January 8, 2011: Basic Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs is one of those dishes that can be simple, but many people have their variations on the recipe. This is my take on scrambled eggs.



The ingredients are simple - eggs, butter, salt and pepper. Added ingredients range from water, milk, heavy cream, sour cream, creme fraiche or nothing at all.

I opt for simplicity where I generally use milk, water or nothing.

Another variation between recipes is cooking time where recipes call for cooking anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes.

I believe that in a heated pan over medium heat, scrambled eggs should cook in under 1 minutes once the beaten eggs is poured into the pan. Any longer you run the risk of ending up with dry eggs.

Basic ingredients (Scrambled eggs for two)
3 large eggs (beaten/whipped for about 1 minute)
1 T Milk
A little salt
Butter for cooking


My YouTube Video below

Enjoy!

May 11: Music from a Tiny Violin.

Did I mention the OT has me confused about what day of the week it is?
I came home from work and wanted breakfast food.

Breakfast for dinner!
Biscuit with bacon gravy, fried potatoes with onions, mushrooms and spinach [got to have some veggies on the plate... lol] and scrambled eggs.

Ahhhh! Nice to relax to a nice breakfast, err! I mean dinner, and listen to the music from tiny violins. :)

Jul 05: Bacon Gravy

When I was growing up, I ate a typical breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast or a biscuit, but I didn't discover the joys of sausage gravy until college. A few years after that, when I met Shawn, she introduced me to bacon gravy. The whole concept of gravy for breakfast was a delicious new adventure for me.

My quest for a good sausage gravy recipe continues. I believe good sausage gravy is dependent upon the sausage being used.

Bacon gravy on the other hand is very straight forward and consistent. Bacon pretty much taste the same from name brand to name brand - smoke, salt and a little sugar. However, supermarket house brands can be iffy since it seems the house brands (I've tried) are more akin to salt pork where the bacon is mainly salty and the smoke flavor is very faint to non-existent.

Bacon Gravy
3 T Bacon Grease (I know grease has a negative connotation, but used in conjunction with bacon the results are yummy!)
3 T Flour
2 C Milk (I used 2%)
Salt and pepper to taste

After you're finished cooking the bacon reserve some bacon grease.
Add the flour and blend in and cook over medium heat for a minute or two.

Usually I don't measure the flour, I add enough flour to form a slurry that's about the thickness of hot peanut butter on toast. I'm not trying to make a flour ball. In fact, sometimes I just add enough flour to absorb a majority of the bacon grease but mixture remains frothy as it cooks. Note the little bits of bacon fond adding to the flavor.


Slowly add 1/4 of the milk and blend together. As you continue to add the milk the "dough ball" will be transformed into gravy. Initially I used a wooden spoon to mix, but I found that a fork (or a whisk) works better at blending the milk and roux mixture.


As you continue adding the milk, the paste will transform into a gravy. Eventually, you can add all of the remaining milk. If you're serving immediately, I cook until a scrape across the bottom of the pan takes about a second or two to fill in, as shown below. Salt and pepper to taste. However, if you're not serving immediately, you can leave the gravy a little loose. Flour/roux based gravies will continue to thicken when taken off the heat.


Come to think of it... I've never tried dumping all of the milk in at once. I add the milk a little at a time to minimize lumps (floury dough balls). However, if I can add all the milk at once it will save some time in the long run. In theory, a roux is supposed to mix easily with the liquid without lumping/clumping. I should try adding all the milk at once the next time I make gravy.

The Dish
Bacon gravy over refrigerated Grands biscuits, scrambled, potatoes and bacon.

Delicious bacony goodness. :-)

May 31: Battle Bulk Sausage

Welcome to Battle Bulk Sausage.

A flavorful breakfast sausage is the key to making good Sawmill Gravy (aka sausage gravy).

There are many contenders but few will make the grade.

Today, we have three contenders. All mild breakfast sausage.
John Morrell
Farmland
Independent Meat Co.

I'm the commentator, cook, judge and chairman for this tasting.
We're ready to start.
Allez! Cuisinez!

The packages quickly are opened.
74 grams are weighed out from each roll.
They're formed into rectangular patties, 3.5" by 4".
The George Foreman Grill (GFG) is plugged in and preheating.

Here's a closer look at the challengers.

John Morrell
A very dense pork product that didn't roll out easily. Looking that the patty, you can see solid little cubes of pork fat and appears to be a coarser grind of pork.


Farmland
Softer sausage that rolled out quite easily. The pork is ground finely.


Independent Meat Company
This product was also very easy to roll. Also, the one appeared to have a lower percentage of pork fat. You can actually see pork. The other two brands made patties were virtually white due to the higher pork fat content when compared to this patty.


Each patty was cooked individually in a preheated GFG for 4.5 minutes.

Before the next patty was cooked, the GFG was cleaned with a wet towel to remove any residual crispy bits and grease. A minutes was allotted to allow the GFG to come back to temperature.

After cooking the patties were allowed to cool.
Each cooled cooked patty was weighed to see how much was cooked out.
Surprisingly, each cooked patty weighed the same, 46 grams.

The sausage patties were served as part of a breakfast. No gravy.... so sad... no milk.


The Tasting
The patties were tasted as is and tasted again with the eggs and biscuits, as part of a typical breakfast.

John Morrell
Taste: Not a strong sausage flavor. Mainly taste salt.
Texture: The crust that formed on the outside is nice and golden. Crispy, as if deep fried. I believe enough pork fat rendered out around the patty to give it a deep fried crust. Although the patty was difficult to form, the cooked patty has a soft, crumbly texture. You can feel the coarse ground pork as you chew.

Farmland
Taste: A slight sausage flavor. You can taste the pork.
Texture: The patty is firm, but rather juicy. The crust is typical of pan-frying.

Independent Meat Co.
Taste: A better sausage flavor of the three.
Texture: A firm patty, slightly drier and dense. The crust is darker than the other patties. Higher sugar content in the seasoning mix?

The Winner
Each sausage seemed to have it's pros and cons.
Enjoyed the texture and the coarse grind of the John Morrell. The Farmland had a cleaner flavor, but ultimately I pick Independent Meat Co. due to the better, stronger breakfast sausage flavor.

Thanks for reading... There will be another battle in the future. I have to include Jimmy Dean into the tasting.

Apr 27: Biscuits and Gravy in a Box

I grew up on the West Coast where biscuits and gravy was not a common breakfast item. Biscuits and gravy is typical of the South and Midwest. In fact, I didn't know such heavenly goodness existed until my senior year in college. At least, I don't remember having biscuits and gravy before hand.

In my senior year, I was part of a group that went to Cleveland to present our aircraft designs in a student conference.

Why Cleveland? The city with the river that caught on fire? The city that's known as the "mistake by the lake"?

The funding for the project was provided by NASA. Each year a different NASA facility would host the student conference. That year NASA Lewis* (in Cleveland) was the host site**.

What does this have to do with biscuits and gravy?

Well, we were in Cleveland for about a week so we ate out daily.

One restaurant near the hotel was a Bob Evans. Bob Evans serves classic American food.
That's were I experienced my first order of biscuits and gravy. The sausage gravy was creamy, savory and peppered with little bits of tasty sausage. Gravy was served over crunchy on the outside, yet tender and fluffy on the inside biscuits. That entire week I ordered biscuits and gravy every time we went to the Bob Evans.

Imagine my surprise when I was walking through the supermarket and I spied the Bob Evans name on frozen Biscuits and Gravy. I had to try it out. It was on-sale for $2.50.


There were instructions for the microwave and the oven.
The gravy was heated in the microwave and the biscuit in the oven.

Overall, the gravy was flavorful, but a little salty/msg tasting. Indicative of a processed food. I was worried that the biscuits would be little dense, hockey pucks, but they turned out well. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Also, ample amounts of gravy to coat the biscuits.

Although I know how to make gravy, I just haven't been able to create a decent batch of sausage gravy. I think it has to do with the sausage available at the local market. Even the much advertised, nationally known brand is plain and flavorless to me.

I'm still searching for a good breakfast sausage to make my own country gravy, but in a pinch and for $.250, it's not bad. One thing I'd do differently next time is not microwave the gravy the full 5 minutes. My microwave would get the job done in 4 minutes. I did notice a drop-off in flavor at 5 minutes compared to the stir I gave at 4 minutes.

Food evokes pleasant memories...
Comfort Food: food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal

Comfort Food: Food that is simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment.

*Note: NASA Lewis is now known as NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field or just NASA Glenn.

** Note: The following year, the senior class went to Florida. Although I had a great time in Cleveland, I still would have preferred going to Florida!

Corned Beef Hash

I had some leftover corned beef and roasted potatoes so I decided to make corned beef hash. When I go out for breakfast, corned beef hash or biscuits and gravy are my two must tries at a restaurant, but not at the same seating. lol :-P

The Fixins'
3/4 C roasted potatoes, coarse chop
3/4 C corned beef, coarse chop
2 T onion, coarse chop
1 T bell pepper, coarse chop
1.2 T parsley
1/4 t garlic powder
Pinch of tarragon
Pinch of thyme

Of course, being a guy I have to use every dish, pot and pan, plus pull out appliances to make this dish.

I typically just chop and fry, but this time I wanted to try a finer mince so I dumped all of the ingredients into the mini food processor and gave it a few pulses.


The ingredients after a few pulses. This looked good to me. I didn't want a mash. The mixture at this point looked a little dry, but I continued on.


Pan frying the corned beef hash in a canola oil/butter mixture, about 1 T (T = Tablespoon).
I remember watching the show, Good Eats, and Alton Brown used a weight to cook his corned beef hash recipe. I believe the weight acts to increase the contact area and help brown the hash, similar to a bacon press. I used a sauce pan filled with water as the weight. Pot #2. :-)


The hash did not flip as a pancake, but turned out crumbly. I also poached a couple eggs as a topper.

Corned beef hash topped with two poached eggs and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
I got a little distracted and didn't flip the hash sooner. The crispy bits are a little dark. :-)



The Final Dish
Corned beef hash, poached eggs served with a buttered English muffin. Instead of Hollandaise sauce, ketchup and Louisiana style hot sauce was used.


Overall, the dish had good flavor but was a little dry and crumbly. I was hoping for something a little more moist and cohesive.

Corned beef hash was originally based upon leftovers. I had some cabbage and carrots from the St. Patrick's Day meal, but didn't want that in this dish. However, those veggies would have added extra moisture to the dish. Also, the roasted potatoes I did use are drier than boiled potatoes.

Next time boiled potatoes will be used and that should increase the moistness of the dish. Also, increasing the veggies a little - onions, bell pepper, fresh garlic and parsley, will help too. Finally, a little broth can be added to increase moisture and flavor.

Final utensil count
Pot and Pan Count: 3 (Frying pan, weight pan and poached egg pot)
Appliance: Food processor
Other: Cutting board, knife, slotted spoon, spatula

Not bad for a simple breakfast. lol!

Breakfast Sandwich

When we eat out for breakfast, I generally order biscuits and gravy. My goal is to find a place with good Southern biscuits and flavorful sausage gravy. We've found some places with good biscuits and gravy, but not an outstanding "I gotta go there every week" type place.

My theory is that you need start out with good sausage. However, there's not much to choose from locally. The typical brand, Jimmy Dean, to me is kind of bland. This after many attempts to make a flavorful sausage gravy. Bacon gravy I can do. Sausage gravy has been more elusive.

I found another brand (Independent Meat Co. - Mild) while shopping so I decided to try it out. Rather than going through the effort of making biscuits and gravy, I decided to make a sandwich so I can taste the sausage first.

The fixins:
Toasted, buttered Ciabatta bread
Shredded Cheddar
Scrambled eggs
Sausage Patty
A little mustard and mayonnaise


Assembled and Cut


The sausage had a weak sausage taste.
My search continues.
I did find another brand, Farmland. Farmland is a national brand so I have high hopes about the next package.