French toast, pain perdu, eggy toast

The concept of using day-old bread soaked in beaten egg and milk then sauteed to golden in butter (and usually topped with something else nutritious and delicious) is simply genius. Ancient peasant genius that works quite okay in the modern urban environment.

In non-francophone countries this is called French toast. In France they call it pain perdu, “bread lost”, or “bread that would otherwise be thrown in the bin if we didn’t make French Toast out of it except we don’t call it French Toast since we’re already in France.”

In England it’s called “eggy toast”. The English should join in the game and call it something less obvious 🙂

1. First, catch your hen. (Apologies to Mrs Beaton and her Book of Household Management.) I mean first crack some eggs into a bowl and whisk them nicely. Beat one egg for every two or so slices of bread you’ll use. Add milk, half an eggshell for every two eggs. Add seasoning, anything except salt since you’ll be adding salted butter and salt is bad for you anyway. So add ground white pepper, cracked black pepper, ground cumin, coriander, tumeric or garam masala, smoked paprika, fresh or dried herbs: origanum, marjoram, parsley. Keep your touch light so that no flavour dominates.

2. Choose your slices of day-old bread. My favourite is baguette sliced thickly and dramatically on the bias, but you can use any bread at all sliced in any way you want.

3. Soak the bread in the egg mix on both sides.

4. On medium heat soften salted butter in the same volume of olive oil, enough to reach about a quarter way up the slice of bread you’ve chosen. The oil’s higher smoking point will stop the butter from burning.

5. Sautee as many bread slices as you can fit in the pan. Flip once with slotted turner when the underside is golden. Adjust butter and oil and repeat until all your pain perdu is la cuisson terminée.

6. Eat your French toast like that, or top it with anything at all. In Canada this is served with bacon and maple syrup. My favourite is a form of sandwiched croque monsieur (classic toasted ham and cheese sandwich) with smoked salmon, mozzarella and coriander leaves.

So much opportunity with pain perdu, so little time.

Poaching an egg

Poaching is a lovely pure way to prepare a nutritionally-dense egg without added oil. It simply involves taking away the shell to expose the egg to some form of heated water in order to make the proteins and nutrients edible, digestible and tasty to humans. It doesn’t have to be difficult yet it’s not always easy or successful.

In decreasing order of messiness, here are three main ways to poach a hen’s egg:

1. How not to do it: Bring a pot of water to the boil and break an egg into it.

This option produces a sad mess that looks like a drowned fried egg without the fried-ness and with lots of soggy tendrils. It seldom makes a presentable breakfast for anybody except a starving bachelor student but is included here as a worst-case-scenario in the interest of our scientific hierarchy.

It is this form of poaching an egg that puts most people off egg-poaching forever.

2. Or the traditional method… Bring a pot of water to the boil, add a splash of vinegar to contain the egg white, decrease the temperature to a gentle simmer. Create a vortex or whirlpool in the middle of the pot with a wooden spoon or similar implement to encircle and contain the egg once you slide it into the water.

Crack an egg into a cup or bowl and gently slide it into the centre of the vortex, pop the lid on the pot to help with steaming, and a minute or two later lift the perfect poached egg out with a slotted spoon.

3. Or even easier… Break your egg into a silicon or stainless steel poaching pod, perhaps slightly oiled or buttered, and float it in simmering water. Remove when done to perfection.

These are stainless steel poaching pods from Fusionbrands:

Did you know…? In order to serve a large quantity of poached eggs simultaneously, eggs can be poached an hour or two in advance of serving them. Reheat them together by sliding them all into a large pan of simmering water and remove with a slotted spoon just before serving.

http://www.macheesmo.com/2010/03/the-birds-nest/

This is a fun post from a couple of years ago that illustrates humbly why poached eggs can be better than soft-boiled.

Thanks http://www.macheesmo.com/

Perfect homemade mayonnaise

The thing to know about mayonnaise is that it’s made with raw egg. It’s a fragile emulsion, which means a thickened mixture of two liquids that are usually not mixable.

So see making mayonnaise as a tasty science experiment in the kitchen. Use the best ingredients, blend with passion and respect, don’t store it for too long, and have fun with the flavours. Pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems should stay clear of raw eggs.

The two liquids are egg yolk and oil. In chemistry terms egg yolk is the continuous liquid and emulsifier, oil is the dispersed liquid. Therein lies the secret and the challenge. Add an acid like lemon juice or vinegar to this oily emulsion and there you have it, mayonnaise.

• 2 fresh egg yolks
• 1 cup of oil – sunflower, virgin olive oil, or similar
• 1 Tablespoons acid – fresh lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 teaspoon seasoning – salt, pepper, Dijon mustard

1. With a whisk blend the egg yolks.
2. Drop by drop add the oil, whisking continuously.
3. Add seasoning.

Yes, that easy.

Egg on your face – the idiom

What does this mean?

If someone has egg on their face in English idiom, they are embarrassed by something they have done, or have made a huge mistake, or have made themselves look foolish or stupid. Where does this come from? How and why does having the innocent, delicious and nutritious egg on ones face make one look silly?

Lucky for you this is the internet and I went on a mission to find out.

The first thing to know is that it’s always about bringing the shame upon oneself. Yes, the egg could be thrown onto your face by someone else, but you caused it. That’s the subtlety of having egg on ones face. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? Someone throws perfectly good egg on your face and it’s your fault? But there you go, that’s life and English bloody idiom for you.

The origin of the phrase is most likely from the theatre or circus.

Traditionally clowns had eggs thrown at them for their goofiness, or actors performing badly had eggs (or rotten tomatoes) thrown at them. Doesn’t seem nice but there you go. We’re only talking a few hundred years ago and even today a respected movie site is called http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ so throwing of food to indicate disgust isn’t a foreign concept in the English-speaking world.

Did it arise from social dinner table gaffes where a fork aimed incorrectly would leave egg around ones mouth? Who even eats eggs at dinner? I once worked briefly, before I was fired, as a servant at an aristocratic manor house in Denmark where scrambled eggs were served at midnight during hunting party weekends, but I digress.

Or perhaps, from this site http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-egg2.htm, it seems that the idiom only emerged in the last hundred years or so ago… in the United States. It possibly arised from dogs raiding hens’ nesting boxes and being found out after emerging with yolk on their faces.

A newspaper report from the above site, The Bee (Danville, Virginia), 27 Aug. 1941: “Subscriber Cal Clifford put a possible new perspective on the expression by mentioning egg-sucking dogs: “Occasionally, a trusted, working farm dog would develop the bad habit of taking eggs from nests and eating them, turning himself from asset into liability.”

And this: “His chief business was the doing away with dogs of ill-repute in the country; vicious dogs, sheep-killing dogs, egg-sucking dogs, were committed to Alan’s dread custody, and often he would be seen leading off his wretched victims to his den in the woods, whence they never returned.” Glengarry School Days by Ralph Connor, 1902.

Or this one: “He’s a miserable, fox-faced scoundrel, and I’ve no more use for him than I have for an egg-sucking dog.” Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp, by Annie Roe Carr, 1919. So it’s possible that the expression might relate to a dog found with egg around its mouth, silent evidence of chicken-hunting guilt.

Other subtle nuances include the bright yellow of yolk which shows up against the pallor of the English skin (I dunno, just throwing that one out there).

Then what about teaching ones grandma to suck eggs? Another post for another day.

The perfect omelette

• 2 eggs
• A pinch of pepper – ground white, black, cayenne and/or paprika
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil – sunflower or olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of butter
• Filling – grated cheddar cheese, cubes of feta, quartered cherry tomato, finely chopped herbs, pieces of bacon, slivers of smoked salmon, wilted spinach with nutmeg, or whatever combination you want

1. Whisk eggs and pepper very well.
2. Heat oil and butter in an omelette pan on medium heat.
3. Make a well, turn the pan to fill the well.
4. Make another well, fill the well.
5. Make another well, fill the well.
6. Make another well, fill the well.
7. Put the filling onto half the omelette and flip the other half over.
8. Slide the omelette out onto a plate.

So simple.

Eggs Benedict – get the basics right and then have fun with it

This classic poached egg dish is beautiful and simple, but has a reputation as a difficult restaurant-only meal. Essentially it consists of two halves of English muffin each topped with a slice of bacon or ham, a poached egg, and more egg in the form of a yolky-buttery-lemony sauce.

It’s easy to do at home if you get the three basics right:

1. A perfect hollandaise sauce
2. Eggs poached correctly
3. Timing

Everything else can be played with to create your own signature Eggs Benedict. Eggs Florentine is a popular vegetarian alternative that replaces the meat with spinach. My personal favourite hybrid is Eggs Salmon Benentine with dill hollandaise on lightly toasted seed loaf.

So back to basics. For two people (multiply as necessary) make the decadent hollandaise sauce first, using:

• 2 egg yolks (save the whites for your next scrambled egg or omelette)
• 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• A pinch or two of ground pepper – white, black, cayenne and/or paprika
• 125 g salted butter, cut into small pieces

1. In a saucepan whisk the egg yolks, lemon juice and pepper with a hand whisk until nicely blended.
2. Turn the heat onto medium-low and add the butter.
3. Keep whisking until the butter has melted and is fully blended into the egg mix.
4. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens to the consistency of cream.
5. Easy as that. Remove from the heat and keep the sauce warm.

To poach eggs, use:

• 4 eggs, fresh or a few days old, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• Enough water to cover a shallow saucepan (with lid) to about 5cm

1. Bring the water to the boil, add vinegar and reduce the heat so that the water is almost still,  just gently simmering  below boiling point.
2. Break an egg into a small teacup and slide the egg slowly into the water.
3. Repeat for all eggs.
4. Cover the saucepan with lid, turn off the heat and allow to poach for about 4 or 5 minutes.
5. Remove eggs gently with a slotted spoon to allow water to drain.

While the eggs are poaching – and this is where timing is important – assemble your other ingredients. Sautee the bacon (or warm the ham or salmon, or wilt the spinach for Eggs Florentine), and toast the English muffins (or your choice of bread).

Then once the eggs are done simply assemble your decadent little stacks on warm plates, top with hollandaise sauce and serve. So easy.

Kewpie mayonnaise: delicious and addictive. What’s in it?

Kewpie Mayonnaise is the best-selling mayonnaise in Japan, and pretty much the only mayo used by sushi restaurants all over the world.

Creamy and silky-textured, this slightly yellow eggy-mayonnaise (also known as QP in some places) is an almost cult-hit outside of Japan. In the Netherlands, for example, Kewpie is the standard companion to chips/fries.

Created by the Kewpie Corporation in Japan, it began sales in 1925 with production of 600kg. By the next year this had increased to 7 tons and today its output is many millions of tons.

Kewpie mayonnaise is packaged in a soft, transparent, tactile and uniquely squeezable bottle. This mayo bottle has a red lid with a nice star-shaped opening which allows lovely neat zen-type squeezes.

The bottle, unusual in this age of global branding and especially for a billion dollar corporation, has nothing printed on it. No image, no writing, no information at all.

The clear plastic packaging in which the bottle is sold has a red image of a Kewpie doll, one of those retro kids’ dolls with a curly peaked fringe, a red mesh pattern and a whole lot of red Japanese text on the back. In some countries it is sold with “KEWPIE Mayonnaise” and weight info printed on the bag, but in my country there is nothing in English, so we English speakers just have to trust that what we’re using is okay for human consumption.

Just okay for human consumption? This is the best mayonnaise I’ve ever encountered.

      

I’ve never been a big fan of the vinegary palid globby Western mayonnaises such as big brands Hellmann’s, Kraft’s Miracle Whip or even my home-made egg yolk, olive oil and lemon variety.

Nonetheless, as you probably do, I previously kept some in the fridge on standby for things like potato salads, egg mayo and tuna mayo sandwiches, and salad dressings.

          

No more. Since I discovered Kewpie mayonnaise many years ago I’ve seldom made my own or bought another mainstream branded mayo.

Kewpie mayo is addictive.  There is something about its creamy umami taste and silky texture that makes me stop at my fridge and squeeze out a little taste on a finger. It’s scarily more-ish.

But here’s the thing. Mayonnaise is basically a science experiment in how an egg part (the yolk) reacts to the addition of oil at different rates and subsequent emulsion, and then how adding an acid affects the flavour.

This has led me to want to know what the secret of Kewpie is. I can’t read the Japanese writing on the outer packaging, can’t insert it into Google Translate, so I decided to discover the ingredients that keep me coming back for more of this yummy oriental condiment.

So, what are the ingredients? Where does the magical flavour come from? I went on a little online mission and this is the summary of what I found.

It seems that the ingredients are:

Vegetable oil

• Which oil? I don’t know yet.

• Egg yolk oil or lipid? see below.

Egg yolk

• From the Kewpie corporate website: “Lecithin has been known as not only nutritive component, but also good natural emulsifier. There are mainly 2 sources for lecithin, that is, soy bean and egg yolk, especially, egg yolk lecithin is well balanced for human in-take since the lipid composition of egg yolk is very similar to the one of human being.”

• As the company says here, “EGG YOLK LECITHIN PL-30S is an orange-yellow colored oily substance containing more than 30% of phospholipids. It has high stability against heat and storage period．It can be used for wide range of food items to enhance rich egg flavor and nutrition.”

• Kewpie says it “is an eggs expert, which are the main ingredients of mayonnaise. About 9% of all eggs produced in Japan, or roughly 230,000 tons, are transformed into Kewpie products.” Simply astonishing, so basically one in every ten eggs produced in Japan get processed through the Kewpie Corporation.

• “The Company has devoted itself to the challenge of pursuing the full use of eggs without any waste.” Good to know.

• ” “YOLK OIL HF ” is a high quality egg yolk oil produced from fresh egg yolk by our original extraction technology. YOLK OIL HF gives final products rich body as well as good egg flavor．Main component of YOLK OIL HF is a lipid so that YOLK OIL HF is suitable for cooked foods.”

• Lysolecithin is another product of egg yolk that I think the Kewpie Corporation may be using in Kewpie mayonnaise.

• “Kewpie uses egg shells as calcium-reinforcing food products. Moreover, the Company thoroughly uses even membranes attached to egg shells without any waste.” Okay.

• So I think Kewpie mayonnaise contains a lecithin extract from egg yolk, and possibly lysolecithin and egg yolk oil, not the complete egg yolk.

• Egg yolks, the nutritional powerhouse of the amazing egg, are fabulously healthy ingredients when enjoyed in moderation. I’m not sure about extracting bits of it, and please make your own processed nutritional decisions. But since Kewpie mayo is so delicious and based on egg yolk, a source of human nourishment, for now that’s okay with me (in small quantities.)

Rice wine vinegar

• This is a gentler vinegar than the sharp distilled spirit vinegar used by most mainstream brands.

• It adds necessary acidity to Kewpie mayonnaise while maintaining smooth creaminess.

Salt

• I have no info on this yet.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

• MSG is an much maligned chemical re-creation of glutamic acid or glutamate (an important chemical which exists in our brains) which creates the delicious umami flavour found naturally in foods like tomato, mushroom, egg yolk, seaweed and tuna.

• Umami is touted as the “fifth taste”, a balanced savoury flavour that fits alongside the classic salty, sweet, sour and bitter receptors found on the human tongue.

• Maggi-branded products are famous or notorious for using MSG.

• In small quantities this synthetic additive is harmless and creates great umami taste in dishes; in large quantities it tastes awful – a bit like salt really.

• Read more about MSG and Kewpie mayonnaise in this New York Times article. (Read the second page too.)

• From the article, “It is the taste of Marmite in the United Kingdom, of Golden Mountain sauce in Thailand, of Goya Sazón on the Latin islands of the Caribbean, of Salsa Lizano in Costa Rica and of Kewpie mayonnaise in Japan.”

• My personal jury is still out on MSG, but currently I believe that if occasional tiny amounts of a food additive is enjoyed to enhance a diet rich in good fresh vegetables and legumes and quality lean proteins then it’s not all bad.

Spices

• Which spices?

So it seems, compared with my homemade mayo recipe that precise egg yolk elements, rice wine vinegar and MSG (monosodium glutamate) may be the secret ingredients of Kewpie mayonnaise. I’d kind of suspected something like this during my long love affair with Kewpie mayo.

It’s a highly processed foodstuff, and you have to make your own decision about where or whether processed food fits into your lifestyle.

Nutritionally, Kewpie mayo is high in calories, with one tablespoon (14 g) containing 100 calories (about 400 kilojoules), 90% of which come from fat. Sodium content is high too, at about 100mg per tablespoon. There is pretty much no other nutrition besides that in the egg yolks, and zero fibre and protein, so Kewpie mayo should basically be considered as a tasty source of vegetarian fat and salt.

Kewpie mayo is not a completely healthy condiment by any means. But used in sensibly small quantities it adds so much to other healthy foods.

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS

Sauce for seared salmon or tuna

• My favourite sauce or dressing is a very simple ratio of three parts Kewpie mayonnaise with about one part Kikkoman soya sauce – find the balance that gives you the consistency and flavour you prefer.
• Mix well with a fork or whisk in a small bowl until it’s an even light brown colour and spoon it on top of lightly pan-seared fillet of tuna or North Atlantic salmon or similar.
• Watch it melt and taste the deliciousness.

Maki rolls

• If you know how to make your own sushi, simply lay out a nori sheet on a bamboo mat and spread a layer of correctly prepared short-grain sushi rice (boiled then steamed till soft and sticky).
• Place rows of thin crunchy fresh Mediterranean cucumber strips, dry-pan-toasted sesame seeds and a generous layer of Kewpie mayo squirted in a line through its neat red star lid.
• For fun, crunch and colour add salad onion (scallion or green onion) sliced lengthways, thinly sliced sweet red/orange/yellow pepper, and/or strips of a fruit like strawberry, melon or avocado.
• Roll up tightly in the bamboo mat, then slice into coin shapes with a sharp wet knife.
• Serve with a bowl of Kikkoman soya sauce to dip by hand, and forever convert your vegetarian friends to sushi.

Egg mayo sandwiches

• Hard-boil some eggs (one to two per person) and once they are cool chop well and add thinly sliced spring onion.
• Add a pinch of very finely chopped fresh herb – I love coriander (cilantro/dhania); basil and parsley also work well.
• To introduce a bit more crunch and nutrition add grated carrot, finely diced cucumber, finely diced red pepper and/or sprouts.
• Mix very well with a generous few squirts of Kewpie mayonnaise.
• Serve on great quality bread (no butter since you already have all your oil in the mayo) and a combination of delicious small leaves like rocket (arugula), baby spinach and watercress for the tastiest crunchy egg mayo on open or closed sandwiches.

Dip for vegetable finger snacks

• Lightly steam florets of brocolli and cauliflower, sticks of carrot and fresh mushroom caps.
• Arrange on a platter with a small bowl of Kewpie mayo for dipping.

Crème brûlée, a sophisticated way to sweeten eggs

Crème brûlée means ‘burnt cream’, and it’s really just a custard caramelised on top. In Italy it’s known as crema catalana and in England as crème anglaise, Trinity cream or Cambridge burnt cream.

What a great way to use eggs, milk and sugar in a cold and crispy but rich and creamy dessert. Most often flavoured with vanilla pods, it can also be made with other flavours such as citrus, herbs or spices, coconut, berry, chocolate, nuts or liqueurs – as long as the basic principles are in place.

So what is a burnt custard? Simply an eggy firm milk pudding zapped with fire, usually served in individual ramekins or bowls after having its sugar crust burnt by a butane blow-torch or under a salamander just before serving.

The ultimate gourmet Niçoise salad

This delicious and well balanced protein-rich salad originated in Nice, France. Although its origins and “correctness” vary according to your source, the classic Niçoise salad is built by topping a bed of greens with tomato, onion or shallots, red pimento and green string beans, tuna, calamata olives, boiled new potatoes, hard-boiled egg and anchovy fillets.

Here we replace the green beans with asparagus, and instead of tinned tuna (which is fine) we use fresh seared tuna. Also, you’ll learn a secret dressing that may change your life.

For 2 to 4 people:

• 4 free-range eggs
• 8 new potatoes, skin on, scrubbed
• 100g baby asparagus spears
• 300g fillet of sashimi-quality yellowfin tuna
• Extra virgin olive oil
• A quarter of a small lemon
• 2 tablespoons Kewpie Doll mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon Kikkoman soya sayce
• 100g greens such as rocket, lettuce, baby spinach leaves, watercress
• Handful of small tomatoes such as cherry or roma tomatoes, halved
• 1 shallot or small onion, very finely sliced then chopped
• 1/2 of a red or yellow sweet pepper, deseeded and very finely cubed
• Handful of black calamata olives, pipped and halved
• A pinch of white pepper
• 6 anchovey fillets, 4 halved and 2 chopped finely

Put room-temperature eggs into a saucepan with 2 teaspoons salt and cover by 2cm with water, bring to the boil. Turn off the heat, cover with lid and allow eggs to sit for about 18 minutes. Plunge eggs into cold water, knock the shells and allow to cool.

Meanwhile cover new potatoes in boiling salted water and boil rapidy for about 6 minutes, piercing each potato once about halfway through. In the last 2 minutes add asparagus. Drain and rinse potatoes and asparagus in cold water.

Rub the tuna fillets with olive oil and sear in a hot non-stick pan. Turn once, after about 2 minutes, cook for another 2 minutes or until it’s white on the outside and still red but warm on the inside. Remove and allow to cool on a cutting board.

Turn off the heat and add 4 finely chopped anchovy fillets, another splash of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and white pepper. Then (here’s the secret) add Kewpie Doll mayonnaise and Kikkoman soya sauce. Whisk dressing ingredients together.

On a flat platter spread greens. Top with halved tomatoes, shallots, pimento and olives.

Slice the cooled tuna at an angle and place slices on salad.

Halve the cool potatoes and place on top. Peel and quarter or slice eggs and place around the sides of the platter. Top with asparagus spears and half anchovy fillets, then drizzle with creamy Kewpie-mayo–soya-anchovy-lemon dressing.

 

Kewpie Doll mayonnaise