Monthly Archives: October 2013

Fried Egg Sandwich with Bacon and Blue Cheese [Egg Sandwich Lyonnaise]

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The first time I had a Salade Lyonnaise was at a birthday lunch for my sister-in-law Kelly at Café Chloe (a cute little French restaurant here in San Diego) and I was instantly in love.  The combination of bitter greens (typically frisée), lardons (crisp bacon pieces), croutons and a poached egg tossed in a warm vinaigrette…c’est bon.

Then our friend Christine (of “Blanquette de Veau” fame) served it at a dinner party at her home.  Again.  C’est bon.  So when I saw that Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for a sandwich that was inspired by Salade Lyonnaise, I knew I had to make it.  She fries the egg, rather than poaching, and uses a little of the bacon grease to make the vinaigrette (oh my!) and adds crumbled blue cheese, all on a crusty ciabatta roll.  C’est très bon.  It’s a quick and easy and really delicious weeknight dinner.  Add a glass of white Burgundy, some pommes frites (aka shoestring French fries) and voilà…you’ve turned your kitchen into a little French bistro!

Fried Egg Sandwich with Bacon and Blue Cheese [Egg Sandwich Lyonnaise]

Makes 2 sandwiches

INGREDIENTS

2 ciabatta rolls

1 1/2 cups frisée (French curly endive), torn into-bite size pieces (I couldn’t find frisée either time I’ve made the sandwiches – I used a Spring mix once and arugula once…both were delicious)
1 bacon slice, preferably thick-cut (I actually used two slices!)
1 tablespoon minced shallot (from 1 small)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 to 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, divided
2 large eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Split your rolls and put them in to toast.

Place frisée in a medium bowl.

Cut bacon crosswise into 1/4-inch wide lardons. In a small heavy skillet, cook bacon over moderate heat, until pieces are crisp. With a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels, reserving bacon fat in pan. Add shallot to bacon fat and cook for one minute, stirring. Add red wine vinegar and let hiss and bubble for 20 to 30 seconds, then remove from heat and whisk in Dijon. Immediately pour hot dressing over frisée and toss with drained lardons, salt and pepper.

Remove rolls from toaster and divide bacon-frisée salad between each bottom bun. You’ll want to heap on more than seems feasible or needed, especially once you realize how tasty it is. Top each salad pile with half (2 tablespoons) of the blue cheese.

Reheat skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and swirl it to coat the pan. Crack one egg into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and reduce heat to medium. I like to cover the skillet with a small lid at this point, as it seems to help the egg cook faster and more evenly. In one minute, you should have a perfect sunny-side-up egg. However, I find that for this sandwich, to somewhat rein in the mess, it helps to then flip the egg for 20 to 30 seconds, until the yolk is still runny, but less likely to run right off your sandwich.

Remove the egg from the pan and place it on top of the bacon-frisée salad on the bun. Repeat with remaining egg and come on, what are you waiting for? Dig in.

Chino Chopped Vegetable Salad

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Okay.  Here’s another one of my “I’ve been making this for oh-so-long” recipes.  I clipped it out of a magazine (maybe San Diego Home & Garden?) at one time  and then when I received Wolfgang Puck’s Live, Love, Eat! cookbook as a gift years ago, it was in there too.  I have since lost the one from the magazine, but still have the cookbook (albeit pages 1-45 have come loose from the binding, which is very funny because the two recipes I use – Chinois Chicken Salad and this one, are on pages 42 and 44.  The rest of the book is perfectly intact.)

This is called Chino Chopped Vegetable Salad.  Wolfgang calls it that because he says “What tastes better and lighter on a hot summer day than a fresh vegetable salad?  No one I know grows better vegetables than the Chino family on their organic farm in Rancho Santa Fe north of San Diego.”  To be quite honest, I’ve never been to Chino Farms.  I just had to look to see if they are still around.  They are.  But since the time Wolfgang published the cookbook (2003), farmer’s markets have sprouted up all over the place and you can get really wonderful farm fresh veggies at any of them.

This is one of my favorite salads.  I’ve simplified it a bit and often take shortcuts by using frozen (shhhh…don’t tell Wolfgang or the Chino family) veggies.  There’s a lot of chopping involved, but really, it’s pretty easy.  The dressing makes enough that you’ll have more than you need. So save the leftovers and use for another salad another day (or…make this one again!)

And, be creative…use whatever veggies you like.  Fresh peas, chopped zucchini…if you like hearts of palm better than artichoke hearts, use those.

Chino Chopped Vegetable Salad

 INGREDIENTS

Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar (or you can use red wine vinegar)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup safflower oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

Salad:

1/2 cup chopped artichoke hearts (from a jar of marinated hearts, drained)

1/2 cup diced carrots

1/2 cup diced green beans (you can use fresh or I’ve used Trader Joe’s frozen haricots verts)

1/2 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup chopped radicchio

1/2 cup corn kernels (you can use fresh or I’ve used Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn)

1/2 cup diced celery

1 small tomato, chopped

1 small avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

To prepare the vinaigrette:  In a small bowl, combine the mustard and vinegar.  Whisking continuously, slowly pour in the oils and mix until emulsified.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To prepare the salad:

If using fresh green beans – bring a pot of boiling water to a boil.  Put the beans in a wire strainer, set inside the pot of boiling water and cook until al dente, tender, but still firm, 2 to 3 minutes.  Plunge the strainer into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.  Drain and set aside to cool.

If using frozen green beans (and frozen corn) – put the beans and corns into a colander.  Run hot water over for a few minutes until defrosted.  Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, add artichoke hearts, carrots, green beans, red onion, radicchio, corn and celery.  Gently toss with a little vinaigrette.  Just before serving, add the tomato and avocado.  Gently toss again with a little more vinaigrette.  Divide salad among salad plates and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

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Debra, one of my very favorite coworkers, had a birthday (a BIG birthday) last month.  Okay, really, Debra’s not just one of my favorite coworkers, but one of my very favorite people on the whole planet.  Really.  She’s kind and thoughtful and funny and generous and has a laugh that is absolutely contagious.

I was invited to her surprise party but couldn’t make it, so I wanted to do something special to make up for missing it.  I asked her wife what her favorite baked good was.  She said, “Deb loves cinnamon rolls…lemon bars too, but cinnamon rolls are her favorite.”  Cinnamon rolls.  Hmmm…I think I’ve made them once or twice and I really didn’t have time to do the whole wait-for-the-yeast-to-rise thing.

Then I remembered seeing a recipe that someone had posted on Facebook for a Cinnamon Roll Cake.  I tried to find which friend had posted it (spent way too much time on that little venture), but couldn’t.  So I Googled.  Duh.  There were dozens of them…seems to be a popular recipe on Pinterest and the food blog circuit.  And they are all exactly the same recipe. So I went to the blog that I thought looked cutest (The Girl Who Ate Everything) and made that one.  It was really easy and smelled heavenly while baking.

(As a little side note here, it smelled so good baking that it caught Tony’s attention.  He came into the kitchen and asked what I was baking.  I told him it was for Debra’s birthday.  He said something along the lines of, “how come you always bake such good stuff for work and not for me?” Guilt.  So I made a second one!!!!  Crazy, I know…but at least this way I got to sample it!  And it tasted just as heavenly as it smelled.  All warm and cinnamon-y and gooey and delicious.  Tony loved it and the neighbors we shared it with did too.)  

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The next day, I took the one I made for Debra to work and left it on her desk.  And then waited for her to discover it.  A while later, she walked over to my cubicle and said, “Bruser…did you make this delicious cinnamon cake”?  And I said, “yes, it’s a cinnamon roll cake.”  And she said, “Cinnamon rolls are my favorite thing.”  And I said, “I know.”  Giggle, giggle.  And she said, “how did you know?”  Giggle, giggle.  “Did my wife tell you?”  More giggling.  Anyway…it was very cute.  She said she loved it.  Said it might even be one of the best things she’s ever eaten in her life, “like a cinnamon roll and coffee cake all in one.”

Later that night, Debra texted me a picture of her son 14-year-old Ethan eating a piece of the cake.  She said, “He’s in heaven, Bruser!”

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So here you have it.  Cinnamon Roll Cake.  Like coffee cake and cinnamon roll all in one.  You don’t even have to wait until one of your favorite people’s birthday.  Make one this weekend. You’ll be so happy you might even laugh like Debra.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

INGREDIENTS

Cake:
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

Topping:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Mix everything together except for the butter. Slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9×13 pan.

For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350° for 28-32 minutes.

Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

While still warm drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Tomato-Glazed Mini Meatloaves

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I love meatloaf.  I mean, I really love meatloaf (and leftover meatloaf sammies?  Don’t event get me started!) Tony, on the other hand, not such a fan.  When I first broached the subject a couple of decades ago, his response was something like, “No way. Meatloaf?  Gross.  Why would anyone want to eat a loaf of meat?”  Okay.  I’ll admit, when you phrase it like that, it’s not so appealing.  My argument was, “but you like burgers…it’s basically the same thing, only bigger.”  Well, it was an argument I wasn’t going to win.

So I order meatloaf when we go out.  And often usually pretty much always, when Tony goes out of town, I either make myself a little mini meatloaf (from that old tried-and-true Betty Crocker cookbook) or I order “to go” the Frieda’s Meatloaf from our local favorite Trails restaurant.

But that’s not to say that I haven’t tried to convert him. I think in the 29 years that we’ve been married (plus the four we were dating before that), maybe three times I’ve convinced him to try a “loaf of meat”.  First time was pretty early on.  It was my favorite from aforementioned Betty Crocker cookbook.  No go.

So I took a few years off and then last year, there was a recipe in Bon Appétit for banh mi-inspired meatloaf sandwiches, with a hoisin glaze.  He actually liked that.  (It was a pretty complicated recipe and involved cooking bacon first and adding it to the meat mixture and, of course, we didn’t have it in “loaf” style, just sliced on sandwiches, topped with a really yummy slaw, but we’re getting closer!)

Then when I bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook a few months ago, there was a recipe for Tomato-Glazed Meatloaves.  She writes that she is a “sucker for a good meatball…however, it had always been my belief that I had no such adoration for meatloaf” and then someone pointed out that meatloaf is like one giant meatball.  HA!  She says she came up with a great recipe, but that still couldn’t “get past the loglike meatloaf shape”, so makes these little “meatloaves masquerading as big meatballs.”  So I figure I’ll try them.  Tell Tony they’re just big meatballs.  HA!  And guess what?  It worked.  He liked them!

Now I’m happy that there are two “loaf of meat” recipes I can make.  This one is much easier and cooks a lot quicker (the cooking time is about a third of what it takes to do a full-sized loaf).  Annnnddd…you can have meatloaf sliders for lunch the next day!

Tony was away at a guys’ golf trip this past weekend…guess what I made?

Tomato-Glazed Mini Meatloaves

(adapted just slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

Makes 12 mini meatloaves – serves 6

INGREDIENTS

Glaze:

Glaze:

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons honey (I would actually double this next time – I like a sweeter glaze)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

Meatloaves:

2 slices sandwich bread (should be about 1 cup of crumbs.  Note – I actually “cheated” and used a cup of store bought panko crumbs)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 medium stalk celery, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

Olive oil, for cooking

2 pounds ground beef

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 large eggs

Optional – 8 ounces mushrooms, doubled or quartered, to toss in the baking dish and bake alongside the mini loaves

DIRECTIONS

Combine glaze ingredients in a small saucepan, and simmer, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350°. Tear the bread into chunks and then blend it, in a food processor, into breadcrumbs (or use one cup store bought crumbs). Place breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Add the vegetables to processor and finely chop (or do it by hand).

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, coat the bottom with olive oil; add the finely chopped vegetables. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the vegetables to the large bowl with breadcrumbs, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir together with a fork. With wet hands, form the mixture into twelve 3 inch meatballs.

Space the meatballs so that they are not touching, in a baking dish.  Brush each with a teaspoon or so of the tomato glaze. (If you’re adding mushrooms, here’s where you’d do it…just quarter or halve and scatter around the meatballs.) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve on a bed of your favorite mashed potatoes.

Grilled Lemony-Herb Cauliflower Steaks

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The other night we were trying to think of a side dish to have with burgers.  Tony says, “How about grilled cauliflower?  I think I saw a recipe for cauliflower steaks in one of our magazines recently.”  Hmmmm…intriguing.  I’ve come to find that most veggies are better either grilled or roasted.  So I Googled.  I found the one he was referring to, in Bon Appétit.  Cauliflower Steaks with Olive Relish and Tomato Sauce.  Well, they weren’t grilled and they were a little more complicated than I wanted and I am not a fan of olives. So back to Google.  I actually found a bunch of recipes for grilled cauliflower steaks.  I knew I wanted to just brush with a little olive oil, maybe some lemon juice and herbs, but I wanted to find the method.  So I ended up combing ideas from a few of the recipes.  The result?  A-mazing.  The cauliflower gets all nutty and caramelized….mmmm…goodness.  Yummy.  Healthy.  Delicious.

Note – one whole head of cauliflower was devoured by the two of us.  You’ll see that when you start slicing the cauliflower, you only really get three or four “steaks”.  The rest falls off into big (and some small florets).  You can grill the bigger floret pieces.  Save the smaller ones for dipping into hummus.

Grilled Lemony-Herb Cauliflower Steaks

INGREDIENTS

(Serves two)

1 head cauliflower

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped small

1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

DIRECTIONS

Preheat grill to medium-low.

Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, basil, parsley and oregano.

Remove outer leaves and trim stem end of cauliflower, leaving core intact. Place cauliflower core side down on a work surface. Using a large knife, slice cauliflower into three or four 1/2″ “steaks” from center of cauliflower.  Some pieces will fall off.  You can grill the larger pieces.  Save the small florets for dipping, raw, into hummus, for a healthy snack.

Brush both sides of the cauliflower steaks with olive oil mixture. Grill cauliflower on each side, brushing with additional olive oil mixture, until cauliflower is nutty brown and tender but still firm, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  Serve warm and with additional olive oil/lemon/herb mixture for dipping.