Poached egg

Did a breakfast yesterday using my left over homemade bread.

What's notable about this is the poached egg. Did it 75C for 14 mins (79 g egg - very large egg) straight from fridge. Quite nice texture.

(large egg : about 65g needs about 13 mins).

Steak au poivre

Did French style pepper steak (Poivre = Pepper). The sauce was brandy and cream over the pan juices.

mw said steak was nice. Curiously, I liked my mashed sweet potato better. It has thyme oil, creme fraiche, milk, dash of balsamic vinegar and salt in it.

This week is sandwich week #3

This time, using the same dough, I tried a flat bread. The bread was fried dry on my cast iron skillet.

Ingredients : Mayo (again! :-) a thin spread though), 1 slice of prosciutto ham, and tomatoes. I drizzled a bit of my thyme oil on to the ingredients. The flat bread is the main ingredient really, so I didn't want to overwhelm it with loads of stuff.

Tastes good (including crust). However, the crust was a bit too thick - it may have been the bread flour in it that resisted my attempts to flatten the dough. Maybe I should have aimed for a crusty crust (like a pizza).

The black bits were nice - perhaps I should have burnt it more.

This week is sandwich week #2

This time I used the Kraftkorn bread (multi-grain) from SwissBake for the bread.

Ingredients : Mayo, pork tenderloin, shredded Japanese cabbage, and cherry tomatoes. 

The pork tenderloin was fried in thyme oil.

Mayo recipe

I think I like this variant. Therefore documenting the mix.

1. 1 cup neutral oil (sunflower, canola).
2. Half a teaspoon salt
3. Juice from half a lemon.
4. 1 egg
5. 1 tablespoon djion mustard.
6. A good glug of extra virgin olive oil - perhaps 100ml.

Make the mayo the usual way with first 5 ingredients. Then stir in the olive oil and mix into the emulsion.

Adjust salt, lemon juice or olive oil to taste.

Post-Note: The recipe for kewpie mayo (Japanese brand mayo) can be found here : http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/sauced-japanese-style-kewpie-mayonnaise-recipe.html

Based on a taste comparison, mine has a lemony taste that I like. Kewpie has a stronger, more savory finish (prob due to MSG and Hon Dashi).


 

Thyme infused oil

Had leftover fresh thyme (20g). Combined it with 1 cup of sunflower oil, and a piece of dried orange and then cooked it in a water bath for 3 hours at 55C. Then strained.

Result, a very green looking oil. Can't wait to use it.

This week is sandwich week #1

I declare this week to be sandwich week. More to follow later.

Bread was a bit dense and tough (though tasty). The bread was my usual recipe without rise and with sesame seeds. Sandwich ingredients were pretty nice :

1. spread of home made mayo (slightly more lemony).
2. small sprinkle of finely chopped raw onion.
3. salad leaves + sliced cherry tomatoes.
4. smoked salmon.

I also made another variation of my pumpkin puree from leftover pumpkin. This time, I caramelized less of the pumpkin, then just added salt, cinnamon and lemon juice (to taste) and mashed it by hand (instead of blending to a smooth  puree). Mw declared this to be tasty as well. Basically this variation is not so "desserty" and more savory.

Topped off with a salad with dressing from pre made sesame dressing and ground pepper. Note to self : leave dressing till last minute - the leaves were soggy and compressed by lunch time.