Potato Hash with Baked Egg

So i think i saw a dish similar to this on foodgawker or something, and it had been sitting in my head for a while, and really it involves ingredients i almost always have - so one lazy saturday - which i have way to few of these days, i decided to chef-it-up and make this egg baked in potato hash.




For the hash i used the standard onions and garlic. I cut the potatoes smaller than i would usually, and boiled them first - it allows you to make a better crust on them.

boiled potatoes

I did the potatoes for a while then added the onion and garlic. This way takes a lot of patience.

Once the potatoes were crispy i made a small well and cracked an egg in it. I then seasoned it with pepper and added some shredded cheese, putting it in the oven, i think i had it pretty high - maybe 450. Important to use a pan that can go from stovetop to oven.

The hardest part was taking this out of the pan effectively - the presentation wasn't as centred as i would like, but this would actually be a really good thing to make for a group in a larger pan. It was actually amazing, and i ate everything on that plate!!!

Lentil Salad and a bonus salad

Sometimes i eat frozen things....

This is probably barely even worth a post, but its two meals, and i liked it so you're going to find out about my dirty love of Dr. Oetker's Frozen Ristorante Pizza. When it goes on sale at the No Frills for $3.99 i totally stock up. My favorites are the mushroom and the spinach one, but sometimes to shake it up i have the Mozzarella.

If i cook a whole one i will eat it all, so i finally figured out to cut them into a quarter when frozen and just make that bit. Problem solved.

While i was "making" this dinner i also chopped up some ingredients for lunch the next day - tomatoes, romaine, cucumbers and green onions that i was going to eat with cottage cheese.

Dinner

(i'm a grad student - gimme a break)

Simcoe Sunday - Part One

As i mentioned i stayed home on the long weekend - luckily for me i have lovely neighbours who were also staying in the city, so we had a little bbq on sunday. We made a ton of food, so i've actually split this entry into two, as there are so many pictures. My contribution to the meal was potato salad and a village salad.

I previously mentioned that one of my secrets to a really good potato salad is soaking the hot potatoes in white vinegar for about half an hour. This way the creamy dressing has a great and surprising bite that is actually in the potato.

Victor, our gracious host made home made burgers with a mixture of ground beef, ground pork, onions and a few spices, notably cumin. He made me a little burger, since i'm still a little iffy on meat eating. I would like to note he also made the dogs burgers. (spoilt buggers)


To give us another option, Victor also did a salmon.

Salmon on Foil
(prep in next text)

Jarred's Jerk Pork Loin

Jarred didn't just step up for breakfast, but he also made a fabulous dinner featuring a jerk/curry pork loin. I assisted Jarred in the kitchen, making the salad, bruschetta (my personal fav), grilled veggies and of course some bbq'd corn.

The whole meal brought up the ways to bbq corn - the different methods and our memories of it. I personally like to bbq corn with the husk on. The key is to soak the corn so the husks don't burn and the water that is trapped in there will help steam it. I had always just used water, but when i was putting them in the containers Jarred added a teaspoon of SUGAR! I had never seen that before - can't say i noticed a massive change, but it was my first corn of the season.

Pork Loins on the grill

These were marinated for a few hours in a jerk sauce

The Spread

Salad and Corn

Grilled Veggies

Waiting for the grill

Corn - almost ready

Soaking Corn

Treeplanting Lunch

It seemed very fitting that on the weekend of Earth Week i spent the time with my family planting over one hundred trees on my parents property in Mono. This was in part a re-forestation attempt as many of the trees are dying of some disease, but it was also a good thing to do for the earth. Planting trees is actually a lot of work, so a easy satisfying lunch was in order to keep our energies high.

I was part of the planting group, so i didn't have anything to do with the cheffing- that was left to my mother and sister - who presented quite a platter of sandwiches and salads along with some beer to motivate us to finish the job.

They made a variety of sandwiches:

Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham & Swiss
Cajun Turkey & Havarti

The salads:

Fruit salad
A tex-mex rice and black bean salad



And of course some veggies.



Yum!

Staycation Cooking - Lady who lunches

Well its quite a start to my week of "staycation", after a couple weeks of glorious weather, it turns rainy and cold for day one. I had already planned this as a domestic day, so i wasn't that devastated, but a little sun would have been nice.

After finishing a few errands i decided to indulge in a late lunch. I wanted something a little decedent, not something i would scarf down at my desk. I didn't have a whole lot of ingredients, but the weekend previous i had poached eggs and they were a little overdone, so i thought i would give that a try again. (i'll blog that meal later)

I know that poached eggs are actually quite tasty over salad, so i opted away from the carbs and decided to do a poached eggs over salad. The bar/restaurant in my building does a spinach salad with hard boiled eggs and beer braised mushrooms - i had a few cremini left in the fridge and thought they would be a nice addition. I didn't have any beer or wine open (no vermouth even) so i improvised and used sake. I also added some tarragon - since i look for things to add tarragon to!

I thought i would dress it with a creamy, yet healthy dressing to go with the yolk of the egg. I have been obsessed with honey dijon - and decided that was what was going to go with. I simply combined some lemon juice, olive oil, dijon, honey and sour cream.

After blanching the asparagus, i poached the egg and assembled the salad.

Late lunch, even with the weather was pretty sweet. (too bad someone stole my newspaper again!)

Above:

Lunch
Ingredients
Dressing ingredients
Mushrooms
Cracked poached egg salad

Beet and Carrot Salad - Guest Chef: Mom

Recently up at my parent's place my mother allowed me to irritate her by photographing her making a tasty beet and carrot salad. I thought it was a nice salad to make, and you do it in advance, so that the flavours have time to permiate. It also uses beets raw, which is a bit of a change when you think of beets they are usually pickled or roasted. (see Roasted Beet Salad)




My mother was smart, and before starting the salad she put on her painting shirt and some rubber gloves. I love beets but they really can stain your hands and your cutting board, and if you have gloves it might be a good idea to use them, if not you can look like an extra in Dexter!


Once she had peeled the carrots and beets, and cut them into a more reasonable size, she pulled out the trusty Cuisinart and attached the shredding blade. They say to do the beets first - i don't really know why, i guess it has to do with the dye, but that's how it was done.


When the carrots and beets were ready my mother went on to make the dressing which was a nice simple one with slightly unusual ingredients. It contained the usual suspects: olive oil, juice of a lemon, honey, but also cumin, cinnamon, corriander seeds, cayanne pepper and a little bit of pepper.


As i mentioned she made this salad an hour or so before the dinner and left it at room tempeture. This was actually a good decision because when we tasted it after she had just mixed it, there was a slight powdery flavour to the salad. I think it takes a while for the beets to absorb the falvors.


Unfortunately my final picture dosent' really give justice to the colours of this meal, it was quite a unique one. The only thing i would try is perhaps replacing some of the lemon juice with (fresh) orange juice. (Warning: that is just a thought, i haven't tried it).

Thanks Mommy!

Beating the February Blahs with Salad

I don't know about you, but i really get the February blahs, and i have a hard time finding excitement in much these days. I thought one of the ways i might cheer myself up with a nice light and colourful nicoise salad! Lately i think my body is craving protein and sunlight! There is a lot of debate about what actually goes into a nicoise salad, some people think it should be canned tuna, some people add potatoes, but i think in my version i've covered off most of the basic elements, while making it a little fresher with seared tuna.

I picked up a nice piece of sashimi grade tuna at Loblaws. It was quite a large piece which was fine as then i can save some for lunch, i made sure to take it out early so that it would be warmer when i cooked it. Years ago my nana bought me a small Hamilton Beech grill, which is a great way to sear the tuna for the salad. I dressed the tuna with some olive oil and salt and pepper, then added some of the dressing right before i grilled it. I like mine to be pretty rare, but as i was so busy taking pictures i cooked it a little more than i would have liked.

Just before i grilled the tuna, i quickly blanched some green beans, shelled a hard boiled an egg. On a plate i placed some torn boston lettuce (you can also use bib) adding a few very thin pieces of red onion and some ripe black olives. For the dressing i made a vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, lemon juice and shallots which gave it a nice citrus tang. Most people also include boiled potatoes, but i'm not really a fan, so i skipped that ingredient - if you do use them i recommend that you dress the potatoes while they are still warm since it gives them a better flavour. Once the salad was assembled i sliced the tuna and simply put it on top.

This was a nice weekday meal for a dark February evening. I also learned, when taking pictures of things on the grill, carefully wipe you camera lens or your pictures will have a strange soft border, that kinda makes them look like attempts at tacky/artsy photography. See below:



At top of page:

The salad
Searing the tuna
The dressing
Simple ingredients