way you look
up at the sky

when anxious or blue
it’s what your father
used to do

every family trip
when nothing else
was right

except those clouds
moving north by northwest
through the night

he showed you
what pilots knew:
factors for safe flying

are visibility
and how low
and mean the clouds are.

“There Will Be Things You Do” by Kim Dower from Last Train to the Missing Planet. © Red Hen Press, 2016.

From the Writer’s Almanac: http://writersalmanac.org/page/5/

Food Poem -A Quiet Life by Baron Wormser

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fc83kt071-02_xlg.jpgWhat a person desires in life
is a properly boiled egg.
This isn’t as easy as it seems.
There must be gas and a stove,
the gas requires pipelines, mastodon drills,
banks that dispense the lozenge of capital.
There must be a pot, the product of mines
and furnaces and factories,
of dim early mornings and night-owl shifts,
of women in kerchiefs and men with
sweat-soaked hair.
Then water, the stuff of clouds and skies
and God knows what causes it to happen.
There seems always too much or too little
of it and more pipelines, meters, pumping
stations, towers, tanks.
And salt-a miracle of the first order,
the ace in any argument for God.
Only God could have imagined from
nothingness the pang of salt.
Political peace too. It should be quiet
when one eats an egg. No political hoodlums
knocking down doors, no lieutenants who are
ticked off at their scheming girlfriends and
take it out on you, no dictators
posing as tribunes.
It should be quiet, so quiet you can hear
the chicken, a creature usually mocked as a type
of fool, a cluck chained to the chore of her body.
Listen, she is there, pecking at a bit of grain
that came from nowhere.

Poem from the http://writersalmanac.org/

Image from http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to/boil-eggs-perfectly.aspx

Eggcellent Easter Recipes (Sorry couldn’t let the pun go…..)

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It has come very recently to my attention (yesterday) that there are many delicious egg centric recipes related to the Easter table. Sure, I was aware of ham, lamb and happy baby spring vegetables, delicious chocolate bunnies and neon yellow peeps…….but I missed out on the associated celebration of the egg, aside from the chocolate eggs. I, a big fan of eggs, feel cheated. In case you are new to this blog, my access to all celebrations whether pertaining to my childhood or not is centered on food. I quite literally consume the Super Bowl (Jim is still trying to teach me the rules of the game), Easter, Eid, Diwali, Thanksgiving , July 4th….you name it. I’m an equal opportunity eater. I know this is a bit reductive and possibly sacrilegious but my intentions are simply to share the joy and means no disrespect. So back to my Easter recipe search. I tried two of the many I found online.

Lemon Buttermilk Saffron Pie

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/lemon-buttermilk-pie-with-saffron-51223970

This is an wonderful combination of lemony tartness and flowery sweetness. The saffron makes it both exotic and familiar depending on which part of the globe your taste buds woke up.  It really tastes like spring in all its bright, sweet, floral glory. I’m guessing not very traditional but voting that it should be.

Leek and Feta Tart

Leek and feta tart

This was a savory taste of spring with sauteed leeks in a velvety egg blanket studded with feta. I can imagine endless variations of this tart…… asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, mushroom, squash…just to name a few.

This recipe was measured in grams and I was too lazy to officially convert, so I just used 3 eggs and about a cup of heavy cream. It worked great. Looked and tasted delicate and refined.

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For both recipes I used store bought pie crust. I had both done in a little over an hour (including baking time). The store bought crust meant I only had to mix the filling. This fact makes me think of the book I just finished reading “The American Way of Eating” by Tracie McMillan. Learned a lot. Fascinating and scary read. She mentions how even when we cook at home we use a lot of processed and packaged food. Makes me rethink the concept of home cooking and my use of Pillsbury pie dough. The book deserves a detailed discussion, maybe on a different post. We should start a foodie/eater book club….does anyone know of one out there already?

https://americanwayofeating.wordpress.com/

The best part about making/ assembling/ baking these two pies was cooking with my 13 year old. She first reluctantly sauteed the leeks and later eagerly measured the buttermilk, the sugar (commented on the amount…good for her), separated eggs, whisked and mixed. There are many social, anthropological and philosophical studies about our unique human practice of cooking. Frankly, I don’t know if the pies actually tastes as magical as I remember or if I’m tasting a rare-unhurried-salty-sweet-spring Sunday afternoon with my growing-into-a-cook, baby.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Wishing you many happy celebrations to eat through together,

The Hungry Philosopher

Rangpur Egg Curry

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photo

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My mom gave me this cooking book about regional cuisine of Bangladesh. Most of the recipes I have never tasted. Its strange to re-taste a cuisine I thought I knew. Here is one of the recipes that I tried. Its an egg curry with a twist. The curry sauce includes potatoes that gives the sauce a delicious thick soup-like consistency. The flavorful sauce clings to the fried boiled eggs. Delicious with rice but would also be great to dip with bread. Here’s my translation and U.S. interpretation of the recipe from the Bangaladeshi Regional Cookbook by Runa Arefin.

Aloo Dal Dim

Potatoes 1lb (about 4-5 medium red potatoes)

Eggs  4

Onions 2 (1 large American yellow onion)

Green chili peppers, chopped 4 (I used 1)

Ginger Paste 1/2 teaspoon

Garlic Paste 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin Powder 1/2 teaspoon

Tumeric Powder 1/2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Red Pepper Flakes 1/2 teaspoon

Oil 4 Table spoons

Cilantro 1 Table spoon

1. Boil potatoes and coarsely mash.

2. Boil eggs and peel.

3. Heat oil and fry eggs. The eggs will blister and the oil will pop…so be careful.

4. Take out eggs. In the same oil add and heat the onions and green chilies. Add Potatoes.

5. Add all the spices to the potato mixture. Add a little water. I put about 2 table spoons.

6. Once the spices are well incorporated and roasted. Add water to desired consistency. I added about 1/2 cup and simmered the curry a bit longer.

7. Add cilantro before serving.

Its not very spicy but feel free to adjust the heat or any of the spices to your taste. I just found the potato curry sauce an unusual surprise.

 

 

 

 

Confessions of an Egghead

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” The most private things in the world is an egg until it is broken.” …..from How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher

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“So beautiful in conception! The symbol of progress! If the egg were any other shape, the life of the hen would be intolerable.” ….. Raymond Loewy,  French American Industrial Designer

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In the kitchen, the egg is ultimately neither ingredient nor finished dish but rather a singularity with a thousand ends.” ……Egg by Michael Ruhlman

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Previously, I had mentioned my adoration of the egg. For my birthday, my Jim, gave me Ruhlman’s recent ode to the humble egg. It is the most romantic gift that I have ever received. I’m not being sarcastic. Really. The man obviously knows and loves me well.

The images are as sensual, as instructive, a gastronomic kama-sutra.  The chapters are divided into the multiple methods an egg can be employed:  in shell, out of shell, whole, separated, separated and reunited. Each recipe begins with a narrative that relates the history of recipe, the variations and sometimes even the limitations. The recipes are in both grams and cups! yay…thank you Mr. Ruhlman for indulging our American hubris. There is even a pull out flowchart (which I must frame)! Anyway, didn’t mean to write a review. (Sorry, force of academic habit.) Ahhhh. look at this. As I’m writing this blog with the cooking channel on,  I see Giada’s episode entitled, what else….”eggilcious.” I better go.

The point is…………..eggs are magnificent, comforting, binding, fluffy, frothy, sweet, salty, spicy, hard, soft, liquid, fragile, hard and so much more. What did I have for my birthday breakfast, you might ask? A sunny side up egg with a dash of Tobasco sauce on white buttered toast with guava jelly. Yum. I love eggs.