Poached egg & pan-seared asparagus on pâté & toast

I bought a bunch of asparagus a few days ago. Fat, juicy, crunchy looking asparagus. But my cold have drenched me of my desire to cook & bake for the passed few days, so the lovely asparagus have just been laying there, staring at me everytime I opened the fridge.

They would have eventually started talking.

So I started obsessing over the thought of what I was going to make with them. Seriously, it haunted me for 2 days! I really didn't want to turn on the oven to make a quiche or a tart, it's too hot for that. Luckily, my brain still haven't given up on me after the extensive researching & planning for our Eastern Europe trip, I geared towards breakfast for dinner. Not very original, but still better than nothing!

Poached egg & pan-seared asparagus on pâté & toast

• a bunch of asparagus, stemmed, washed & dried
  
• a dash of olive oil
• a couple teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• an egg
• some pâté (optional)
• a slice of bread
  
• black pepper
  

In a big bowl, marinade the asparagus in the olive oil & balsamic. Sprinkle the salt on top. Let them sit for a few minutes.

Heat a pan over medium high heat. Dump all the asparagus in, including the marinade. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the crunchiness of your choice . (I cooked mine for about 3 minutes because I don't like mushy vegetables)

Remove the cooked asparagus. Pour a few cups of water into the pan, but not to the rim. When the water starts simmering, crack the egg into a ladle, place the ladle into the pan and gently nudge the egg out (Gently so that the egg white doesn't run all over the place)

Mean while, toast your bread and spread some pâté onto it. Place some asparagus on top. At this point, the egg will be cooked, so remove it with a ladle that has holes in it so the water doesn't come with.

Place on top of everything else, crack some black pepper over it, and bite. Make sure you have a napkin ready for the dripping egg yolk.

Oh yeah...

Weekend breakfast

I'm a fan of breakfast food. I can eat breakfast anytime of the day. Although technically, it's a loophole in the system for me, since in Vietnam, breakfast can range from "xôi" (sticky rice) "Phở" (Tonkinese soup) to pan-fried eggs with drizzles of Maggi or "cháo" (rice porridge) with seafood and/or pork.

This passed Saturday morning wasn't a relaxing one for me, so breakfast was just another bowl of cereal & fruits. I ate quickly so I could run around making two different birthday cakes. By the time I had some time to spare, I was still too full, so I made the usual weekend breakfast for just the BF.

No, I didn't make "Phở" nor "xôi", unfortunately. Just a no-fuss prosciutto omelette, with a couple of pinches of black pepper. Along side a few slices of crackly warm baguette & a cup of blueberries & raspberries. Had it not been for the BBQ we were going to, I'd have thrown in some of the 2 year-aged cheddar and a side of pâté for his spreading needs, and he would have been full until supper time, LOL!!!!

This is definitely a no-recipe post, because we obviously all know how to make an omelette, right? I mean, even my dad can do it! (He would always say that he knows how to cook four things: eggs boiled, sunny-side up, over-easy or omelette) I'm hoping it's more of an inspirational post that will trigger fun ideas, in case you were hungry and wanted breakfast food for dinner :)

Inspired from lack of inspiration...

I'm sure it happens to you too sometimes... You really don't know what to make for lunch, but you know you have to brown bag it because the day before, you took a taxi to work instead of the bus so the "daily allowance" is gone with the wind.

...*sigh*...

So in times like this, I raid the fridge & try to be creative. Once in a blue moon I end up with a case of "wtf?" but usually, it's ranged from "OK" to "WOW I didn't expect this!"

Well, today was a "WOW I didn't expect this!"

Give it up for quinoa ladies and gentlemen. Leave it up to these little seeds that look like tiny little condoms when cooked to save the day (Seriously, I didn't make this up, loads of people said this before me, and it's so true!) Toss in a bit of this and a bit of that, and you're ready to put on your healthy attitude face while chomping away in front of the PC.

So here it is, my Saved By The Quinoa lunch salad:
(serves 2-3 people depending as side or main)

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked as according to package (I used red & white, 1 1/2 part boiling water, then throw in 1 part rinsed quinoa, simmer 15 minutes til all water is absorbed)
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled & chopped
• a handful of almonds, toasted, chopped
• a handful of dried cranberries
• a pinch of sea salt

• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• a few shakes of garlic powder
• a couple grinds og black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

Mix the 1st five things together, with 2 forks, so the quinoa stay fluffy. Then whisk together the last five ingredients until well blended, and drizzle into the quinoa salad. Toss and serve at room temperature.

Udon noodle soup with watercress

Sun dresses, bermuda shorts and flip-flops were frantically pulled out from the closets all over Montreal this morning. The humidity was suddenly quite present in the air.

This is it! This is when the ice cream machines take over the ovens, when cold treats are invading the brownies & bread puddings. This is when I'm prone to making noodle soups for lunches & suppers instead of well... everything else!

I always have a couple of boiled eggs still in the shell for quick snack or "emergencies" that i keep in the fridge. I'm not a vegetarian, I like meat but I actually don't eat a lot of it, so a boiled egg slightly pan fried face-down for colors, sounds good for the protein part of the meal.

So for this bowl of goodness, you will need:

• A splash of olive oil
• Some minced garlic
• One hard boiled egg, halved
• A handful of chopped tomato
• Broth (homemade of chicken, or vegetables, or boxed)
• A bunch of watercress
• Fresh instant udon noodles (I only eat half a bag at a time, but put more if you eat more)

In a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Put in garlic. Put the egg halves in, face down, for about a minute. Shake the pot a bit so they don't stick. Scoop out into bowl.

Throw the tomatoes in, cook 1 minute. Pour broth in. Turn heat up to high and when broth boils, put in noodles. Swirl the noodles around a bit until the strands detach themselves from one another. Then immediately put watercress in to cook, about 30-45 seconds. Turns off heat. Pour everything into bowl. Crack some pepper on top if you'd like.

The simple things

I find it hard to have simple things nowadays. There is always an "ick" in the way. A bow too big on a pretty dress, a color too many on a cute pair of shoes, an ingredient that we can't pronounce, etc...

You get the point.

So some days, I just want a really simple meal.

When I was a kid, in the summer days when school was out & parents were at work, my cousin & I would each grab a big bowl, fill it with rice, some vegetables & cooked meat and drizzle everything with a sauce.

We would then head to the garden, the pool, or climb up to the roof, and enjoy our meal together that way. Simple, yummy, in great company, and then we'd be fully recharged for our next misdemeanors.

One of my favourite sauces to drizzle on rice, is a soft or hard boiled egg mashed into prepared fish sauce. I don't know what it is, but I go nuts dipping okra or green beans with this. And I won't need anything else.

And because in a typical Vietnamese pantry, there is ALWAYS a bottle of fish sauce & rice, this is really quick to make.

This is not a recipe. All you need is:

• Cooked long grain rice
• A peeled hard boiled or soft boiled egg
• Prepared fish sauce ("recipe" below)
• Okra or string beans (cooked in boiling water for 2 minutes, then put in cold water right away to stop the cooking process. I like my veggies with a slight crunch)

Dipping sauce (I like to make more than I need for other times)

• In 2 parts warm water, dissolve 1 part sugar.
• Then add 1 part of lemon juice (or half lemon juice and half white vinegar)
• 1 part pure fish sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• chili, minced (optional)

Stir to mix. Then mash the egg into the dipping sauce. Let sit for a couple of minutes, then scoop the egg remains back out onto your rice. Dip your vegetables in the fish sauce & enjoy your meal