Ben, you gotta read this.

How to cook an omlette INSIDE the shell.


These guys were frickin thorough

I've been making some good brunches lately

It's like I said. Even though things have been nuts around here, I've been finding a little time to make some pretty epic brunches. I've done some things with french toast, pancakes, benedicts, etc. This week I was inspired by the egg sandwich. I never thought I was an egg sandwich person, but I had my first one ever recently and realized that they are pretty great. This one here has cheddar cheese, spinach, tempe, ketchup, and artichoke hearts with a side of hash browns.

On the side of THAT we have some homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Sorry, Ben.

Looks like you got yours drank again by our friends at the New York Times.

breakfast like WHOA

OK SO: ben, quit bitching. here's some picturesque deliciousness which even features EGGS and JOHN TERRY!!!! Woooooh!

we made somethign amazing. this is the pancake batter. it includes sour cream, beaten egg whites, RICOTTA!! lemon juice, and yes... you're seeing those yellow flakes! that's lemon zest. i fucking LOVE lemons. this is going to get even more delicous. you cant wait.

Here... here we have the pancakes cooking. they're like an inch thick and so awesome. FLUFFY GALORE.


Ok so, on the side we got some molasses. Grandma's molasses. the ORIGINAL kind. we dont fuck around with the molasses.


You ready for this? we cooked the EGG in the MOLASSES.
THAT JUST BLEW YOUR MIND.


And this is how it turned out. dripping, luscious. full of the sweet stuff. (kind of wierd)

Final plate:
we took some powdered sugar and put a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in it and smushed it around and put THAT on the pancakes! amazing!


Even JT said "yeah, ok. these pancakes are ok! awesome."
and that's the end of that chapter.

Zucchini Challenge: Disastrous Plating Failure

While drunk in a Manhattan bar after a trip to the Guggenheim, Erin and I were discussing the challenge. Here's what we came up with. Tuna tartare with chopped vinegar soaked zucchini topped with a poached (because I wasn't sure about raw) quail egg. The plate is rimmed with tonkatsu sauce and dollops of spicy kewpie mayonnaise and garnished with zuchinni peel (as per Kyle's bitching). I have never been able to plate dishes for my life so trust that it tasted better than it looked. Erin agreed.I started with fresh sushi grade tuna I had gotten at the asian market on rt 18. I badgered the hell out of the guy because neither of us could find a common language but eventually we agreed it was in fact fresh sushi grade tuna and that we are both fans of giving thumbs up. I guess we all speak the international language of The Fonz.Here is the chopped zucchini sitting in vinegar. I did that just for some extra taste. We then rinsed the zucchini and incorporated it with the tuna.I couldn't get the water spinning fast enough so the eggs poached a little wispy but they were still good. Not quite as good as a raw egg yolk sitting on your tartare but I wasn't 100% sure about these quail eggs so I didn't want to chance it.Erin spent most of the time snacking on these spicy wasabi crackers and cherry tomatoes I picked up at the asian grocery while getting the tuna. I eventually convinced her to chop up some zucchini and tomatos together for a cracker topping. Here's her rebuttal to my dish. She incorporated leftover tuna. It was miles better than what I made.She also topped these suckers off with some spicy kewpie mayonnaise leftover from my dish. These little bastards were increadible. Perfect spice to match the coolness of the zucchini and the tuna. I think she beat me. Not afraid to admit it.

The "Sushi Taco"

My recent breakfast that Meredith has affectionately dubbed the sushi taco. The inspiration for this was the CwD episode on onigiri. I've been wanting to make those for a while but I'm too impatient to let the rice cool so I just dump the pot of rice on the nori. I had at one point not even cut the nori and just folded it over. The result was just tacoish enough to earn an alias.

I drop a piece of nori across the plate and start up the rice. Sushi rice. As it begins to boil down i throw in some chopped onions and dried wakame. The wakame expands in the remaining water. Once its just about ready I crack an egg over the top of the rice and cover the lid. It steam cooks the egg just over the rice. Perfection. Last night I covered the nori with a layer of rice (which in all fairness could have been cooked just a bit longer), then a layer of tunamayo, then rice topping with bonito sesame and more nori, then more sushi rice and finally the steamed egg. I then cover it in tonkatsu sauce. I love tonkatsu sauce. It gives a fruity kick to whatever I'm eating. For a while I was on oyster sauce but this is my new current fave.

Being that I cooked this at 3am lat night there wasn't enough light so the picture isnt great. Here's one with a flash. EDIT: PICTURE COLOR CORRECTED BY SISTER.
I doubled the recipe and made one for Blake too. We chowed down while watching Starship Troopers. Excellent movie. Excellent breakfast/dinner.

This is a picture of the other one. I wasn't sure which one looked better. You be the judge. EDIT: THIS PICTURE ALSO COLOR CORRECTED BY SISTER.

Family Bowl

(reblogged from Ben)
I do believe its time for some Monkey-Fighting Family Bowl. God knows I love making the Family Bowl. What? You inquire as to the name? I’ll tell you why I call its the Family Bowl. I cook the chicken in egg. What’s this bull about not cooking the calf in its mothers milk? I flipped that shit on its head. Wonderful fresh veggies cooked in dashi broth. Yeah, I got that. Top it with toasted sesame seeds and teriyaki sauce? Sure thing, broseph. Serve it all on top of some grade-A udon noodles sitting in rice vinegar and you got yourself a meal that would make Jesus come back for a bite. Yeah, I know what I’m doing in the kitchen. Maybe I’ll let you come by some time and check it out.

Benedict in stereo

Poached eggs, smoked tofu, sautéed baby spinach, on top of whole wheat toast with a smear of earth balance. Replace eggs with avocado (you know, same idea) for the house vegan.