Holy Guacamole - Sous Vide Eggs Benny on Toast

I'm sure I've written about this before but I can't help but make a note of how easy this is to do for serving brunch or breakfast or heck, as a super posh dinner, for that matter. Especially if feeding a crowd. 

Sous vide poached eggs are so dope! So easy and impressive all at the same time that I don't know why having this device isn't more popular. It's the perfect foodie kitchen tool. Seriously, a favorite; even for a lazy girl. And yet, even in a lazy girl’s hands sous vide cooking can be ever so chic... 

For one thing, if most people knew just how quick and uber productive it is to put a bunch of eggs in a water bath, right in their little shells, along with a jar of all your beautiful hollandaise ingredients and just walk away until you are ready to serve... they'd probably think you were on crack. But once you have the correct temperature for your ingredients, it really is a walk away sorta deal. 

And the really cool bit is that even if every single guest needs to be served at a different time, you've still got it covered. For like hours... Perfect temp. Every time. Talk about completely stabilizing, what to me, is the hardest part of cooking really. 

Tsu can time food much better than I can but with Tsu Vide (lol ah autocorrect), I get a fair shake. Sous vide truly streamlines and perfects the whole timeline of food delivery; where I struggle when meal prepping on my own. Perfectly cooked ingredients, kept to temp and served according to that perfect temp at the perfect time, is a real art form. And probably where I fall down the most. I mean, it's hard people. 

Not anymore. 

Sous vide allows you to extend your meal service over hours, and at times, even overnight. What we have done, quite unintentionally, is test this extended dinner service planning with smoked ribs or other cooked ahead meals we want to reheat without recooking. 

Wanting to eat at random times is par for the course in a household that on occasion, has 3 grown man-boys who eat and sleep randomly and can be hungry pretty much 24/7. Same with my family who can descend like a large pack and eat like one, too. 

When the family is here, sous vide baths are used to keep dinner warm in case it’s a beach day or even just for overnight munch-outs or now, all day mimosa brunches. Sounds fun, huh? Trust me, it‘s magic. 

It’s the secret weapon of world renown chefs all over the world. And it’s our secret weapon, too. 

Inspiration for this dish is really guac on toast with sous vide poached eggs, hollandaise and lobster because Covid quarantine ain’t no joke, live large. The idea for me, is to basically have everything sous vide for this meal except for the guacamole and/or toast. Lobster is totally rockstar but use the most decadent topper you can think of or afford. Because we eating a lot at home, people...

Breakfast Prep: 

This is a general guideline for how I prep my breakfast or brunch basics.

1. Poach eggs. Place whole fresh eggs in a sous vide bath set to 145 F f or 45-60 minutes, turning down the sous vide to 130 F if wanting to keep warm indefinitely or over an extended meal service. Because ‘doneness’ means something different to everyone, it’s a good idea to test one at the 45 minute mark. Personally, I like a medium set white which might mean something different to you but for me that is closer to the 1 hr mark than not... I have also put fresh eggs in a stretchy, silicone strainer meant for steaming veggies, air removed, which works perfectly. This keeps eggs within reach and from rolling around in the water bath but it won’t hurt them one bit if that’s what you choose to do.
2. Make hollandaise (see my recipe here) and yes, guess what, you can just add all ingredients to your jar and use your immersion blender later when ready to serve, to emulsify it. You can also make it proper in your bullet then transfer that to your glass jar. I’ve done it successfully both ways just to test prepping all at once and it was awesome. 
3. Make guacamole or serve with sliced or mashed avocados. If you don’t care for or have avocado, no biggie. Make what you love or use what ya got. Because guess what goes with eggs and hollandaise? Everything.
4. Make toast, croissants, English muffins, cloud bread, Hawaiian bread, sourdough, baguette...  whatever you like to eat with your eggs. Waffles, pancakes, aebelskiver. Yup and yup.

The beauty of this breakfast is that you can control the temp for a perfectly poached egg, perfectly warmed hollandaise and all you have to do is prep toast, muffins or buns for your breakfast service magic. 

My new easy breezy sous vide hollandaise sauce:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 stick salted sweet cream butter
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice (I had Hawaiian lemon aka Rangpur)
• Dash salt, pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp half n half (optional)

1. Put all ingredients in a mason jar with tight fitting lid. Don’t even have to stir, nothing.
2. Drop it like it’s hot into your water bath, along with your eggies. That’s 145 F, good buddy.
3. When ready to serve, blend with an immersion blender. Drop back into the sous vide bath yo keep warm as you serve. Bad ass way to keep hollandaise warm. 

**By the way, the ‘optional’ half n half, to me, is critical. It isn’t in traditional hollandaise but I won’t do it differently now because it keeps the sauce supple and perfectly thick but pourable. Do it just once, please, because you will see just what I mean.

My Wednesday Night Dinner version: 

-Bed of organic Frisse, arugula or radicchio mix
-Hollandaise or lemon vinaigrette or homemade caesar dressing and wait for it...
-Poached sous vide lobster

Some cool keto-friendly variations for poached egg goodness:

• On a chorizo slider
• Hangover burger or locomoco style on a beef patty (without the bun, of course)
• Served with cloud bread made savory like italian garlic bread
• Over a slice of fried char siu with bacon marmalade
• In a shallow bowl of roasted tomato sauce,  shakshuka-style
• On a bed of poached shrimp and cucumber salad
• Fried rice with fried eggs is the norm in our house but next time, I may just suggest poached eggs just to have on hand for the midnight snack attacks.

Endless possibilities with sous vide poached eggs, she gushes on and on enthusiastically. ;)

Wicked Good - Smoked Tuna Roe Shrimp Alfredo

Holy hell. Iron Chef Hawaii just threw down tonight. Tsu has been working on the components for this dish the last few days and oh my lord, the magic that he put before me tonight for dinner was so wicked-good, it blew my wicked mind.

Fruit Ninja dropped by earlier this week, Monday, I think. Although, this time, Fruit Ninja didn’t come bearing fruit.

This time, she brought something kinda rare, even though that is very much her game. Normally she is bringing special fruit or an abundance of seasonal fruit or on occasion, a Japanese dish she has made herself and wants to introduce to us.

But this time... she brings a hefty 2 lb hunk of beautiful, dark red tuna and the entire roe sack from the same fish, fresh caught that morning from the neighbor next door to her, two doors down the street. 

The stack of empty organic egg cartons she leaves behind tells the story of what I can return for the bounty she just shared with me. My gorgeous free range eggs makes a perfect barter even though she shares with me so frequently, I could never repay her kindness with eggs alone. But I sure do like the fact that I can provide something in return that she will enjoy, too.  I package up a dozen for Tsunami to take to her right away. 

After tonight’s meal, I package up another dozen for good measure.

Now, I know you may not have access to this type of thing so I won’t act like you do. I mean, I don’t. This was a gift. And up until now, I honestly never gave a thought to tuna roe. I’ve had salmon roe on sushi, even a Russian or Bulgarian caviar, but tuna roe? Nope. This was one of those things that just falls into your... um, smoker?

Well, that is just what Tsu did with it, being the mastermind he is. He smoked that package of yum. But he brined it first.

Yep this star of this particular food-gasm had 3 preparations before being blended into the smoked silkiness that would become THE BEST ALFREDO I’VE EVER EATEN. Yes, I know... All caps! Hands down this is drop the mic out of this world something you must try. You must.

So pretense, be damned. You may not get your hands on it, but IF YOU DO, you may come back looking for this here recipe, y’all. Mark my aloha.

In case you are lucky enough to purvey such a delicacy and want to try or are just plain curious, here is what Tsu did:

Prep the roe for the Alfredo “base” sauce:

1. Brine the roe For 24 hours in 2 tbsp sugar, enough water to completely cover roe, dash of salt.
2. Smoke the roe on low smoke hour and a half, mesquite chips.
3. Remove the roe from the sack. You can scrape it out with a spoon or just remove it like a casing on a sausage.
4. Sim simma the roe in garlic, butter, on low heat, whisking to break up roe so it doesn’t form lumps like you’d expect with ground beef. 
5. Gradually and gently whisk in half n half or heavy cream.
6. Purée this in a blender when the sauce has cooled. Blending hot liquids can be a disaster so I caution you to let this sufficiently cool before you do so or it will end up all over you and your kitchen ceiling.

Prep your Alfredo fixings (optional):
Tsu and I both love mushrooms so our Alfredo sauce adds sautéed mushrooms in white wine and butter, probably garlic and fresh thyme. This is entirely up to you but it is how we eat or Alfredo normally and I think the richness of flavor is important.

Serve:
When ready to serve, Tsu warmed up the smoked roe “base”, added roughly a cup of store bought Alfredo sauce to loosen the sauce and then gently added the sautéed mushrooms.

We served it over penne pasta which was cooked al dente, then warmed and finished in the pan with the sauce. You could use virtually any pasta you desire but penne was a good choice because it can grab the sauce, which trust me, you will love.

Garnish with sliced scallions, fresh parsley and fresh black pepper. Oh, and copious amounts of fresh grated parmesan cheese, naturally.

Suggestions:
We served ours with local peeled, deveined shrimp that were dusted with Cajun seasonings then lightly seared for a minute on each side but not cooked through. The shrimp finish their cook in the sauce, along with the penne, just before serving so they warm through but don’t end up over-cooked.

The next night we served it with gorgeous seared scallops.

The last night, I made zoodles with my spiralizer and a summer zucchini which I served with the remaining sauce. I’m obsessed with zoodles because I love zucchini and summer squash. It’s keto-friendly, too if you are avoiding or watching carbs. And by night 3, if you are so lucky, zoodles might be the way to go!

Sadly, there was no night 4... ;)

Spaetzle and Cheese - Schickymicky American Mac n Cheese

Marvelous. Made spaetzle one night randomly after someone wanted chicken noodle soup. Seriously, instant hit, it was so indulgent and yummy. Uber comfort food.

Inspired I decided to make one of my all time favorites, spaetzle and cheese. It sparked an instant food obsession in my household as this became our new “adult mac n cheese” favorite.

Bechamel, baby. If that word is involved, get ready for some righteous eats. 

We take this French mother sauce, add it to our German noodles and how we end up with American mac n cheese is beyond me, but that’s what ya get here. ;) Well, that’s what I tell the boys anyway. Lol! Sold!

Spaetzle is one of my favorite noodles and once you make it a few times, you really become a fan. Like an entire batch of these buttered noddles can disappear in an instant, no lie. And they are surprisingly easy to make, so why not go for it?

Last time I made this for our chicken noodle soup, there was literally a squabble/near meltdown when one of the kids felt sure he was being ripped off as his brother devoured bowl after bowl of these noodles in like lightspeed fashion... Until I magically revealed a previously undisclosed gigantic bowl of noodles warming under a dish towel discreetly next to the stove. Disaster averted. Drama instantly abated. It earned fake-mumsy a heartfelt hug. Not today hangry house-monster, not today...

Ah, the power of spare spaetzle. Don’t underestimate it.

And so easy. I have a super inexpensive spaetzle maker I bought on Amazon for less than $12. Honestly, it’s one tool I may not use every day but when I need it, it’s invaluable. Such a timesaver you can literally whip up noodles super fast because you dump your dough right in and just rub it through the sieve-like holes directly over salted boiling water until it’s all used up. Super impressive, useful, efficient tool. 

And pork belly. Gotta have some pork belly. Ok, maybe that’s just us. We always have pork belly on hand since we cure our own bacon. But sky is very much the limit. If you love it, put it in. Lobster or King crab is my man’s favorite jam, for added at-home pandemic luxury. If you can’t go out to eat, do it yo’self, my friends. It’s most rewarding to eat well, feed each other well, when times are suck-ola.

I butter traditional oval oven safe baking dishes for baking and serving. Single serve or family style. You can probably guess why we do single-servings in my house of hungry men. Big ones. Make extra, freezing leftovers if you can’t eat it all.

Spaetzle:

• 2 1\4 c flour
• 1tsp salt
• 1\2 to 1 c water
• 2 large eggs

1. Mixed until firm but slightly tacky dough is achieved. Rough guess at water but if weather is nice, just about 1 c. This part you need to sort out yourself as the water should yield a slightly sticky, tacky dough that almost resembles a heavy batter. If dough is too firm or dry, you will curse me because it won’t be easy to push quickly through your maker or sieve.  
2. Let dough rest 10 minutes to relax a bit before making the noodles.
3. Large pot of salted water to boil. Spaetzle maker over top. The dough ball is a little sticky, right. Wet hands helps a bit. It will fit in the pusher compartment completely so just work it quickly back and forth putting slight pressure as you go to force the dough to push through the holes. They float and puff recognizably when done. 

I had a little butter, olive oil and some warm chicken stock on hand the first time I served them which made them perfect buttery noodles. Kids were crazy for them, like I said. I made 2 batches which is a LOT of noodles for a family of 6, plus more for leftovers regardless of how much your grown man boys think they can eat...

In case you haven’t seen my post for Cheesey Béchamel:

• 2 cups whole milk
• salt, pepper to taste
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 6 tablespoons fresh chives
• 2 1/4 c grated Swiss/Gruyere

1. Make the Béchamel by melting your butter in a non stick skillet on low heat. Let it melt, don't let it brown. As soon as it has melted, add your flour and gently whisk in to incorporate.
2. Add the milk a little at a time so you can incorporate it evenly into the roux. I use a measuring cup, makes pouring a little at a time so much easier. It will be very thick at first but keep adding the milk stirring with a whisk if you have one, until it's all incorporated. It will be smooth and silky. No lumps.
3. Remove from the heat and season your bechamel sauce with salt, pepper to taste.
4. Stir in grated cheese of your choice. I prefer Gruyere or smoked Gouda, which is out of this world yum. Velveeta or American will work just fine. Remember we are doing “American” adult Mac n cheese so this is absolutely allowed and will work beautifully. American cheese has its place, especially here, because it melts smooth and is creamy dreamy as we all know. If you don’t know, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Bake it already:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F or just use your broiler, keeping an eye on it. Everything is cooked so we just need to warm it through and get the top browned.
2. Lastly, just mix your noodles, bechamel and any other goodies gently to incorporate. I also top with a bit of extra grated cheese so it browns and bubbles on top.
3. Bake for about 15 minutes or if using the broiler, stay alert and present. Lol! You just want to warm and brown the tops.

Aloha Deep - Hawaiian Style Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

We are a pizza-obsessed household. Not terribly unusual for most Americans, but since I keep a traditional Italian Neapolitan sourdough starter on hand at all times, we make every excuse to put it on our regular dinner rotation.

It’s such a thing, Tsu has planned on building the mother of all pizza and bread ovens in our new outdoor kitchen. Knowing his talents, this will be a Guy Fierri-style behemoth and a beauty, I’m sure. I am excited beyond words as I can think of nothing more fantastic or over the top yum than cooking these pizzas in a real pizza oven!

Recently, we’ve experimented with deep-dish and have made our rounds through the various options, including Sicilian, Detroit-style, etc. This one was more of a Chi-town try. Let’s get at it. I’ve blogged my pizza dough recipe before and will link it for you below.

My recipe for Italian pizza dough, aged at least 36 hours. Trust mama. With or without a heritage pizza starter, flavors need time to develop. That’s what “proofing” in bread baking is all about. This is a recipe for those that don’t have access to an Italian starter. I’ll post a recipe for my real-deal version soon.

I oiled my perforated deep dish pizza pan and sat it on top of the other perforated pizza pan covered with tin foil as I was worried about it bubbling over but it didn't. It’s always when I don’t take precautions that it gets wild, so just do it in case.

**If your dough has been refrigerated, it must come to room temperature before you try to stretch it out to fit your pan. If you are patient, this will allow your dough time to become relaxed and it makes stretching almost too easy.. I stretch, as opposed to roll, just easier. Flatten it out and gently stretch it from the center out, turning the pan and working Your way around the pan, until your edges are at the top of your pan. If you get tears, it’s likely not ready for this part so give it a few more minutes.

Let the dough rise in the pan, poking holes in the crust with a fork or dibbler so it rises evenly.

Now, the next steps of adding your toppings, as outlined below, is the key. The use of sliced provolone, as opposed to shredded mozzarella, as you will see, is the real secret behind cheesey perfection. I do not do it differently now and picante or sharp provolone is our new pizza-go-to cheese of choice. 

1. 1st layer is cheese, slices of provolone
2. 2nd layer is meat/toppings of choice
3. 3rd layer is sauce
4. 4th is a dusting of grated parmesan, shredded mozzarella if you must (traditionally, sauce is on top)

This pizza crust was freaking amazing. It was cooked perfectly.

Toppings:

I did half sausage, onion and black olive.

The other half we did Costco ham diced, fresh pineapple, onion.

Both were spectacular but the sausage we used we cooked first and it was the Italian breakfast links with fennel, also from Costco. It is a perfect sausage for pizza and we also use it in our Southern Biscuits and Gravy, a post for next time. ;)

Next time, I think we can just add it to the pizza raw instead; just one big flat layer of sausage so the whole pizza is covered. That's what we did with the cooked sausage and it was awesome to have sausage in every bite. Since it cooks so long in the oven we don't need to worry about cooking it ahead of time. Save the time and mess. I’ve seen it done at Chicago pizzerias and will do it this way from now on, especially on a deep dish.

Bake:

I preheated my oven to 400, put it in and then raised the temp to 450. I cooked it for 35 minutes then another 10 and it was divine. Tsu said it was the best he'd ever eaten. We both ate a quarter of the pizza and were stuffed but ate every last crumb. Finished the rest the next day.

The dough was crispy, had a great texture on the outside and it made eating the crust the best part! I also layered the cheese, which was pretty important, on the bottom first and in slices instead of using shredded or hand grated cheese. Also a timesaver. Next time I will do two layers of cheese though. one on the bottom and one in between the meat and sauce so it has extra cheesy goodness.

This was a heavy gigantic pizza but we were both so blown away.

Quick n Easy Chicken Cheesey Mexican Enchiladas

One of my Dad’s favorite meals is chicken and cheese enchiladas. Made these for him at Christmas per his request. They were so good, even I had to agree; felt the need to hug myself.

Sometimes when I am on a cooking roll, I do many meals at once or they are inspired by each other, I should say. This was that sorta day.

So this particular flurry of kitchen stadium activity was all about chicken. I had three lbs of frozen chicken breasts my stepmom wanted to use up, so I used it all and made several things.

First, I used the instantpot to make chicken stock for potato and leek soup, chicken noodle soup which we had the first night. I also used the cooked chicken for chicken salad for quick lunches on sandwiches or on it’s own. I love it on croissants, personally but I also love it by itself if you want to forego the carbs and keep it keto-friendly.

The rest of the chicken I shredded and used for the enchiladas. I don’t play. We had some good staples for the whole week and then some just by making my own stock using frozen chicken breasts in my instant pot. Couldn’t be easier.

I ended up making a square casserole of enchiladas for dinner with Dad the next night. I also made several small servings prepped in mini loaf pans which turned out were just the right size for freezing single-size servings. My stepmom doesn’t care for enchiladas so this was the perfect way to freeze them for quick go-to, single serve meals when she didn’t feel like cooking and Dad had a craving.

On to the enchilada show.

 Ingredients:

• 20 pack of medium 6-8 inch flour tortillas
• 13 oz can of enchilada sauce 
• ~1 lb shredded quesadilla or monterrey jack cheese
• ~1 lb cooked, diced or shredded chicken
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa
• 1/2 cup of half n half or heavy cream 
• Garlic powder, optional 
• Diced jalapenos, optional 
• Chopped cilantro, optional

Prep:

1. Butter your baking dishes, whatever you decide to use. I used a pyrex square casserole and several mini loaf pans for freezing. You can use a rectangular casserole dish or whatever you prefer.
2. Add just enough enchilada sauce to the bottom of your pan or pans to lightly cover the bottom.
3. Spread about a tablespoon of cream cheese on a flour tortilla, working with one tortilla at a time.
4. Add about a tablespoon of shredded cheese on top of the cream cheese, making a sort of line across the tortilla as opposed to sprinkling to cover the tortilla. This makes it easier to roll and distributes it better once it is rolled up.
5. Following the “line” method, add a tablespoon of chicken, jalapenos and cilantro on top of your line of cheese. A tablespoon is really just a guide as you can use more or less to taste. The idea is to be consistent so you have a good ratio of ingredients but not so much you can’t roll them.
6. Drizzle about a tablespoon of enchilada sauce over your meat and cheese and optionally, a very light sprinkle of garlic powder.
7. Roll each tortilla up and place the rolled tortillas in the pan seam-side down, packing them tightly as you go.
8. Mix the salsa and cream or half n half together in a mixing cup and pour over the top of the enchiladas.
9. Sprinkle a final layer of cheese on top and bake uncovered at 375 F for 40-45 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly on top.
10. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. This allows the cheese to set so it doesn’t just slide off when serving.

** Note on freezing: If freezing, do steps 1-7, omitting the salsa/cream and cheese topping until just before baking. While your oven is preheating, mix your salsa and cream, covering the frozen enchiladas and top with cheese before putting in the oven. You may need to adjust your cooking time by another ten minutes, but I have found they do cook through in the same amount of time, regardless in my oven.

Also, when freezing initially, I pre-freeze the entire pan for at least an hour before wrapping and sealing them for longer storage. I find it easier if the enchilada sauce is frozen as it helps me wrap and seal my cooking vessels without making a complete mess. I also use my vacuum seal bags to get an airtight seal on the whole pan or mini pans, if I can because these keep freezer burn at bay and helps keep odors out of the freezer. But you can certainly use saran wrap, followed by tin or freezer paper or glass, if you prefer once the enchiladas are semi-frozen. I use freezer-safe, oven-safe dishes when I do, obviously as you wouldn’t want to risk breaking a nice casserole if it isn’t tempered for cold to hot applications.