Cook to Impress: old school English Poached Eggs; the real deal

As mentioned before, I do not tend to give up easily. 
As seen on this very blog, my muffins went from scrunchy misshaped little things (yet always tasty) to beautiful american style fluffy popping on the top little cakes...  and to confirm that I did really learn from my mistakes, this weekend I made Lemon Muffins and I have witnesses that they turned out yum! Keep tuned for recipes...

OK enough with the cakes and back to the eggs. So poached eggs in the Hamilton family used to be done using the magic pan right? Well, as it isn't really what they serve in England, we decided to change our way of cooking it, and try to make the real deal. Quite a bit of a challenge.... but....
So on the famous easter-skype-date night when my family had the salmon, asparagus and eggs recipe, they tried (with me live on skype) to make real poached eggs. And it worked!!!!!!!
So I followed the tips my sis gathered this weekend, and guess what: it worked again. So on sunday I had breakfast in bed with freshly poached eggs, strawberry crackers and home made cappuccino. A smile appears on my face when thinking of it again, and I am secretly wishing of the days to fast forward to the weekend....

Ingredients:

• super fresh room temperature biological eggs
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar (white wine)
• pinch of salt to taste

How to make it:

The true secret is to use super fresh eggs - preferably biological, and to take them out of the fridge 15 minutes or so before cooking them in order for them to get to room temperature.

Heat up a pan of water until boiling and when it boils, turn off the heat so that the the water returns to 90 degrees Celcius circa --> how the hell do you know when it's 90 degrees? When all the bubbles have disappeared!

Add the vinegar to the water and stir firmly with a spoon so that the water keeps turning.

Break the egg into a big soup spoon and then let it slip into the water gently. Make sure it falls into the water from a couple of cm's and not more. Because the water is turning, the egg white should twist and remain around the egg yolk. 

Let it stay/cook for 4-5 minutes.

If you like your egg slightly more well done than the usual runny poached egg: turn on the heat again at minute nr 2, but make sure it doesn't start boiling again.

Once it's done, take the egg out with a sieve spoon thing.

Outcome: your own real old school english poached egg!!! I still can't believe it!!!!! Next step is to serve it on fresh toasted scones with bacon and sauce hollandaise - just to keep you teased until next time... 

Poached Eggs

Cheers

The Hamilton Chefs

Puzzled Pancakes

What puzzles you in life?


Recently many things in my life have puzzled me. 
Puzzling... euhm what? Ok being puzzled or something is puzzling, means that something is confusing, it doesn't add up, you can't see the whole picture and are therefore not sure of what you have in front of you. Capiche?


Well I thought of it, and basically everything in life can be one big puzzle! Let me elaborate:

Life: from the minute you are born until the day you die (ah one certainty that is NOT puzzling) you have to take one step at a time to make your life complete. Each step is a puzzle piece that is supposed to fit somewhere in the puzzle that will create your life. Sometimes I come across pieces - or steps - which are, in my eyes at that time, simply unplacable! I think to myself 'where the hell does this piece fit and what's the point of it fitting???' What I tend to do with the unlucky puzzle pieces is to put them aside for later. Yep, I'm an ostrick cos I stick my head into the sand! Ciao! Once the head comes popping out luring to see if the coast is clear of course I am bound to find that piece again. Solution to that problem: I start cooking to work through the process of putting the piece somewhere in my life: in the upper right corner seems to be a good spot.... Because in the end, every step and every puzzle piece makes your life yours and is needed to be complete.

Love: Now this is a complicated puzzle because I think men work with round puzzle pieces and women with squared ones or vice versa. How can that ever fit?????????? Hence the invention of the actual puzzle piece that you have in mind when talking of puzzles ...
So I guess to make this puzzle work, and get to a complete and beautiful puzzle, the trick is to communicate and always ask whatever makes you puzzled!
But other than that you need to have pieces that fit into each other. So the question is: does love work when the pieces are rather the same or do opposites work better together? Do accomplished puzzles even exist?

The solution to being puzzled = cooking... even though cooking is also one big puzzle at least it's not made out of carton puzzle pieces but out of ingredients; beautiful diverse raw materials that when put together it turns out a gorgeous and usually well-turned-out puzzle! It's up to you how to make your puzzle according to how you feel that day. And that is the absolute joy of cooking: you can make your own puzzle and actually see the result in a matter of minutes or sometimes hours... and be proud of yourself!

Happy Puzzling!

Protein Pancakes

These puzzling thoughts all came up to me while devouring a pair of proteined pancakes! If you're training, wanting to loose some weight (summer is around the corner you know!) or simply want to eat healthy, but still want some pancakes for breakfast, these babies are the answer to your prayer.
I got them over at The Novice Chef...

Ingredients: 4 pancakes

• 250 gr egg whites
• 150 gr oats
• 250 gr cottage cheese
• 20 gr brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 0.5 teaspoon salt

How to make it:

Mix all the ingredients and blend until smooth.

Heat up a medium sized skillet with a teaspoon of sunflower oil. Add a big spoon of mixture and spread.

Bake until little bubbles come up - then you turn the pancake delicately.

Cook well for 4-5 minutes.

Keep the baked pancakes hot in a slightly heated oven.

Outcome: serve with fresh fruit, yoghurt, peanut butter, maple syrup, jam... whatever piece of puzzle works for you to make this puzzle perfect!

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

The Curious Case of the Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal 'Brownies'

Sometimes you just feel like creating things or in my case of creativity: cook things, but you don't necessarily feel like going to the grocery store, so you need to be creative with what you have. And really sometimes you are just lucky enough to come across a recipe that has ingredients which are all waiting in your cupboards! This was my case of the Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Brownies, a recipe found on Foodbuzz (check right side Foodbuzz Top 9 recipes every day).

This easy to make cake/brownie/bake.... whatever you want to call it, makes a good solid breakfast or light lunch or is simply a satisfying snack! It has the moistness of a brownie, the taste of a peanut butter cookie and is sweet enough to please any sweettooth out there - while being packed with nutritious fibres and vitamin D that will keep you going for hours and hours and hours! Jackpot!!!

Ingredients:
240gr Instant Quaker Oatmeal
55gr Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
0.5 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Vanilla
120 ml Milk
1 Egg
1 large Banana - smashed
64 gr Peanut Butter

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celcius.
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients: oatmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
After you add the vanilla, milk and the lightly beaten egg. Mix it all up.
Last you add the peanut butter and the smashed banana to the mixture.
Poor the mixture into a lightly greased 8x8 baking pan.
Put into the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Outcome: Who needs brownies when you have these babies?? Well every one does, but they sure do their job well as a change once in a while! Serve plain or with fresh fruit, jam, greek yoghurt, whipped cream, chopped up nuts or simply some more peanut butter.. any topping will do.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Brownies

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph

A Winner's Breakfast!

Morning.... sunday morning 8a.m.... NOT my cup of tea!!
But today is a V.I.D. = Very Important Day.... it's Stramilano day! This is my first 10k run for which I have been training my little but (and legs) off for since October. Cross fingers for it to go well...
It calls for a winner's breakfast inspired by blogger friends over in the USA!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of apple sauce (home made... recipe later)
• 1 glass of milk (circa 200 ml)
• 3 tablespoons of instant Oat Meal
• 1 tablespoon of flax seed
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

How to make it:

Apple sauce is made so that's easy and fast - put it in  bowl.

Pour glass of milk with oat meal and flaxseed in a pan - bring to a boil and cook down until you have the porridge consistency you like. 

Add cinnamon.

Stir all together.

Outcome: voila a hopefully WINNER's breakfast. Wish me luck!!! 

Winner's Breakfast

Buon Appetito 

Chef Steph

Papa's Poached Eggs Breakfast

What a way to break the fast better than with my dad's wonderful Poached Eggs!!!

He uses this magic pan for them as, unfortunately the real poached eggs ( the one where you drop the egg into the water without its shell ...) have still not been mastered. However the hunger for the poached egg remained, hence the use of THE pan!

A Poached Egg Pan with steaming technique  

What to do:

Basically you pour a little bit of water underneath the cups where you hold the eggs. 

Then smear the cups with some corn oil, or any kind of oil that doesn't taste too strongly. Afterwhich you break the eggs into the cups (one egg per cup).

Put the lid on the pan and put it on your stove.

Based on how you prefer your eggs, cook them for 5-8 mins.

Outcome: always yum!!! Check it out...

Cheers from Brussels
Chef Robert

That was the first entry of one of our Cooking Club members. I proudly present MY DAD:

 Chef Robert!!!!

Thanks so much for this lovely breakfast recipe. I'm sure it will be appreciated!

Ciao Ciao