Week 15 - A Dinner Party to Please Everyone

Ever since missing the wedding in Jaipur, we've been meaning to invite the wedding couple along with some other friends who did make it to the wedding to dinner, in lieu of an apology. Things kept getting in the way, and before we knew it, it's been two months. But better late than never, right? Only problem is, this group has various dietary restrictions:

The groom is gluten intolerant
The bride doesn't eat red meat, but ok with duck, chicken, seafood or veggies
Another guest eats veggeis, lamb, chicken, egg, but no beef, pork, seafood, or duck

At least the other two guests had no dietary restrictions. I guess I could've made chicken, but that somehow seemed too boring. Short of making a full vegetarian dinner, I was at a loss as to what to do... until I asked J to check with guest #3 if he could eat chicken cooked in duck fat, and Hallelujah, it was ok! Yes, you've guessed it, I'm making duck confit, but using chicken for the non-duck eating guest.

I had planned on buying some blue flowers to go with my Jim Thompson napkins and place mats, but these wine colored gerbera daisies looked so gorgeous at the nursery that I had to get them. Only when I started to set the table did I realize that they almost completely disappeared in the background of my table =o(

I served a cold cucumber and dill soup as entree. The person who doesn't eat seafood didn't get the smoked salmon topping.

I wanted to serve burrata from Carecci again, but their shipment arrives the same night as my dinner, so I had to change my plans and ordered buffalo mozzarella instead and made a Caprese salad with the basil growing on my balcony.

Main course is duck confit. I bought frozen duck legs from Mmmm in Novena and marinated it with sea salt, pepper, and some pink salt for 4 hours. Then I slow cooked it in duck fat with garlic and bay leaves at 190F for about 4.5hrs, until the meat is almost falling off the bone. I kept them submerged in duck fat in the fridge until the day of the dinner. Here is a similar recipe but I never marinate the duck overnight, because I find it way too salty. Four hours of marination is just right for my taste, but I've gone for as long as six. I served the duck confit (chicken confit for one guest) with a pear and cranberry salad. 

I also made a peasant bread using the five minute Artisan bread recipe. Too bad our gluten intolerant guest couldn't eat this.

To make it up to him, I made sure both desserts were gluten free: Pavlova with brandy berry sauce, similar recipe here. I always leave the meringue base in the turned-off oven after baking until serving time. This way it cools with the oven and doesn't absorb any moisture from the atmosphere, so it remains crispy in our humid weather.

And a decadent flourless chocolate cake that I've decided to include in my bakery menu.

The highlight of the dinner, aside from the desserts, was an envelope presented to J by one of our guests. It contained this:

He even highlighted the important parts! I don't think we'll ever live this one down =o(

Week 6, 2015

So the dressage show on Sunday didn't go too well. Istria has been spooking a lot lately, and it didn't help that during warmup there was a huge truck dragging a roller across the polo stick and ball arena. Even worse is when that monster decided to come towards us. She freaked out and went crazy around the warmup arena. Although I stayed on and stopped her without crashing into anyone, my hairnet flew off in the struggle and it was not pretty. Long story short, she was still nervous going into the competition, and although we had pretty decent 6 and 7 in the beginning of the test, she saw a "baby monster" moving outside the arena half way through the test and refused to go into a corner, resulting in a wrong lead canter, which I couldn't correct. We got two 1s for that part, and it cost us dearly.

It's frustrating in times like this because she is such a pretty horse and when she's good she looks fantastic. She is, however, sensitive, and many things can set her off. Lately she has been spooking on average 2-3 times in a 45-min lesson, and I guess it's only natural that she'd be on high alert during a competition when tensions are high. I suppose I have to look at the bright side. She used to fidget nonstop and unable to halt, but we did two square halts this time. So there is progress...

Feb 2 (Mon)

I picked up my health screening report today and all the numbers are good. I guess this means I'm doing something right with my food, despite pigging out regularly =oP I think the key is to go light once in a while, so today I'm going light with
Toasted Quinoa Pear Salad

It may not look much but this salad is very filling. The flavor is mild but not bland. I like the sweetness of the pear with the goat cheese.

Feb 3 (Tue)

Honey Lime Tequila Shrimp Taco

I ate this on the wrap, and J ate it as a salad without the wrap. Either way it's pretty yummy. I don't put in nearly as much oil in the dressing, and I use home made low fat yogurt instead of sour cream, making this a very healthy and low fat dish.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

This soup is a little spicy, not to the point that you're gasping for air, but it has a kick. So go easy on the chili powder and increase as needed.

Feb 4 (Wed)

I used to make this dish quite often when we lived in Tokyo. The recipe was from a cookbook I borrowed from the library, but I forgot who the author was. If you're not used to the taste of umeboshi (Japanese sour plum) you may find this too sour, but both J and I like it a lot. It's pungent and punchy. I was too lazy to dig out my clay pot, but if I start making this more often I'll definitely make it in the clay pot, because it looks so much more impressive that way.

Baked Onion Chicken Thighs w Umeboshi & Shiso
serves 2-3

6 tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil, divided, plus additional for the baking dish
1 large onion, minced
sea salt
fresh coarsely ground black pepper
10 umeboshi, pitted
20 shiso leaves, chopped, 1 tbsp reserved
splash of sake
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thigh

- Preheat oven to 400F/200C
- Saute onion in 3 tbsp olive oil in heavy skillet over high heat. Salt and pepper liberally, until soft, about 5 min
- Place onion, umeboshi, shiso and 1 tbsp olive oil in blender and blend (add as much sake as needed for blender to work). Reserve 3 tbsp of this mixture.
- In small skillet, heat up the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil over maximum heat and fry the chicken until brown spots begin to appear
- Transfer the chicken and the blended onion mixture to a large bowl and mix
- Spray some olive oil into a baking dish (or clay pot) transfer chicken into it, and bake until golden, about 30 min
- Remove chicken, mix the reserved sauce through it, and return to the oven for another couple of minutes before serving
- Serve on a warm plate or in clay pot, topped off with the chopped shiso.

Here's another dish that I make ALL the time. It's super easy but tastes really good. It goes well with both Japanese or Chinese food. I use the skinny green beans if I can find them.

Green Bean Sesame Salad

250g Green beans                                  

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp soy sauce

3 tbsp white sesame

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce                        

- Wash beans and rub salt onto beans 
- Boil water and cook beans for 2-3 minutes.  Immediately plunge into ice water 
- Cut beans into half or 1/3, depending on length.  Sprinkle 1 tsp soy sauce all over
-  Toast sesame seeds and coarsely grind using mortar and pestle 
- Drain beans and add to a large bowl 
- Add sesame and reaming soy sauce, mix thoroughly

Feb 5 (Thur)

Korean Styled Spicy Marinated Pork Belly

This is one of my favorites. I use very thinly sliced pork belly (paper thin) meant for hot pot, so you get maximum sauce coating. If you don't want too much starch you can just use the lettuce without the brown rice, but I really like the firm texture of the rice.

Smooth Cauliflower Soup

I haven't made this soup in years, but I wanted something warm and soothing to go with the spicy pork, and found this recipe in my files. It tastes really creamy, but there's no cream in the soup at all. By the way, the photo on Allrecipes.com was taken by yours truly when I first started documenting my food with photos. It was taken with a real camera, way before the smart phone era.

This is a short week, since we are flying off to Jaipur for a wedding tomorrow. I'll see if there's any interesting food to report on, but until then, happy cooking! 

Week 5, 2015

Jan 26 (Mon)

Horse trainer extraordinaire A offered to hold an unmounted riding workshop for riders who took her clinic. All we needed was a venue. I haven't used the function room at my condo at all since moving in, so I thought this would be a good time to try out the kitchen. Since it was to be held at 7:30pm, I made some finger food so that nobody would pass out from hunger.

Stuffed Italian Bread

I've wanted to make this ever since I first laid eyes on the photo on Pinterest, with cheese oozing out of all the crevices. The 1/2 c of butter stated in the recipe seemed a huge amount so I cut it down by 1/3, which still seemed a lot, but after it's baked I realized I should have used all the butter called for. As one guest said, 1/2 c of butter divided by ten people is nothing! It was still very yummy, but could've been better if I didn't skimp on the butter.

Horse Treats (AKA veggie sticks) with Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dip

I substituted home made yogurt for the sour cream, used buttermilk powder from iHerb, and shallots instead of red onions. It was a huge hit and I had to cut more veggie sticks to keep up.

Dark Chocolate Brownie

I usually use a brownie recipe that contains melted milk chocolate in the batter and chunks of dark chocolate stirred in, with no coco powder. It is really decadent but sometimes I feel like having a brownie with only dark chocolate. Last week I tried a recipe using only coco powder with no chocolate. The resulting brownie was good, but I thought it lacked depth. So today I made one using both chocolate and coco powder (both Valrhona), with no flour. It turned out really well. Don't you just love a brownie with a beautifully cracked top? I'm going to put this on the menu of my bakery when it comes into operation.

I'm happy to report that after our workshop the only thing left of the food was about 1 tbsp of dipping sauce, and that was only because I ran out of veggie sticks. Nothing makes me happier than to have no leftover at the end of a gathering. The week is off to a great start!

Jan 27 (Tue)

Had carbs all day long, including two pieces of brownies for breakfast and half a slice of Lady M's decadent chocolate crepe cake for tea. This was my second visit to Lady M. I had a matcha crepe cake the first time, which was nice, but this chocolate version really wowed me. Both my friend W and I were impressed, and we're not the easily impressed type. So that's saying something =oP

Dinner is carb-free! J was happy.

Salmon Cake with Greens

I really like the capers inside the salmon patties. It's low fat, high protein, super healthy, without losing taste.

Chilled Thai Squash Soup 

I used yellow squash for this, but have also made it with butternut squash when I wanted it to be a more substantial soup. The curry paste gives it a nice kick without being too overpowering. I had this for lunch the next day, and it tasted even better.

Jan 28 (Wed)

Had another private jumping lesson at 7am on the horse that refuses to move. Thank goodness I had the foresight to drink an oatmeal smoothie on the way to the club, and wore spurs. When adding oatmeal to your smoothie you can either dry blend it to pulverize before adding the wet ingredients, or you can soak it in the liquid overnight. I soaked this time.

1/4 c oatmeal
1/2c fruit juice
1/2 frozen banana
1c butterheard lettuce
5 strawberries

After walking 4 dogs from 9:30am to noon under the hot sun, dinner needed to be an substantial affair, with lots of proteins and vitamins.

Roasted Chicken Sausage with Brussels Sprouts, Fennel & Potato

Chicken sausage is a healthier alternative to the pork variety and tastes just as good. This is my idea of comfort food, without the guilt.

Crunchy Fennel Salad with Dates, Olives & Almond

So sometimes people eat your dinner ingredients in the fridge but that's ok, pomegranate seeds are just as nice as grapes. I like salads with fruits in it, so this one is a favourite, but I think some people may find it strange. Try it and find out.

Jan 29 (Thur)

One of my favourite home cooked Japanese dishes is 豚の角煮or braised pork belly. There's a similar version in Chinese cuisine, but the Japanese version is less sweet, and seems less greasy. It usually contains daikon, Japanese radish. I saw arrowroot（茨菇）at the supermarket and I know it's used in some Chinese meat dishes so I decided to try adding that. The pork belly turns out soft and tender after the long cooking process, but the radish almost tastes better than the meat, and the bonus? They have all the meat flavors but none of the fat. That's why I wanted to add the arrowroot, to have another meat-tasting non-meat ingredient in this dish. The verdict? I loved it. The texture is almost like a yam, but firmer. This dish goes really well with white rice, with the soup poured onto the rice.

Japanese Braised Pork Belly

2 x 400g          pork belly strips

700g                Japanese radish

radish leaves, if available

4 hard boiled eggs

6cm piece of ginger, sliced, with skin on

1 dried red chili

1 leek, green parts only, do not cut

100ml sake

2 tbsp sugar

100ml Japanese soy sauce such as Kikoman

1. Peel radish and cut into 2cm thick half-moon shaped slices
2. Cut radish leaves into 4cm long and blanch in boiling water
3. Heat up Teflon coated frying pan over med heat.  Place pork belly strips into pan and brown on all sides, wiping off oil with paper towel once in a while.
4. Place radish pieces into pan with pork and stir fry briefly so that radish is covered in oil.  Remove radish and set aside.
5. Place pork, ginger, chili and green part of leek into a heavy pan.  Add 600ml of water and heat over med-high heat.  Once boiled skim off foam and cover with lid.
6. Let simmer for 1 hour, stop the fire and let sit with lid on for another hour
7. Remove pork and sieve stock into a clean bowl.  Measure out 300ml and return to cleaned pot, along with sake and sugar.
8. Cut each belly strip into 4 pieces and place into pot.
9. Heat over med-high heat until boils.  Then cover and simmer for 10 min
10. Add soy sauce, cover with parchment paper drop-lid and then pot lid and simmer for another 50 min.  Add radish and hard boiled egg to pot for the last 30 min.
11. Add radish leaves to pot and stir before serving.

 
Jan 30 (Fri)

I met C very early on in my riding venture, back when we both rode at the Saddle Club. She was hosting a dinner for trainer extraordinaire A and invited us. We were late due to J's work and heavy traffic so I was famished by the time we arrived, but the first thing I noticed was a little bowl of dark sauce in front of me. C told me it was for dipping the jambu, or rose apple. I think I've only had jambu once, when I found it in one of the hotel's welcome fruit baskets. Although juicy, it didn't really have any distinctive taste, so I never bothered with it again. This little dish of dark sauce, called Kecap, however, transformed the tasteless jambu. I finished all the jambu and wished there were more!

C shared how she makes the Kecap, which also goes well with white rice: Chop shallots, add black soy sauce (she uses an organic black bean soy sauce) and some brown sugar. Add chopped coriander and chili padi to taste.

   
I wanted to tweak the Reeses Peanut butter cup cake so I made it for the dinner party. Everybody loved it, so the taste is there, but I need to refine the look.

Jan 31 (Sat)
I had brunch with a friend on Thursday at Wild Honey and ordered one of my favorite all day breakfast items, the Tunisian. This time however, the eggs were under cooked and the whole dish was too watery.

The unsatisfying experience was still on my mind when I woke up this morning, and I made a mental checklist of what ingredients I have in the fridge and decided to make my own. I turned on the oven when I got up, and went to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I was done with cleaning myself up I started on the tomatoes. While it's cooking I plucked the herbs from my balcony and chopped the avocado. By the time the tomatoes are ready the oven was hot so the whole thing took less than 20 minutes.

Breakfast Skillet (serves 2)
1 can of diced tomato (400g)
herbs of your choice (I used thyme and oregano)
ham or sausage
1 avocado, sliced
4 eggs
S&P

- Preheat oven to 200C/400F
- Lightly grease a 10" cast iron pan and heat over high heat. Pour tomato into pan, add herbs and ham. (you can also use canned tomato with herbs already added in) Cook until most of the liquid is evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste.
-  Turn off heat. Make four holes in the tomato mixture and crack an egg into each hole. Arrange avocado slices between the eggs
- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until egg whites are just set and yolks are still runny.

You could skip the ham and make it vegetarian, or omit the avocado if you don't want it to be too filling. I ate it with challah bread dipped in the yolks. It was very satisfying and lasted me all day.

I stayed home all day and shot jewelry photos for a friend's upcoming charity auction. Four hours later I was completely pooped. Now I remember why I had given it up years ago. My back and wrists just can't take it. It's definitely a sign of aging =o(

 
For dinner we had Indian.

Chicken Tikka Masala 

I think this is as healthy as you can get with decent Indian food. I use low fat yogurt and roast my own bell pepper, so it's not packed in oil. I can never find fenugeek leaves so sometimes I use fenugeek seeds, but today I omit it completely.

Instead of rice or naan we had cauliflower rice. When J was off carbs completely I tried all kinds of carb alternatives. Zucchini noodles are definitely not my thing, but cauliflower rice tastes so like rice it's unreal.

Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

Some recipes are completely raw, but I find that cooking it a little bit makes it taste more like rice because you take the crunchiness out of the cauliflower. 

Tomorrow is a day of dressage competition. I am helping out in the morning and competing in the afternoon so there will be no cooking. Packing for the show stresses me out big time, and I have never managed to not forget something =o( Wish me luck!

Week 3, 2015

Jan 12 (Mon)

Superfood Crunch Salad and Honey Lime Chicken Skewer

Pomegranates are everywhere! The shiny red skinned huge orbs were calling my names every time I pass by them in the supermarket so I had to buy some. There's a misconception that pomegranates are hard to peel, but with a little bit of patience and technique it's rather simple. My favorite way is to find the membranes between the sections and slice down so entire sections can come out at one go. Here's a Youtube video showing you how. Forget about using water or whacking the poor fruit with a wooden spoon. It's messy, and pom juice stains everything! Now I just need to get myself a handy little knife like that to make it even easier.

It's not a dinner that will blow your mind, but it's easy to make, tastes good, and serves its purpose as a healthy dinner on a Monday. Incidentally, I had my health screening this morning. I should've had this for dinner on Sunday instead of all that duck sausages...

Jan 13 (Tue)

Today's smoothie

1 c cantaloupe 

A couple of pieces of pineapple (leftover in fridge)

1 kale leaf stem removed

Half a frozen banana

1/2c home made yogurt

4 dates

I always feel super healthy when my smoothies are green :0P so I saved a kale leaf when making salad the night before. This smoothie turned out really yummy and kept me energized during my private riding lesson this morning

J is in HK for two days so it's my chance to eat carbs!!! Ever since he went on this low-carb diet six months ago, I could only cook things where the carb portion can be separated so he doesn't eat it. That leaves me no chance to make any pasta dishes. Even Chinese food was hard because how do you eat it without rice? At his most fervent stage it was strictly NO-carbs, so he didn't even eat soya products, fruits high in sugar, or starchy vegetables such as corn or potato. Thank goodness that stage is over, but still, with him away, it's my chance to carbo load =o)

Spaghetti with lobster  

This is a pasta dish that you won't feel guilty eating. The sauce is tomato based with no added cream or cheese so it's light, but the lobster makes it extra flavorful. I hit the jackpot today and had a lobster with roe in it too! I've also made this with crabs and prawns before, and today I used home made fettuccine instead of spaghetti

Radicchio, Pear, Gorgonzola Salad

This salad has a strong flavor due to the balsamic dressing, and the gorgonzola cheese kicks up the flavor by another knotch. It is a nice contrast to the light and delicate pasta.

Jan 14 (Wed)

My day starts at 6am on Wednesdays. I have a jumping lesson at 7am and I never know which horse I'll get until I'm at the stables. Today I was assigned Mimo. She's a great little jumper but getting her to the jumps usually takes everything out of me. Thank goodness I had this smoothie on my way to the club

1 c pineapple

1/2 c cantaloupe

1/2 a frozen banana

1/2 c home made yogurt

After riding I take a quick shower and have breakfast before heading to SOSD to walk the shelter dogs from 9:30-12:30. Needless to say, I need a lot of energy for that, so I always make an overnight oatmeal. The basic recipe is really easy: 1/2 c oatmeal and 1/2c milk, stir and soak overnight. I usually top it with whatever fruits I have on hand, and add a little honey or maple syrup to sweeten it.

From studying horse feeds I learned that oats give a lot of energy, which is why polo ponies are always fed oats before a game. In this case, what works for the horses also works for the human. This kept me going until past 1pm =o)



I've been talking to some friends about my favourite cake at PS café recently so today I went there for tea. I almost always order the chocolate doorstop cake and the sticky date pudding. They are soooo yummy but very sinful, so make sure you share!

For dinner, I'm continuing to carbo load, before J comes back tomorrow =oP

Carrot Ginger Pork Buns 

My favourite Shanghai dim sum item is Sheng Jian Man Tou (生煎馒头) and it's very hard to find an authentic one outside of Shanghai. I've tried to make it myself but the dough proves challenging. It is semi-risen, and it's very hard to control just how much rise, so most of the times the dough turns out too fluffy. The meat filling of recipe is similar to Sheng Jian Man Tou in flavour so this time I tried to rest the dough for less time and it worked somewhat. However, because I was at tea I had to rely on my helper to make the buns and she made the skin too thick and couldn't resist turning them right side up after frying =o( (authentic Sheng Jian Man Tou is always fried seam side down) Here's a recipe on CNN, which I have not tried yet, but you can see what they should look like.

Cabbage Soup

Because the pork buns are quite time consuming to make, I paired it with this super easy cabbage soup. It turned out surprisingly tasty, kind of like the Russian borscht.

Jan 15 (Thur)

Asian Style Chicken Quinoa Salad

Going healthy again after yesterday's artery clogging cakes and pan fried buns. It meets J's low carb standard too, with quinoa and chicken as the main ingredients. I also like the raisins and cashews in it.

Jan 16 (Fri)

I had breakfast with some girlfriends after riding today. We were supposed to go to the Missing Pan, but the construction noise was so loud that we promptly escaped to Choupinette a few doors down. Choupinette is probably THE oldest French bakery/cafe in Singapore way before cafes are popping up on every street corner, but it was my first time there. I ordered Eggs Florentine and I have to say the eggs were really nice. My friends who ordered the eggs Benedict said the ham was extra tasty because the edges were perfectly charred. The coffee, on the other hand, was too weak for my taste. 

One of the dishes we always order when we go for crab meals at seafood restaurants is the steamed prawns. Some restaurants have an herbal version but my favourite is the plain kind, eaten with a light soy sauce dip. Chili crabs are hard to make at home, but this one is really easy, especially if you have a steamer oven.

Steamed Prawns
1 lb of whole prawns, cleaned
3 tbsp Chinese wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
4 spring onions, each cut into 3-4 pieces
1" ginger, sliced

1. Arrange prawns in a shallow dish. (I find grey prawns work better for in this dish than tiger prawns, because the meat is sweeter.)

2. Combine wine, salt and sugar, and pour over prawns. Place spring onion piecess and ginger on top.

3. Heat steamer oven to 100% 100C, steam for 10 minutes (12 min if shrimps are large). If using conventional steamer, bring water to a full boil, then put dish inside and steam.  

Another signature Shanghai dish I always make if I have Spring bamboo shoot is the braised bamboo shoot in soy sauce. It's pretty intense in flavour and the longer you let the bamboo pieces sit in the sauce the more the flavours develop.  That's why I like to make this a couple of hours before it's time to eat, and leave it sitting, with the the occasional stir so all the pieces have a chance to soak in the sauce. Like most Shanghai dishes, this has a sweetness to it, which I love. If you're not used to having your savoury dishes slightly sweet, decrease the sugar, but I think it tastes infinitely better this way. Can you believe that when eaten together, the bamboo shoot had more umami than the prawns? I wish I didn't have to rely on friends who happen to come visit from Shanghai during the short two months or so that the bamboo shoots are in season, but I won't complain, at least I have been able to get them once a year for the past few years.

Braised Bamboo Shoots
5-6 spring bamboo shoots
2 tbsp dark Chinese soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar

1. Peel the skin and chop off tough bottom from bamboo shoots, and roughly chop into irregular pieces
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok and stir-fry bamboo shoots for a little until well coated in oil
3. Add soy sauce and sugar, stir evenly, then add 1/2 c of water. Bring to a boil over high heat
4. Simmer for 3-5 min with lid on. Stir to evenly coat all the bamboo pieces.
5. Turn heat to high to evaporate most of the sauce except a little left on the bottom.


Jan 17 (Sat)

Buttermilk Waffles

 

I followed the recipe except I didn't add blueberries into the batter, because I didn't want to deal with burst berries burned to my waffle iron =o( I really liked the flavor of this waffle batter, but find the texture a little dense. I don't know if this is due to the fact that I had to keep them warm in the oven for ages waiting for J to get up, but it's worth giving it another try on a day when he's already up when I started making breakfast...

A while ago I found a buttermilk powder on iHerb.com. I don't know about you but I have no use for buttermilk except when baking, so when I buy a container, I can never use it up before it expires. The alternative is to add lemon juice to milk as a substitute, but this powder is really the best thing. All you need is water to reconstitute, and it's even low fat.

Today's smoothie 

Bottom layer: 1/2c mango, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/4c OJ. Top layer: 1/2 frozen banana, 6 strawberries, 1/4c homemade yogurt. A layer of homemade granola in between and some on top

Roast Chicken with Kimchi Smashed Potato



It looks like we've been having roast chicken and potato every Saturday this year, so here's another one. If you like kimchi you'll like this dish. I always use more chicken than the recipe calls for, because J loves chicken. I also used watercress instead of arugula. If you missed it last week, I posted a link on all the good things scientists have to say about watercress. This is another one dish meal that's easy to prepare on busy days.

Jan 18 (Sun)

 

J's New Year's resolution for 2015 is to learn how to cook, so I signed him up for a chef in training course at the school I used to teach. It's an 8-wk course taught by the executive chef of Absinthe, who's also a friend. Last week J learned how to make roast chicken, potato, seafood saffron soup and mushroom soup. Yesterday's menu was eggs Benedict, scrambled egg with smoked salmon, braised lentils and quiche Loraine. The eggs he ate at the school, the lentils and quiche he brought back. I have to say I was quite impressed. 

Since we didn't get to taste the eggs, he offered to make them for us for breakfast. I will have breakfast waiting for me when I come home from riding? Instead of scrambling to put something together without even showering first? Imagine that! 

Long story short, after burning the bread to a char (10 minutes was what he thought the timer should be set) and making the Hollandaise sauce way too early, causing it to split by the time we ate, they turned out pretty well. I especially like how he seasoned the spinach.

Spurred on by my encouragement, he said he'll make the scrambled eggs for next Sunday's breakfast. Woohoo!