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Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts

Monday, October 5, 2009

Mushroom Omelette


Weekends are for sleeping in late ... and lounging around after eating a nice breakfast. Sure in the summertime when its warm, we like to go out around the area and have a nice bunch outside. But as the weather changes, we like just sitting around in our PJs sipping coffee (OK, I sip my coffee, he downs it like its a Jameson shot!) and having a home cooked breakfast. And boy does he love eggs ... I happened to have some mushrooms left in the frig, so I threw together a mushroom omelette last weekend.

I can pretend I do all the cooking in this relationship, but its not true. We definitely have our "jobs" ... He does the deep frying, peeling and chopping of garlic,onions, and scallions, boils the pasta, makes the curry, makes the coffee and makes fantastic breakfast foods. And I, uh, do everything else which doesn't sound like much after that list, but once I add more entries to this blog, you'll see. So even the eggs are separated (pun intended?!?) ... He makes the fried eggs (sunny side up for me, over easy for him), while I tend to make omelettes, scrambled eggs (cuz I like mine particular soft), and frittatas. Omelettes are pretty much my specialty because thats the VERY FIRST thing I learned how to cook.

Mushroom Omelette Recipe

2 T butter
1 T cooking oil
6 Button Mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
worchester sauce
dry sherry or dry white wine
salt and pepper
3 stalks Scallions, chopped
2 slices White American Cheese, cut into 4 squares each
2-3 eggs*
1 T milk or half and half

To cook the filling, heat pan to high with cooking oil and 1 T of the butter (mix the butter with oil so it doesn't burn/smoke as easily), once the foaming from the butter subside and the pan feels hot, throw the mushrooms in the pan. Allow to brown. Add chopped garlic, worchester sauce, sherry or wine, salt, and pepper to taste. Allow the mushrooms to soften and cook down to get the umami flavor. Put the mushrooms into a bowl.

*Depending on how you like your omelette, a thin omlette use only 2 eggs with no milk, or thick and fluffy omelette use 3 eggs with milk in a 10-Inch Nonstick Pan. In the omelette pictured above I used 3 eggs with milk. Beat the eggs and milk, if using, well with a fork or whisk. You need to beat air into the eggs, so while cooking the pockets of air expand making the omelette fluffy. Heat 1T of butter in the pan over medium heat. Once the foam has subsided, pour the beaten eggs onto the pan. Allow the eggs to set. After the bottom of the omelette has set, using a spatula lift the omelette, and allow the uncooked egg to get under the omelette, so it can cook faster. Distribute the cheese slices all over the top of the omelette, then the scallion slices, and finally place the mushroom mixture on one half of the omelette and fold it in half. Continue cooking the omelette until the cheese has mostly melted. Then transfer the omelette onto a plate. The cheese will continue melting from the residual heat.





Thursday, July 30, 2009

His FAVORITE Banana Bread


If I fell and broke my head and forgot how to make this, I seriously think the boy will break up with me. This is his all time favorite ... I asked him to rank everything I made for him and this always shows up in the top 3. And he doesn't even like sweets, but he loves this banana bread ... in the morning ... with his coffee. There have been times when he'll eat the whole loaf in one sitting, like its a muffin. One huge muffin for him and him only. Of course, I think he was drunk.

I actually found this recipe on another blog. Its very moist and the crumb topping is the best. I'm not sure I want to give away this other secret but, you can frequently find overripe fruit sold in bags for $1.50 at Westside Market in Morningside Heights. Its outside on the lower shelf below the newer fresher veggies. Every now and then I can find a whole 5 or 6 pound bag of bananas. I just throw it into the frig and let it overripen even more. Banana bread is best made from black bananas.

Recipe for Banana Bread

Dry ingredients:
1 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 C rolled oats

Wet ingredients:
1-2 very ripe banana, mashed with some chunks
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
1/4 c sour cream
1/4 c cooking oil
1 egg

Crumb topping:
2 T butter, softens
1 T flour
2 T rolled oats
1 T brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350C.

Make the crumb topping first by combining the ingredients with a fork. Should make little chunks and balls that look like crumb.

Sift together first 4 dry ingredients. When measuring flour, be sure to aerate (fluff) it and scoop it into a measuring cup with a spoon, otherwise it'll be too dense and you'll get more flour than you want and the final product will be too heavy. Add in the oats and mix together.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients in the order listed. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do this by hand (not a mixer), and do not overmix because it will cause glutens to form and make the banana bread chewy and heavy.

Grease a loaf pan. I usually use a cooking spray that's got flour and oil in it. Pour the banana bread batter into it. Then crumble the topping evenly over top. Bake for approximately 50 minutes until a toothpick shoved in the middle comes out clean.