Month: October 2017

REPOST – Eggs With Spinach and Fashion Tips From Dinah Shore

Eggs and Spinach are a classic combo. Think Eggs Florentine, Spinach Quiche or Spinach Soufflé.  Well today we are using eggs and spinach to create a twist on the dish The A -Z of Cooking calls Eggs With Spinach.  Uh huh.  What it lacks in imagination, it makes up for in precision.  But it’s also from a chapter called Watching Your Weight and, to be honest, the original recipe was a little meh….So, whilst staying in the spirit of Eggs with Spinach here’s my version.  What it lacks in weight watching, it makes up for in flavour.

Given that choice, always make flavour the winner.  Just go for a run the next day!

Eggs withspinach6My eggs and spinach recipe contains spinach lightly sauteed in garlic, mixed with a little cream, sprinkled with nutmeg, topped with cheese and baked with an egg until the white is set and the yolk is runny perfection!

Eggs with Spinach1Did anyone say brunch?  These eggs with spinach scale up really well for a group at brunch or make a great quick and easy supper for one!

Eggs with Spinach2

I used fresh baby spinach in my Eggs with Spinach, however you could use frozen.  Below is a great vintage ad for frozen spinach.  Note the awesome striped t-shirt being worn by Dinah Shore and the perfectly coordinated polka dot apron.  She’s rocking my favourite patterns and showing that the rule of “blue and green should never be seen” is as dumb AF.   Go Dinah. Vintage Spinach2OMG, I only just noticed her gorgeous green shoes with the bows.  I want that entire outfit!  I wonder if  back in the day women everywhere were also exclaiming “Glory be….fuck the spinach, get me that t-shirt and those shoes…”

Does anyone say “Glory be” anymore?

Did anyone ever?

Before we travel down that etymological rabbit hole here’s the recipe:

Print

Eggs with Spinach

A delicious quick and easy dish for brunch, lunch or supper!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 500g baby spinach
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 25g butter
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tbsp cream
  • 4 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.
  2. Lightly grease four 3/4 cup-capacity ovenproof dishes.
  3. Wash the baby spinach.
  4. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and add the garlic.
  5. Saute for a minute or two until the garlic softens but does not change colour.
  6. Add the spinach and stir until just wilted, about 2 minutes.
  7. Take off the heat and stir in the cream and nutmeg.
  8. Divide the spinach into two and place in two ramekin dishes.
  9. Make an indent in the middle and break and egg into each.
  10. Sprinkle the cheese over the top.
  11. Season with salt and pepper.
  12. Bake for around 15 minutes or until the egg white is just set but yolk is still runny.
  13. Remove from oven. Stand for 2 minutes.
  14. Serve with toast.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2

If you would also like to rock Dinah’s look here is my take on it:

The Dinah Collection

That was awesome fun!  Now I gotta go do it in real life.  Have a good one!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2

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Oysters with Rhubarb Mignonette

Whilst in England earlier this year I was lucky enough to visit the Oyster Festival at Whitstable.  This is a 3 day celebration of all things oyster, dating back to Norman times.  It was a great day, there was a market and music, a fun fair and as much seafood as you could poke a stick at!  The seaside town of Whitstable is also lovely with some great shops and eateries.  Well worth a visit even if the festival isn’t happening. 

Oysters with Rhubarb MignonetteHow to best to celebrate this day and the humble oyster but with another quintessentially English ingredient… rhubarb! 

Whitstable Then and NowWTF??? Yep, rhubarb.  Sounds weird but bear with me…it really works.  Meantime, here’s some pics from the Oyster Festival.

Whitstable Oyster Festival6Whitstable Oyster Festival12While we were in Whitstable, we had our oysters with a traditional mignonette which is chopped shallots, red wine vinegar and cracked black pepper.  I jazzed mine up with some very finely chopped rhubarb.

Rhubarb MignonetteRaw rhubarb has a sharp, clean, crisp, sour taste  – imagine sour green apples mixed with celery which mixes perfectly with the red wine vinegar and shallots in a traditional mignonette, plus it makes it a glorious pink colour!

Rhubarb Mignonette2Of course, if you want a traditional mignonette, you can use this recipe from Bon Appetit.  But why not take a teeny step into the wild side and try this?  It is really lovely!

Rhubarb Mignonette3Any leftover mignonette can be used as a delicious dressing for any salad greens!

Print

Oysters with Rhubarb Mignonette

A fresh and tangy take on a traditional mignonette.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 12 freshly shucked oysters
  • 1/2 stick rhubarb, finely chopped
  • 2 French shallots, finely chopped
  • 80ml red wine vinegar
  • Pinch of sugar
  • Freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Combine all ingredients except oyster in a small bowl.
  2. Leave for at least 15 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.
  3. When ready to serve, spoon rhubarb mignonette over oysters.
  4. Enoy!

Leftover rhubarb can be used in:

The Dishiest Dish – Rhubarb, Rose and Passionfruit Sorbet

Dishiest Dish – Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tarts

Future Classics – Australian Table – August 2001

Whitstable 14

Have a wonderful weekend!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2
 

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Profiteroles For Very Special Occasions

You might think that five and a bit years into this that I would cease to be surprised.  Both when things go awry and when by some stroke of mad luck things work out just as they should.  Such was the case with the Profiteroles I made on the weekend from the Very Special Occasions Chapter of The A- Z of Cooking (1977).  When the profiteroles came out of the oven looking like, well, profiteroles, there were whoops of joy, squeals of excitement and a bit of spontaneous kitchen dancing!

Yep, in this house, this:

Equals This:

http://www.laughinggif.com/view/ew0vxmklkk/56.htmlBut let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet.  First.  Hello V.  And whilst we’re on the subject let’s’ all note the name of the chapter.  Not just Special Occasions.  Very Special Occasions.  Requiring very special dancing apparently.  And also requiring several goes at making something that was worthy of posting. After all, it’s a very special occasion.

First up there was a go at Carpetbag Steak.  Now, if you lookup Carpetbag Steak anywhere on the interwebs, you will more than likely read that it is a famous  Australian recipe.  I’ve lived here virtually all my life and I have never head of it.  However, I really liked the idea of steak and oysters.  I made the recipe and it looked and tasted meh.

Then I made a Beef Stroganoff.  Tasted good.  Looked terrible in all the photos.  I think it’s that thing that Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers told me about where brown food just doesn’t photo well.  This was about the best…

So then I made Carpetbag Steak v2.  A modern recipe this time.  Still looked and tasted meh.

I was left with a choice.  Champagne and Orange Juice.  Or Profiteroles.  And believe me . You came so close to having Champagne and Orange juice as your very special occasion meal.  Because this is what happens inside my head whenever pastry is mentioned:

https://giphy.com/gifs/bored-room-clean-clWd5ft31I23KThe profiteroles only happened because the very special occasion was a long weekend due to the Football Grand Final being the next day.  I know right.  Who has a holiday BEFORE the big day?

“It’s the dumbest reason for a holiday ever” I said.

“Come to work then” said my boss.

“It’s the best holiday ever.  Better even than Jesus being born.  Or dying.”

So anyway, on the holiday for best/ worst reason ever I got a little bored in the evening and thought that I would have a flick through The A-Z of Cooking, to plan V-Z.  The profiterole recipe caught my eye and  I realised that I had every ingredient.  And a whole heap of bravado due to being about 3/4 of a bottle of a wine in.

Don’t judge.  That produced these.  Light as air, melt in the mouth, boozy cream filled and shiny chocolately pastry balls of deliciousness,

The basis for profiteroles, and the reason for my hissy fit is pastry.  Choux pastry to be exact.  I have made choux pastry exactly once before.  For a recipe called Cherry Fritters from The A-Z of Cooking.  Don’t bother searching the archives for them.  They were a total disaster and I didn’t post them.

But choux starts with a roux…actually no. According to The A-Z of Cooking choux pastry starts with 63g of flour.  Yep.  63.  Not 60.  Not 65.  63.  And seeing as this was a very special occasion, 63g of flour it was.

Profiteroles5This became this:

Which became these.  I couldn’t find a piping bag and my piping skills are non-existent so I just blobbed spoonfuls of the pastry onto the tray.  Also, I wasn’t really expecting this to  work.  And need I remind you about that bottle of wine that was now 5/6’s gone?

Well, slap my arse and call me Charlie if those funny looking blobs didn’t turn into these.  They’re shall we say  “rustic” but on a scale of one to ten of  being recognizable as profiteroles, they have to be at least an eight.

Profiteroles 10So then fill and ice and sprinkle and you get these: (even more profiteroley).

Profiteroles 11

Here’s the recipe direct from The A-Z of Cooking:

Profiteroles 12I tweaked the recipe by swapping out the rum for Amaretto and adding some sprinkles.

Make, eat, enjoy, do a little dance of sheer pleasure.

http://www.laughinggif.com/view/ew0vxmklkk/56.html

And have a great week!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2

 

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