Peace, Love, Granola

Granola is the CC's favorite breakfast cereal. The CC doesn't eat breakfast very much but even so over the years he's bought tons of this stuff from various places. He finally decided to make his own.

The concept is really simple. It's just basically toasted oats. The rest is all putting a bow on top - nuts, dried fruits, sugar, fats, salt. You are making a pre-made ready-to-eat nutritionally complex mixture.

It's already cooked so when you either eat it with yogurt or milk, it hardly matters. You could eat it straight up but it would be too dry.

The recipe is from a famous three-Michelin star restaurant in New York. They apparently hand this out when you leave for your breakfast the next day. (The CC doesn't know. He hasn't been.)

It looked terrific and the CC had all the ingredients in-house. It definitely tastes terrific.

(Source: Eleven Madison Park.)

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup pistachios
1 cup coconut chips
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 tbsp kosher salt

1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil

3/4 cup sour dried cherries

Note 1: The three groups in the ingredients are deliberate in the recipe.

Note 2: You can substitute the sour dried cherries for a mixture of raisins, dried cherries, and barberries.

Note 3: This is deliberately not too sweet. You can always add more honey when you are eating it.

Note 4: There are two kinds of "kosher" salts. Ones that have been pressed and hence are more salty and others that are not. You want the natural kind here otherwise you will have a salty mess.

Note 5: You can totally gild the lily in the last step by adding roasted sesame seeds and slivered almonds .The CC did.

Recipe

Combine the first group - oats, pistachios, coconut chips and pumpkin seeds - in a bowl.

Mix the brown sugar, maple syrup and olive oil in a pan. Heat till dissolved. (You can also do this in a microwave on low heat for about 90 seconds.)

Pour this mixture all over the mixture in the bowl. Combine thoroughly.

Spread it on a pan and bake in the oven at 300°F for about 30-40 minutes. You will need to keep mixing and spreading the mixture every 6-7 minutes. (Yeah, a bit of a pain but otherwise it'll burn.)

Add the sour dried cherries and combine again. Let it cool to room temperature.

Store in a sealed container in a cool dry place.

Mushrooms on Toast

This is a classic English dish and it's really easy to see why it's amazing.

Short answer = umami.

The CC has always ranted about the lack of respect given to English cooking.

This is another one of those neglects. It's totally ironic since the recipe is entirely vegetarian and yet it's not well known. In an era of "avocado toast" — which fucking sucks! —  one should be shouting this one from the rooftops.

(If you do put an avocado on top of this, the CC really doesn't need to know in exactly the same way that he really doesn't need to know about your bowel movements!)

What is it?

A vast amount of mushrooms gently roasted in butter to which fresh herbs are added along with a judicious amount of both Worcestershire sauce and cream. The last two with an extraordinarily light hand.

Why does it work?

The insane off-the-charts umami — mushrooms, animal products (= butter + cream), and Worcestershire sauce (which is basically umami-central!) The toast adds all the wonders of the Maillard reaction.

How does it work?

You make some toast and put this stuff on top of it. DUH!!!

Ingredients

(serves 4 (= 8 toasts))

1 lb assorted mushrooms (the more varieties the better!)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms

butter
salt
pepper

thyme
parsley (finely minced)

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp cream

Note 1: You can totally substitute the Worcestershire sauce. Its goal is to add umami. Soy sauce will do the trick. Fish sauce will also do the trick. (You'll need a dash of vinegar and pinch of cayenne with the last two alternatives.)

Note 2: The thyme goes well with the mushrooms. Don't get hung up. They wouldn't have been in old England. Chives will work as would most herbs. Tarragon would NOT work. Too much anise flavor.

Note 3: The CC is going to amp this up one more notch by using dried Chinese shiitake mushrooms because why not? Once you grasp the principles, it's hard not to.

Note 4: You can totally gild the lily by adding parmesan. Why not? We've already dialed it up to 17. By all means, go ahead and dial it up to 29.

Note 5: Yes, the barest amount of lemon would rock this dish. The CC knows. One surmises the "limeys" didn't have access to fresh lemons?

Note 6: The CC knows what you are thinking. One pound serves four people? Yep. Talk to me AFTER you make the recipe and everyone wants more.

Recipe

Pour boiling water over the dried shiitake mushrooms. Not too much. After 10 minutes, pull the mushrooms out and filter the water through a paper napkin. Reserve the water.

Cut the reconstituted mushrooms into lengthwise pieces.

Cut the other mushrooms into lengthwise pieces.

Heat the butter until just under foaming. Toss in all the mushrooms and let them reduce at a medium heat. Add the water from the mushrooms. Add the thyme, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and cream towards the end and let cook until almost dry.

Salt to taste. (The sauce already has a ton of salt so check before salting.)

Make some toast.

Top the mixture on toast with the minced parsley as topping.

Scotch Woodcock

The CC has long maintained that if one wants to have an appreciation for English food, one must look to the period before the Great War (World War I) which destroyed the aristocracy.

Here's a very old recipe with a strange name. However, it's perfectly at ease today in the age of umami even if the 19th century lords wouldn't have heard of the word or the concept.

The recipe is truly spectacular at many many different levels. It's umami-laden which makes it irresistible; it's nutritious and attractive to look it, it has a variety of textures that makes eating it a sheer delight and it's breakfast!

Like all aristocratic recipes, it's a little bit time-consuming (although not as much as you think thanks to modern-day devices and conveniences.)

What is it?

It's excellent bread (or sometimes toast) that's lavishly spread with anchovy butter on which are piled soft scrambled eggs (made with cream) on which are piled more anchovies and assorted herbs.

It's relatively free-form when it comes to the herbs. English cooking was fairly easy-going with the herbs even back in the day. It could be chives or parsley or even salted capers. Seasonality and all that.

What really makes the clock tick, as they say, is the anchovies. The umami is the rock star and for that you must make the anchovy butter but it's straightforward with a mortar and pestle and a refrigerator — spare some pity for the poor sod that had to churn the mixture with ice to get it "to set" before refrigeration.

The CC's favorite part is that the anchovy butter is called "Gentleman's Relish". Now there's a term the CC could get behind.

Ingredients

Anchovy Butter

4 anchovies
8 tbsp butter

Scrambled Eggs (per serving)

2 eggs
2 tbsp cream
salt
pepper

Misc (per serving)

1 slice rye bread
1 anchovy (neatly separated into two fillets)
minced herbs (parsley OR chives OR capers)

Recipe

Note: This recipe is quite salty from the anchovies. Don't add too much salt in the eggs.

Anchovy Butter

First, make the butter. This is best done ahead of time. Pull the butter out of the fridge and let it soften. Fillet the anchovies, wash to get rid of the extra salt and pound to a paste. When the butter is softened, whip it with a fork till soft (called: "creaming the butter") and fold the anchovy paste in to make a compound butter.

You can take this and make a torchon with some plastic wrap if you want to get fancy, or just put it in a ramekin, cover it with some wrap and place it in the fridge.

This is best done ahead of time. This stuff lasts a long time even though the CC will personally assure you that you will plow through it in no time.

Scrambled Eggs

For the scrambled eggs, mix the eggs with the cream, salt and pepper. Scramble them over high heat so that the curds are relatively large and dry. (This is in distinct difference to the French-style of scrambling eggs which is over low heat where the eggs are soft and creamy and have almost no curds.)

Set aside.

Assembly

Spread anchovy butter over the bread. Pile some of the scrambled eggs on top of it. Put two of the half-anchovy fillets in an X over them. Sprinkle with the herbs and serve.

Ginisang Ampalaya (Sautéed Bitter-Melons with Egg)

This one is for the bitter melon lovers out there. (You know who you are.)

It's a straightforward Filipino breakfast dish. You sautée some bitter melon rounds with onions, patis (fish sauce), garlic, black pepper and eggs.

You can add ground pork, or not. You can add bell peppers, or not. You can add tomatoes, or not.

There's a lot of that "or not" in Filipino cooking.

Only constant here seem to be that it wouldn't make any sense to have a sautéed bitter melon dish without bitter melons, would it now?

Also, the eggs are key. They act as counterpoint.

The eggs were lightly scrambled because that's the way the CC rolls.

You may want to roll differently, or not.

Low-Key Breakfast

Croissant and some soft scrambled eggs.

Poached Eggs in Tomato Broth

The post that has caused the most controversy on this blog has been the one on poached eggs.

Anyway, poaching is all fine and dandy but if you poach your eggs in some yummy broth, they will taste better. Kinda obvious.

A classic is to poach it in tomato broth. Even if you just take tomato paste from a can, mix it with hot water, you will get great results.

This is definitely a great meal in a pot. When you want a nice meal but you are not willing to spend a lot of time to make it.



The recipe is kinda obvious. Fry some onions, add the broth, salt, lots of black pepper, crack two eggs and let them poach. Some fresh herbs are always welcome (oregano, rosemary, thyme - whatever you have at hand.)

They were served over some stale bread (which you can't see because of the poaching liquid.)

Poached Eggs in Tomato Broth

Yumurtali Ispanak

This classic Turkish breakfast dish consists of spinach and eggs.

The eggs are not quite fried, and not quite poached, and not quite baked sur le plat. It's somewhere between all three. However, it's really easy to make and was a sleeper hit at today's Sunday brunch.

The CC served the dish over toasted sourdough (as seen below.)

A note about the sumac. This dish is simply not the same without it!

Borrowing an expression from The Big Lebowski, "it ties the dish together".

Ingredients

3-4 eggs
1 red onion (finely diced)
2 bunches spinach (chopped loosely)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin (ground)
1/2 tsp whole black pepper (ground)
1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp ground sumac

olive oil
sea salt

Recipe

Fry the onions in olive oil at a low heat. Add the pepper flakes, cumin, black pepper and salt. Add the tomato paste and fry. Finally add the chopped spinach.

The spinach will release water. Keep frying it till it is wilted and turns dark green. Separate out spaces to crack the eggs. Crack one egg in each space.

Cover the pan and cook until done. The CC likes his eggs mollet which took 3 minutes.

Sprinkle the ground sumac over the eggs when serving.

Scrambled Eggs with Ramps

How does the CC describe this?

The texture is like that of french beans but the taste is agressively like leeks and garlic. If you're a garlic fiend (and what true foodie isn't?) you'll be in hog heaven!

Scrambled Eggs with Sorrel (and Rye Toast)

Mmmmm mmmmm .... mmmmm. Lemony goodness!

Idlis

After pissing around forever, the CC has finally managed to make the idlis of his dreams.

Fluffy, fluffy, fluffy, fluffy, fluffy deliciousness.

Here are the practical problems in a nutshell:

The CC lives in a colder climate. The CC lives in a climate where there is serious temperature variation between day and night. The CC lives in a drier climate.

All of these are real problems that need to be solved. Many of these do not apply to the Californicators or those in God's Waiting Room, the Floridians. Congratulations on your luck!

Ingredients

1 tbsp fenugreek seeds (soaked)
urad (soaked)
idli rava (read below)

patience (and lots of it!)

Recipe

Soak the fenugreek seeds and the urad for 6-8 hours.

Grind the crap out of the stuff to produce an extremely smooth paste with as little of the soaked water as possible.

Now, add 2.5 portions of the idli rava by volume. Add some water to make a thickish paste.

Now, comes the patience part. You need to let the stuff ferment in a warm-ish place at a relatively stable temperature. What only takes overnight in India can easily take four days out in the US. An oven with a pilot light works wonders.

Some auxiliary observations:

Do not add salt up front. This prevents the sourdough from forming.

Do not use chlorinated water.

If the batter seems dried out, add water and stir periodically.

The thing will ferment eventually, and you will get fluffy soft idlis.

Patience, young Jedis!

Hash Browns and Scrambled Eggs

There is only one trick to making successful hash browns. You need extraordinarily dry potatoes where the cells are broken to remove the moisture.

To that end, you must first grate the potatoes and then wash them (to remove surface starch.) Then you need to squeeze them until they are dry. Then place them between towels, and squeeze them with a rolling pin to squeeze out even more liquid. Then squeeze them again.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Then, squeeze some more!

Then put them in a very hot skillet with oil and fry. Spread them in an extraordinarily thin layer, and press periodically with a spatula. Only if they are really dry, are you going to be able to do the successful "omelette" flip.

(For less dexterous people, slide it onto a plate, invert onto another plate and slide it back into the hot skillet. This is safe, efficient and guaranteed to succeed.)

For instructions on scrambled eggs, read here.

Breakfast chez le CC

Tomato fried rice

Wild Rice, Quinoa and Coconut Pilaf

This recipe pretty much has Berkeley and the Summer of Love written all over it but it's quite terrific.

Ingredients

1 cup wild rice (rinsed)
1/2 cup quinoa (rinsed)

1" ginger (grated)
3 Thai chillies (diced into rounds)
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 cardamom pods

1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

salt
black pepper

lime juice
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (missing in picture below)

Recipe

Boil the wild rice with salt at medium heat for 30 minutes. Add the quinoa and continue cooking it for an additional 20 mins. Drain if necessary.

Heat a wok with some oil. Fry the mustard seeds until they pop. Add the black pepper, cardamom, ginger, chillies and fry for a bit. Add the walnuts and coconut and fry for a bit.

Toss in the wild rice-quinoa mixture. Add the cilantro, and adjust the salt to taste. A squeeze of lime livens up the taste.

Scrambled Eggs in Tomato Sauce

There is only one trick to excellent scrambled eggs - low heat.

Just enough to scramble them and leave them deliciously moist.

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 red onion (sliced into very thin semi-rounds)
tomato sauce
1/2 cup chopped parsley

olive oil
grated parmigiano-reggiano
sea salt
black pepper


Recipe

Beat the eggs along with the parm, salt and pepper.

Fry the onions at a low heat until limp but not caramelized. Fry the tomato sauce until reduced. Add the eggs, and scramble until barely set and glisteningly moist.

Take it off the heat, and mix in the parsley.

Sprouted Mung

These babies get a bad rap particularly when you see the really awful stuff you get in supermarkets.


They are supposed to be delicate with wispy sprouts full of nutrition not the godawful stuff that is grown under artificial lights and have sprouts the size of roots (which are pretty effin' tasteless to boot.)

For a recipe, follow this.

Ful Medames

Breakfast of peasants. And of champions.

Ingredients

1 cup dried fava beans (soaked overnight)
1 onion (diced into semi-rounds)
2 cloves garlic (smashed)
1 green bell pepper (slivered)
3 tomatoes (diced)

1 tbsp powdered cumin
1 lemon
1/2 cup diced parsley
salt and pepper

Recipe

The notes to this recipe are much more valuable than the recipe (which is "obvious.")

Firstly, you need the small fava beans not the bigger ones.

The soaking of the fava beans also matters. The CC is guessing it has something to do with the age of the dried fava beans.

The CC has made this before, and the recipe was always good. Then, accidentally, the CC was forced to delay making the thing so he rinsed the beans after 24 hours, and resoaked them for another 24, and the recipe totally blew his mind.

Here we go:

First cook the beans in water, and while they cook keep skimming the scum that rises to the top. There will be plenty of "nasty stuff". Depending on the soaking, takes between 40 mins to an hour till they are adequately soft.

The skin of the fava beans will never soften. It's an "added feature" or an "acquired taste" of this particular recipe. Deal.

After that's done, in a separate vessel, fry the onions and the garlic at medium low heat. Then fry the bell peppers. Then add the cumin, salt, pepper and tomatoes. Finally the fava beans lightly crushed. Heat for about 10 mins or so.

Right before serving, mix in the lemon juice and the parsley.

Another trick is to split the bell peppers into two piles, and add some at the end thus getting two textures from the same ingredient.

(And just for the record, the pita below was home-made.)

Ful medames

Poha

Poha is flattened puffed rice, and this dish is particularly popular in the Western regions of India.

The flattened rice is also symbol of "humility" in Indian circles thanks to certain mythological stories.

Those expecting dewy-eyed and misty stories about humility and devotion are likely to be disappointed since the CC adopts the thoroughly Churchillian perspective that "the humble indeed have a lot to be humble about."

Not this dish though.

Ingredients

4 cups poha
1 large potato
1 small red onion
2-3 green chillies
1 tbsp mustard seeds
8-10 curry leaves
1 tsp turmeric

1/2 cup grated coconut
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 lime

Recipe

Just quickly rinse the poha, and let it drain. Every few minutes, "fluff" it to ensure it's loose and dry.

This is really an easy step, and hence easily "delegated" but to do it right, you need to keep kinda "fluffing" the stuff every 10 mins-ish to make it dry out. Those of you who possess a "Jamie" (or three) might want to take advantage of this meta-recipe step that the CC provides gratis for your delectation and pleasure.

Fry some oil, add the mustard seeds until they splutter, then the curry leaves, then the onions and green chillies. Y'all are all old hats at this (or turning into old hats which is the same thing.)

Then fry the potatoes. This is our old friend Maestro Maillard again.

Hells bells and puppydog tails, he shows up a lot, dun' he?

Add the turmeric, salt to taste, and some water, and let the potatoes boil in it.

This step always takes longer than you think it will take. Of such impatience is cooking made.

Does this reinforce "humility"? Possibly. Ask the Indians. The Cowboys just wanna eat.

Towards the end, add the poha (not shown.) It will only take about a minute to cook. Y'all won't go wrong in this step, trust the CC. There are plenty of recipes for y'all (and the CC) to screw up; this is not one of them.

Garnish with coconut and cilantro leaves, and squeeze a lime all over it.

Poha

Thai Olive Fried Rice (Khao Pad Nahm Liap)

There are as many fried rices as rice-eating cultures, and as many variations as cooks. However, the generic idea remains the same.

Use up old leftover rice so as not to waste it. Fried rice is just one option. The Sicilian arancini is a completely different take on the same idea.

Given a dish based in poverty, and lack of wastage, there is quite a bit of leeway in our choices. It's whatever is in the house really. Eggs if you have them; likewise for sliced onions, ground pork, vegetables, dried shrimp, etc.

So what makes this "Thai" then?

The characteristic Thai ingredients and technique; the detailed thought given to balancing the flavors: sweet, salty, sour, spicy; then the Thai-ification, to invent a word, of ingredients that are clearly not Thai -- salted Chinese olives, dark soy sauce, cilantro. (The Thai are doffing their caps to the Chinese here. Traditional flavoring would've been various forms of basil.)

Of such contradictions are all cuisines made. Shall we proceed?

Ingredients

2 tbsp minced garlic
3-4 Thai green chillies (cut into fine rounds)
4-5 kaffir lime leaves (cut into thin strips)

1 tbsp palm sugar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce (read below!)
2 tbsp nahm pla (fish sauce)

chopped vegetables
salted olives (chopped)

leftover rice
peanut oil

wedge of lime
3-4 cilantro sprigs (finely chopped, stem and all)

Recipe

First off, a few general instructions. The rice which was leftover is probably all dried out. You need to crumble it with your hands. (This is a "Jamie" step.)

Secondly, turn the heat UP. All the freakin' way. You want hot, hot, hot. Hotter if you can. It's all about BTU's, baby!

Hot, hot, hot!!! Eat your heart out, Cure fans.

The palm sugar. Substitute with jaggery or brown sugar but it's just not the same. There's no way to explain this. You will have to experience this for yourselves.

Add the black soy sauce, and the fish sauce and stir it for a bit until the palm sugar dissolves. (Also, a "Jamie" step.)

The "black soy sauce" is not your usual ho-hum. It's actually this sweetish salty concoction (siew dam) that is rather thick and glutinous. If you're missing this, add a 50-50 mixture of palm sugar and regular soy sauce but you're drifting further and further away from the Platonic ideal.

Note the Thai qualities above. You're getting the sweet from the palm sugar and the siew dam, and the salty from the siew dam and the nahm pla. Also the umami from the nahm pla because it's basically heavily salted fermented anchovies (not terribly unlike the ancient Roman garum.)

The green chillies (below) is going to add the spice, and the lime the sour taste.

Thai households don't use salt. They just have little bottles of fish sauce if more salt is needed. Likewise for the heat and sourness -- thin rounds of green chillies in vinegar are a standard condiment.

The mise-en-place. From the top, clockwise: chopped vegetables (carrots, snow peas), the above mixture, minced garlic, green chillies, chopped olives.

It may not be obvious from the picture but the carrots have been sliced diagonally really thin so that they can fry, and not boil.

Heat the peanut oil at a high heat, and fry the garlic. Be very careful not to let the garlic burn.

Incidentally, this first step of frying minced garlic is also very characteristically Thai.

Add the green chillies, and the vegetables (not shown), and fry for quite a while until the vegetables are fried.

The CC forgot to take a picture because he was in a bit of a fluster.

Y'all will cope.

Add the crumbled rice, and the olives (not shown.)

After the rice has fried for a bit, add the sauce very slowly so that it keeps frying. You will need to keep frying the rice for a bit longer after you add this.

This is one of the best examples where both Maillard and caramelization are both taking place.

Serve this with the wedge of lime, and the cilantro mixed in.

For the true purists, you are no more going to get true wok hai with puny BTU-burners than you are going to get an Uruk-hai. However, if you are reasonably talented, you will not just exceedingly satisfactory but even borderline excellent results.

Khao Pad Nahm Liap

Fusion

A baguette slathered with cilantro chutney, and lined with paper-thin slices of tomatoes and parmigiano-reggiano.

We leave the "purists" to their niggling nitpicking nickelfuckery.

Upma

The CC has been craving this but he had run out of ingredients. To add insult to injury, a friend mentioned via chat that she was making it. The CC could've killed her for bringing it up on a day where heavy downpours coincided with unachievable cravings.

So an quick trip to the store the next day, he set out to make it.

The idea is simple. Take finely ground wheat (cream of wheat, farina, rava), and cook it with spices till it's light and fluffy. The similarity to both couscous (tiny cooked pasta), grits (tiny bits of corn), and innumerous similar dishes worldwide should be noted.

Ingredients

1 cup rava (cream of wheat)
1 small onion (finely diced)
2-3 green chillies (finely chopped)
1/2 cup broken cashewnuts
assorted finely diced vegetables (carrots, peas)

1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp urad daal
asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves

1-2 tbsp lime juice

Recipe


Fry some mustard seeds at medium heat, add the urad daal and the asafoetida, followed by the curry leaves. Apologies for the bad quality of this picture but the CC had to get to the next step before the daal burnt.

Add the onions, green chillies, and let it fry for a while.

Add the cashews and let them fry.

Now, we need to roast the rava at medium to medium high heat. This step cannot be hurried. It is the source of the deliciousness thanks to Master Maillard. If you don't do this, or try to speed it up, you will end up with boiled wheat (which tastes about as good as it sounds.)

The mixture needs to be stirred continuously until it turns a pale brown. Do not let it burn.

The vegetables should go in towards the tail end.

This is the hardest step to describe. There are two ways to do this. The "Indian" way, or the CC's way.

The Indian way involves adding the roasted rava to water. This requires you to correctly gauge the amount of water and lime ahead of time, and mess around with splashage. The CC's way is slower but will get you flawless mess-free results that are indistinguishable from the original.

Add water a few tablespoons at a time using a tablespoon. Do not "pour". Stir, and break up the lumps. The idea is to let them steam in the tiny amount of water. Keep repeating this quite slowly until it becomes hard to break up the lumps at which point stop adding water. Towards the end, you should add the lime juice if you like. Yes, the CC is aware that these instructions sound like "get off two stops before the last one" but what can he do?

Take the pot off the heat at the end. Even the modest heat coming off a gas stove will destroy it. After all this work, you don't want to blow it in the last step without even realizing it.

Do this right and you will end up with a light and fluffy delight.

Do this wrong and you will end up with something that looks like fratboy upchuck after an all night kegger.

The CC knows he won't earn any points for subtlety with that simile but readers "in the know" will give him high marks for dead-on accuracy.

Fluffy delicious upma