eggs | culinarystorm

Posts Tagged ‘eggs’

Wild Honey, Mandarin Gallery, Singapore

Posted in breakfast, friends, Review, Uncategorized, tagged breakfast, brunch, eggs, Hollandaise, Singapore on January 28, 2014| 9 Comments »

Happy new year my darlings!

Culinarystorm says sorry for the slow posts these past few weeks.

There’s been a solid reason for it though – I’ve moved to Singapore!

I’m starting a new job here and it’s been quite the challenge – moving to a new country, doing interesting work I’ve not done before, and making new friends.

But the very best part is being in a place that’s full of fantastic food 🙂

Last weekend, some friends took me to brunch to place called Wild Honey. The bright and colourful decor, large chalkboard menu, and array of food and beverage choices will make you forget all about the 45 minute wait to get in.

Wild Honey has 2 locations in Singapore, but the one I went to was in the super pish-poshy mall, Mandarin Gallery, that’s full of designer clothes and art and a rather adorable dessert shop called Antoinette where the macarons are not bad.

I’m a sucker for the chalkboard menus at Wild Honey.

If you think eggs are magic (like me), then you must try this place. They specialise in all-day breakfasts from around the world, so you could choose from Tunisian or Spanish, Norwegian or Aussie, English or Mexican, and many more!

I bullied everyone at my table into ordering different things so I could try a little of everything.

Here’s a look at what we stuffed our faces with.

Spanish Hash- A plateful of uniformly cut cubes of spicy chorizo, corned beef, and crispy potato, topped with poached eggs doused in Hollandaise Sauce and served with giant brioche slices.

Norwegian- This delightful plate comes with creamy avocado pieces nestled in a bed of whole wheat brioche, covered with grilled asparagus, and then poached eggs that have been wrapped like a dream in Norwegian smoked salmon.

This is what happens when you cut into it.

If you’re drooling all over your keyboard, call me. We’re soulmates.

Portobello Road- A pile of baked portobello mushroom, spinach, red pepper confit and poached eggs drizzled with lemon Hollandaise on brioche.

Sweet mornings- This is what French toast should look like. Thick, golden-brown caramelized brioche. The bread was stuffed with sweet mango. YUM. And the dish also came with maple syrup, vanilla mascarpone, and a bright red berry compote. YUM YUM YUM.

I also tried the Wild honey iced tea which was, well, interesting, but too “herby” for my liking.

The Latte was clearly pretty decent, because my friend drank two. Also, so pretty!

There is also an assortment of fresh juices on offer – a breakfast necessity, no? And aren’t the straws adorable? 🙂

Try Wild Honey if you enjoy international all-day breakfasts, eggs, and oh ya, Hollandaise sauce.

To kick off my first post for 2014, let’s do a poll! It’s been ages right?! I know!

I love you guys! Hoping this will be a brilliant year for us all! Hugs!

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Heston’s Edible Garden – The Ultimate Party Dish

Posted in friends, savoury, snack type things, tagged appetizer, eggs, party, vegetables on December 28, 2013| 1 Comment »

Can you believe how quickly 2013 has whizzed past us?

Just a few more days before we say goodbye to this year and look forward to a whole new 2014 🙂

For me this year has been quite a mixed bag – some really wonderful and incredible things have happened, along with some not-so-great experiences.

Either way, all experiences teach us things, and just for that, a celebration is always in order before the year ends.

And what better way to end the year than with a show-stopping party dish like this one?

If you’re anything like me, you need vegetables to look and taste their absolute best before they are allowed to enter your mouth.

This is a dish that does just that.

It is a garden of colourful, delicious veggies, on a bed of creamy egg-mayo mix, topped with black olive “soil” and rocket leaf “grass”.

Intrigued yet?

What you’ll love about this dish is that you can totally personalise it, adding only vegetables you like. There are no rules – you can “plant” your garden however you want, so go completely crazy!

Here’s a look at my prep table.

How about a closer look?

Blanched bright asparagus.

A handful of lettuce (I used a mix of purple and green).

Broccoli floret “trees”.

Gorgeous red cherry tomatoes.

Pan-fried, golden brussel sprouts.

Stir-fried button mushrooms.

A bed of boiled egg and mayonnaise mixture.

Chopped up rocket leaves for grass.

And dehydrated black olives for dark, rocky soil.

Let’s see how we put these wonderful things together now, shall we?

Heston Blumenthal’s Edible Garden
Adapted from: www.theguardian.com

Prep time: 30 mins, plus dehydrating time
Serves: 10 as an appetizer (makes 1 tray)

Ingredients:

400 g black olives in brine, drained and finely chopped
large handful rocket leaves
salt and pepper to taste
15-20 asparagus stalks
handful of lettuce (purple and green)
1 small head of broccoli, chopped into florets
10-15 cherry tomatoes
2 tsp olive oil
10-12 brussel sprouts, cut in halves
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
10-15 button mushrooms
10 hard boiled eggs
150 g mayonnaise

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 110º C. Line a baking tray with parchment, scatter the chopped olives on it in an even layer and dehydrate in the oven for upto 4 hours or until quite dry, stirring through the tray every hour. Dehydrate and then finely chop the rocket leaves in the same way, although the leaves won’t take more than an hour.
2. Chop off the hard ends of the asparagus stalks and blanch in salted water. Set aside.
3. Rinse the lettuce leaves in ice cold water, drain, and set aside.
4. Blanch the broccoli florets in salted water and set aside. Wash the tomatoes, drain, and set aside.
5. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan and fry the brussel sprouts (cut-side down) with salt and pepper to taste. Once golden and caramelised, add about half a cup of water, stirring over a medium flame until the brussel sprouts are tender. Remove and set aside.
6. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan and add the garlic. Throw in the mushrooms, season, and stir-fry until brown and cooked through.
7. Peel off the shells and mash the hard-boiled eggs with the mayonnaise to as fine a paste as possible. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if you like.
8. Spoon the egg-mayo mixture into a round or rectangular metal baking dish with raised edges and even out the surface. You could actually use any type of dish you like, but a metal or clay dish looks the best since it’s supposed to replicate a mini garden. Now use your judgement to scatter over the olive soil and rocket grass as you see fit. Then “plant” the vegetables, arranging them as you like, symmetrically or asymmetrically, by pushing them down gently into the egg-mayo base. Serve with a large spoon onto smaller plates, or let your guests pick up little vegetables and snack as they please.

I can promise you this will be the talking point of your evening. Make it and watch your friends gush over it 🙂

Have a wonderful wonderful New Year! I hope 2014 is a blessed and happy time for all of us.

Love and kisses from CulinaryStorm :*

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Coloured devilled eggs and Happy Easter!

Posted in healthy, savoury, tagged easter, eggs, food colour, garlic, yogurt on March 30, 2013| 1 Comment »

Happy Easter everyone!

This year I’m not at home with my family, and so I’m a little sad.

If I was home I’d be in Church with everyone. There would be a happy family lunch, and I’d most definitely get an Easter egg! (Mom called and told me mine has been bought and I’ll get it the next time I meet them :))

So I needed some joy. Some colour. Some happy way to celebrate Easter.

This is what happened.

Aren’t they the cutest darn things you’ve seen?

All you have to do is soak hard-boiled egg-white halves in any food colour you want.

I did four colours.

The yolks are mixed with yogurt and mustard. I decided to lay off mayonnaise just to be healthier. It tastes wonderfully creamy and the minced garlic gives it even more flavour.

I think I didn’t make quite enough. These things are so cute and so delicious, you can very easily eat a ton of them without realizing it. They’d make such adorable appetizers for a party too!

I had so much fun making these.

The next time you need a pick-me-up, a pop of colour, or just have an egg craving, make these. You’ll love them 🙂

Coloured devilled eggs

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 12-15 mins
Makes: 8 pieces

Ingredients:

4 eggs
red, purple, yellow, and green food colour
3-4 tbsp thick yogurt
1 tsp mustard paste
1/2 tsp minced garlic flakes
salt and pepper to taste
sliced black olives, optional

Method:

1. Boil the eggs for 12-15 minutes. You need them to be hard-boiled. Once cool, peel off the shells and slice the eggs in half. Remove the yolks and place in a bowl. Carefully rinse the whites, and place them on tissue to dry.
2. Mix 1 teaspoon of each food colour with about 50ml water in 4 separate bowls. Add 2 egg-white halves into each bowl, and leave for 10 minutes. Try to use small bowls so the eggs are completely submerged for an even colour.
3. Add the yogurt, mustard, garlic, and salt and pepper to the egg yolks and mix to a smooth paste. Place this mixture in a zip lock bag, pushing it to one corner. Tie it up tightly with a rubber band.
4. Remove the egg-white halves from the colour and dry on tissue. Once dry, snip the corner of the zip lock bag, and pipe the mixture into each egg-white half in a swirl. Top with a piece of black olive if you like, and serve.

Happy Easter! Have a wonderful day and stay blessed 🙂

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Strawberry Pavlova, good things, and a giveaway!

Posted in desserts, family, friends, giveaway, holiday, tagged Christmas, cream, egg whites, eggs, good things, home, pavlova, puppy, strawberries on January 14, 2013| 14 Comments »

Hello lovely people!

How’s the new year treating you’ll?

Have you made the resolutions you aren’t going to keep? 🙂

Isn’t it funny (and wonderful) how we make them every year anyway?

Here are mine:

*Get fitter (this includes regular exercise and attempting to eat healthier)
*Give my blog more love
*Spend more time with the people who are important to me
*Start playing the guitar again (this will be done with my very cool guitarist friend Aditi’s help)
*Learn to take better photographs
*Keep believing that the best is yet to come

I think the last one is the hardest. It’s difficult to believe that good things will come when you’ve had a spate of bad things. It’s hard to have faith in people, believing that there’s good inside them, even when they’ve let you down. It’s even harder believing that God has plans for you – the best plans.

But this year, I’m staying positive, and happy, and bright. Because good things will come. I know it. I just need to remember it 🙂
Will you remind me if I forget?

Here’s a look at some good things that happened over December when I was home. Each one is a blessing.

Dinner with my oldest friends in one of our favourite restaurants.

This gorgeous flower that bloomed on our balcony.

A funky new-age Christmas tree my brother put together.

The freshest, greenest, tastiest lettuce ever – from my aunt’s garden.

A massive projector set up by my Dad and brother in our living room, so we could watch movies huddling together under blankets while sipping hot tea.

And this puppy soaking up the sun, who brings us all such joy.

In the midst of some terribly sad things that happened, us cousins got together and decided we needed to make something sweet.

The result was this stunning Strawberry Pavlova.

Everyone helped.

Here’s my brother whisking the egg whites.

Baby cousin washed the strawberries.

Another added sugar and smiles.

And this pretty one cut up the strawberries.

Even the littlest one contributed. He kept the puppy busy 🙂

This dessert is show-stopper. Expect everyone to drop their plates and stare at it in all its wonder.

Just look at it.

And it’s the easiest thing to make. Have a go!

Strawberry pavlova

Largely adapted from: Step by step Baking

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 80 mins
Serves: 8

Ingredients:

6 egg whites
pinch of salt
350 g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp lemon juice
300ml heavy cream
200 g strawberries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180º C. Line a baking tray with parchment. Draw a 20cm circle on the parchment and turn it over, so the pencil mark is facing downwards.
2. Put the egg whites and salt in a large, clean bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until you have stiff peaks. Whisk in the sugar a spoonful at a time, until the mixture is stiff and glossy. Mix in the cornflour and lemon juice as well.
3. Spoon the mixture onto the parchment, making sure you stay within the drawn-out circle. Flatten the centre slightly and place in the oven for 5 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 160º C and bake for 75 minutes. Leave it to cool completely in the oven.
4. In the meantime, whip the cream until it thickens. Wash and clean the strawberries, then roughly chop them into halves.
5. Remove the cooled pavlova from the oven and take off the parchment. Place on a serving plate and crack the top slightly with a spoon. Spread the cream over and top with the strawberries. Serve in rough wedges.

Sorry I can’t offer you some pavlova, but here’s something fun!

*GIVEAWAY TIME*

CupoNation India, a website offering discount coupons for a number of leading online retailers in India like flipkart, snapdeal, homeshop18 and many more, wants to give one of you lucky readers a Flipkart voucher worth 500 INR. All you have to do is leave me a comment below telling me which offer you love the most on CupoNation India

I’ll choose one winner through a random draw and announce it in my next post. Comment away!

And have a wonderful, wonderful year ahead! Lots of love!

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Conquer breakfast: savoury egg muffins

Posted in breakfast, savoury, tagged breakfast, dad, eggs, morning, snack on July 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

Breakfast is the most difficult meal of the day for me.

It’s because I’m not a morning person.

These three examples from Pinterest depict my morning emotions perfectly.

Are you a morning person? How do you do it? HOW?

I don’t like waking up at all, let alone waking up and then cooking a breakfast.

So after months of dad’s long distance yelling about the importance of breakfast, being miserable after eating biscuits each morning, and feeling very unproductive, I decided to fix things.

I turned to my favourite ingredient of all time: eggs.

Last Saturday night, I decided I would conquer breakfast. And I did.

These savoury egg muffins are the perfect breakfast food. Make 10 on the weekend, and freeze them in sets of two. All you have to do in the morning is microwave and eat! Maybe with a slice of toast. But they’re great with just a dash of tomato sauce.

The best part is you can put anything in them.

Here are some combos you could try:

Tomato, ham, and cheese (yum)
Peppers, mushroom, and corn (yummers)
Salami, spinach, and broccoli (yummest)

Savoury breakfast egg muffins

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Makes: 10

Ingredients:

7 whole eggs
5 tbsp milk
1 tsp vegetable oil, plus a bit more for greasing
1 large red pepper, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
50g salami, chopped
garlic flakes
mixed dried herbs
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180º C. Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add the milk and whisk well.
2. Heat a non-stick pan, add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and lightly toss the red pepper and tomato in it for a few minutes. Set aside.
3. Add the chopped salami, garlic, herbs, and cooled pepper-tomato mixture to the egg mix and stir everything together. Season to taste.
4. Grease 10 individual silicone muffin cases, or a non-stick muffin tray. Divide the mixture into each of them, filling them about 3/4th full. Put into the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes. The muffins should rise and come away from the sides of the cases. Remove from the cases, cool, and then freeze for upto 1 week. Or just eat right away 🙂

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Chicken-corn Quiche

Posted in savoury, tagged chicken, corn, eggs, home, pastry, quiche on October 17, 2011| 10 Comments »

I love Quiche.

Honestly, what’s not to like?
Eggs, cheese, pastry, and practically anything else you want!

Infinitely adaptable, wonderfully wholesome, and so easy to make.

I made a minced chicken and corn quiche. It was delicious.
Please make one. And put whatever you want in it.

Mushrooms, bacon, broccoli, onions, sausage bits, tuna, peas.
(Just not all together!) 🙂
I promise you can’t go wrong.

Chicken and corn quiche

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Serves: 4
Eat this with: A tomato salad

Ingredients:

butter, to grease
1 sheet puff pastry
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
200 g chicken, minced
100 g baby corn, chopped
6 large eggs
100 g cheese, grated
200 ml cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200º C. Grease a 9-inch pie dish with a removable base, with butter. Place the sheet of puff pastry on it and press down onto the base and sides, spreading it evenly. Pop into the freezer to chill.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. Add the onions and sweat gently. Once they turn pink, add the minced chicken and gently fry over medium heat for a few minutes. Next, add the corn, season with salt, and stir well. Cook for a few more minutes. Remove and keep aside to cool.
3. In another bowl, crack the eggs in followed by the cheese and cream. Mix well and season. Add the cooled chicken-corn mixture and mix everything together.
4. Remove the pie dish from the freezer and pour the mixture in. Bake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes, until the sides are a lovely golden brown, and the top is set. Remove from the dish, slice, and eat warm.

In other news, I’m going home in a few days. This means several things.

1. I will be pampered silly.
2. I will eat like a crazy person.
3. I will spend lazy afternoons with my family.
4. I will meet childhood friends and we will laugh like monkeys.

But there is one other thing.

5. I will have access to a real kitchen. With equipment and space and a full pantry.
I will have people to help me and I wont have to clean up or do the dishes.
(These are all problems I have to deal with- staying alone, and cooking in a tiny kitchen!)

In other words, I can cook something insane and not sweat the small stuff!

So, in typical culinarystorm style, I thought I’d put this up to a vote.
I’ve picked five classic recipes I’ve always wanted to try, and you guys need to help me decide!

The one with the top vote is the one I will cook and post about 🙂

Have a fun week ahead! 🙂

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Khow suey – a beautiful balance

Posted in savoury, tagged Burmese, childhood, chilli oil, coriander, eggs, friends, khow suey, lemon juice, onion on July 26, 2011| 20 Comments »

Some friends met on Friday.

Now since these friends have known each other forever, a number of (silly) activities were (obviously) indulged in.

Activities included were:

Drinking white wine

Discussing relationships

Eating cupcakes

Laughing

Taking photographs that weren’t great (blame the wine)

Hugging

Power naps

Singing songs together

And smiling (lots and lots of smiling)

These are some of the things my crazies and me did recently.

We also ate Khow suey.

Khow suey is a traditional Burmese noodle dish. It involves noodles, and a rich coconuty gravy (usually with chicken, beef, or shrimp) that you eat with a number of condiments.