Poach An Egg Without A Single Drop of Vinegar

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"How can you poach an egg without vinegar?" you might wondered. The idea of poaching an egg might seem difficult to most of us, whether it is the fear of getting it wrong, fear of turning it into egg drop soup, fear of unpleasant vinegar taste, fear of solidifying the yolk or simply fear of wasting an egg. In my case, it would be the first three. Let me know what do you fear the most about poaching an egg.

Poached eggs are not that hard to make, provided that you forget the traditional techniques of pouring some vinegar in a large pot of boiling water. You won't even need to invest on a $20 egg poacher. This trick is neat and foolproof, I even got it perfect the first time considering that I never poached an egg before. You might have noticed that the shape of the egg white is not oval nor smooth like the classic poached eggs. The shape looks like a Chinese steamed bun. All you need basically is a plastic wrap, a teacup, and simmering water. After reading this tutorial, you will no longer fear of making poached eggs anymore. You will get addicted of making it every breakfast.

Update March 13, 2010: This technique is definitely foolproof, check out the poached egg made by Laura Jeanne, author of A Healthy Jalapeno.

Update March 16, 2010: This technique has also been used by fellow blogger, Lena from Frozen Wings.

Preparation Time: 2 mins

Cooking Time: 4-5 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 egg

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, then turn heat down to a simmer.

2. Lay out a plastic wrap on top of a teacup or ramekin, about 5-6 inch square. Lightly rub olive oil on the plastic wrap.

3. Push gently onto the teacup and then crack the egg.

4. Pull wrap upward. Twist and tie a knot together tightly.

5. Drop egg in simmering water. Simmer for 4-5 mins or to your liking.

6. Take out poached egg with slotted spoon. Remove plastic wrap with scissors. Serve on toast. Season with salt and pepper.

Yellow Pepper and Tomato Frittata

What filling do you put in your frittata? While writing this post, I never thought of asking myself the difference between a frittata and an omelet. The difference is very small. An omelet is usually thin and ingredients are placed on top. As for frittata, the ingredients are cooked along with egg mixture. It has been more than a year since my last made frittata which is the mini prosciutto frittata. This time, leftover ingredients are used to prepare this frittata. Here, the vegetables were cooked at the same time as the egg mixture. You can also cook the vegetables first then pour in the egg mix. Personalize it to your own taste!

Serves 4-6
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 6-8 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

6 large eggs
1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 medium tomato, diced
salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Beat eggs until frothy. Season with salt and pepper.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Pour beaten eggs into skillet. Let eggs set for 2-3 mins. Add bell peppers and tomato.

3. Let the frittata set entirely. Loosen frittata from skillet and slide it onto a plate. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Have you ever tried to make your own meringue pie? I have to admit that this is my first attempt in making lemon meringue pie and surprisingly, it turns out great. The balance of sweetness and sourness is incredible, everyone should give it a try if you never made one in your life. This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite blog, Kitchen Parade. If you're busy and want to skip the "making piecrust" step, feel free to buy store-bought piecrust.

Here's a neat trick to know if your egg whites have reached stiff peaks found on Christine Cushing's cooking show (Fearless in the Kitchen). Simply invert the bowl of egg whites and hope that they would not fall on the ground. Another trick is found on the Dark Chocolate Mousse post.

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Baking Time: 15-20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 baked pie shell or 1 store-bought graham pie crust

Lemon Filling
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup water
3 tbsp butter
4 egg yolks
2 lemons, juiced and zested

Meringue
4 egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Filling: In saucepan, stir sugar, cornstarch, salt and water. Turn to medium heat, cook until it bubbles, stir often.

3. Cook for an additional 3 mins, stir constantly. Turn heat off.

4. Beat egg yolks in bowl, then add in half cup of the hot mixture, immediately whisk.

5. Whisk combined mixture to the saucepan.

6. Turn to medium heat, cook for 3 more minutes, stir constantly. Turn off heat. Add butter, zest and lemon juice.

7. Meringue: In large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add in the sugar. Beat until stiff peaks.

8. Pour filling into pie shell.

9. With a spoon, spread meringue around the perimeter. Don't cover edges. Fill the center.

10. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown. Cool and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Malaysian Steamed Cake - Ma Lai Koh (Short Version)

Did it occur to you that at some random time you are craving for a dish you haven't eaten in years? For the past years, most of my favorite Dim Sum restaurants don't serve Malaysian cakes ("Ma Lai Koh" in Chinese). One of my mother's friend loves to make Chinese pastry and I do learn a lot from her. This recipe is a "shortcut" version using Betty Crocker Cake Mix, impressively it matches the taste of what you can find in the restaurant. The "long" version uses custard powder, it might be hard to find in regular supermarket. Chances are you can find it in a Chinese supermarket.

Preparation Time : 20 mins
Steaming Time : 30-35 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 lb glutinous rice flour
1 package Betty Crocker Cake Mix (preferably lemon, any other flavours work as well)

Procedure

1. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk and water.

2. In a separate bowl, combine and sift rice flour and cake.

3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture until combined.

4. Lightly grease two 8'' baking pans. Pour batter into each of the pans.

5. Steam for 30-35 mins or until it passes the toothpick test.

Wat Dan Har Fan - Rice with Shrimp Egg Sauce

This dish was made 2 weeks ago and I was struggling to find the correct English name for this dish, but I knew the Chinese name for it. It is sometimes hard to find the right terminology. My Taiwanese friend called it "Asian Risotto" and a few food bloggers called it "Jade Rice". I can't figure out why these names should be valid as it doesn't have the texture of a risotto and "jade" might be just a fancy name for such a great dish. Finally, a recent post from Soup Belly made a version of our dish and the name "Egg Sauce" seems to be the most appropriate. My version contains shrimps, tomatoes with wine reduction.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp, deveined, mix with a dash of rice wine
1/2 small onion, diced
2 garlic, minced
1 small ginger, fine julienned
1 large tomato, skinned and cubed
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup rice wine or white wine
1 tsp cornstarch

Procedure

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add in garlic and ginger until fragrant.

2. Add tomatoes and wine. Boil and simmer for 15 mins.

3. Add in shrimp and cook for 3-5 mins until it starts turning orange. Season with salt.

4. Make slurry with cornstarch and 1 tbsp water then pour it onto skillet.

5. Turn heat to medium. Once boil, turn off and stir in egg until cooked, about 30 seconds.

6. Pour sauce over rice. Serve.

Cooking Technique : Skinning Tomatoes

For newbies, here is an interesting way to remove the skin of a tomato.

First, start boiling water over medium heat and gently drop the tomato.

In less than a minute, the skin starts to detach. Remove with a slotted spoon and remove skin by hand.

Cheesy Broccoflower Scrambled Eggs

This is the second brunch, we have organized up to now and sadly, we were only 3 on a Sunday morning. The funniest thing is both my friends, David and Mon decided to make scrambled eggs, but Mon wanted to make so badly her special scrambled eggs. So, at the end, she was the one making the scrambled eggs.

Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 5 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cauliflower
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Cook broccoli and cauliflower in a boiling pot of salted water until soft, about 5 mins.

2. Meanwhile, beat eggs with milk.

3. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onion until transparent. Add broccoli and cauliflower.

4. Pour egg mix into the skillet and cook for about 1 min. Add mozzarella cheese and cook until melted. Season and serve.

Hong Kong Egg Tarts - Dan Tat

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in fulfilling your new year resolution. May the biggest slice of happiness fill your heart and home. I am looking forward to all the food adventures awaiting in 2010.

Ever wonder about the dessert on the header page of this blog. This is my favorite childhood dessert. Each time we go to a bakery in Chinatown, this is always the first dessert that I choose. Now that I know how to make a pie dough, I have my family version of making egg tarts.

I usually make egg tarts only in very special occasion. My friends can basically taste it once every year. They often bug me to make it, but I always say "when the time comes, I will make it". Now, this is the time of the year where my family and friends come to Montreal and celebrate Christmas and New Year. The first batch was made during the family reunion and I baked about 3 dozen egg tarts. At the end of the day, they were all gone and they all loved it. I wanted to save some for my collective cooking buddies since some of their birthday occurs during the holidays. So today, I made a second batch of egg tarts. Hopefully, they won't be all gone tomorrow.

Makes about 24 egg tarts
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Baking Time : 15-20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Pie dough or puff pastry
1 cup white sugar
1 3/4 cup water
9 large eggs
1 cup canned evaporated milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure

1. Prepare 24 3-inch tart moulds. Shape pie dough by pressing it onto the moulds. Make sure that it goes higher than the edges.

2. Preheat oven to 450F.

3. In a small saucepan, mix water and white sugar over medium-high heat. Stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar water, evaporated milk and vanilla extract until uniform.

5. Fill tart shells to 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown and filling is lightly puffed up.

Coconut Flan

Applying for large scholarships is a long and tiring process, making sure that every moment of your academic life is in your application and then compress every information in two pages. Finally, proofread it by friends and colleagues. It is a busy week until October 1st, the deadline.

I have organized a free-for-all collective cooking last Friday, and sent at least 20 invitations among colleagues, it ended up to be only 4 people. At first, I thought it will be a disaster, at least my French colleague came to the rescue when his Friday's event was cancelled. Here is one of his frequent dessert...coconut flan, a simple 4 ingredient recipe. This can be served warm or cold. The tricky part is to caramelize the sugar, here is a hopeful video.

Preparation Time : 5 mins + cooling
Cooking Time :  5-10 mins
Baking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 can coconut milk (400 mL)
300 mL whole milk
1/3 cup white sugar for caramelization
1/2 cup white sugar for batter

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Caramelize the sugar in a medium saucepan or directly on a 9'' Pyrex cake mould over medium-low heat. Once melted,  pour immediately the caramel to the cake mould.

3. Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk, coconut milk and sugar until dissolved.

4. Pour batter on top of the caramel.

5. Bake for 20 mins or until golden. Serve warm or cold.

Quiche Lorraine 2

We have invited a French collegue to our collective cooking. He was assigned to work on the main dish and he made Quiche Lorraine. I made my version of Quiche Lorraine in January. Here is his version.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : about 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 pâte brisée
150 mL crème fraîche
150 mL whole milk
ham
1 small onion, chopped
3 large mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp nutmeg
grated mozzerella
salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat oven at 400F.

2. Cook onion over medium-high heat until transparent.

3. Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Blend in crème fraîche and milk. Add ham, onion, mushrooms, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

4. Lay pastry dough on a baking dish or a 8-inch tart pan. With fork, prick dough all over.


5. Pour batter and top with grated cheese.

6. Bake for 20-30 mins or until golden.

Corn and Crab Meat Soup - Asian Cuisine Pt. 1

On this Friday cooking, I took it more relaxed and let my Taiwanese friend do the cooking. I redid Summer Berry Medley, excellent after a series of spicy dishes. This dessert is a real reliever. As some of you voted to see more Asian food on this blog, here is a series of 4 quick and easy Asian dishes. The first of four dishes is the corn and crab meat soup. This shortcut soup can be found in many Chinese menus. If you have fresh crab meat, go for it!

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 8 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

250g crab meat
2 284mL can creamed sweet corn
2 cups chicken stock
2 eggs, scrambled
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp coriander (optional)

Procedure

1. In a medium soup pot, combine stock and sweet corn over high heat until boiling.

2. Add crab meat and turn to medium heat. Let it cook for 8 mins.

3. Remove from heat. Add eggs and stir into pot to form ribbons. Add salt and pepper to taste, and top with coriander. Serve.

Mini Prosciutto Frittatas

This week is another Friday's collective cooking. Collective cooking is popular in Montreal. Basically, you and your group of friends decide where to cook, then go to a supermarket and buy all the ingredients needed. Once done, cook your great dishes and eat as a group. It is fun, entertaining and money-saving. To make it more entertaining, decide on a theme like this day you can only cook Korean food or shrimp must be the main ingredient for all the dishes.

Each week, my friends and I were able to invite new people for this event. Since we are still students, a large number can't cook, either eating frozen food or sandwiches everyday. It is easy to find new people to join our group. This week, I was assigned for preparing appetizer and desserts. I came across this recipe by Giada de Laurentiis. I modified some major ingredients as some don't like ham and parmesan, I susbtituted for prosciutto and mozzarela.

Makes about 18 frittatas
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 10 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

8 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
5-6 strips of prosciutto, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup mozzarella
2-3 tbsp fresh parsley

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 375F

2. Lightly oil the muffin pan. Whisk eggs, milk, pepper and salt.


3. Mix in the prosciutto, mozzarella and parsley

4. If you use a 12-cup muffin tin, fill it half-way. Otherwise, for the 24-cup muffin pan, fill it to the top.

5. Bake until egg mix puffs, about 10 mins. Cool for 5 mins.

Basic Quiche

Here is a simple quiche recipe with pâte brisée. I use ham leftover, but you can use anything else.

Serves 4
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Baking Time : 45 minutes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Ham, enough to cover half of a 9-inch circular baking pan
Small onion
4 eggs
300 mL 15% cream or milk
Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. In a frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and stir until transparent.

2. Flatten the dough slightly on lightly floured surface and dust the dough lightly before rolling it out. Start rolling at the center of the dough and work outwards.

3. Working quickly, roll the dough into a circle ¼-inch thick or smaller. The size of the dough round should be about four inches wider in diameter than your pie pan.


4. Oil lightly baking pan and transfer dough onto it. Without stretching the dough, press the pastry firmly into the pan and trim any excess dough from the edge. With fork, prick dough all over and leave it in the fridge.


5. Meanwhile, beat eggs, milk and season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 375F.
6. Place ham and onion on top of the dough and pour egg mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden.