Special Occasion Breakfast - Eggs Benedict

Master Chef is a great show. I like the concept that all the contestants are amateur home cooks and throughout the competitions, they learn and grow into the level of professional chefs. The challenges in each episode are very inspiring as well. I've made quite a few dishes that are inspired by the show, such as butter poached lobster from last season of our favorite contestant Luca. He did this challenge approaching the end of the season and the dish he presented was purely awesome! This time what caught my eye was this eggs benedict, a perfectly poached egg with pan-fried ham covered with creamy hollandaise sauce on a piece of nicely toasted English muffin. I think they've done this challenge in last season too but since I've had an unpleasant experience of making hollandaise sauce before, I was kind of intimidated by this dish. After all it's not a regular breakfast at home by no means.

Ever since Sebastian was born, I've spent much less time in the kitchen (not that I didn't feel like cooking, but it seems to be a thousand of different other things to do before I can squeeze some time out for cooking... well it is what it is for an inexperienced new mother). I do enjoy making breakfast on weekend as during the week we never get chance to sit at table having breakfast together. The other big reason is that Chris can skip breakfast, lunch altogether and have no food in his stomach at all until a huge barbecue dinner. Not healthy! So let's just make this weekend a little bit special and I'm determined to try this dish out.

And... it ain't easy! I found chef Gordon Ramsay's video on Youtube only to replace the ham with smoked bacon (again the bacon! It's our true love..lol). I tempted to follow the video step by step but that was just a mission impossible. I can NOT move so fast and efficiently while multitasking! So I decided to start with the most difficult part, the hollandaise sauce. Ingredients could not be any simpler but the process was a total work out. My arm began to be sore after 2 minutes of constant whisking egg yolks! To make things worse, the temperature of the water was too high and the yolks started to curdle. Ugh..there we go, another failed attempt. Dumped it out, cleaned the pot, cracked more eggs and warmed up some more butter, went for the 2nd attempt. Chris helped me to whisk the yolks this time! Woohoo!!! I lowered the heat and took the sauce off the heat as soon as it started to thicken up a little bit. It worked!!! YAY~~~~~~~Then the poached eggs. This was actually much easier than I expected. Swirl the water and one egg at a time, cook till the egg white start to firm up, drain it before assembling. The eggs were beautifully cooked, yolks oozing out when cut in half. YUM!!

Okay, I have to one thing. I'm not gonna make this breakfast very often no matter how wonderful it tastes. Cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol! Imagine all the yolks with butter, muffin toasted in bacon fat, oh yeah, they sound so yummy but seriously, you won't feel too good by eating that on a regular basis. Plus, it just makes the dish more attractive when it's for a special occasion, right? Now I can let Chris skip his lunch and wait for his favorite dinner time.

Eggs Benedict

- 4 eggs
- 2 English muffins
- 4 slices of smoked bacon
- 1 batch of Hollandaise sauce (see below Hollandaise sauce recipe)
- 1 tbs of white vinegar
- a pinch of salt

Steps:

- Bring a pot of water into boil. Add a tbs of white vinegar and swirl the water gently.
- Break 4 eggs into individual cups. Drop 1 egg at a time into the boiling water. Remove any excessive egg whites.
- Poach the egg for 2-3 minutes and move the egg with a spotted spoon on to a kitchen towel to drain any extra water. Repeat the same process until all the eggs are done.
- While poaching the eggs, put bacon slices on a flat pan on medium high heat. Cook the bacon slices until they are almost crispy.
- Pull the bacon slices out onto a piece of paper towel to drain extra oil.
- Pour out the bacon grease and leave a little bit in the pan. Toast the English muffin in the bacon fat on high heat for about 1 minute.

- For assembling, lay 1 bacon slice on a piece of muffin, put the poached egg on bacon slice. Pour a generous spoon full of Hollandaise sauce on top.


Hollandaise Sauce

- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cups of butter, melted
- 1 lime, juice
- a pinch of cayenne pepper
- a pinch of salt

Steps:

- In a glass bowl, whisk egg yolks vigorously until volume almost doubled
- Bring a pot of water into simmer. Turn the heat to low. Put the bowl of egg yolks on top of the simmering water. Keep whisking.
- Add warm butter into the yolks, one tablespoon at a time, whisk until well combined.
- Keep adding butter until all butter is well combined with the yolks.
- Remove from heat. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt to the taste. Add lime juice and whisk to combine.
- Cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

About Mood Board

It was not long ago when I was browsing other people's blogs that I learned this mood board thing. I've always been keen on those picture clusters under one theme with a combination of color patches. They look neat and story telling, very artistic and professional. Since I've decided to put some effort on my blog, I figure it's time to start learning some photoshop techniques and make my pictures more professional looking. So here I am, after hours of Youtubing and playing around on my computer (80 percent of the time with frustration), I finally put a couple of pictures together and create this board of avocado-loving mood. It ain't easy at all!! As simple as picking the right color theme, it already drives me nuts since the more I stare at the colors, the more I don't feel they go along together. And then the choice of font, I may need a new pair of glasses...  But after all it was a great attempt and I'm encouraged to learn more now.

Chunky Guacamole

- 2 avocados, ripe but still firm
- 1/2 yellow onions, finely chopped
- 2 roman tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1 lime, juice
- a hand full of cilantro, more or less to your taste
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch cayenne pepper

Cut the avocados into cubes and mix all the ingredients together. You can make it super smooth by simply mash the avocado as finely as possible. I love the texture of chunky avocado so I just roughly mash them with a fork. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving. Dip with Doritos, or any chips you like, and enjoy the refreshing healthy summer snacks!

*Tip: Leave the avocado cores in the dish to prevent from oxidation.

Fresh Corn On The Cob

One of the best seasonal deliciousness is corn on the cob. Picked from the farm, either grilled on the barbecue with husks on or boiled in the water with no husks, fresh corns are sweet, juicy, tender, absolutely yummy! They are almost like a great dessert after a filling steak dinner. At least I can never say no to an extra piece of corn even my belly is so full already.

Every summer, there's a corn truck parking off road on the way home from our office. We always grab half a dozen if we see the truck there. They taste so good, not those store bought ones can compare to. If it's a sunny day, soak them and throw them on the barbecue until they are cooked and a little bit charred on the inside. Recently Chris discovered an easy way to peel off the husks. Cut about half an inch from the bottom of the corn and just squeeze the whole corn out of the open end. It looks really clean and easy but the only hesitate I have about doing this is that I'm gonna have a burning hand before I can even enjoy my corn. Hmm maybe wearing gloves can help, or I'll just let Chris handle this part.  =P

Now, with a little bit salt and pepper (I usually don't put them on mine since I enjoy the pure sweetness of the corn), and A LOT OF BUTTER, have a mouth full of the season's delicacy!

Surf n Turf - Butter Garlic Broiled Lobster Tail with Filet Mignon

Life with Chris has been like an adventure in so many aspects. We came from different background; we lived different lifestyles; we enjoyed different food. We were born and brought up in the cities 7000 miles apart. But some things we share in common, the love for each other, a cute baby boy, an open mind for new stuff, a passionate appetite when it comes to food.

Chris is a meat lover, not the type of meat you find in a Chinese stir-fry dish but a whole big piece that covers 3/4 of an entrée plate. I, on the other hand, love seafood a lot. From steamed fish to pan-seared shrimps, from Cantonese style to Japanese sashimi, as long as it's seafood, I'll try it. We always joke about the fact that one steak meal he eats probably equals to my meat consumption for an entire month! But ever since Chris cooked me a steak dinner for our first date, guess who can finish a whole piece of Costco steak and wait for dessert now?

To cooperate both of our preference in one meal as we always do, we made this steak and lobster dish the other day. Chris marinated the meat a couple of hours before putting it on the grill. Oh yes, the grill, with smoking hot charcoals. Each steak was wrapped with bacon so that when cooked, the bacon flavor can get into the steak. Did I mention we LOVE bacon? Whenever there's a chance for bacon, we go with it! The steak was tender, juicy and flavorful. For the lobster tail, just a simple butter garlic rub and broil in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes. The only technical part was to pull the lobster meat out of the shell without breaking it so that it looks great in my pictures...Sure enough, they looked so yummy and tasted sweet and buttery, great texture and absolutely delicious!

Mango & Avocado Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing

It's seven o'clock, dinner time!

This summer came really late and can't believe it's already August. Time flies, especially good times. Even more, good times with cute baby on board. Chris took a week off to be at home with Sebastian. It's awesome to see the father and the son spending whole day together playing, giggling, and being silly. Precious time! The other great thing with Chris being at home was that we ate like it's Christmas everyday. He barbecues whenever it's sunny and when it's not sunny, he barbecues underneath the tent. That being said we've probably ate way much meat the past couple days and actually felt like something light for dinner tonight. I went digging the fridge and found some mangoes I bought the other day. How about a mango avocado salad then?

The ingredients are simple: mangoes, avocado, cherry tomatoes, oranges. For the dressing I use one lime for the juice and mix it with some olive oil and salt for the taste. Toss everything together and sprinkle some chives on top and done! I wouldn't say it's my all time favorite but definitely different and refreshing.

Taste of August!

Jamie Oliver's Sweet Potato Soup

I love Jamie Oliver!

The first time I saw Jamie Oliver's cooking show was a couple years ago when I was studying in Guelph. After quitting the job in Shanghai, I decided to pack up and move here for my post-graduate education. Going back to school after a few years of working was exciting but challenging. I enjoyed the different ways of education between eastern and western countries and the dynamics in the classroom. The courses and topics are interesting, the presentations and projects are nerve racking. After a whole day of fierce debates in class and some intensive brain storming with study groups, my favorite thing to do when I got home was to put the food channel on and relax my brain with some awesome food shows. Jamie Oliver's was one of them. How can you not be attracted to a top tier chef who cooks with ingredients that can be found in your own garden, uses pans and pots that you can grab from your grandma's kitchen, and teachs techniques that you can probably learn with your 10-year-old kids. Oh, did I mention he's also humorous and cute?

When Chris and I started dating, we both enjoyed watching Jamie's show and always had a good laugh together. We bought a lot of his cook books and this sweet potato soup recipe was from one of them, "Jamie's Food Revolution". The ingredients are very common: celery, carrots, onion, garlic, sweet potatoes, vegetable broth, curry powder, and chorizo sausages (the most important ingredient I believe, because it brings the heat that balances out the sweetness, and combined with curry powder, it creates such a unique flavor.) Chris prefers the hot and spicy chorizos and usually has them as snacks right off the grill. I recently only eat sweet ones since I'm breastfeeding the little guy. But the spice in the soup definitely is a hit! We loved it!

Recently it says on the news that Jamie Oliver is going to open an Italian restaurant in Toronto next year. Oh well, guess where we are going for a big date night?

Pulled pork sandwich from left over pork ribs

 

It has been a very busy day around little Sebastian. He's about four and a half months old now. Recently we have been through some difficult time feeding him during the day. His one feeding intake has been reduced from about 4oz. to 2-3oz. and getting even worse today with barely 3oz. through a 12-hour gap. We are not sure if he's going through growth spurts right now or he's having an upset stomach or maybe he's actually teething. I'm always very concerned every time he's showing any signs of uncomfortness or having a change in his daily routine, since as new parents, we definitely don't have much experience and poor little guy can't tell us in words yet. I'll have to keep an eye for a couple days and see how it goes. Hope everything goes well soon.

Anyways, it was already about dinner time when we finally got him settled. It's too late to prepare for a big meal. Then we saw the left over pork ribs in the fridge that Chris made yesterday! Pulled pork sandwich it is!! I simply pulled the meat off the bones, add a couple of squeeze of barbecue sauce and honey and a hint of water and let it simmer on the stove while buttering the bread. When the pork become warm and tender, pile them up on the bread topped with some cheese and toast them in the oven for a couple of minutes until the cheese started melting. Meanwhile, I made a simple cucumber salad with a little bit soy sauce and sesame seed oil dressing and simple as is, dinner's ready!

Grilled roast beef - It's not summer without barbecue

It's been years since last time I wrote a blog somewhere I can't even remember.

Last weekend, my fiance's mom came for a visit. We talked about my cooking and photography again. She encouraged me to create a blog, writing down the stories behind the recipes and photos. What a wonderful idea! I enjoy making food, yummy to the taste and beautiful to the look. I love taking pictures of colourful food, cute objects, interesting people, gorgeous landscape, oh especially my humorous fiance and our cute-looking son. So here I am, starting a new blog from scratch, recording bits and pieces of everyday life with my loved ones.

According to my fiance, Chris, nothing can beat the flavor of a chunk of meat cooked on charcoal. I don't know if I fully agree with him, but he does always cook hearty meat over the fire. We had this grilled roast beef last weekend. It was juicy, tender, full of flavor, and most importantly mouth-watery good-looking. We sat down at dinner table after putting the little guy to bed, with a bottle of wine and music, enjoyed the great food and time with each other.

I'd love to share the recipe of this amazing grilled roast beef here, but since neither Chris nor I am good at measuring the ingredients while cooking, it's hard to write down the exact amount of seasonings and the cooking procedures here. This may be the next one on my to-do list, to organize our food menu and write down recipes. It's gonna be a huge project but hey, that sounds really fun!