Toad in the hole with Artisan Bread

A very simple toad in the hole with bread from Epi Breads, the bread is made with 5 year old cheddar cheese, I finished the eggs under the broiler and topped with a little medium cheddar. Great on a sunny morning.DSCN5132-21-FEB-2010

New Years 2009

This was a multi-course dinner featuring quail eggs and my wife’s favourite “Veal Chops” fortunately it was warm enough to fire up the BBQ.

  1. Cream of a asparagus soup with a poached quail egg in a champagne flute
  2. Stuffed cremini mushroom caps, the filling was ground chicken with minced mushroom and topped with Jarlsberg cheese
  3. Arugula Salad with light lemon and olive oil dressing topped with a hard boiled quail egg
  4. Grilled veal chop, simple boiled PEI potatoes and heirloom carrots
  5. Finally Crème brûlée made with quail eggs, there was a lot of cracking going on to get enough yolks and a generous amount of swearing.

A great way to ring in the New Year.DSCN5123-31-DEC-2009

Cooking Hard Boiled Quail Eggs

Although I posted the definitive guide on chicken eggs, your mileage will vary greatly with quail eggs, so here are a couple of good references:

Update: After following the directions on un-shelling the hard boiled eggs, I would avoid the towel method and simply use the back of a paring knife to crack the shell and use the tip to pierce the membrane and then simply start peeling.

Cooking boiled eggs

This looks like a rather definitive guide: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/the-food-lab-science-of-how-to-cook-perfect-boiled-eggs.html

BBQ Smoke out

One for the boys, 3 slabs of ribs, 3 sides of whey fed pork racks, my mom’s BBQ sauce (gravy if you’re from the south) some jalapeno skillet corn bread. Artisan bread from Epi Breads. This was only my third time really smoking ribs and they were pretty good, but I think there’s room for improvement.

DSCN5020-23-SEP-2009

BBQ Smoke out warm up

3 LARGE slabs of back ribs with dry rub waiting patiently for the smoker.

Back ribs with dry rub

Back ribs with dry rub

Steamed Black Cod

Black cod, steamed in foil, topped with grilled pablano chili, onion, white wine and a little butter.DSCN5007-19-SEP-2009

Vienna Sausage Corn Dogs

I used to love these canned sausages when I was a kid just a hint of smokiness, dipped in a light corn meal batter and deep fried. Pretty good, but next time I’ll pick up the real deal instead of the canned version.DSCN4986-22-AUG-2009

A whimsical breakfast

A little toad in the hole with challah bread and quail eggs, given the size of the eggs and bread the Edvard Munch’esque faces simply presented themselves and the rest is history. Also on the plate is some rosti hair and a bacon bow tie.


Eggs Benedict

This is about as weird and great as it gets, Wagyu striploin grilled. The stack unfolds like this, potato rosti, vine ripened tomatoes, sliced Wagyu, poached quail eggs, red wine and caramelized onion sauce.