Breakfast with Gordon Ramsey

The other day I was looking for a new breakfast item to try. I found an old favorite, but with a nice twist. Gordon Ramsey's perfect breakfast. Scrambled eggs, toast, mushroom caps and tomatoes. The breakfast of champions.

See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_B3QNu_Ks

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 piece of toast
2 button mushrooms
a few tiny on the vine tomatoes
1 teaspoon chopped chives
1/2 tablespoon creme fraiche
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1.Make a piece of toast. As Ramsey says use some decent bread for this so it doesn't fall apart.
2. Heat the olive oil in the pan on medium low heat. Add the mushrooms and tomatoes. Salt and pepper. Then put a lid on the pan. Ramsey doesn't do this, but I found it very helpful in making sure the mushrooms in particular get cooked all the way through. They are whole after all. If your mushrooms are really big you may need a little more olive oil. Make sure you flip the mushrooms halfway through cooking. Tomatoes and mushrooms are done when they have a nice brown sear and when the mushrooms look cooked through.
3. Put pan on medium heat (best to use a non-stick skillet or pan for this). Add three eggs to the pan and start stirring immediately. Add butter. Keep stirring to combine butter. Just as Ramsey does in the video, pull them on and off the heat so that the eggs cook slowly. They will eventually start to come together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add creme fraiche, and fully incorporate. 30 seconds or so before they are cooked to your liking add the chives and stir to incorporate. Then spoon the eggs out onto your toast.
4. Make enough for two and invite me over.

Result:

Booze? Yes Please.

Yesterday evening I went to the Farm in Bloomington for drinks. My first drink of the evening was a Sazerac, a drink I had never tried before. I like it.

This evening, while watching the Colts bring it, I decided a winner's drink was in order, and I turned to my new friend the Sazerac. I didn't know what was in a Sazerac, but I have amassed a nice little bar since moving to Bloomington. Luckily, I had everything I needed. Pardon me as I digress. Go to the end of this post if you just want a Sazerac now.

I think this is a good time for me to mention this: you should stock a bar. And by stocking a bar I don't mean you should have a bottle of Smirnoff in your freezer. You should have real hard alcohol, of several varieties, along with the necessary mixers ready for when you need it.

I (sadly) have little time for the drinking of my college days, but when I do have the time for a cocktail – damn it – it ought to be delicious. And there is no reason why cocktail bars should have a monopoly on delicious drinks. If you do any amount of entertaining at your house I particularly think my advice is salient. Even if it's usually just you and your favorite soon to be national champion football team, it's still important to drink like an adult. Do you really want to be the guy that offers your guests the choice between Icehouse or shots of Popov? ... I thought not.

The other nice thing about stocking a bar is that you'll never have to run to the liquor store if you are in need of liquor for the dinner you're making. Vodka sauce anyone? Perhaps some Irish Cream Cake? Or maybe some sauteed mushrooms with a little cognac to finish it off? You will appreciate the convenience of having these things around. I promise.

I regularly keep on hand the following:

Vodka, Bourbon, Gin, Cognac, Rum, Tequila, Angostura Bitters, Simple Syrup (aka Bar Syrup), Grenadine, Vermouth, a 1 liter bottle of tonic, a 1 liter bottle of seltzer and of course at least a bottle of red and white wine. I also have found it easy to keep on hand some olives for martinis and bottled organic lime juice and lemon juice. You can get great not-from-concentrated bottled juice at most groceries these days. I will of course admit that the fresh stuff is better, but who are we kidding? Often the bottled stuff is all that I have on hand. Better that than nothing.

A few extras I keep around are:
Rye whiskey, absinthe, one higher grade vodka for martinis (use the cheap stuff for everything else), marsala, baileys, and lemoncello (admittedly I keep this in the freezer).

Consider stocking these things. Your guests will thank you.

Anyway, on to the Sazerac.

Here is how I made mine. I'd love to see your own recipes.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz rye whiskey - Rittenhouse Rye is good and somewhat ubiquitous in the south and midwest, but I got a bottle of Rendezvous Rye from High West Distillery in Park City, Utah that is amazing. You can order it online. I recommend it highly.
  
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• Peychaud bitters to taste (2 dashes)
• Angostura bitters (1 dash)
  
• 1/4 oz absinthe -I used Lucid Absinthe, very good stuff
  
• lemon twist for garnish

Steps:

1. Fill an Old Fashioned glass with ice and a little water.
   
2. Put the simple syrup in a second Old Fashioned glass.
3. Add the rye, the two bitters, and a few cubes of ice to the glass with the simple syrup, and stir.
   
4. Discard the ice from the first glass, and pour in the absinthe.
5. Turn the glass to coat the sides with the absinthe; then pour out the excess. Strain the rye mixture into the absinthe-coated glass. Twist and squeeze a lemon peel over the glass. Rub the rim of the glass with the peel.
6. Set the peel on the rim of the glass and serve.
   

Poh-tat-O Leek Soup (With New Indie Rock Pairings!)

First, let me say I'm sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. My camera was dead. However, I promise to bombard you with excellent descriptions!

Today's issue of williameatseverything is called Poh-tat-O Leek Soup; or Why southerner's think a little pork makes everything taste better.

This recipe is modified from two stellar recipes from Mr. Alton Brown and Mr. Emeril Lagasse. As it is bitterly cold here in Bloomington, I made a LOT of this stuff. Feel free to cut the recipe in half. My recipe yields like 10 good sized servings I think.

Ingredients

• 2 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 slices thinly diced bacon
  
• Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
• 2 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced small
• 7 cups chicken broth
• 1 and 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon white pepper (or black pepper but white looks prettier I suppose)
  
• 2 tablespoon snipped chives (garnish; optional but yummy)
  

How you does it:

Chop the leeks into small pieces. (Often I wash, bag, and freeze the tough green leaves to add when I make chicken or veggie stock like once a month. I assume you do make your own stock. Right?? Maybe I need an entry on that next time around.)

In a 6-quart pot (I used a big dutch oven. Basically use the biggest pot you have. That way you will be certain to avoid splashing.) over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the bacon and render fat (5 minutes?). Add the leeks and a heavy pinch of salt and sweat for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the potatoes and the chicken broth, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, approximately 45 minutes.

Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. ( I used a food processor. Just ladle the stuff into the food processor, and then put the pureed soup into a different pot as you go until you have it all pureed.) This step is important because you can choose here how you want your soup to look. Personally totally pureed soup looks like baby food to me. I like some chunks. If you are like me, you can just process 2/3 of the soup and let the other 1/3 stay as is. I think it looks more rustic, which I like, but to each his own.

Stir in the heavy cream, and white pepper (And don't accidentally drop the pepper mill into the soup and have to find and fish it out...Not that that happened to me or anything). Taste and adjust seasoning. You will almost invariably need more salt, but it is important to wait until this point to salt. A lot of canned stock has sodium in it, so if you are using store bought stock you need to wait until you are close to the end to finish salting. If it has been off the heat a while during the food processing part you my need to reheat it for just a minute or two. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.

Some recipes suggest serving it cold, but who the hell eats cold soup when its 19º outside? Just reheat the leftovers for a few minutes over low heat in a sauce pot.

This recipe goes particularly well with a side of cheddar cheese toast and the new Vampire Weekend album Contra. You can listen for free at http://www.vampireweekend.com/.

Enjoy!

w