We’ve got lots and lots of kale and Swiss Chard in the garden that needs eating up before it flowers.  For a quick dinner side, we had it over a bean puree with feta cheese.  There was bean puree leftover the next day, so I had it with some sauteed kale drizzled with a bit of truffle oil, and a fried egg for lunch.  The bean puree came from What’s for Dinner Ron Sarni?, one of my best friend’s dad’s blog who makes all kinds of super Italian foods.

Fried Egg over Truffled Kale and Chickpea Puree
Serves 1

4 Large Kale Leaves
1 Egg
1 tbsp Truffle Oil
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Chickpea Puree

For the Puree (4 Servings):
24 Ounces Chickpeas
1 Cup Veggie Stock
1 Clove of Garlic
Fresh Thyme

Cook the (drained) chickpeas with minced garlic and veggie stock.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer about 10 minutes, add the fresh thyme and puree.

Saute kale with olive oil until wilted.  Remove from heat and stir in the truffle oil, season to taste.  Fry an egg.   Arrange the kale over the puree and top with the egg.

This was my lunch today, I needed something filling as I went for a 5 mile run earlier (woohoo!).  It’s not much effort if you’ve got sushi rice lying around, otherwise it requires a little extra time that I don’t usually allocate to mid day meals.  This is a pretty versatile salad- other ideas for toppings are: cucumber, avocado, julienned and fried sweet potato, wasabi, tofu, salmon, crab, etc.

Sushi Salad
Serves 1

Sushi Rice for One
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
1 Spring Onion
2 Tbsp Edamame
4 Mushrooms
1 tbsp Terriyaki Sauce
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Large leaf of Kale
1 Radish
3 Asparagus
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Salt
Red Chili Pepper Flakes

Cook Sushi Rice.  Meanwhile, prepare the Kale Chips.  Remove the largest vein in the hale, and tear into little pieces, about the size of a golf ball.  Wash and dry, then place on a lined baking sheet and mix with olive oil, garlic powder, red chili flakes, and salt. Bake in oven at 300 for about 15 minutes or until crisp. Steam asparagus. Chop up mushrooms and saute in sesame oil for a few minute son high heat until liquid released. Add terriyaki sauce so mushrooms are coated, cook a few minutes until all the sauce is absorbed. Chop up spring onion and radish, shell edamame.

When the rice is almost done, fry an egg, leaving the yolk runny. Place rice in a bowl and place sections of edamame, spring onion, kale, mushrooms, radishes, and asparagus. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and soy sauce, and place egg on top.

You may notice there are a lot more photos in this post, that’s because I wanted to show of my new bowl that I bought at TJ Maxx (!!)

Egg Fried in a Spinach Nest over Creamy Brandy Mushrooms
Serves 1

1 Egg
Bunch of Spinach
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Clove of Garlic
3 oz Mushrooms
Knob of Butter
1/6 Cup Brandy
1 tsp Creme Fraiche
Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Chop up the mushrooms and mince the garlic. In small frying pan, heat butter and olive oil and gently cok the garlic for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until juices have evapourated. Add brandy and thyme and cook until the brandy has evapourated. Turn heat to low and mix in creme fraiche, set aside.

Throw spinach and olive oil intil pan, arrange in a nestlike fashion. Crack egg into nest and cover the pan with a lid for a couple minutes. Remove lid and push in spinach with a spatula so that the nest becomes more of a neat circle that encloses the egg.

Arrange over mushrooms and eat with toast.

I massacred my egg a bit- when I put it into the poach pod the yolk separated, so it’s a bit of a mess. After the tian and the napoleons the other day, I had a couple extra slices of sweet potato, red skinned, and butternut squash to use up, so I thought a hash would be good, especially since I didn’t get my egg this weekend.

Poached Egg over Mixed Root Hash
Serves 1

1/2 Potato
1/2 Sweet Potato
2 Slices Butternut Squash
1/2 Onion
2 tsp Parsley
2 tsp Paprika
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Egg

Chop up the root vegetables into small rectangles. If you can be bothered to grate them, go ahead. Chop up the onion and saute in some olive oil for a few mins, then add the parsley and root vegetable mix. Cook over medium low for a few minutes, to speed the process up cover the pan for 3 minutes or so, stirring intermittently. Once the root vegetables are almost done, poach the egg. Season the root veggies with salt and pepper and when crisp and brown, remove and arrange on a plate. Place poached egg over the hash.

Egg baked with Goat Cheese, Radish and Mizuna

Bunch of Mizuna
1 Egg
Glob of Goat Cheese
1 Radish
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 small Garlic Clove

Wipe olive oil around ramekin. Arrange mizuna in the ramekin, and shave garlic clove on top, season with salt and pepper. Break an egg into the center and drop some goat cheese blobs on top. Slice a radish thinly and stick it in the egg. Bake in the oven for about 10 mins at 400. Shave some pecorino on top.

Gruyere and Chive Gougères (from David Lebovitz)
Makes 30

1/2 cup water
3 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
black pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
Chives -minced
3/4 cup Gruyere, grated
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

Melt cubed butter, water, salt and pepper in a saucepan, once all mixed well dump in the flour all at once.  Stir quickly, keeping the saucepan over medium low heat.  Once a ball of smooth dough forms, remove from heat and wait a minute or two before adding the eggs, one at a time.  Throw in the chives and the gruyere, mix well, and place on a parhchment lined baking sheet in rounds the size of a Ping Pong ball.  Bake in the oven at 425 for 10 minutes, and then turn down the heat to 375 and cook another 20 mins.  Remove when golden.  Eat while hot.

On Thursday (?) we ordered Chinese food.  Jon got General Tso’s Tofu and I got steamed veggies and tofu (yes, I am one of those).  Of course we didn’t finish it all, so we had a bunch of left overs.  Today we reused them- we stir fried the steamed veggies and tofu medley with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil to add some flavour and texture, and threw themin some broth composed of veg broth, garlic, fresh chives, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  If I had srirarcha sauce.. I would.  Then we added in some soba noodles and called it a day.  Jon pan fried his General Tso’s tofu, and it heated up very nicely!  Oh yeh, and I had a fried egg on top.

Soba Noodles with Veg and Tofu
Serves 2
Leftovers: Broccoli, sugar snap peas, tofu- whatever veggies you want to use up, kale and mushrooms and baby corn would work nicely.
Soba Noodles
Vegetable Broth- 3 cups
1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Fresh Ginger, grated and peeled
1 Garlic Clove
Fresh Chives
Sesame Oil

Sautee left over veggies and tofu in Sesame Oil, add garlic and ginger, and cook until flavours are absorbed (Note: If you are using tofu that has already been coated in sauce and fried, set this aside and cook on its own in a pan over high heat), set aside. Cook soba noodles, drain, and set aside. Cook broth- throw in veg broth, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and chives. Cook for about 10 mins so flavours meld together. Add in tofu, veggies, and noodles. Fry an egg in some oil, and baste with veg broth, cover and cook a few minutes. Arrange noodles and veg in a bowl, top with egg, and garnish with chives.

It’s Day 2 of being snowed in (see below).  The outdoor cat is inside, hiding out under the couch, and there is one very pissed off Weiner dog, who has resorted to peeing on the front porch due to his abhorrence of the snow.  Nevertheless it’s Saturday, which means EGGS.  I did another baked egg today, but went the extra mile and whisked the egg whites, thus making the egg light and airy, almost souffle like.  Today I baked my egg with spinach, garlic, and fresh chives, topped with pecorino, bread crumbs and olive oil.

Fluffy Baked Egg
1 ramekin

1 egg
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Pecorino, shaved
A couple fresh chives, chopped up
1 clove of garlic
Handul of fresh spinach
Salt and Pepper
1/2 tbs Bread Crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400, grease a ramekin with olive oil and line with spinach.  Separate the egg yolk and egg white, whisk the white until stiff.  Drop the egg white into the ramekin, and drop in chives and garlic, and egg yolk.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs, drizzle with olive oil, and arrange shaved pecorino on top, saving some for after baking.  Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes- the white should puff up and become golden from the cheese and breadcrumbs.  Remove and garnish with pecorino, eat with crusty bread.

Photo by Debbie

Jon took a photo of the snow every half hour and compiled a time-lapse photo, click here to see it.

I don’t know the difference between zucchini and green squash, I had assumed they were the same thing but for some reason they are sold separately at the supermarket.  I will have to have a look in my Food Lover’s Companion later! The point is, this dish will work with zucchini… but if zucchini is the equivalent of green squash, then that goes without saying.  This might be my new favourite egg dish, it was so yummy.

Poached Egg over Hashed Green Squash
Makes 1 Serving

1 Egg
1 Zucchini/Green Squash
1/2 Small Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter
Fresh Parsley
2 tsp of herbs- sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil.
Red Chili Pepper Flakes
Pecorino Cheese, or Parmesan Reggiano
1 Tbsp Bread Crumbs

Grate Zucchini, place in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze so to drain liquid.  Saute onions in olive oil and butter until soft, add garlic (sliced thinly) and dried herbs.  Cook a few minutes and add in zucchini and bread crumbs.  Meanwhile, poach eggs.  Once the zucchini has started to brown, stir in parsley and remove from pan, arrange on a plate.  Place poached egg over the hashed zucchini, and sprinkle with some Pecorino cheese and Red Chili Flakes.  Eat with crunchy toast.

This was New Years Day food, because New Years Eve was a rough one this year, so eggs were needed the next day. This is a special baked egg because I topped it with Mimolette, one of our cheeses from the New Yrs Eve platter.  It was a pretty mild cheese and worked well on the baked egg.  Though next time I would like to try some good goat cheese on top.

Baking eggs is my favourite way to cook them, I like the texture of the crispy spinach with a runny yolk; it was the first method that actually made me want to eat the yolk (it used to be handed over to my mum). I like to bake eggs with some greens.  The other day I used kale and it worked just as well, though typically I just throw in some spinach.

Baked Egg with Spinach, Fresh Basil and Mimolette
Serves 1

1 Egg
Handful of Spinach
1 small clove of garlic
1 Chunk of Mimolette
Fresh Basil
EVOO
Bit of butter

Grease an oven-proof ramekin with some olive oil.  Slice the garlic clve thinly, almost shave it.  Line the ramekin with spinach, throw in a bit of the garlic, and crack egg into ramekin.  Add some more slivers on top of the egg, sprinkle with fresh basil and drop a bit of butter on top.  Place shavings of mimolette on top.  Bake in the oven at 400 for about 15-20 mins, until the white has set.  Before serving, drizzle a bit of EVOO on top and some more fresh basil.