What's for dinner

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Back ribs with dry rub

Black cod, steamed in foil, topped with grilled pablano chili, onion, white wine and a little butter.

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.

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.

More whimsy, polenta sheets with quail eggs, topped with pan fried cremini mushrooms, shallots, and cognac, dusted with Parmigiano-Reggiano and garnished with fresh chive from the garden.

One of my favourite times of year, which is the annual Jiggs Dinner, turkey, salt meat, boiled veg coming out the ears, simply great. Get to know someone from Newfoundland and finagle yourself an invite.