I’ve been a very bad blogger recently. I mean really bad!!! I can’t believe it’s been almost 1 1/2 months since I’ve posted. I apologize to those of you out there that regularly follow my blog. No I haven’t died or dropped off of the face of the Earth. Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing quite a bit of travelling for work. As such, I haven’t been able to spend the kind of time I would like with my family so I’ve tried to limit my computer time recently to spend more time with them. And to be honest my last bit of travelling has left me both physically and emotionally drained and I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything on the computer other than some mindless surfing. While I still have a bit of travelling left to do, things should start to mellow out a bit for me and, hopefully, I’ll be able to start posting more regularly again.

Just because I haven’t been posting recently doesn’t mean that I haven’t done any cooking, although on the road it’s pretty much been restaurant food every day, mostly fast food, sad to say. It certainly doesn’t help me in trying to reach my next weight goal that the doctor has imposed upon me. Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do there also. Unfortunately, recipes like the one I am posting today sure don’t help. We’re talking crabcakes (bound with mayo and Ritz crackers), poached eggs, and a decadent Hollandaise sauce loaded with bacon. It doesn’t get any more heart-stopping…and tasty…than that. This recipe certainly isn’t everyday fare, that is unless you have some sort of death wish, but occasionally it’s okay to go all out and live a little.

Crabcake Benedicts with Bacon Hollandaise
serves 4

12oz crabmeat, picked over to remove any stray shell pieces
1/4 cup mayonnaise
30 Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 Onion, small, finely diced
1/2 stalk Celery, finely diced
1/4 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning (optional)
Salt
Pepper

3 slices Bacon, thick cut, diced
8 Tbl. Butter, clarified
2 each Egg yolks
2 Tbl. White wine
pinch cayenne pepper
lemon juice, fresly squeezed

8 each Eggs
Vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, combine the crabmeat with the mayonnaise, crackers, onion, celery and seasonings. Mix well and allow to chill for 1/2 hour.

To make start making the Hollandaise sauce render the bacon until brown and crispy. Remove from heat and drain off the bacon fat, combining it with the clarified butter. In a medium sized pot bring about 1″ of water to a simmer. Place the yolks in medium sized mixing bowl along with the wine. Place the bowl over the simmering water and cook the eggs, whisking constantly, until the eggs are thick enough to hold a line drawn through them. This is known as the ribbon stage. Remove from the heat and very slowly, a bit at a time, drizzle in the butter-bacon grease mixture, whisking constantly so that the fat is emulsified into the egg yolks. Add the cayenne and squeeze of lemon juice and taste for salt, adding a bit, if necessary. Place in a warm, but not too hot spot as you finish the dish.

Divided the crab mixture into 8 equal patties. Heat some vegetable oil in a large skillet, over medium high heat and cook the crabcakes, in 2-3 batches depending on the size of your skillet, about 3 minutes per side. Meanwhile poach your eggs, again in batches if necessary.

As everything finishes up stir the crispy bacon into the Hollandaise sauce. Place two crabcakes on each of 4 plates. Top each with a poached egg and spoon some of the Bacon Hollandaise over top. Enjoy and then make an appointment with your cardiologist!

The other day my wife took our daughter to see one of my wife’s clients, who she had become good friends with. Her friend has a small farm and my wife took Genevieve to ride the horses. Genevieve (aka Gigi) is 4 1/2 years old and just recently told us that she wants her own horse. This has created no end of amusment for my wife because ever since Gigi was born I have been writing letters to Santa that Gigi has “dictated” to me. Most of them revolve around the idea that she wants a horse by the time she is five, so needless to say when she exclaimed that she wanted a horse my wife considered it cosmic justice.

So Gigi got to ride a horse, learn a little about horsemanship and help brush her. As an added bonus, Kate sent Wanda home with 2 dozen eggs, from the hens she owns. They varied in size from a standard large egg to ones about the quarter of that size and in colors from off white to various shades of brown and even to a pale green (yes that picture above is color corrected-it’s not your monitor). I was thrilled and set about coming up with an idea to really showcase the eggs. While simply poaching them or hard boiling them might showcase the eggs in all their simple glory I wanted to do something a little more adventurous and seasonal. Our rhubarb is growing quickly and I knew I wanted to incorporate that into something so I decided to make custards and top them with a rhubarb compote. I was also keen to use up some of the tarragon I grow and thought about infusing the custard with tarragon. While not often used in desserts, tarragon’s anisy, licorice flavor lends itself well to many dessert presentations. The only concern is not to overpower the other flavors with tarragon, which can quickly take over if used with too heavy a hand. The flavor combination, at first, might sound a little strange, but trust me it works well, with the tarragon adding a nice subtle flavor to the custard and complementing the simple rhubarb compote.

Herb Pot de Creme
makes 6 servings

3 cups half and half
9 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1/ tsp. vanilla extract
3-5 sprigs fresh tarragon (feel free to try other herbs also such as thyme, mint, lemon balm, even rosemary)

Pre heat the oven to 350°F. Bring the half and half to a simmer. Add 3 sprigs of tarragon and allow to steep for 10 minutes, off of the heat. Taste the mixture. The herb flavor should be just a little stronger than you want it to be in the final product as this will be diluted with other ingredients. If it isn’t strong enough add a few more sprigs, return to a simmer, remove from heat and steep a few minutes longer. Remember, it’s easier to add more flavor than take it away so don’t go over board in the beginning. As the herbs are steeping combine the egg yolks, sugar, salt and vanilla, stirring until most of the sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2 a cup of the hot half and half to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add another 1/2 cup and stir. Now that the eggs are tempered you can add the remaining half and half. Stir until well combined then strain. Skim off any foam on top of the mixture and pour 3/4 cup into 6 ramekins. Place ramekins into a large baking dish and add hot water to come about 1/2 way up the ramekins. Cover with foil, adding 4 or 5 small vent holes and carefully place in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes and check for doneness. The custards are done when the center still slightly jiggles like jello. If not done yet, replace cover and bake 5-7 minutes longer and check again. Continue doing this until custards are done. Don’t overcook or your custards will “souffle” and instead of a silky, smooth texture it will more closely resemble scrambled eggs. Still tasty but not quite as appetizing. These will take anywhere from 25-50 minutes depending on the size and depth of your ramekins. When done carefully remove from the oven then remove from the water bath. Cool on a rack until room temperature then chill. Serve topped with a couple tablespoons of Rhubarb Compote (recipe below).

Rhubarb Compote
makes about 1 /2 cups

3 cups rhubarb, diced
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup water

Add all ingredients to a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, at a hard boil, for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Test for doneness on a chilled plate. Allow a small spoonful to chill on the cold plate. It is done if it holds together like a softly set jam with just a bit of liquid separating out. Once done chill for 2 hours to allow time for the compote to set up.

As I stated a few days ago, I had wanted to post this recipe just before Christmas, but weather forced us to change our travel plans and leave early. Leaving early didn’t really make much of a difference anyway, as, instead of missing the crappy weather, we drove right into it! Snow, sleet, freezing rain, we had it all, and the mixture was coming down so hard the highway was covered in about 3 inches of nasty, slippery slush. We watched 2 cars slide off of the road right in front of us and saw numerous others in the ditch. Luckily we only had about 60 miles of that stuff, then it turned completely over to rain a few miles south of the Illinois/Wisconsin border and we were able to continue our travels relatively stress-free, which is more than I can say for the thousands stranded by the storms over the holidays. I hope that each and every one of you made it to your destination safely and had an enjoyable holiday.

As for the recipe, for someone who doesn’t care for eggnog too much I sure seem to have a number of recipes that use it as a flavoring agent. Go figure! I first served this for Christmas a few years ago and it was a big hit. Since then I have made a few times for groups both big and small, with positive reactions every time.

While I consider this a “Christmas” meal, it is a great breakfast anytime during the holidays as it is simple to prepare and seems rather upscale-you don’t have to tell anyone how simple it is! This would also make a great breakfast for New Year’s Day, after a night of imbibing a little too much. Nothing in the recipe is a real assault on the tastebuds-a good thing when nursing a hangover, and in fact the little alcohol left in the dish after flambeing the rum helps with a little “hair of the dog.” You could serve this any time of year actually, if you made your own eggnog, but keep it simple on yourself and serve this during the holidays when store bought eggnog is readily available.

Eggnog French Toast with Bananas Foster Sauce

12 slices French or Italian Bread, cut on a bias, 1″ thick
3 cups Eggnog, store bought is fine
1 cup milk
3 each eggs, beaten

4 each bananas, peeled and sliced 1/2″ thick
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup dark rum
3 Tbsp. butter

Combine the milk, eggnog, and eggs and mix together. Soak both sides of the bread slices in mixture and saute on a griddle set over medium heat and brushed with a little butter. Cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked all the way through, about 5 minutes per side. Don’t let the french toast brown too quickly or the middle will be soggy when the outside is done. Meanwhile combine the butter, and brown sugar in a saute pan and heat over medium high until the brown sugar melts. Add the rum and carefully flame it. Do this by allowing the rum to heat up then igniting it with a long handled lighter. Be careful as it can ignite rather quickly and in bright light the alcohol flame can be almost invisible. Lean back as you light it so as to not, accidentally, light your hair on fire!!! Once the flames die down add the sliced bananas and spices. Cook just until the bananas are warmed through. Add the butter, remove from heat and swirl until the butter has melted into the sauce. Serve each person 3 slices of the french toast topped with the banana sauce. Garnish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and maybe a strawberry or two if you want some color.

It’s December 1st, and that means only 24 days left until Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year. Not only is it Christmas, but my wife and I celebrate our anniversary right around that time (Dec. 30th) along with my parents and grandparents. So, as you can see the holiday is a very special time for me.

I figured I would start the Christmas season off with a simple pie recipe. While it may be simple, it packs quite a punch in the flavor department. I tend to not drink a lot of eggnog. I’m not a big fan of it though I do like Tom & Jerry’s, which at their most basic are a frothy, warmed up version of eggnog. I also tend to use eggnog as a flavoring agent in many recipes this time of year, but I just can’t bring myself to drink more than a glass or 2 during the holiday season, and then only if spiked with copious amounts of bourbon.

My wife on the other hand loves eggnog and will drink a considerable amount over the next few weeks. Because of her love for eggnog I dedicate this recipe to her.

Eggnog Pie

1 each Pie crust for a 9″ deep dish pie
1/2 cup Sugar, granulated
1 pinch Salt
2 cups Eggnog (store bought)
4 each Eggs, large
Nutmeg, freshly ground

Preheat oven to 425F. Par bake pie crust for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool while making filling. Reduce oven heat to 350F. In a large bowl beat eggs. Add sugar and salt and stir until mostly dissolved. Add eggnog and continue to stir until all sugar is dissolved. Try not to beat too much air into filling. Pour into pie shell, coming just below the edge of the crust. You might have a little extra filling. Don’t over fill the crust. Sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg and place in oven, on a cookie sheet in case it overflows. Bake for 40-50 minutes. To check a custard for doneness, jiggle the pie. The custard should still wiggle like softly set jello. Don’t overcook the pie or it will lose its smooth, satiny texture and become grainy. Allow to cool on tray for 20 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting. I even prefer to refrigerate it for a couple of hours to make sure it has set completely before cutting.

Souffles have fallen out of fashion, at least in regards to home cooks. I have hundreds of cookbooks spanning back over 120 years. In many of those books, dated from the 50′s through the 70′s and even 80′s, you’d find recipes for all sorts of souffles from sweet to savory. In the 80′s their popularity started to wane and now it is rare to find a new cookbook with a souffle recipe in it. That’s too bad as I think every decent home cook should know how to make a souffle.

There seems to be a mystique surrounding souffles and how difficult they are to make. Most of it is a load of crap. I can’t begin to count the number of souffles I have made, in both professional kitchens and at home, and I think I have had only 1 turn out a failure. They really aren’t that difficult to make, and they most certainly are not nearly as tempermental to bake as the myth has it.

I want to share 4 tips that will allow you to serve a perfect souffle almost every time. There’s nothing secret about these, nor are they all that enlightening, but follow these 4 tips and your success rate will be like mine.
1. Don’t over whip your egg whites. Leave them just shy of stiff peak to get maximum rise out of them.
2. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into your base to lighten the base then gently fold in the remaining whites. It’s okay to leave a few streaks of white unincorporated. This is better than over stirring and deflating your whites.
3. Once in the oven do not open the oven door for the 2/3 of the baking.
4. Serve the souffle as soon as possible after coming out of the oven. Even the best made souffle will start to collapse as it cools down. Time is of the essence.

This recipe makes a great breakfast souffle that will serve 4 people when accompanied by toast, bagels or pastries.

Cheese and Bacon Souffle

1/4 cup Flour
1/4 cup Butter + more for greasing the mold
1 cup Milk
Fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Dry Mustard
1/2 tsp. Granulated Garlic
3-6 dashes Hot Sauce
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese, grated
6 oz. Cheddar cheese (sharp or medium)
3 sliced Bacon, thick cut
5 each eggs

Preheat oven to 375. Dice bacon and render until crisp. Pour off fat and reserve bacon. Grease a 2 qt. Souffle mold or high sided baking dish with butter and dust with parmesan cheese. Place in the fridge. Separate eggs with whites in 1 bowl and yolks in another. Meanwhile melt remain 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat. Combine flour, a couple grates of fresh nutmeg, mustard, and garlic and add to the butter. Cook for 2 minutes then add the milk. When thickened add hot sauce and stir in cheddar cheese. Continue to heat until cheese has melted. Remove from heat. Whip egg whites to a point just short of stiff peak. Temper cheese mixture into yolks, stirring to combine. Add bacon. Gently fold in 1/3 of the white into the yolk mixture then fold in the remaining whites. Pour into mold and bake for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes quickly check for doneness. To test a souffle for doneness test just like a cake. Insert a toothpick or small knife into the souffle. If it comes out clean then it is done. Serve immediately.

I had forgotten how much I like properly shirred (baked) eggs, until this past Sunday, when I was searching for a simple, yet elegant dish for my wife and I to enjoy for Sunday brunch. I wasn’t in the mood for an omelet and we always tend to do a variation on Benedicts when looking for something a little special so I went digging around in my cookbooks and was reminded of shirred eggs. I hadn’t done something like that in years, so it would be a novel dish for my wife, and better yet, Shirred Eggs is one of those dishes that is just ripe for variations.

At it’s most simple, Shirred Eggs, are eggs that have been placed into a shallow custard cup, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped with a little butter to help keep the top from drying out, then baked just until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Not really. Like a good poached egg, shirred eggs are fine on their own, if not a little bland, but it is when they are part of a dish that they rise above their humble stature and become something almost sublime.

Virtually anything can be used as a base on which to make Shirred Eggs. Some of the more common bases are creamed spinach, various types of hashes, seafood, cooked grains, ham, bacon, other cooked meats and various other vegetables. Just like with omelets, the choice is really limited only by your imagination. Because I was looking for simply elegant this time I reigned the imagination in and created the recipe below, which serves 2. I accompanied the Shirred Eggs with toast and Maple Glazed Bacon, the recipe for which is below also.

Shirred Eggs with Ham & Manchego Cheese
4 each Eggs
1 tsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Yellow onion, finely minced
1/2 cup Ham, finely diced
1/2 cup Tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 tsp. Fresh Tarragon, finely minced
4 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Manchego cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.Heat the butter, in a small saute pan, over medium high heat. As the butter finishes melting add the onions and cook without browning. Add the ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tarragon. Heat just to warm the tomatoes then remove from heat. Divide the tomato-ham mixture between 4 small creme brulee cups or ramekins and spread evenly. Crack an egg into each cup or ramekin and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle each egg with 1 Tbsp. of cream. Sprinkle the cheese over top, dividing the cheese evenly among the 4 cups. Bake for 12-14 minutes, checking them after 10. Eggs are done when the whites are just set but the yolks are still runny. Serve immediately as the eggs will continue to cook a little longer.

Maple Glazed Bacon

Take 4 slices of thick cut, smoky bacon and cut them in half. Cook over medium high heat until 3/4 of the way done. Drain on paper towel. Meanwhile remove rendered fat from pan and wipe pan clean. Lower heat to medium low and add the bacon back to the pan. Brush with real maple syrup, flip over and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. After about 1 minute brush other side with maple syrup. Flip over, when time and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a cooking rack, set over a sheet tray, to crisp up. Make sure that bacon is not touching each other as it cools as it has a tendency to want to stick until it cools slightly.

There are many ways I know my wife really loves me.  Not the least of which is she occasionally makes me Eggs Benedict for breakfast.  I love breakfast foods, but hate getting up early enough to make them, something I need to overcome as one of my life long goals is to own a Bed & Breakfast.  Luckily I have a wife who is a morning person.  I remember the first time she made them for me.  The thing that scared her the most was making the hollandaise.  There seems to be a mystique about hollandaise.  Most people think that it is this extremely difficult operation that should only be attempted by a “trained professional.”  While it isn’t one of the easiest sauces to make, it sure doesn’t deserve its reputation as being too difficult for a regular home cook.

I am going to walk you through making hollandaise, showing you the few areas where things can go wrong and, hopefully, at the same time dispelling its mystique.  These instructions are going to look long, but don’t worry, it really is quite simple.  The instructions are long because I want to make sure I have explained everything there you need to know.  So here we go.

Hollandaise Sauce

2 each Egg Yolks
1 oz. White Wine (water can be used if you don’t have or use wine)
6 oz. Butter, clarified (more on that in a minute), warm but not hot
1/2 each Lemon
1 pinch Salt
1 dash Cayenne

First a note on the butter. Most chefs prefer to use clarified butter over plain melted butter for various reasons. One of the main reasons though is that non-clarified butter contains a lot moisture. When making larger batches of hollandaise this can thin the sauce more than a chef wants it to be. Taking the moisture out of the butter allows the chef to thin the hollandaise as he/she sees fit, and they can do it with liquids more flavorful than water. If you find yourself pressed for time, melted butter usually works quite well though so don’t freak if you don’t have time to clarify it. And now, back to the recipe. (continue reading…)

Rhubarb is one of those foods that you either love or hate. I absolutely love it and would venture to guess that a good number of the people who claim to hate it have never actually tried it. it wasn’t always that way with me though. As a younger child I wouldn’t touch the stuff, but then, when I was around 8 or 9 years old, I braved my first bite of rhubarb pie and it has been love ever since. To this day, my favorite way to eat rhubarb is in a pie although I don’t think I have every turned my nose up to anything made with it. Technically a vegetable, rhubarb is most often treated as a fruit, making its way into pies, cakes, muffins and various other desserts. For the more adventurous, rhubarb makes a great sauce or chutney for rich or fatty meats, its tartness cutting through the richness of a country style pate or terrine, or complimenting any number of pork preparations.

Although in pies is my favorite way to eat rhubarb, the Internet is full of rhubarb pie recipes, so today’s recipe offering is for a Rhubarb Curd. Use this curd in the same way you would normally use lemon curd; slathered on scones or biscuits, as a filling for pastries, make a Rhubarb Meringue Pie, or use it as a base for any number of fruit tarts, the list is endless. I also like it just topped with freshly whipped cream.

Rhubarb Curd

1 pound Rhubarb, chopped (about 3 1/2 to 4 cups)
3/4 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Water
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
6 Tbsp. Unsalted butter, cut into chunks
3 each Eggs, large
2 each Egg yolks
1 pinch Salt

Combine the rhubarb, sugar and water in a nonreactive saucepan. Cook over medium heat until most of the water has evaporated and the pulp is just starting to stick to the bottom (about 15 minutes). Transfer the rhubarb to a food processor and process until completely smooth. Meanwhile beat the eggs, yolks and vanilla extract until combined. Return 1 1/2 cups of the rhubarb to the saucepan along with the butter and place over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted. Add the salt and stir to incorporate. Temper the eggs by whisking in about 1/4 rhubarb puree then pour the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining rhubarb. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, making sure to continually scrape the bottom and sides. Cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of mayonnaise and reaches a temperature of approximately 165-170 degrees. Don’t allow the mixture to get too hot or the eggs will curdle. When done remove from heat and quickly whip the mixture to smooth out any lumps. Pour into a clean bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the mixture to avoid a skin forming as it cools. Place in the refrigerator and allow to cool completely before using.

Note: If, like me, you aren’t blessed with the red stemmed rhubarb, you can add a little red food coloring to the mixture to give a more desirable color, but be careful and don’t add too much. It should be more a delicate pink than bright red.