Sunday Nite Dinner » eggs

Egg, Mint and Cucumber Canapés

Chuck — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:30:09 +0000

I want to congratulate my friends, Micky and Lawrence, on the birth of their second child, a beautiful baby boy, named Kian. Micky is a great cook and we always look forward to her meals. One of her unique creations is this egg, mint and cucumber canapé. She often makes it for her infamous Christmas party spreads.

The canapés are tasty and super simple to make. They only require cutting up an omelette and slicing a cucumber. Top them with a piece of mint and a splash of hot sauce and voilà. They are light and easy to eat during a party.

I'm keeping it short today, because we just launched Food Gawker. TasteSpotting suddenly shut down this past Friday. There is speculation that it will return, but until then we created a TasteSpotting clone to satisfy people's need to gawk at beautiful food each day. So check out Food Gawker to see great pictures and discover new food bloggers!

Egg, Mint and Cucumber Canapé Recipe

SND Note: Hot sauce or chili garlic sauce are completely optional. I like everything spicy, but the hot sauce may overpower the subtle flavors of the cucumber and egg.

Ingredients

1 English cucumber
5 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small bunch of fresh mint leaves, washed and dried
Favorite hot sauce or chili garlic sauce (optional)

Directions

Cut English cucumber into 1/4 inch slices. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, salt and pepper. In a 10 inch non-stick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the eggs and make a flat omelette; flip when the bottom is set, but don't over brown. Remove when done and set on cutting board.
Cut the eggs into 1 inch squares and place on top of cucumber slices. Salt and pepper to taste and garnish with a piece of mint. Drizzle your favorite hot sauce onto each canapé and serve.

Makes 8-10 servings when served with other hors d'oeuvres

Tags: canape, cucumber, easy, eggs, mint

Easy Vegetarian Fried Rice

Chuck — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:14:27 +0000

One day last week, our fridge was practically empty. The only things we had were eggs and leftover rice. Hungry Bear wanted to use the rice and whipped together a vegetarian fried rice using canned wheat gluten and snow cabbage & bamboo shoots.

We had no intention of posting about this fried rice because it was just dumping two cans of stuff onto rice. But it was so good, I asked Hungry Bear to make it again the next day so we could document it for SND and enjoy it again. You could say this is the fried rice equivalent of dump cake.

The key to this fried rice was the Companion brand canned goods. Companion is a Taiwanese company that provides Chinese-styled vegetarian products with no preservatives or artificial coloring. I love the braised wheat gluten and could eat it every day, if it weren't so high in fat.

Anyway, the fried rice was super easy to make. The canned goods had enough flavor that no soy sauce was required. And there was only a little salt to season the eggs. There's not much else to say about this vegetarian fried rice, except it's deliciously simple!

Easy Vegetarian Fried Rice Recipe

SND Note: We use a combination of eggs and egg whites to be a little healthier. You can use 4 whole eggs instead. You can find many different vegetarian canned goods at any Asian market; substitute with your favorites.

Ingredients

3 large eggs
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups uncooked rice (6 cups cooked)
1 can (10 ounces) snow cabbage and bamboo shoots, drained
1 can (10 ounces) braised wheat gluten (seitan), drained and rinsed

Directions

Beat together eggs, egg whites and salt.
In a wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the egg mixture; lightly scramble until partially set, but still wet. Add rice and mix to coat with eggs. Add cabbage and bamboo shoots and gluten; stir-fry until heated through. That's it, enjoy.

Makes 4 servings

Tags: bamboo, cabbage, chinese, easy, eggs, fried rice, rice, vegetarian, wheat gluten

Vietnamese Steak and Watercress Salad

Chuck — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:06:22 +0000

I'm not sure how traditional this salad is, but I grew up eating this Vietnamese steak and watercress salad. It's a colorful salad with tomatoes and eggs, but the star of the dish is the stir-fried beef and onions. It's a great combination of savory and sweet.

The marinade for the beef is commonly used in Viet stir-fries. It's just a simple mix of fish sauce, soy, sugar and black pepper. As a kid, my mom would lightly dress the watercress in a vinaigrette. This time, we dribbled a little nuoc cham (Viet dipping sauce) over it. It's good either way.

The salad is delicious on its own, but we like to eat it with jasmine rice. Give it a try the next time you want a salad as a meal.

Vietnamese Steak and Watercress Salad Recipe

SND Note: The watercress can be lightly dressed with your favorite vinaigrette or Vietnamese dipping sauce. For some heat, add a fresh chili pepper or chili garlic sauce to the marinade.

Beef Marinade Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

Salad Ingredients

1 pound flank steak, skirt steak or sirloin
1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
2 bundles of watercress
6 large eggs, medium or hard boiled, quartered or sliced
8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes
Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham) or vinaigrette

Directions

Trim excess fat and gristle from steak and thinly slice against the grain. In a medium bowl, mix together the fish sauce, soy sauce, corn starch, sugar, black pepper and garlic. Add the beef and toss to evenly coat with marinade.
Trim the stems of the watercress, wash and dry. Set aside.
Heat canola oil in a wok over high heat. Add the onions and stir-fry until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the beef and stir-fry until just browned, but still medium rare, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from wok and set aside.
In a large bowl, lightly dress the watercress with a vinaigrette or Vietnamese dipping sauce. Arrange the watercress on a plate and top with beef, onions, tomatoes and eggs. Enjoy as is or serve with a bowl of jasmine rice (optional).

Makes 4 servings

Tags: easy, eggs, flank steak, onions, skirt steak, tomatoes, vietnamese

Fried Eggs and Shrimp (Trung Chien Tom)

Chuck — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:33:21 +0000

Sometimes the simplest food is the best food. It doesn't get any easier than fried eggs and shrimp (trung chien tom). Throughout my childhood, my mom made this dish, serving it with steamed rice. It was so simple, yet so satisfying.

This past Sunday night, I made fried eggs and shrimp for the SNDsters and Hungry Bear baked a carrot cake. We'll share the carrot cake recipe next time. In my family, we served trung chien tom on a bed of greens and tomatoes. Then we dunked it all in Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham) and ate it with jasmine rice. I'm not sure how normal it is to eat it this way, but it's ingrained in me and I'm sticking with it. Does anyone else eat it like this?

The meal has a nice combination of sweet, salty and slightly bitter from the watercress. The greens and tomatoes cut down the richness and makes it a little healthier. Fried eggs and shrimp is such a comforting Vietnamese dish for me. It's super easy to make and is absolutely delicious!

Fried Eggs and Shrimp Recipe (Trung Chien Tom)

SND Note: Don't worry if the eggs run together and overlap in the skillet. Just separate the shrimp and surrounding egg with a spatula before flipping. Since the fried eggs and shrimp is served with nuoc cham, the egg mixture is only lightly seasoned with soy sauce and black pepper.

Ingredients

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 green onion, chopped
1 bunch of watercress or 1 head of lettuce, washed and dried
8 ounces tomatoes, sliced
Canola oil
Nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce)

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk eggs, soy sauce and pepper together. Mix in red onion, green onion and shrimp.
In a large nonstick skillet, add enough oil to thinly coat the surface and heat over medium heat. Ladle 1-2 tablespoons egg mixture into skillet, making sure to include a shrimp and some onions in the ladle. Repeat process to fill skillet. Fry for 1-2 minutes and flip when the eggs are lightly browned. If the eggs run together, separate them by cutting the egg with a wooden spoon or spatula, and flip each shrimp with surrounding egg. Cook for another 1-1 1/2 minutes until the shrimp is done. Transfer to a plate with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Between batches, add more oil to the skillet if necessary.
Serve the fried eggs and shrimp on a bed of watercress/lettuce and tomatoes. Dip the fried eggs and shrimp into nuoc cham and eat with a bowl of rice.

Makes 4 servings when eaten with rice

SNDsters: Jane, Mark, Hungry Bear, Chuck

Tags: easy, eggs, fried, nuoc cham, red onions, shrimp, tomatoes, vietnamese, watercress

Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Broccoli

Chuck — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:16:03 +0000

If you had to choose one dish to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? As someone who enjoys a good smorgasbord and wants it all, I have a difficult time answering this question. Without hesitation, Hungry Bear's choice is fried rice, because it's a flavorful, balanced meal. And she can't survive without rice.

The beauty of fried rice is the endless variations that can be made from leftovers or random ingredients in the fridge. In my head, I have a basic shrimp fried rice recipe my mom taught me, but I can't recall the last time I made it. Instead, each time we make fried rice, it's a unique, never to be made again creation, because the combination of leftovers/ingredients is never the same.

Leftover sauces are my favorite things to add to fried rice, for example, Thai green curry. Every time we make green curry, we end up with a cup or two of sauce in the bottom of the pot. If you take the curry sauce, add some rice, any leftover meat, sweet petite peas and bamboo shoots, all of sudden you'll have an amazing green curry fried rice. Other times, we make fried rice by just dumping leftover Asian takeout into a wok.

The recipe below is a fried rice Hungry Bear whipped together with some Chinese broccoli, Chinese sausage and Shiitake mushrooms we had in the fridge. The broccoli was leftover from making beef chow fun. Hungry Bear used minimal oil and sodium in the recipe, since there's plenty of it in the Chinese sausage. It was simple and delicious. Could you eat fried rice for the rest of your life?

Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Broccoli Recipe

SND Note: Most people recommend using day old rice, to avoid having mushy fried rice. Despite this, we use freshly cooked rice regularly in our fried rice and haven't had issues with it. Hungry Bear prefers a softer fried rice anyway. If you like a drier fried rice, the eggs can be prepared by completely scrambling them, set aside and added to the rice with the broccoli, sausage and mushrooms.

Ingredients

3-4 Chinese sausages, thinly sliced
1 pound Chinese broccoli
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
5-6 eggs, whisked
4 cups cooked rice, cooled
2 tablespoons soy sauce, plus extra to taste
Salt to taste

Directions

Cut the broccoli stalks in half lengthwise if more than 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the stalks and leaves into 1/2 inch-long pieces, keeping the stalks separate from the leaves.
Over high heat, stir-fry the Chinese sausage until cooked through and fat is rendered, about 1 minute. Transfer to bowl and set aside. Reserve one tablespoon of sausage fat in the wok for the broccoli.
Stir-fry the broccoli stalks for 30 seconds. Add the leaves, lightly salt to taste and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes until the stalks are bright green and the leaves are limp. Transfer to bowl and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon oil and stir-fry the Shiitake mushrooms until soft, about 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt to taste and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoon oil in wok over high heat. Add the eggs and scramble for 30 seconds. The eggs should still be runny. Add the rice and mix the eggs evenly into the rice. Stir-fry until eggs are fully cooked and the rice gets dry, about 2-3 minutes. Add the broccoli, sausage, mushrooms and soy sauce and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes to heat through. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve.

Makes 6 servings

Other Fried Rice Recipes

Fried Rice Yang Chow-Style by Wandering Chopsticks
Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Vegetables by Nook & Pantry
Curry Chicken Fried Rice by CanaryGirl

Tags: broccoli, chinese, eggs, fried rice, lop chong, mushrooms, sausage, shiitakes, stir fry

Egg, Pepper Jack & Avocado Breakfast Sammy

Chuck — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 04:27:52 +0000

I'm a big fan of breakfast sandwiches. My favorite breakfast sammy only takes five minutes to make. The sandwich consists of whole wheat bread, scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese and avocado.

Last week at the Serramonte Farmers' Market, we picked up a hearty whole wheat bread with sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds. It's called Dakota bread and is made by the Great Harvest Bread Co. franchise in Oakland. The Dakota bread has a great texture from all the seeds and makes a great base for sandwiches. Any type of bread will do, but fresh bread from a local baker makes the breakfast sammy even better.

It doesn't get any better than toasted bread, melted pepper jack cheese, scrambled eggs and a ripe avocado... simply scrumptious. A little sprinkle of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper over the avocado enhances its flavor even more. There's also a great contrast of textures between the crunchy bread, melted cheese, fluffy eggs and creamy avocado. Since I love spicy food, I top my eggs with a few shakes of a good hot sauce. One of my favorite hot sauces is Crystal Extra Hot hot sauce.

I love this breakfast sandwich because it's super easy to make and a delicious way to start any day.

Tags: avocado, Breakfast, cheese, eggs, hot sauce, sammy, sandwich, toast