Posted on 07/01/2015 4:09:24 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Eggs!
I enjoy a cheese souffle, but I don't always enjoy the work of it. This 'Sturdy Souffle' is adapted from the 1979 edition of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, and cuts down on the work - no separating or separate beating of eggs. It won't rise as high and light, but doesn't fall as flat as a 'regular' souffle.
Sturdy Souffle
4 T. butter (and some to grease the dish)
1/4 cup flour
1 cup hot milk
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (plus more to sprinkle the baking dish; or just MORE in general)
4 eggs, beaten well
Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a 3-cup or 1-qt. ovenproof bowl or baking dish. Sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese around the bowl, as if flouring a cake pan. Place it in the oven in a pan containing 1 inch of hot water (I don't always follow this step, and just bake it without the water bath.)
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour and blend until smooth. Cook over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly add the milk and cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, until smooth and thick (a wire whisk is good for this).
Add the salt, cayenne, and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and blended into the sauce. Remove from the heat.
Beat 3 T. of the sauce into the eggs, then return the egg-sauce mixture to the saucepan, and beat until smooth. Pour into the baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes, until set.
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Next, a "Chile Relleno" style casserole. There are many versions of this, some with whole stuffed chiles and some that include meat. This is a quick, easy one. It serves 12, but I've halved it in the past with no problem. (This is also a great very low-carb egg dish.)
Chile Relleno Casserole
6 4-oz. cans green chiles
1-1/2 lb. Cheddar cheese, grated
1-1/2 lb. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
6 eggs, beaten
1-1/4 cups evaporated milk (I use light whipping cream instead)
1/4 cup flour
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350. Drain and clean the chiles, and place in the bottom of a large buttered casserole.
Sprinkle the chiles with 1/2 of each cheese, and then top with another layer of chiles, and then the rest of the cheeses.
Mix the eggs with the milk or cream and salt, and pour over the top of the chile-cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until the eggs are set and casserole is slightly browned.
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I've only ever eaten one thing at our local Silver Diner; not because I haven't gone there frequently, but because I tend to find one thing I really like at a place like that, and never order anything else. The 'thing' at Silver Diner is the Crabcake Benedict. It seems to have disappeared from the menu, but when I ask for it, they always make it for me.
I found this recipe that looks very like what the Silver Diner serves. If you have a good crabcake recipe, make your own; but if you want them ready-made, the Phillips frozen crab cakes are pretty good - but as mentioned in the comments, it needs the addition of tomato slices.
(I hope in the future to do a thread on traditional Maryland recipes, but I will have to master the Crab Cake, first - which is embarrassing for a lifelong Marylander to admit ;-) If anyone has a favorite recipe, please post.
From the 'Mr. Breakfast' website, which is pretty neat:
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=1235
-JT
It’s funny that we’ve gone from bird eggs to fish eggs ;-)
-JT
:)
My husband loves anchovies.
They’re so different, yet both are delicious.
It’s always been striking to me, that a plain old chicken’s egg tastes completely different depending on how you cook it.
Scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, poached - they all taste different!
-JT
a virgin sturgeon needs no urgin
a virgin sturgeon is a mighty fine fish
a virgin sturgeon needs no urgin
that’s why caviar is my dish...
My fil used to sing to my children when they were babies.
He had a deep singing and calmed my kids down.lol
I love eggs. :)
A Texas friend cuts and deseeds Jalapenos and fills them with a 50/50 mix of cream cheese dusted with garlic powder and a sage sausage, cheddar cheese and bisquick blend.
Dipped in egg wash and bread crumbs he bakes or grills them.
He calls them Rattle Snake eggs.
You are so right about how the method of preparation changes the taste of the egg!
I recently made a happy discovery: my son with a chicken egg allergy can eat duck eggs. Yay! And they taste just like chicken eggs. He is one happy little boy.
Can’t wait to try a pavlova using duck egg whites-he has been missing out!
LOL!
Nice memory.
-JT
It’s good to know that they taste the same. I can get duck eggs at our little ethnic store, too; but have never tried them. I wonder what people would say, if I took a tray of deviled duck eggs to the office party ;-)
-JT
I’m saving that. It’s a little ‘Chile Relleno’.
-JT
I love eggs, they are my fave food.
As to crab cakes, I once took the Amtrak to New Orleans from NJ and went the full ride with the sleeper and all the meals. The food was quite good all around, but the lunch they served travelling south on the first leg of the journey was really one of the best meals I’ve ever had, one of the very few I remember.
It was crab cakes (they try to do regional food, and of course we were passing through MD) and fried green tomatoes. Just excellent.
Rather a light meal, so it was perfect for me and it was lunch, but a hungry man (or woman, hey I’m no sexist!) might find it a tad skimpy. The crab cakes were small and very loosely formed, kind of like a nice latke and they just went so well with the fried green tomatoes, which I’ve never had any other time.
I’ve had crab cakes a few times since then, but never 1/2 as good. I hate when they are like huge hamburgers!
Some day I’m going to try and make them.
“Now I have to go to the market.”
LOL, that is funny with your screen name!
Then I crack them on the counter by the wastebasket and the peel usually slips right off. Once in awhile it doesn't and I hate that. Then I rinse under cold water to make sure I got the little pieces of peel.
If I have made extra to just eat, I put in the fridge and they keep for several days. I just learned the cooking tip from the internet. The yolks are never green from overcooking and/or not cooling fast enough.
The other way is to carefully swirl as they boil for 10 to 12 minutes with a wooden spoon to keep the yolk dead center to make beautiful deviled eggs without that skinny side.
I have a home made angel food cake in the oven, and if it turns out, I might be back. I accidentally thawed some whites I'd saved thinking it was cool whip and didn't want to waste them. I had exactly 1-1/2 cups of whites (from using lots of yolks for other things). Just checked at the 15-min mark, looks pretty good so far.
Yesterday I made some glorified rice or pink fluff my mom used to make in the 50's with slight changes I found on the web. It's so pink and pretty from maraschino cherry juice. My daughter loves it.
Just make sure to grease the dish very well, and scramble the egg first.
But when I'm not in a hurry, I like fried eggs with bits of crispy bacon sprinkled in as it cooks. Or popovers, which are really more egg than bread.
My favorite thickener for pie fillings or fruit sauces is eggs and a little flour. It makes the fruit taste richer, where cornstarch dulls the flavor. The exact proportions depend on the fruit and how thick you want it, but as an example:
Pina-colada sauce:
1 20oz can crushed pineapple
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
(adjust sugars to taste)
1 egg
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1 tablespoon butter
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, mix all ingredients except the extract and the butter. Make sure the egg is thoroughly mixed in! Heat on low, stirring constantly, until it just reaches a rolling boil. Remove from heat, stir until it stops bubbling, and add final ingredients.
This sauce goes great on yogurt, cake, ice cream, you name it! If you want it thicker, double the amount of egg and flour.
I'm still working out the exact proportions for other fruits. I had a strawberry pie that came out soupy because I didn't use enough egg thickener. On the other hand, my mulberry cream pie came out perfect! It tasted a bit like a pudding pie, but was 100% homemade.
I read several times that to get perfect hard-boiled eggs, try baking them instead of boiling. This dries out the membrane under the shell and keeps it from sticking. Use a muffin tin to hold the eggs in place.
I’m told this even works on fresh-laid eggs.
Steam the eggs covered for 13 minutes then move the pot to the sink where you run cold water over them for about three minutes.
Crack the eggs by rolling on counter and then begin peeling at the air pocket.
Perfect eggs with creamy yellow yokes and tender whites.
There are lots of arguments about crabcakes in MD - for instance, saltines or breadcrumbs? I once went to Baltimore with a lady who lived on the Bay Hundred, a stone’s throw from Tilghman; she tasted a crabcake at the Phillips Restaurant at the Harbor, and immediately said, “These have mayonnaise in them!” - which caused me to think that mayo isn’t universal down on the Shore.
I’ve often found that the circumstances under which I’ve had a meal are what made it special; the same food somewhere else might not be so special...
I haven’t taken a train trip since I was too young to remember it now. But I’d love to take one where they feed you in a dining car :-)
The Dover Harbor is a train line that can be chartered by organizations or individuals; I’ve always wanted to do the Washington, DC to Williamsburg trip:
http://www.doverharbor.com/cost.htm
-JT
I’ve read that if you lay the carton of eggs on it’s side for 24 hours before boiling, the yolks will center.
-JT
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