Egg and Mushrooms In A Cup

This is my version of oeufs en cocotte, the soft, creamy, and delicious eggs baked or poached in small pots or ramekins called cocottes. I don't have those mini cast iron or ceramic pots so I cooked the eggs in my small glass coffee cups because my ramekins are presently occupied. The coffee cups are a bit tall which I found out is better because they hold more yummy sauteed mushrooms. I also didn't bake them as it's easier and faster to poach them in a saucepan directly on the stove and there is no need to heat up the oven.

There are many versions of this egg dish. Some have bacon, cream, and/or cheese and some recipes don't have anything but 2 eggs in a buttered ramekin, but you can use whatever fancies you. I prefer the eggs with button mushrooms simply sauteed in extra virgin olive oil with shallots and seasoned with sea salt and a little minced parsley. The cooked mushrooms are layered alternately with a spoonful of crème fraîche before topping with an egg and poaching in gently simmering water. I love it with slightly sweet toasted brioche fingers which you can use to poke the egg to reveal the pretty runny yolk. I don't mind having this often for breakfast, brunch, and yes, for dinner too.

Oeufs en Cocotte
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or butter
2 large shallots, sliced
20 pieces button mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
a pinch of ground white pepper
2 teaspoons minced flat-leaf parsley
crème fraîche
4 eggs
sea salt

• In a skillet, heat oil or butter and saute shallots and mushrooms over high heat until mushrooms are golden. Turn off heat and stir in salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon parsley.
• Divide mixture into 8 portions. Spoon one portion on the bottom of a ramekin, add a tablespoon of cream, repeat one more time. Crack one egg on top of each filled ramekin and sprinkle with a little sea salt.
• Bake in a bain marie in a preheated 350°F oven until the tops are set but yolks are still runny, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining parsley. Serve with croutons or toasted brioche fingers.

so simple to make yet so satisfying

To make homemade crème fraîche: In a small jar, stir 1 tablespoon buttermilk into 1 cup heavy cream. Cover the jar and leave on the kitchen counter for 24 hours or until the mixture has set. Refrigerate immediately. This will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. This is very good as topping for baked potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Mangga, Suman, At Tsokolate

a yummy Filipino breakfast: suman with chocolate, ripe mango, and frothy hot chocolate

There's nothing gloomier than waking up to a sunless rainy Sunday morning. Remembering the store-bought Suman Con Tsokolate in the refrigerator and seeing the bright yellow ripe mangoes on the kitchen counter thankfully brightened up the day. And having frothy hot chocolate with this delicious pair perked me up and made me more cheerful.^__^

Garlic Fried Rice, Corned Beef Hash, And Fried Egg: A Filipino Breakfast

The theme for this week's Lasang Pinoy Sundays is BREAKFAST and one of our all-time weekend favorites is Corned Beef Hash with garlic fried rice and sunny-side-up or over-easy fried eggs.

Corned Beef Hash
corned beef
1½ pounds beef brisket
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon pickling spice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, quartered
¾ teaspoon pink salt, optional (if you prefer the cooked meat with red hue)
water

corned beef hash
cooked corned beef
2 tablespoons olive or grapeseed oil
1 medium red-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into very small cubes
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

• Cook the corned beef: Put brisket in a pot large enough to accommodate the brisket. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover meat. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat down to medium, and boil for 2 hours. Remove cooked meat and transfer into a plate. Leave until cool enough to handle.
• Prepare the corned beef hash: Slice the brisket across the grain into 1½-inch strips. Shred the meat using 2 forks or with (gloved) hands. Set aside.
• In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry potatoes until slightly brown. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
• In the same skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon oil and sauté garlic and onion and cook until onion is soft. Add tomatoes and sauté for 1 minute. Add the shredded brisket and potatoes, stir fry for 1 minute. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Stir fry for another minute. Serve hot with garlic fried rice and fried or scrambled eggs.

homemade Corned Beef Hash is better than the canned pap

I also love corned beef with chunks of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and turnips or white kohlrabi.
To make Corned Beef And Cabbage: Double the ingredients. Remove meat after boiling and transfer to a platter. Strain the liquid and discard solids. Adjust seasoning and return liquid into the pot with the brisket and vegetables. Boil for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve with grainy Dijon mustard or bottled horseradish sauce.

The Breakphast Of Champions

Most probably you have heard of Michael Phelps' whopping 12,000 daily calorie intake and his much talked and blogged about breakfast that NBC's Bob Costas reported as:

"...Three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise, add one (five-egg) omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, then wash down with three chocolate chip pancakes."

To celebrate Phelps's GR-EIGHT performance, for breakfast I made chocolate chip pancakes and a 5-egg omelet filled with the freshest shiitake mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter and seasoned with very little Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and sea salt. Yummy breakfast for *couch potato* champions like myself.

shiitake mushrooms that look like pancakes growing on logs

I'm no champion eater, I can barely finish 2 pancakes and less than half of the omelet

Food and iPod

a Filipino breakfast of chicken tocino, garlic fried rice and fried egg

My regular readers may have noticed that I have been cooking food that I have seen in movies or songs I recently played from my iPod list. I have written about The Beatles' Savoy Truffle and Cibo Matto's Le Pain Perdu and very recently Puerco Pibil and Crepes. Some bloggers include the songs they were listening to while preparing the food for their posts which gave me the idea of associating my song list with food. The songs should not necessarily be about food but have the potential to be associated with food. My daughter suggested that I set my iPod to shuffle for the surprise aspect, then choose one of the songs out of the first 5 or 10 songs and prepare a dish for that song. To my utter surprise the 5 songs have food or at least subjects that can easily be related to food.

1. Umaga (morning), Susie Ibarra - breakfast
2. Big Eater, The Bad Plus - a dinner of T-bone steak, mashed or baked potato, Elaine's The Big Salad, and a slice of apple pie a la mode fit for a king, i.e. David King of TBP
3. Criss Cross, Thelonius Monk - hot cross buns or chocolate pretzels
4. Beef Jerky, Cibo Matto - beef jerky
5. Midnight, Jimi Hendrix - a light snack or a nightcap

Choosing which song was sooo easy, of course it's Umaga by Susie Ibarra, a Filipino-American avant/free jazz drummer and percussionist. The song is from The Susie Ibarra Trio album FOLKLORIKO which is a tribute to Filipino migrant workers. To hear samples of her songs click on the album title. On this CD she plays the kulintang in one song and in the second part of the CD titled Lakbay (journey) the drums and percussions accompanied by piano and violin.

Umaga (morning) of course starts with a substantial breakfast and for Filipino workers it means fried rice and meat or fried dried fish such as danggit from the Visayas. I myself did not eat fried rice for breakfast while growing up, we ate pandesal and sliced bread and up to the present only eat it on weekends, sort of a special treat when we are more relaxed and do not have to hurry for school or work. I decided to make chicken tocino because I wanted to try the homemade anise liqueur I recently made and because someone asked for the recipe.

Chicken Tocino
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, sliced thin
¼ teaspoons pink salt (Instacure #1)
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 - 4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon anise liqueur or red wine
1 tanlespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon ground white pepperMix seasoning ingredients. Rub chicken pieces well with the mixture. Place in a ziploc gallon freezer bag and refrigerate for 3 days.

• To cook: in a non-stick skillet arrange a few pieces of the cured meat with 2 tablespoons each of water and vegetable oil. Turn heat on to medium low, cover, and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Uncover and shallow fry until browned on both sides. Serve with garlic fried rice, fried eggs, diced tomatoes, and vinegar dipping sauce. Freshly brewed Barako coffee is optional.

Fried rice: In a non-stick wok, heat 2 tablespoons light olive oil, add 2 cups warm cooked rice, sprinkle with 1 - 2 teaspoons crumbled fried sliced garlic (available from Filipino/Asian stores), and 2 teaspoons sea salt. Stir fry for 2 minutes or until rice is heated through. You may also use fresh garlic. Fry it first in the oil until golden brown before adding rice. I prefer using the fried garlic from the Philippines for the convenience and stronger garlic flavor.

I think this would be an interesting food meme exercise. Go ahead and try it for yourself, food and music association will occupy your time and mind instead of agonizing on whether your favorite candidate will lose to the opposition.:D