plonq: (Entertain Me)
I picked up some stir-fry noodles and green onions earlier this week with an eye to trying my hand at peanut noodles. [personal profile] atara made some for dinner a couple of weeks back and they were a big hit. I just wanted to try my own twist on them.

The basics of the sauce are just peanut butter, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and chilli oil. I didn't have chilli oil, so I substituted some fermented soy-chilli paste. It packed a bit more heat than I wanted, so next time I may skip it, or swap in gochujang or gochugaru instead - I think both would work well with this recipe.

Peanut Noodles

The in individual squares of noodles in the pack that I bought were perfect for single servings. Besides the topping of green onion, I also added a generous dollop of chilli crisp. The latter really tied everything together. If you've never heard of, or tried chilli crisp, go out and buy some now. You can thank me later.

And while I'm posting food, here's a bonus picture of today's breakfast.

Avocado Toast

There's this misnomer out there that avocado toast is "fancy'. It's literally just toast and eggs with a mashed up avocado. Well, in this case mashed up with lemon juice, kosher salt, freshly-ground black pepper and a little smidgen of minced garlic. I finished it with a pinch of smoked salt flakes and red pepper flakes.
plonq: (Somewhat Pleased Mood)
Oh, hey, here's another post about food - though that should come as a surprise to nobody. My physique makes it fairly clear that I like to eat.

There was a short-lived restaurant in our town that specialized in a slightly healthier fare, usually locally-sourced. One of their breakfast dishes was a simple concoction of a fried egg served over quinoa and brown rice (or some combination like that). I liked it. We dined out for breakfast yesterday, and as we tossed around ideas for where we would go, I found myself lamenting the loss of this elegant, but simple dish as a breakfast option.

I mulled over it when we were shopping, and I decided to try making my own variant on it for breakfast this morning. I grabbed a couple of things that I would need and tossed around ideas for a recipe. Rather than quinoa, I decided that I would just go with brown rice. That was the plan, but when we scoured our supplies this morning we discovered that we were down to our last few grains of brown rice. Half the fun of cooking is improvising, so I made do.

I wanted to make a full cup of rice, but we had less than 1/2 cup of brown, so I supplemented that with some basmati rice, and added a half cup of wild rice to the mix. While that cooked down in some vegetable bouillon, I diced half of a Walla Walla onion and slowly sauteed it in olive oil. When the onions were nearly done, I wilted a couple handfuls of spinach with them and set the mixture aside.

I wiped down the pan, drizzled in a bit more olive oil and cracked in four eggs, which I cooked covered over low heat. When the eggs were nearly done, I garnished them with a pinch of sweet paprika. I tossed the rice and spinach together and split it between two bowls, topped them with a pair of eggs, and finished it with some fresh-chopped chives from my herb garden.

The yolks were slightly more solid than I'd have liked, but we were both quite pleased with the results.
Eggs over Rice
plonq: (Kinda Smug Mood)
I haven't shot a lot of pictures this summer, leastwise not since our vacation at the end of June. Since I am done working at 14:00 today, I may grab my big camera and take a road trip up to the park.

---

The last time I walked into town to meet [livejournal.com profile] atara after work, I stopped at one of the Chinese grocers on my way in and grabbed a 1 litre tub of kimchi. I had been in the habit of packing it in my lunch for work, so I was not concerned about working my way through a container that large. Then our vacation happened, and the usual summer interruptions to our regular schedule threw a wrench into my normal routine, and this jar of kimchi sat unused for a couple of months. More recently I picked up some more (fancier) kimchi at a summer market, after first promising [livejournal.com profile] atara that I would make a point of using up the old stuff as part of the deal in buying the new jar.

I used some of it yesterday to supplement a lunch of kimchi-flavoured ramen that I picked up on the weekend. I used some more today when I tried making a recipe I found on-line for fried eggs with kimchi. I have done eggs with kimchi before, but this recipe suggested topping them with a mixture of soy and oyster sauces as the last step. The thought of mixing kimchi with either of those sauces would not have occurred to me, so I decided that it was worth a try.

It was delicious, though a touch on the salty side. When I try this again, I will halve the amount of sauce suggested by the recipe. I had already reduced the amount of sauce and upped the other ingredients a bit from the instructions, so I am guessing that the recipe creator likes their food extra salty. The next time I make it, I may dig out the wok. The recipe called for crisping up the egg whites on the bottom and edges, but if I had cooked mine any longer the yolks would have turned solid. I guess that I must have had the heat too low, or did not let the pan heat enough before I started. In any event, it is in my "do again" list of recipes.
plonq: (Please Sir May I have Some More)
I think I mentioned it here at the time, but on our last day at the bed & breakfast in Victoria, they made us some breakfasts for the road when they learned that we would be leaving before first seating the next day.

As you can see, the breakfast was a modest assortment containing a scone, egg, yoghurt and banana. What this picture does not show was that the egg was cooked to near perfection. It was cooked through, but soft to the point of being not-quite-runny in the very centre. As I was eating it, it occurred to me that I have been overcooking my boiled eggs every time I make them.
IMG_0413

I did a little bit of on-line research, and finally found a site that delved into the science of boiled eggs. He went into all of the factors that can affect cooking times, and warned that the times he presented must be taken as good approximations at best. I boiled up some eggs a couple of weeks ago following his instructions, and even though I still have not worked out the science of making them easy to peel, the yolks came out much better than usual.

I did four more of them today, albeit cutting a minutes off the cooking time I used a couple of weeks ago, and I think I have hit pretty close to the sweet spot for hard boiled eggs.

I put four eggs into a pot and covered them with enough water to leave them a couple of centimetres submerged. As soon as the water came to a full boil, I shut off the heat and let them coast for seven minutes. I forgot to cover the pot this time, but in retrospect I don't think it made a lot of difference over the last time I cooked them. At the end of seven minutes, I drained the water and dumped the eggs into an ice bath to halt any further cooking.

The whites were fully cooked, and the yolks were just set all the way through. I might be inclined to leave them for another minute or two if I had planned to turn them into devilled eggs or the like, but for peel & eat eggs, these were just the way I like 'em.

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