Simple, vegetarian recipes found for and cooked at our Co-op.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Chive Omelettes

After a long exhausting two weeks of exams, I'm finally home in my own kitchen again. This morning I woke up with the excitement of knowing that for once, I could choose what to eat for breakfast and not be limited by a dorm cafeteria's offerings. 

For awhile I thought about just eating cereal and calling it good, but that's kinda lame. Instead, I decided to take a peek outside and see what my little sister's garden had to offer. Sadly, since Michigan has a late spring, chives are the only plant actually alive. So here it is: 


What your finished product should look like. 
And yes, I took these pictures.



Fresh chives = love 

whisking eggs makes me happy


A Single Chive Omelette 


You'll need: 

  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsps water
  • 1 tablespoon butter (to coat the skillet)
  • 1/2 tsp fresh cut chives, chopped 
  • salt to taste
Directions: 

  1. Pick, wash and chop your chives into little teeny tiny pieces 
  2. Whisk the eggs and water, but lightly, you just want to whisk them just enough to blend the eggs and yolks not to beat the crap out of them
  3. Add your chives to the eggs, of course.
  4. Melt the butter in your skillet. Be careful, you want the butter to melt but not to brown.
  5. Add the blended mixture to the skillet and turn the heat up (way, way up) to as hot as your stove will go 
  6. You'll need to shake the skillet a little bit to make sure the egg mixture is evenly spread, it can't hurt to add in some hip action here, cooking should be fun. 
  7. There are several ways to fold an omelette; if you like your way, feel free to do that. I won't judge you. I like to make my omelettes a la Julia Child. Swirl the omelette around a little bit (for about 20 seconds) then start jerking it towards you so it folds over. Once its looks all omelettey and cooked to your liking, take if off the heat and you're all done. 
    1. Since this is easier to understand when you see it, I've uploaded an episode of Julia Child's cooking show at the end of this post. Just skip to 5:10 if you want to see her do this part.


Some things to remember: 

  1. Make sure you're using the right type of pan. Although they sell really swanky omelette pans, you don't really need one of those. Just get a skillet thats about 2 inches  tall and a good size for a one person omelette. 
  2.   If your omelette is too runny, just heat it up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to dry it out. 
If you want some inspiration, watch my home-girl, Julia Child 

Monday, April 26, 2010

Dear 48 Peeps:

Hey Everyone who's been reading my blog! Thanks to Google Analytics, I know that since starting this blog last week, 48 of you have read it. Which makes me really, really happy. So, I just wanted to say thanks :)

<3
Melissa

Do you know: What Mirepoix is?

Mirepoix is the combination of celery, carrots and onions. Yeah- the French have a name for that too. 

Do you know: What tempering is?

There are actually two different types of tempering one for eggs and one for chocolate. 


To temper chocolate means that you head and cool it so it forms stable chocolate crystals. The crystals guarantee that your chocolate will be solid at room temperature. Since tempering chocolate is a little bit trickier, heres a cool little  video at Chow.com


When you temper egg yolks you gently heat the yolks before adding them to a hot sauce. To do this you just add a bit of the sauce (1/2 a cup or so) to your egg yolks while beating well before you add the yolks to the sauce. This prevents the yolks from curdling. 



Sunday, April 25, 2010

Alton Brown's Lemon Meringue Pie

My mom suggested making Lemon Meringue pie when I was home. As luck would have it, Alton Brown has a fantastic recipe that was featured on the very first episode of his show Good Eats.  






Prep Time:
30 min


Inactive Prep Time:
2 hr 



Cook Time:
12 min

Ingredients

Lemon Filling:

  • 4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell
  • 1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows

Directions

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.
Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

Meringue Topping:

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 pinch cream of tartar
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.
Yield: topping for 1 (9-inch) pie