Playing with my food

For this week's cooking antics, I made brunch for two of my close friends yesterday. I played around with a few ideas I've had in my head. These ideas were mostly about presentation and juxtaposing textures. So, what I made wasn't anything that I hadn't tasted before, just maybe not seen. Then I played around with the photos a little--adding text and a few effects--just for fun!

For the first course, we basically had oatmeal w/ bananas and walnuts. the night before, I cooked some steel cut oats with chopped walnuts and spices and spread it out in a jelly roll pan to set in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I cooked sliced bananas in the same spices and a little orange juice and brandy. As my guest arrived, I sliced the oatmeal into squares and pan fried them in a little clarified butter. The outsides got mostly golden and crispy which was a nice contrast between the soft oats inside and bananas on top. Not too bad.

Butter crisped oats with banana sauce...photo by Kristin

The second course came about from a mish mash of ideas and I don't even know if I can trace the origins. Earlier in the morning, I cut some potatoes in half and hollowed them out into cups. Then I roasted the cups and the insides(which I had chopped into a small dice) until they were golden and crispy. Mean while I slow cooked a diced onion and mushroom hash in butter and brandy with a little rosemary and bacon. When the potatoes finished roasting, I mixed the diced potatoes into the hash. All of these things I held to keep warm until we were done with the first course.

To finish the dish, I cracked one egg into each of the cups and baked them in the oven until the eggs were just set. Then I served them on top of the hash. Yum, yum, yum.

Baked egg potato cups over onion, mushroom, bacon hash...photo by L.

Soft focus effect Frankie at brunch...photo by L.

Some ideas...

I almost forgot that my aunt asked me for suggestions on what to do with chorizo, until I spotted this at the store the other day.

Spanish chorizo named Texas, made in California, and purchased and consumed in Washington...photo by Kristin
This is chorizo that's not in a casing, so it's nice to cook up and use a sprinkling of it to flavor things. I used a little this past weekend for our "eggs and toast". That's what we call "should i make something here" as opposed to going out for brunch. I started with really just an ounce or so of the chorizo and saved the rest in the freezer. I may have been a little more heavy handed with it, but we had plans for a 4th of July BBQ that I knew would be a lot of food, so I used the sausage as more of a flavoring. Anyway, I cooked the sausage through and removed it from the pan to some paper towels. With what was left in the pan, I sauteed some chopped onion and, to up the veggie quotient a little, two hand fulls of coleslaw mix(cabbage x2 and carrots). You could use bell peppers or leftover potatoes(roasted, mashed...) or really any veggie, or none at all. I then added 6 eggs whisked with a little half and half, salt and pepper and the cooked chorizo. At this point you can make a scramble by stirring everything around until the eggs are cooked through, or you can make more of a fritatta and let it set up and finish off the top under the broiler for a few minutes until cooked through. I garnished it with cheddar cheese rather than put it in the scramble/fritatta. That way, using just a little looks like more to have it all melty on top.(Again, trying to keep it a little lighter here). Cilantro, sour cream, and salsa all would be good garnishes too.

Chorizo egg scramble with corn tortillas...photo by Kristin
With a side of warm corn tortillas, this would be great for brunch or dinner.

I looked in a few of my cookbooks for other recipes for my aunt and the common thread was potatoes. Mix chorizo in mashed potatoes, top a baked potato with it, make a hash with chorizo and hash browns and top it with an egg. Use an apple corer to hollow out new potatoes, stuff the tunnel with chorizo and roast them in the oven. All of these would work with chorizo in the casing as well. Just dice it up!