breakfast – Stephfood CLONE

Ackee and Salt Fish (Jamaica Discoveries Pt.1)

Time for some Jamaican breakfast!

Back from a much needed vacation, in a warm climate with a lovely beach and lots and lots of food. Maybe too much food.

We spent nearly a week in Montego Bay, Jamaica. My goal was to have some real Jamaican food, and that’s exactly what I did. Over the next little while, I’ll be showing some of the highlights, including at least one recipe attempt.

Today’s installment begins with Jamaica’s national dish, Ackee and Salt fish. This is a breakfast dish, to the surprise of many of my fellow travellers. We North Americans aren’t really known for having fish at breakfast. It was different, to be sure.
Continue reading Ackee and Salt Fish (Jamaica Discoveries Pt.1)

Daring Bennies of Destiny

The timing for this challenge could not have been better. I had already decided to make Eggs Benedict a personal challenge for the Winter, having never attempted Hollandaise sauce, and having never successfully poached an egg. It was destiny.

I am a fanatic when it comes to Eggs Benedict. I crave them. When I crave the Bennies, I get cranky when I don’t have one. I’ve posted about my love for Bennies before, and you can see that I enjoy many variations on the dish. In fact, I’ve only ever had “real” Eggs Benedict three times – and two of those times were just last weekend. My eating meat has been a recent development, and even still I tend to pick the meatless options instead.

In all of the years of eating various Bennies, I never really knew what Hollandaise was supposed to be like. Not to sound high on my cooking skills, but after going through the process of making it myself, I think I now know how it should be. I think mine was a little thin, but the flavour was right. And now I point my fingers at you, *namelessrestaurant*, who make salty, gloopy Hollandaise that tastes like chicken stock. Tsk, tsk, in your general direction.

The Hollandaise was tedious, but not difficult. I was so worried it would break, but it stayed together. If you haven’t had it before, it has a pretty delicate flavour with a light lemoniness. I added a few spices to mine, too, and thought they were a great addition. I was scared by the amount of butter required, but told myself that challenge recipes are worth adding that much butter to! Also, I probably could have halved the Hollandaise recipe.

The bigger scare came from the egg poaching. I had never been able to poach an egg before. My previous attempt, many years ago, resulted in a poached egg yolk with a thin layer of white around it. FAIL! This time, I made sure to get fresh eggs, looked up all sorts of tips and tricks and used the most scientific method in the book – I held my breath. That usually works, right? The eggs came out great. Once I got past that step, I was thrilled and assembled my stacks full of anticipation for the meal to come.

We love brunch.

I was really happy with the way these turned out. While I love to go out for brunch, there are times you just want to stay home and have a nice meal. It’s a great way to save money – and stay warm at home on a cold Winter day. I probably won’t make this every weekend, but I do plan to make them again. I think next time I’ll have to try making something like the crab Bennies we had at Dr. Generosity’s. Soooo good!

P.S. On an unrelated note, this is the 100th post on stephfood.com! I thought that when I got to this point, I’d make a post all about it, but I just have too many fun things to post about right now. I guess I’ll save the sentiment for the 1 year anniversary, at the end of January. Until then, let’s raise a glass of Hollandaise!

Blog-checking lines: Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading Daring Bennies of Destiny

Granola… Two Ways!

I’m not much of a breakfast person. Sure, I love brunch – but I’m talking about breakfast. You know, the food that you have to force down your throat first thing in the morning? No? Anyway, I never used to eat breakfast until I realized I need to eat all three meals in order to survive the day. There are two things I eat regularly: breakfast pitas; and yogurt with granola.

I’m a bit of a granola and yogurt fiend. I find store-bought granola to be expensive, and full of junk.

I’ve started on the path to making my own granola, full of things I like.

This time around, I wanted some variety so I made two different kinds of granola, instead of putting all of the ingredients into one big granola. It was a pretty good try, but I think I need some practise. The two kinds don’t taste different enough for me, so next time I’ll have to kick it up a bit. I also need to learn how to make better clumps of things – the smaller bits, like flax and chia, mostly fell to the bottom of the pan. It would be so much better if they stuck to some oats in clumps. I think adding some egg white to the mix will help with this.

Next time, I’ll try not to wuss out on the spices in the Spiced Pumpkin Cashew mix, and I think I’ll add some dried apricot. And maybe add some orange juice for a different flavour?

J says I’m a hippie, now that I make granola.

Recipes after the jump!

Continue reading Granola… Two Ways!

Greeky Eggs

I’m not a breakfast-making chick. When I wake up, I usually grab one of two things: a breakfast pita topped with almond or peanut butter; or a bowl of yogurt and granola. J does a little better on weekends, often making us some delicious waffles.

I wanted to make something special for once, so I pulled out an old copy of LCBO Food & Drink magazine, and made Baked Eggs with Feta and Dill.

This was a simple – but fun – dish to make. I got to use my cute little white ramekins, which rarely see the light of day. It looks and tastes more sophisticated than it actually was to make.

While this would be great at any time of year, I think this is one of those dishes that are best appreciated in the Spring and Summer. The light and fresh vegetable flavours are a perfect way to start the day. This would also be great as a part of a larger brunch spread, with some chilled white wine or mimosas (Darn! I knew I forgot something!).

The recipe can be found on the LCBO website: Baked Eggs with Feta and Dill. I always look forward to the seasonal Food & Drink magazines, both for the recipes and the fantastic photos. It’s like a food blog in paper form… what will they think of next!? (hahaha)

A Tale of Three Bennies

Dr. Crabby Benedict from Dr. Generosity

I’ve eaten Eggs Benedict three times this week.

We went to three different places this week, and every time I chose a type of (non-meat) Benedict(ish).

This is their story.

Eggs Benedict is probably my favourite “going out for” brunch food. I haven’t mastered poached eggs yet, and I haven’t tried to make hollandaise sauce. I generally don’t feel like putting that much effort into making breakfast. One small challenge – Eggs Benedict is usually hollandaise drizzled over poached egg, perched atop “Canadian” bacon laid over an english muffin. I don’t eat meat usually, and I don’t know if I’ve ever even had a “normal” Benny before.

I always get the fun ones. I probably even pick the ones that I think sound the MOST fun. Sometimes that includes smoked salmon instead of the bacon, usually some kind of vegetable (spinach, asparagus, etc.). Yum!!

The three “Bennies” I had were all very different, but were all really really good. I’d happily return to any of these restaurants!

1. Mushroom Benedict @ Lola’s Commissary (634 Church St.)

Sautéed mushroom on english muffin, amazing hollandaise with whole grain mustard, yummy salad.

A cute little place near Church & Bloor, this was the first time we ventured inside. The brunch specials sounded great (J had some weird poached eggs in a creamy salsa dish… it was kind of like eggs poached in chili, and was really good!) and it had some yummy sounding Bennies, so we had to try it.

2. California Benedict @ Eggspectation (220 Yonge St., Eaton Centre)

Poached eggs on smoked salmon and home fries, topped with sautéed spinach, asparagus, hollandaise and shredded gruyere. No english muffin!

Eggspectation is a chain restaurant, frequented by tourists and whatnot. That said, I’ve always had a great meal there… maybe because 75% of the time I get the California Benedict!! This dish has a good amount of veggies for me, and the sprinkles of gruyere totally sell it for me. I usually can’t finish the potatoes or the toast teepee they insist on putting on my plate.

3. “Special Benedict” (what shall now be known as Dr. Crabby Benedict) @ Dr. Generosity (2197 Bloor St. W)

This one was a “Special Benedict”, as it wasn’t on the regular menu, but the special of the day. Poached eggs on english muffins, topped with snow crab meat, hollandaise, spinach. Served with a side of home fries.

I had never had a Benny with crab before. It was soooooo good; truly decadent. It was also really filling, and I made the mistake of talking while eating so I got full before I could finish. Yeah, I finished it (I don’t judge you!). This restaurant is known for their large portion sizes, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprized. I had never been there before, but I’m sure I’ll go back (even without the Dr. Crabby Benedict – which would be a MUCH better name for this than “Special Benedict”.) 🙂

Crêpes d’Amour

Crêpes. They’re the kind of dessert that you can pretend are a meal. At least, that’s how I do it.

My valentine breakfast included some of these buttery, pliable treats filled with homemade crème pâtissière and raspberry rhubarb sauce. They were sweet, sour, creamy and delicious.

They were so good that I forgot to take a picture.

I swore to take a picture of round 2, later on.

3 Dessert Crêpes

Round 2 crêpes were filled with three different fillings: my usual favourite, nutella and banana; nutella and cream cheese (tastes like a cheese cake!) and the rest of the custard and rhubarb sauce from breakfast. Sooooo good!!

This time, I used a crêpe recipe from the Martha Stewart site. Next time, I’m going to try one from Vegetarian Times as a comparison. The main difference between the two is the number of eggs (three) and inclusion of butter in the Martha batter. The VT version only contains one egg, which should affect both the texture and flavour.

I’m also going to have to try savoury crepes, or galettes, using buckwheat flour. These could be filled with just about anything, cheeses, pesto, spinach, mushrooms, peppers. Yup, still lots of fun to be had!!

Recipes (from the Martha Stewart website):