Baked Eggs with Fennel and Shitake Mushrooms

 The first time I had baked eggs was in Paris. A large Le Creuset-style saucepan showed up at the table, pipping hot, filled with at least 4 eggs, half a pound of bacon, potatoes and lots of cream. It was delicious.

I vowed to make them at home, which I finally got around to this week. In the two years since the baked eggs of Paris, I've stopped eating dairy. I didn't have any bacon in the house (which rarely happens around here), so I had to think of other mix-ins that would elevate my baked eggs to those I had in Paris.

  Instead of creating a cream-based dish, I went for a mix of sautéed shitake mushrooms and grated fennel with sage. The flavors combined perfectly with the egg, and the texture was great.

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Sage added a nice earthy tone to the mix. I was also going to add my much loved black truffle oil to the eggs, but thought that might be going overboard, flavor wise.

As I write this, I've come up with my next version of this dish: baked eggs with mushrooms, bacon, black truffle oil and sage. Anything you'd add into an omelette will work here, too. Just experiment, watch that the eggs don't cook too long and enjoy!

Baked Eggs with Fennel and Shitake Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup shredded fennel
• 8 to 10 shitake mushrooms, tips removed and sliced
• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 sage leaves, minced, or 1 twig tarragon, stem removed, leaves minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Heat a small sauté pan, add 2 teaspoons of the olive oil to the pan and the fennel shitake mushrooms and half of the herbs.
3. Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat until the fennel softens and the shitake mushrooms brown.
4. Oil two ramekins with the remaining olive oil and crack an egg into each.
5. Split the fennel and mushroom mixture evenly between the ramekins, spooning it over the egg. Add salt, pepper and fresh herbs.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until you see the white hardening around the edge of the ramekin.
7. Serve while still warm.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time 12 minutes.

PS: Here's the baked eggs they served me in Paris. Whoa! So awesome....

Baked Camembert with Asian Pears

Make a baked Camembert to impress your guests. They'll never guess how easy this is to prepare.

My sister, here husband and their friends love cheese. I added Asian pears (which I knew as apple-pears growing up) and got a nice walnut baguette to serve it with. It disappeared quickly.

Even though I stay away from gluten and dairy, I did try a few slices of this wonderful treat. Let me tell you, the melted cheese, the sweet Asian pear and the crunch of the walnuts makes a divine combination. I think some good quality salami would be wonderful with this, too.

At my parents' house, there are always many appetizers to chose from. Quite a spread appears, seemingly out of nowhere, as soon as they know someone is on their way over. Not sure how she does it, but Gran Fran usually gets some homemade focaccia bread in the oven, pulls together some roasted hot peppers and an assortment of salami.

Since most of the entertaining I do involves going to friends' houses, I try to bring along a few great side dishes or appetizers. This baked Camembert will go into regular rotation!

Baked Camembert with Asian Pears and Baguette

INGREDIENTS

• 1 wheel good quality Camembert cheese, placed in a baking dish
• 2 Asian pears washed and sliced
• 1 baguette, sliced

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Place the baking dish with the cheese in it in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until you see it starting to brown on top and soften.
3. Serve with the Asian pear spread on toasted baguette.

Breakfast for Dinner: Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pancakes

We had gluten free chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tonight.

 Working all day, cooking two to three meals a day and making sure my teenage daughter is taken care of is a huge amount of responsibility. I love all of it, but sometimes, I just have to give in to a nice and easy dinner: gluten-free almond milk chocolate chip pancakes (way more words in that name than the actual effort took to make them).

This is another installment of my cook the book project with these lovely ladies: Rachel, Aimee, Emily, Sammy and Claudie. We are cooking our way through Marion Cunnignham's The Breakfast Book. Chapter six is all about pancakes!

My daughter was thrilled with the choice. I didn't have any bacon, so she had roasted chicken and  cauliflower alongside her pancakes. Sort of like she ate dessert at the same time as dinner.

Look at that batter. The warm milk and butter mixture melted the chocolate chips into delicious strips of chocolatey goodness.

I made them with almond milk and gluten-free flour so I could eat them, too. So yummy!

Plain Pancakes

adapted from Marion Cunnigham’s The Breakfast Book, Copyright 1987, Alfred A. Knopf

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (make your own or use this one from Gluten-Free Pantry)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

• Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are thoroughly blended. Put the butter and the milk in a small saucepan and warm over low heat until the butter has melted.
• Set aside and allow to cool a little –you don't want to add this mixture to the eggs while it is very hot or it will cook the eggs. Stir the butter mixture into the eggs and mix well.
• Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed.
• Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir only until the dry ingredients are well moistened. Don't over mix.
• Heat a griddle or skillet until a few drops of water dance on it, then lightly film with grease.
• Drop 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto the griddle (a 12-inch girdler will hold 4 pancakes) and cook until bubbles break on the surface.
• Turn the pancake over and cook another 30 seconds, or until the bottom is lightly browned. Serve the pancakes hot.

A Little Taste of Home: Onions and Eggs

Gran Fran made me onions and eggs on our most recent visit.

We visited for a little over two weeks, and returned home just before school started. What a good time we had. Tons of good food at every turn, with these onions and eggs as one of my favorite simple meals we were served.

These eggs are great served at room temperature, too. You could easily pack this in a container for a nice hearty lunch. It's also excellent with some cheese added in at the end of cooking, or better yet, some bacon. The little bit of sugar in the mix just heightens  the flavor of the onions.

Make this easy, four ingredient dinner for dinner, serve it alongside a salad and toasted baguette and you've got yourself a great meal.

Onions and Eggs

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Good dose of kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 8 large eggs, beaten just until blended

Method:

1. Heat large skillet; add olive oil; heat oil over high heat.
2. Add onions; reduce flame to medium; sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.
3. Saute about 20 minutes over low heat---or until golden and reduced by at least half.
4. On medium heat;stir in eggs; allow to set for three minutes or so.
5. Stir and fold eggs until they reach desired consistency; serve.

Sweet Peppers, Oven Roasted

Take the time to make these roasted peppers. Super simple, delicious and versatile, these peppers can served as a side dish or in a salad. I served them on top  broiled salmon and quinoa.

Delish!

Oven Roasted Sweet Peppers

INGREDIENTS

• 3 sweet peppers sliced into rings
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced into small pieces
• Salt to taste

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Pour the olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet
3. Place the hot pepper rings onto the baking sheet, turning over on the pan to coat with the olive oil.
4. Throw the garlic cloves into the pan.
5. Sprinkle with coarse salt .
6. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Check on them every five minutes or so to ensure that the peppers aren't browning too quickly. If they are, lower the heat to 400 degrees.
7. Remove from oven and pour the rings and oil into a glass jar or bowl.

Excellent in egg dishes, pasta salads or mixed into a green salad with nuts and cheese.

Rice Pasta Salad with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Raw Garlic

Fresh raw tomato, walnuts and raw garlic mixed with hot pasta creates a perfect late summer dish.

I used to make this dish once a week. It fell out of my repertoire a few years back. When these lovely tomatoes showed up in my weekly fruit and veggie delivery box, I was reminded of this recipe.

If it wasn't already apparent, I love to photograph food. I had a great time working on this pasta salad. Maybe it's my back-to-school attitude, or the changing light now that Fall is around the corner, but something shifted when I was shooting this week.

I've become more confident in what I'm shooting, how I'm shooting it and what is ultimately ending up on this site as final images. It has freed me from worrying whether or not I got the shot because I now know that I need to trust that when I download the photos to the computer, the right images will be there.

This version of Non-Reactive Pan was launched the first week in September of 2011. I had 468 visitors that month. Right now, I'm averaging 1500 visitors a month. It has been a good year. I'm excited to see what this next year will bring and so happy to have found my groove while shooting, cooking and of course eating.

Thanks for visiting!

Rice Pasta with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Garlic

INGREDIENTS

• 1 to 2 cups tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup walnuts
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste

PREPARATION

1. Place olive oil, tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, walnuts, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
2. Prepare enough pasta for two people, drain and pour into the bowl.
3. Mix well, let the mixture sit for five minutes, to help soften the tomatoes and mellow the garlic flavor.

Cook’s Notes: Quinoa, barley or couscous works well with this recipe, instead of pasta.

Almond Milk Gluten Free Baked Donuts....No, They ARE Good!

Look at these here baked donuts, made with almond milk and gluten free flour. Delicious, right?

It's our twice monthly Cook the Book. We are cooking our way through every chapter of Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book. There are six of us participating in the project: Rachel of Ode to Goodness, Sammy of Rêve du Jour, Emily of The Bon Appetit Diaries, Aimee of Homemade Trade and Claudie of The Bohemian Kitchen.

My mom, Gran Fran, made fried donuts just once that I can recall. She has a big fear of somehow burning down her kitchen while working with hot oil, cooking anything fatty in the oven, or, come to think of it, anything other than pasta or potatoes. For a woman who spends so much time in the kitchen, she certainly isn't comfortable with any kind of volatile cooking.

When I mentioned I was making donuts, she, in NY, said to me, in SF:

"Make sure you open all the windows, have the fire extinguisher handy, and maybe let the neighbors know you're frying something, so in case there's some kind of fire, they can help you."

I'm the youngest of five, two of us live 3,000 miles away from Gran Fran. She has been giving me these long distance words of wisdom for 20 years. I can only image what kind of in-person guidance my NY siblings get from her.

When I was in New York for my parents 50th wedding anniversary, one of the granddaughters made a list of all the Gran-Fran and Joe-isms she could think of, along with some input from the other 10 grandkids and my sisters and brother. Let me tell you, there were a good number, none of which included any reference to the fire extinguisher. Wish I had remembered to bring that one up when the list was put together.

Two quotes stand out in the lineup:

1. "I'll make you a plate."

2. "Make sure you lock the top lock."

The first quote is a straightforward example of Gran Fran always making sure we are well fed, to the point of needing to switch into our stretchy pants.

The second refers to always locking all the locks on the door, especially the top lock. Whenever she would leave us alone, she'd lock the door behind her and get in the car. Next thing you hear is her banging on the back door yelling "Make sure you lock the top lock." This inevitably scared the heck out of us as we had already locked the top lock, and were not expecting a re-appearance of Gran Fran. (A friend sent me this link of S**t Italian Moms Say.  Make it to the very end, you'll see why).

With Gran Fran's warning in my ear, I opted out on frying the donuts and instead chose a baked donut recipe. This is the second time I've tried baking donuts. The consistency is more like a cake donut, not so air filled, denser. I prefer a nice cake donut, so it's perfect for my taste. If you like an airier donut, you probably want to stick to frying.

Almond Milk Gluten-Free Baked Donuts

adapted from Marion Cunnigham’s The Breakfast Book, Copyright 1987, Alfred A. Knopf

Ingredients

•     2 packages dry yeast
•      1/3 cup warm water
•      1½ cups almond milk
•      1/3 cup vegetable shortening
•      ¼ cup sugar
•      2 teaspoons salt
•      2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
•      2 eggs, lightly beaten
•      4½ cups all-purpose flour, approximately (I used Gluten-Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour Mix)
•      ½ cup melted butter
•      1 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl and let it dissolve for 5 minutes.  Put the milk and shortening in a saucepan and heat until the shortening is melted.  Cool to lukewarm.  Pour the yeast mixture into large mixing bowl and add the milk mixture.  Stir in the ¼ cup sugar, salt, nutmeg, eggs, and 2 cups flour.  Beat briskly until well blended.  Add the remaining 2½ cups flour and beat until smooth.

Cover the bowl and let double in bulk, about 1 hour.  Dust a board generously with flour and turn the dough mass onto it.  The dough is soft and needs enough flour on the board to prevent sticking, but is easy to handle.  Pat the dough into a round about ½ inch thick.  Use a 3-inch doughnut cutter to cut out the doughnuts, placing them (and the doughnut holes) on greased baking sheets, 1 inch apart.  These don't spread much; they rise.

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.  Let the doughnuts rest and rise for 20 minutes, uncovered.  Bake about 10 minutes, or a little longer, until they have a touch of golden brown.  Remove them from the oven.

Have ready the melted butter and a brush.  On a sheet of waxed paper spread the cinnamon sugar.  Brush each doughnut and doughnut hole with butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar.  Serve hot.

Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Figs

Grilled Proscuitto wrapped figs are wonderful. It's like a kind of salted candy with just the right combination of soft and crunchy.

 I came to love figs way later in life. They are a major favorite of mine. My mom, Gran Fran, talked a lot about the fig tree her aunts and uncles had in their yard in Brooklyn when she was growing up. A co-worker from the East Coast totally related to her story about the covering of the fig tree in winter. His older relatives also covered the fig tree in the winter, the nonnas (grandmas) bossing the nonnos (grandpas) and generally taking charge of the tree covering.

When her brother retired a few years back, he moved out to Oaklahoma from New York. I wonder if it took Uncle (as he's known to me) a bit to get used to it way out there away from New York. Could be. But, I do know that he now has a garden, with a fig tree featured prominently in it. What a lovely reminder of their childhood.

I've taken to making figs many ways: in pizza, as part of a jam or two, in a sandwich, on a pastry and now grilled with prosciutto. If I ate cheese, I'd add some into the soft interior of the fig before wrapping it in the prosciutto.

You can also make these in a hot oven, making sure to turn them over a few times since the juice from the figs will release and make them stew instead of broil. The flavor is the same, but I prefer the grilled version since the figs become super soft while the prosciutto becomes a bit crispy.

 Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Figs

Ingredients:

• 10 figs cut in half
• 10 slices Prosciutto, cut in half
• 20 toothpicks

Method:

1. Get your grill super hot (if using an oven, preheat to 425 degrees, with a  rimmed baking sheet in the oven).
2. Wrap each half fig with a half piece of Prosciutto and secure with a toothpick.
3. Cook on first side for up to 4 minutes, until starting to crisp.
4. Turn over and cook an additional 4 minutes, until second side is browned and crispy.
5. Remove from heat (or oven) and serve.
6. Tastes great on toasted baguette, over salad or just on their own!