egg biryani

To go with the indian spiced marinated roasted chicken I wanted to make a biryani which is an Indian rice dish.  Rice has never been a favourite of mine, but cooking it this way gives it some flavour and can actually be a main dish not just a side dish. I used several different recipes as an inspiration for this.

This made enough to feed 12 as a side dish or 6 as a one dish meal.


1 onion sliced and browned in oil until crisp
1 tablespoon of oil or ghee
1 bay leaf
5 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom
1 broken stick of cinnamon
1 large onion chopped
2 garlic cloves grated
1" fresh ginger grated
4 medium tomatoes or equivalent cherry tomatoes chopped
1 jalapeno chili chopped
small handful of fresh mint chopped
small handful of fresh cilantro chopped
6 eggs hard boiled
1/4 cup of roasted cashew nuts
2 cups of almost cooked rice

Fry the whole spices in the oil along with the chopped onion and garlic.  When the onion is soft and just turning golden, add the tomatoes and cook down a little, then add the grated ginger and jalapeno peppers.

Stir in and cook a little longer, then add the min and cilantro

Add the hard boiled eggs sliced in half and cashew nuts stir in.

Meyer lemon custard

Over 20 years ago I went to Greens restaurant in San Francisco for the first time and we ordered the meyer lemon custard.  I had never had meyer lemon and you could not possible get them up here in Canada.  But that custard sticks in my mind as being one of the best desserts I can remember having.  Meyer lemons are rounder than regular lemons and though they have a lemon flavour they are not nearly as sour. Any way when I found 3 meyer lemons in the fridge at Pender Harbour I had to try and recreate that memorable custard. If you are not lucky enough to stumble upon meyer lemons in your fridge or the store, then you could use oranges or regular lemons just up the amount of sugar.

2 of the 4 of us are lactose intolerant and so I used lactaid milk and it was fine, I am sure I could not tell the difference. You could make these richer (and higher in calories) by using coffee cream.

 4 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
3 cups milk
3 meyer lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl until lightly beaten.

Add milk, the zest of one lemon and the juice of all three then beat until incorporated. Pour mixture into six  ramekins or 4 ramekins and one larger dish if that is all you have . Arrange  in a roasting tin and pour enough water into the roasting tin to cover ramekins halfway up the sides.

Uova al Pomodoro (eggs cooked in tomato sauce)

On Saturday morning I went for a walk with a couple of good friends and after an hour long walk and a leisurely cup of coffee it was time for lunch.  I have been craving eggs recently, I am not sure why, but if I have a craving for a certain food I try to give my body what it wants.  So I made this dish for the two of us, we had it for lunch, but it could easily be for breakfast or even for dinner in my case.

Feeds two for breakfast or lunch one for dinner

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1/2 yellow onion chopped

10 small tomatoes (I used strawberry tomatoes but any small one would do)

2 ribs of celery

1/2 hot chilli pepper

2 eggs

Heat up the olive oil in a non stick frying pan, and the onion and cook until translucent then add the remaining ingredients, except the eggs and some salt and pepper.

Stir and cover for about 5 minutes.  You want the tomatoes to be collapsed and the celery softening.  Taste for seasoning, and add a little more salt and pepper if needed, tomatoes do really love salt and pepper.

Frisée Salad with Lardons and coddled Eggs

Saturday was Bastille Day, so there was nothing else to do but throw on tablecloth from Provence and cook a french meal.  Helen from work and her husband were keen to have a traditional french meal with several courses including hors doeuvres, salad, soup, main, dessert and cheese.  So I tried to oblige, though due to the heat I nixed the soup. The first dish that we made was my favourite French salad, a warm salad with a poached egg on top.

We ended up being 13 for dinner, so poaching that many eggs all to be ready at the same time, seemed to be too hard, so we (Helen I think) came up with the idea of coddling in muffin tins instead.

This fed 13 but I will give ingredients for 4 as that seems like a more normal quantity. Traditionally this would have been done with just frisee lettuce which can stand up to the warm dressing, but we did add some other greens to stretch it out and that was fine too.


6 ounces salt pork or thick-cut bacon slices
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Butter to line the muffin tins
4 large eggs

1 head of Frisee lettuce

Cut the salt pork into small strips (lardons) and fry slowly until they have given off most of their fat and are crispy.

Just starting to cook the lardons

I am afraid I did not get a picture of the cooked lardons, but they were crispy and brown and swimming in the fat that they had given off.

Egg baked in Tomato

I saw this idea on Katrina's Blog Daily unadventures in cooking and thought is was brilliant. I love eggs and there is not much better than roasted or fried tomatoes so the combination.  So on the long weekend we decided to make this for breakfast to replace or regular boiled egg.

This did make a brilliant breakfast dish, but actually I think it would make a good light dinner or lunch as well.

For 2
2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon grated cheese (we used Romano)
2 green onions chopped
salt and pepper
2 eggs

Hollow out the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper, tomatoes really love salt and pepper, then place half the cheese in the bottom of each tomato.

Place the hollowed out tomatoes in to your baking dish and break an egg in to each one.

Sorry a bit blurry, but I can only blame the photographer

Daring cooks challenge - Papas and ceviche

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.


I was very excited to do this challenge, I know nothing about Peruvian cooking, so of course I had to do some research, and this is what I found. Potatoes are big in Peru this is where they came from, thank you Peru I am for ever grateful as they are really my favourite food.  Corn, quinoa and fish are also popular so this challenge had both potatoes and fish and added a salad with corn and quinoa.

The finished Papas rellenos

First a confession many potatoes lost their lives in the making of this dish.  The first batch of mashed potatoes were just too wet and we all decided it would be a train wreck if we tried to use them.  So as someone quoted "when life gives you soggy potatoes make potato scones"  so I did.  So after a traditional Scottish potato-scones for an appetizer we got right back on that horse after sending my very hungry and obliging son out for some more potatoes.

Nostalgic lunch in Bellingham

It would have been my Mother in laws 90 birthday on Sunday, she passed away a couple of years ago and is sadly missed by her family. My sister in law used this as a motivation to get the 5 siblings and their partners together.  She lives in a very unusual house down in Bellingham Washington State.

There is a lovely deck which they have just finished, with a view looking over Fairhaven to the Pacific.  Though the sun was shining it really was too cool to be sitting out yet but it will be wonderful when the weather warms up.

Mary Ann cooked every ones favourite dishes that there mother used to make.  Some exactly as she had done them like Macaroni cheese which she had made in one of her mothers baking dishes.

Fridge dinner - frittata

After a week of overindulgence, too much food, too much wine and too much money spent, it is time for pulling in the horns of plenty and making a light dinner from what is left in the fridge and eating it with a nice glass of sparkling water!

I have made this frittata with many different ingredients depending on the fridge I am emptying out (but you do have to have eggs).

Really any vegetable or combination will do, I do like a little potato and it always helps if you have some fresh herbs. If you have left over cooked vegetables you can also use these just add them at the end just before the eggs.

This is what I found in my fridge.

Daring Cooks challenge - Eggs benedict

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.


I chose to do the eggs benedict as I love them and it is something I never make. I varied the recipe slightly as I was cooking for a crowd, two of whom do not eat pork so I used smoked salmon to replace the ham (often done here on the west coast)

There were several people who not only poached the egg and made the hollandaise sauce, but also made the English muffins.  I am afraid I bailed on that and bought the muffins.


My recipe for hollandaise sauce is from my text book from when I was going to college back in 1977 learning classic french cooking.  This method is not for wimps as there is no double boiler you have to regulate the heat by pulling off and on the burner, and you need a good pot with a heavy bottom (which is what you will have if you eat these too often)


Hollandaise sauce.


1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Fresh ground pepper
1/2 lb of butter Melted(yes half a pound)
2 egg yolks


Place vinegar, lemon juice and fresh ground pepper in a small heavy bottomed pot and reduce to half.  1 1 tablespoon of cold water, allow to cool.


Mix in the yolks with a whisk and return to a gentle heat  and whisking continuously cook until they are thickened about the consistency of whipping cream. Remove from the heat.


Then very gradually whisk in the melted butter a little at a time until all the butter has been absorbed and it has the consistency of sour cream .