Huevos Rotos con Puntillitas. Crispy Homemade Bacon.

If you’re from Spain or South America, you’re familiar with this messy egg presentation. I love eggs even raw. And a perfectly cooked egg in my opinion should never brown, should never bubble up, yolk should never set. That’s how I like to cook my eggs most of the time. But sometimes, just sometimes, all the food technique in the world can’t replace the power of childhood food memories. This is what eggs looked like growing up.

My friend Craig provided the homemade bacon. Is his secret recipe so I won’t be bugging him for info but if you want to make your own bacon at home you will need at least 3 ingredients. Pork belly. Salt. Curing salt #1. Follow this link for a pretty easy over roasted homemade bacon recipe sans the smoking step. I don’t have a smoker. Not yet. Will soon. Has to happen.  

Easy Creamy Mushroom Crepes! Crepes aux Champignon! More Budget Cooking!

And… back to more budget cooking. Fall is here, which means… at least in my world… more exciting cooking. I’m all for quick summery meals, but the real fun begins when slow cooking kicks in. This recipe today might be one of my last summery meals of the year… with some exceptions of course because work is about to get crazy, and I mean real crazy, and a few quick meals might be the only way to get me by for the next 3 months, but can’t wait to get baking and roasting stuff.

I’ve been craving mushrooms crepes for a long time, and I’ve been craving writing about them for even longer. I’ve made them a few times but never really get to the documenting part of the evening, they’re just too good! Good ole mushroom crepes! May sound fancy but the ingredients are super cheap and this meal always delivers. When properly cooked at home, you won’t want to order them at a restaurant ever again, I mean, what’s the point when you can make a better one yourself. The whole adventure takes about 1 hour and the leftovers can be stored in the freezer. Need I say more? Let’s go! 

Tortilla Española : Tortilla de Patatas : Spanish Omelette

A while ago I posted an article about this dish but it’s time to bring it back. Not a whole lot to this recipe. 3 Ingredients (ok, 6 if you count oil, salt and pepper) and 10-15 minutes to make. The technique is quite tricky I have to say, cooking omelets is actually not that easy, takes a lot of practice. I don’t mind the practice. I can’t stop eating eggs, I’m like that snake… yep, that one, the one that eats lots of eggs.

The “secret” to properly cook eggs, like anything else, it’s careful attention to temperature and time. Eggs overcook easily. Also…, yolks and whites cook at different temperatures. The yolks cook at a lower temperature than the white part. The yolks set at around 158F or 70C. The whites completely set at 180F or 82.2C These temperatures are definitely inside overcooked-egg territory. I like eggs cooked a little below these. But anyways, with omelets, the problem becomes and average problem. Somewhere in the middle the omelet will be cooked satisfactorily.

I use a non stick pan. with a lid over low heat. Like really low. The thicker the omelet the longer the cooking time basically. Consider using a diffuser over the stove to keep that harsh heat away from those delicate eggs. With an infrared thermometer you can measure very precisely how hot it is. Around 162C and any omelet would be honored to be cooked in that pan. 

Pork Miso Ramen Noodle Soup : Pork Belly

Making ramen stock from scratch is a labor intensive process. A traditional pork stock for ramen can take up to 12 hours. I don’t have 12 hours during the day to watch after a stock pot (I have a day job), but nobody said I needed 12 continuous hours. In the course of 2 evenings and the help of my pressure cooker , I was able to render my first batch of homemade pork stock for ramen.  I also dreamed of making the noodles at home but without a pasta machine I anticipated disaster so I decided to stop that madness right there. The following recipe was inspired by Kenji Lopez’s: The Food Lab Redux: How to Make the Perfect Bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen.  He has an in-depth post with links to more in-depth posts on ramen. It’s a must-read for anyone who loves all things ramen and wants to learn more about it. This is my take. Wish me luck!

oh, one more thing. I’m back on INSTAGRAM! The link on my sidebar has been down for a while, but that’s no longer the case. I will be publishing all the blog photography there from now on (And will also try to get previous photography in there as well). So if you want to get updates, follow me on instagram! And…. back to cooking!

Liebster Award : Huevos Con Tomate y Guacamole : Eggs in Tomato Sauce and Fresh Guacamole

I’ve been busy with getting everything ready for selling my apartment. My kitchen in which I spent 4 years making messes and cooking, won’t be there for me . It’s kind of sad. All those memories, decent food, crappy food, smoke detectors gone wild, fires, knife accidents, degreasing floors constantly, cleaning up… all the time…and tons and tons of stories. I don’t want to admit it, but it’s sort of a big deal. Oh well, need to move on, literally. I spent the whole day today taking photos of my apartment, and editing them in photoshop so they can be used in the listing of the property. I’m glad I got to take my own house photos. I saved myself a few bucks too!

A few weeks ago I was nominated for the liebster award, first time ever getting nominated for an award of any kind. Super cool, and not only that, but during that same week I got a second nomination!  So thank you both, this is really sweet! My first nomination came from my fellow blogger friend Phuong who has a wonderful and delicate blog mykitchenoflove.wordpress.com and then, Effie, from the awesome and fearless cooking style featured in fooddaydreaming.wordpress.com. Two excellent blogs worth exploring and following!

Pasteurizing Eggs or Mayo at Home : Sous Vide : 134.6 °F for 2hr

And more on eggs… this is turning into an obsession now! can’t let it go!!!… I don’t think there’s any other ingredient I find as fascinating as the mighty egg. In my previous post on homemade mayo/aioli, I talked about an incredibly easy way to get the emulsion going with the help of a hand blender. I wonder how many people were concerned with eating raw eggs. Although, I’ve never gotten sick (knock on wood!) it does happen, and salmonella will probably land even the fittest individual right in the hospital. There are options, specially here in the US. Buying pasteurized eggs is a possibility. They can be pricey too. The good news is, pasteurizing eggs at home is doable.

simple egg on toast : roasted tomatoes and potatoes : frisée

Nothing like staying in bed on a saturday  morning for a bit longer, just a bit longer, specially after friday drinks. What’s better is having breakfast in bed and what would be even better, being able to go back to sleep for another couple hours right after. Enough wishful thinking, but my sleeping in I got, so I’m happy about that. I will have to work for my breakfast and there won’t be any going back to sleep… well, maybe not right away, although a nap is in the works. I love sleeping, and eggs. So far a perfect day so far.

Not much in the fridge, I feel like I have neglected my grocery shopping planning and I end up running to the store when I need to cook anything. I used to go to the store and get everything I needed for the next 2 weeks. I gotta get back to doing that, Its more economical that way, and less money wasted on gas. But there something great about getting stuff right before cooking. Stuff is fresher, looks prettier and tastes more delicious. Specially protein and most veggies. I guess I will have to find a better balance between plan ahead vs buy stuff on demand. But today’s dish basically uses ingredients I already had, and like almost every saturday, I made eggs for breakfast: 

how does salt affect eggs in cooking: I’ve had enough! gotta test it myself!

I know I am way in over my head when it comes to food science, but I will give it my best shot here, what do I have to lose? 4 eggs? that’s worth the risk.

After having eaten possibly one zillions eggs in my lifetime (actual number) I have finally stopped and taken a look at one of those kitchen controversies, to salt or not to salt eggs…before cooking them. I hear Julia and Jacques have tested this, I hear they both disagree. I hear Ramsey is all about salting after cooking them, makes them retain that fluffiness he says, Heston salts his eggs before they go in the sous vide bath. Maybe you know of more examples, but this egg thing does seem to be a common subject of debate out there. It probably doesn’t matter which way you go as long as you understand what salt does to eggs and what effect you are looking for in the end. I personally thought salt didn’t really have a big effect on eggs, but boy was I wrong. Let me show you what I found  on my latest test:  

Scrambled Eggs + Potatoes + Mushrooms + Dehydrated Tomatoes + Spinach

Eggs again??? yes… I can’t get enough. Here’s what I did this morning, while going through the fridge, found a few things I could throw together and make breakfast (more like breakfast for lunch). This is like a lazy version of a Tortilla de Patatas and I added a couple of extra goodies in there. Anyways, I’m thinking of reworking the way I present recipes and methodology. Will try to keep it as concise as possible, present ingredients by weight and volume or unit, and also add a tool section, where I list gear which can help prep ahead. This is a really straight forwards recipe:

Microwaved Breaky (scrambled eggs and pan roasted potatoes)

Do not stop reading after this off-putting title.

Microwaving food has a pretty bad rep, but just because it is associated with heating up frozen dinners, popping corn kernels, making mostly everything put in them soggy or rubbery  and on top of that, the evil magnetron that lurks inside produces deadly radiation, it really doesnt sound good at all. But it isn’t that bad as long as its usage and purpose is clear. Heating water, sugars and oils, components present in most foods we want to throw in there for a quick warmup. Controlling the amount of heat something absorbs is nearly impossible in a microwave (seriously, it is) because each molecule absorbs microwaves differently. The energy level setting on a microwave is another deceiving thing, by lowering the amount of radiation all that’s really happening is that things will take longer to reach the same max temperature. Yes, you can boil water at 10% of the power.