Baked eggs at home

My non-stick pan is no longer non-stick which means that a quick brekkie at home of eggs on toast, ends up in a mess of egg glued pan.

Keen for some eggs without the mess (or the queues on Easter weekend) I decided to bake some just like I order at a number of cafes around Melbourne.



Baked eggs with double smoked ham, potato and fennel
I made this from leftovers in my fridge, if you intend to do the same just make sure there are enough wet ingredients to dry ones.

2 eggs
2 slices ham
1 roast potato, sliced
4 mini roma tomatoes, chopped
1/4 baby fennel, finely sliced, tips reserved
Meridith dairy feta and the marinating oil
S+P
toast to dip


Distribute the ham, potato, fennel and tomato in a shallow bowl, small baking dish or large tapas dish
Crack eggs on top and drizzle with feta, extra marinating oil and season with salt and pepper

Bake at 220C for about 10minutes until you can see the whites have set, yet the yolks are still runny, remove from oven and garnish with fennel tips
Perfect to eat just with a fork and toast to dip, whilst reading the paper (or news online, in my case)

Serves one

Second best? No way!

PDC had a little giggle at me just before in the car... I realised it... I'm just not good at accepting second best, especially when it comes to my food.

Yesterday afternoon, it was a trip to Prahran market for the Claringbolds fish auction; quality fish at bargain prices, all bundled into $5 bags and auctioned off. Seven whole baby garfish for $5, 350g of yellowfin tuna for $5, a pack of Huon smoked salmon $5 the list goes on... I also manged to justify a gorgeous grassfed organic sirloin to make steak tartare tonight.

And then this morning; the sun is shining, we are out to breakfast and it just has to be Mart at the Middle park tram stop.

After some poached eggs and salmon, I twisted PDC's arm to 'drive by' (it was very certainly, very out of the way!) Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder for some cheese. The funny thing about this especially is that I took a good 15 minutes looking at the cheese options yesterday at Prahran market but just knew that it was never going to be as good as what would have been handle with care and maturation at RHCL. So there was no compromise and we purchased some oozingly ripe Fromage de Meaux (it can't be called the real name of Brie de Meaux, as it is pasterised ) and some of what formally was know as Morbier, again new regulations mean that the pasteurised version is not called the really name... its really quite boring living in a country that makes its citizens eat second class cheese.

Next on the way home the stark realisation hit me, as we were siting in the St Kilda bound traffic patiently anticipating the Baker Chirico bread we were about to buy that is to go with the cheese, seafood and steak tartare tonight.

It takes a lot of driving and time to be this food fussy. Now if only I could have come up with a very good excuse to have driven to Carlton this afternoon as well, to pick up some seriously good terrine from Parisienne Pâté.... maybe next weekend. I'll have to plan better.

Lazy, beautiful breakfast

I can’t apologise enough to readers at home, keeping warm in what I read has been the coldest winter for some time, but I’d love to share my breakfast experience of the last five days at the Muang Kulay Pan Hotel in Koh Samui.

Lets start with the setting, just beautiful, have a look for yourself… above is the bell that you ring for service, if a smiling face is not to be seen.
Pretty little raised tables and seating. Elegant, yet simple. We were served to start, freshly squeezed orange juice from green skinned, mandarin tasting oranges, individual fruit platters and green tea for me and strong black coffee in a small thermos for PDC.

Breakfast was a choice of ‘American breakfast’ – eggs with sausage, bacon and ham, ‘Continental’ -chocolate croissant, yoghurt and more fruit or rice congee and curry dishes that we did not explore.
Eggs it was, most mornings, as I was a little scared of the croissant and yoghurt option (how good it could possibly be -I usually err on the side of some thing that I know I will enjoy, especially at breakfast), yet I should not have been afraid; the yoghurt was rich and tangy as it should be and the croissant better than some from fancy French bakeries in Melbourne.
Breakfast was also served with some grain toast wrapped in a thick linen napkin with a selection of housemade jams, the caramelised pineapple was a highlight nearly as bright as the banana, lime and palm sugar jam in Laos. PDC was so ravenous from an early run along the beach (I know, sorry!! ) to also order the banana pancakes in addition to all of this. Stretched out on a lounge, being served breakfast from fun, friendly, yet careful staff it makes it hard to leave but that was what we have done today. The staff were sad to hear that it was our last day with them, “have a safe trip and we will see you next year”, a mutal wish, but with our penchant for travel to new places, I’m not sure it will happen, but it is a nice way to bid farewell – see you next time!

Escape your world for $3, going out for coffee

Going out for a coffee is not a big thing, jeez it costs about $3 and is a cheap way to feel worldly for 20 minutes. A bargain in my book.

But the catch can be if you don't trust who is making your coffee; if you haven't been there before and don't have a credible reference point. Do you know of the owners 'coffee pedigree'? Has the barista has been around the good coffee traps? Or does it just seem right?

It can end up being a disaster. Your expecting a small break from reality yet you get a burnt, over extracted glass of hot muddy milk instead of a latte. The dilemma then gets worse - you really can't just leave it in the glass - you need to either, hold your nose and scull it, find a way to very discretely make it 'disappear' or worse, feel bad as you make a thin excuse, leave your gold coins and run from the cafe as fast as you can, never to return.

I hate being in that situation, so as a result PDC and I are pretty fussy about where we go for coffee. There is probably a dozen places in Melbourne were I would happily have a coffee, luckily this list is growing, but it's a bit scary taking that first trusting step into a new cafe.

Recently, we went to Dino's Deli in Chapel St for the first time. It's been open for about 6 months and seems to be reasonably busy, (a good sign) yet we were still a little scared until I saw a familiar face, that has made me fantastic staff coffees many, many times.
Hallelujah, a safe house!

I'm pleased to also report that the breakfast at Dino's is just as good as the coffee. A new favourite is the shaksuka; a piperade (tomato, capsicum, onion and garlic, lightly scrambled with egg) set into the bottom of a rustic tapas dish topped with an egg. Dino's version is served on a wooden board with two little side pots; one of olive oil dressed fresh roma tomato wedges, and the other a tangy spinach, yoghurt and tahini sauce, some pide strips are the spoon for all of these flavours. Quite interactive, very healthy and utterly delicious.
I'd also recommend stalking out the house baked muffins, the first time they had run out when we asked but then managed to score one hot from the oven. Trust me have another or even a third coffee as an excuse to wait for these hot treats, you will not be sorry.

St. Ali

Saint Ali may well be the guardian of coffee, yet St. Ali in South Melbourne is the guardian of food stories.

Having breakfast last weekend I was pleased at my good cafe selection, to see John Lethlean and his family arrive for coffee. Not really interesting enough for a post, except possibly if we had shared the larger table and loudly continued our conversation about why Jacques Reymond did not ring our bells despite its 3 hats, (that did not happen, and even if we HAD shared the table and a wall not been between us, would I've?? Probably not...)

It's a bit of a sport of sorts, for PDC and I to spot food reviewers and see who else in the dining room notices, unless they were particularly cool at St.Ali, I have to say no one blinked an eye.

We had just gotten back to our eggs when in walks another familiar face, Bob Harts wife (sorry, I only know her face, not her name).

Hang on a minute, a possible double food reviewer sighting and from rival papers, this was getting interesting until they choose to sit outside, with Bob arriving less than 5 minutes later.

With our noses back in our respective eggs, nothing more was to be seen until the coincidental toilet dash saw both John and Bob standing side by side. No, paper fights, no harsh words just friendly smiles and hand shakes.

I guess communal good taste, accounts for the witnessing of the similarities, of different food readerships.

Jack

Reflection

I'm trying to recover today from a huge few months at work, yesterday was my 'Everest' and now the following week holds the safe trek back down the metaphorical mountain. After a brush with fame in the local papers yesterday and today, I've taken a moment to reflect on what I have achieved outside of work in September and October.

So a couple of blog worthy highlights...

A serious food styling gig.
It's funny how when you slip out of something by accident, that you don't realise how much you love it until you do it again. I remembered a few weeks ago how much I love to be in a professional studio making food look pretty. The shoot (on a Sunday) was for a sandwich chain, and it was all about 'fluffing' the sandwiches to look as opulent and healthy as possible. It's such a strange world in a food shoot, you can actually forget your working with an edible product and start more looking at contrasting colours, highlights and smart angles to flatter the 'hero'. Here's a few of my happy snaps of the shoot.

The preening queue.

The 'hero' of the moment and the collection of tools that help bring it to life for the lens.
At the end of the day. The tagged list of shots, so we can track the difference from one wrap/sandwich/foccacia to another.

Other highlight as been the rediscovery of a favourite breakfast spot. A few months ago my favourite 'eggs place', Las Chicas, changed hands and hence my favourite coffee makers/eggs servers moved as well. So to track down the perfect caffe latte and smiley face, PDC and I have been travelling further along Carlisle St to The Galleon, St Kilda for weekend breakfasts.

This is a picture of my new usual, Bagel No3. A toasted bagel with crushed avocado and slices of smoked salmon. It comes with the cute wedge of lemon on top, all for the, how-do-they-make-any-money-off-this price of $8.50. I have mine with a single poached egg on the side (for an extra $2) of which I open the bagel up and eat on the salmon side, and then squeeze the lemon on the avo spread other side and munch after. A perfect breakfast in my book.

Another highlight was dinner with visiting family at Rockpool, Bar and Grill. I will not be doing a full write up because of PDC's conflicting interests there but I do list the little beef degustation that we created as a highlight.
The four of us shared three steaks for main course, all the house aged, grass fed Black Angus, but in different cuts and aging maturation. There was a large 700g ribeye, grilled on the bone and sliced, a 400g rump steak, and a 300g sirloin. The exciting thing was to be able to taste a different cut of meat after another and fully appreciate the differences in texture and flavour richness. Surprisingly the rump was the winner for flavour, it was aged the longest so perhaps this helped but offered a texturally firmer and meaty lusciousness. A very interesting little taste test.

I'll be back to normal posts shortly, looking forward to a few fancy meals out in the next few months and catching up with other food bloggers at the Bloggers Banquet that Ed has been organising on the 12th.
Jack

Out for breakfast

It can be frustrating, in a good kind of way, queuing for breakfast. At least you know you are in the right place (queuing at McDonalds doesn’t count; it’s not food (have you read ‘Fast Food Nation’??)), but if you are like me, when you need to eat, especially breakfast, you really need to eat!
When I use to live in Sydney, I remember queuing forever to have breakfast at Bills 2, I would hate struggling out of bed, just to stand in the queue, but my reward was chunky corn fritters with curls of bacon, slow roast tomato and baby spinach. My first cult breakfast.

Now I have a series of breakfast places that I refer to as ‘the usual’ or ‘favourite place’ etc in a language all of my own. First it was Las Chicas, in St Kilda East. When I use to work evenings, the owner would joke that I was there more often than she was. It was usually a late breakfast (hospitality hours breakfast, about 11am) of a caffe latte and a brekky burrito. Softly scrambled eggs, bacon and rocket wrapped in a tortilla, dolloped with house made tomato salsa and guacamole. Occasionally it would be porridge, if I was trying to be healthy or the BBB – bikini blow out benedict, (if I could justify it) of poached eggs on toasted bagel with avocado, bacon and smothered in hollandaise.

Then disaster struck… Las Chicas was reviewed in The Ages ‘Cheap eats’ book as having the best breakfast dish, their french toast, oh the queues!
So it was on to Batch a cute little kiwi-ana place just down the road. Great coffee, friendly genuine staff and breakfast all day, BUT white toast served with the eggs. Now I’m sure that they had other types of bread, but I’m not the type to ask when the menu clearly says, no menu variations. So un-fibre-d white bread it was, until St Ali in South Melbourne came to my attention.

St Ali for quite a while was one of those places that a friend would tell a friend about; the amazing coffee, the grungy space, the interesting food. It was a trip in the car away, instead of a walk, but it was refreshingly different and not packed with strollers and groups having the ‘fancy breakfast out’. The house roasted coffee was perfect, fresh orange juice, and some poached eggs on sourdough with ricotta spinach, roast tomato and salty prosciutto.
I really like this place, and would come here regularly, until again The Age brings me back to great café reality- if it’s good they will tell the (Melbourne) world about it. St Ali was reviewed as having the best coffee in the latest Cheap Eats. Again the queues, but to be honest they don’t seem as bad as when I got kicked out of Las Chicas. Perhaps it’s the alley way access or perhaps the strollers crowd prefer french toast. Although my last St Ali experience did end a little more quickly then I wanted, because the naughty three-year-old at the next table kept screaming. But I did have some rich, house made baked beans with ham hock and fresh spinach with sourdough toasties on the side. Delicious.

Las Chicas is not as ridiculously busy any more, partly I think because it has been a year since the amazing press and partly due to their renovated extensions. So now for breakfast I have two places I am equally happy to go to. I’ll let you know if somewhere else pops up, but until then I’m happy with that.
Now if only I could combine the lot to make the perfect place. Coffee from Wall Two 80 (the favourite non-breakfast time, coffee place – more in another post) with the bench in the sun, the staff from Batch, the brekky burrito from Las Chicas, and the grungy space and changing menu from St Ali. Then we would have the new perfect café and I bet there would be no way I could get a table!
Jack