Category: Breakfast

banana bread mishaps

~ cookingwithleeks ~ Leave a comment

it feels like every time i bake, i learn something new that i can mess up… that i didn’t realize i could mess up before. for example, smitten kitchen’s jacked up banana bread. i have made many a banana bread in my day, but typically the same recipe. i decided to venture out and try a new one. enter, the jacked up banana bread.

when baking, i know to bring all my ingredients from the fridge to room temp (unless of course it’s a baking recipe where everything needs to be COLD, but usually when i bake, things need to come to room temp). so, before my walk yesterday morning, i grabbed the egg and measured out the salted butter and left them on the counter to come to room temp, so when i returned i could bake banana bread!

one thing led to another (work…) and i didn’t get to baking the banana bread til after work. well, the butter is meant to be MELTED, but i figured it was fiiiine because it was so malleable by being left out all day that it would do its melting in the oven. right? well, no. wrong.

back to the recipe. the very first step involves mixing the smashed bananas (nailed it) with melted butter (didn’t nail it). but i did mix them together and what resulted was, well… this:

see the light-colored globs? that’s the unmelted butter (this photo also includes the brown sugar yum)

what i discovered (i think…) is that melting the butter serves a purpose other than tasting really yummy. and that is, it enables the banana itself to cook and become firm to match the texture of the rest of the bread. i realized this because i had to cook the banana bread for nearly 1 hour 20 minutes instead of the suggested 50 min – 1 hour cook time. and the tester never came out completely clean. i eventually just said, fuck it, and let it cool. there was still some banana-y texture, but overall the taste was overwhelmingly GOOD. and i will certainly be having that banana bread for breakfast today.

honestly still very good

so friends. i learned to use melted butter when a recipe calls for it because it helps stuff cook that may not otherwise cook in the way you want it to! a valuable lesson that did not end with an inedible dish, but an otherwise delicious dish (save for the perfect texture)! banana bread ftw!

Flat omelet with spinach and herbs

~ cookingwithleeks ~ Leave a comment

This is a no-recipe recipe, in that you can basically make this if you have eggs on hand. I often make this when it’s the end of the week, and I only have odds and ends of cooked or uncooked vegetables around. I usually add in a shallot or onion to sauté with the olive oil to start, too. But that could be omitted. You could really pull this off with just a few eggs, olive oil, and salt. The addition of leeks, sautéed in lieu of the onions or in addition to the onions, would also be an excellent idea. Too bad I didn’t have any on hand.

The idea of a flat omelet is from my personal cooking bible An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. She suggests adding a teaspoon of white wine to three eggs before adding them to the pan to liven things up. I have used champagne vinegar and lemon too, and it definitely adds the extra zing needed.

I happen to have a bunch of herbs right now leftover from making green goddess dressing last week, so I used tarragon, basil, chives, and parsley. Side note: adding herbs to nearly any dish will add a new depth of flavor, so I always try to add as many as possible (from the same family) if I have them on hand. If you’re not sure if they’ll go together, google it like I do. 🙂

Chopped yellow onion, a few handfuls of spinach, three eggs, tarragon leaves, an herb mix of tarragon, chives, basil, & parsley, parmesan cheese, and a lemon

Ingredients list for today’s flat omelet: 3 eggs, champagne vinegar, herbs, spinach, a yellow onion, parmesan, and a lemon.

To start, I heated the sauté pan and added the olive oil once heated, using more olive oil than I normally would for a regular omelet so that the top cooks too. I added the onions to sauté with some salt, to taste. Then, I added in the spinach until it’s slightly wilted. Next, add in the herbs and then the whisked eggs. Cook over medium-high heat (or lower if it seems like it’s cooking unevenly) until the egg mixture is set. Grate parmesan all over the top and more salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste.

Note: Substitute any vegetable with or in addition to the spinach. If I have roasted or uncooked vegetables that haven’t been eaten, or especially if they need to be eaten soon, I’ll throw them in too.

Flat omelet in all its glory

It’s not pictured, but I ended up adding plain full-fat greek yogurt on the side, because I felt like it needed some fat, creamy goodness! I like to sub plain greek yogurt for sour cream and sometimes mayonnaise because it has a high protein content and probiotics!

Dutch Baby

~ cookingwithleeks ~ 1 Comment

Hi all!

This recipe is based on the NYT Cooking recipe for a Dutch Baby. Dutch babies are 100% my favorite omelet and pancake hybrid ever, though I do like crèpes a lot too. This is basically a puffy crèpe, and I’m here for it. The ingredients are all typically items sitting around in my pantry and fridge too, so it’s an easy and impressive go-to breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup milk (i used almond milk)
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 4 tbsp. butter
  • Powdered sugar and jam, for topping

Directions

  1. Bring eggs, milk, and butter to room temperature
  2. Heat oven to 425 degrees with a 10-inch cast-iron skillet inside
  3. Combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla extract to a food processor and mix until just combined
  4. Once oven is heated, remove skillet and add the butter to coat the pan
  5. Once coated, add egg mixture to skillet
  6. Place skillet back in oven for 20 minutes, until puffy and beginning to turn golden brown
  7. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees, and bake for about 5 minutes
  8. Remove and serve with powdered sugar and your favorite jam

I cut the dutch baby into fours for serving. I nearly ate it all myself, which is a bit excessive when you consider the ingredients involved. There was a good bit of butter left on the dutch baby, but as it cooled, the dutch baby soaked it right up and it was delicious.

NOTE: Bringing the ingredients to room temperature is important for the dutch baby to fluff up!

Have you ever had a dutch baby? If so, what flavor? If not, are you ready to rumble?