Perfect boiled eggs

Once upon a time I was so annoyed by my boiled eggs that I went out and found how to make the perfect boiled egg. I wanted a method that would not crack the shell and that would create less mess, use less energy and, of course, not make my yolk black (or green for that matter). And although I found the perfect method it was still not good enough for my daughters. They never liked eggs even before they knew what eggs were. My oldest would not eat cakes or quiches or anything with eggs in it when she was very little. And I mean so little that she didn't know what an egg was! After a lot of effort we managed to get them to eat eggs. Some times we just feel that they need a bit of protein and this is our quick fix. Up until recently one of them would only eat them scrambled and the other fried!

I still like my boiled eggs so I decided to make a few for dinner. I was feeling tiered so I only cut up two eggs. I figured only me and my husband were going to eat them so why spend the time and effort to make more.

So I was a bit surprised when the girls asked me to pass the boiled eggs. Since they were interested I passed them over and, after asking if it was okay to eat the whole egg since there were only two (they can be super sweet some times), they devoured them. I was okay with that. I trotted back to the kitchen and procured two more eggs for us adults.

I asked my kids, why now. What made them even want to try the eggs? The answer I got was that "well when they look that good how can we not like them". I mean I know people say that you eat with your eyes but this is a bit extreme. Going from "do I have to?" to "can I have more?"

So because of this surprise, and because Easter is around the corner, I figured I'll just share my egg boiling/serving method.

To boil your eggs place them in a saucepan so that the eggs are in one layer on the bottom. It's best if there are enough eggs to cover the surface. Pour in cold water until it covers the eggs + 1 inch or 2.5 cm. Put on high heat without covering and bring the water to the boil. Once it boils remove the pan from the heat, put the lid on it. Let it stand for 6 minutes. With a large egg this will give you an egg that is halfway between a soft boiled and hard boiled egg. For a hard boiled egg leave for 10 minutes.
Remove from the water, cool (to stop the cooking process), shell and eat.

Persian Omelette (Spinach and Potato Omelette)

Well now it is time for another one of those easy delicious meals. Fresh spinach seems to have become more available and less dirty. I remember using only fresh spinach in  the USA and not liking to cook with it, even though it was a favourite. It always took me so long to get all the sand out. And I do quite plainly remember that when we first came to Germany the spinach was equally as gritty. Thus I switched over to frozen spinach, but as I've said before nothing beats the fresh stuff. So if you have the time use fresh spinach to make this omelette. If you don't, it's still worth making it, because as my teenager said last night "This is really good" and I was using frozen spinach!

Preparation time: 3/4 hour; serves 2-4

Ingredients:

450 g	Fresh spinach OR
225 g	Frozen spinach
225 g	Potatoes
3 tbsp.	Oil
50 g	Onion
4	Eggs
1/2	Organic lemon
	Salt and pepper

Method:

First and foremost note that the preparation time does not include cleaning the fresh spinach. Depending on the state of it you can add on between 5 and 30 minutes!

Secondly note that this used to be plenty for the four of us but that was a while ago. Yesterday we ate it with a loaf of bread and it was enough food, but if this is all you are serving for a person with a normal appetite you may only get 2 portions out of it. You can also use it as a starter, in which case you should get 8 small servings. Another idea would be to cut it into cubes, stick tooth picks in it and serve it as finger food.

And a small third note before you get started. You need a lid for your frying pan. If you don't have one fashion one out of aluminium foil before you get started.

Fresh spinach: put the clean and still wet spinach into a pot with a lid and cook on medium for about 5 minutes or until the spinach is tender.

Frozen spinach: put in the microwave for 1 minute. Check if it is defrosted, if not put it in for another minute. Continue until the spinach is defrosted. The good thing about this recipe is that you don't mind if the spinach is cooked, or how well it is cooked. So you don't have to waste your time using the defrost setting of your microwave. If you do use the defrost setting you will be adding on a considerable amount of time to the preparation time.

While your spinach is cooking/defrosting you can peel and dice your potatoes and onions. The smaller you dice your potatoes the quicker they will cook and the better the omelette will hold together when cut. I cut mine really fine, maybe about 2-3 mm dice. ("Dice" just means cut into cubes.) The onions you can cut a bit larger.

By now the spinach is either cooked or defrosted. You now have to squeeze out as much water as possible. I use the method of squeezing it between two plates. It works especially well if your spinach is hot, as is the case in this recipe, because you don't have to touch it. Place all the spinach on a regular sized plate. Put an identical plate on top of it. The second plate should NOT be upside down. Put it in the same orientation as if you were stacking the plates for storage. Then hold the plates over the sink, perpendicular to the ground, and squeeze hard. I shake mine a bit to get the excess liquid out faster.

You can now let your spinach stand for a bit while you finish dicing the onions and the potatoes. Once you are done dicing them put a heavy bottomed frying pan or skillet on the cooker on medium high and add 2 tbsp. oil. Once the oil is hot add the potatoes and fry for 5 minutes. To make them evenly brown you will need to stir them every now and then. After 5 minutes add the onions and continue to fry until the potato is just tender. Here again, how long this takes will depend on the size of your dice.  For me it took 5 minutes but it could take up to 10 (unless you have REALLY large dice!). Remove from the heat and set aside.

Now while the potatoes and onions are frying it's the perfect opportunity to finely chop the spinach and put the rest of the omelette together.

In a large bowl lightly beat the eggs. Then grate the rid of half of the lemon and add it to the eggs. Because you are using the rind you have to check carefully if the rind is suitable to eat. If it is organic it probably is, hence I try to always use organic lemon. But even some non-organic lemons have a note on them saying that the rind can be eaten. If you use non-organic ones and it does not say anything I would be cautious and not use the rind. Then add the juice of half the lemon, the spinach and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything well and then add the fried potato and onion and mix.

If you like, once the omelette is cooked you can put it under a grill to make the top a bit brown. If you want to do this make sure that for the next step you use a frying pan or skillet that can be put under the grill. If you don't have such a frying pan, don't fret you can just leave the grill out altogether. It will do nothing to the taste.

Heat your frying pan over medium heat and add the oil if necessary. If you use the same pan that you used to fry the potatoes it is highly likely that you have enough oil in the pan. I usually do. Once the oil is hot add the mixture. Put a lid on the frying pan. If you don't have a lid cover it with foil. Cook gently until the egg is just set i.e. no longer soggy. The bottom of the omelette should not burn if you keep the heat on medium. It takes 10-15 minutes to set.

If you like you can now stick the whole thing under the grill to brown the top.

I served this with a fresh loaf of pumpkin seed bread and salted butter. It was a hit! But you could also serve it with a salad.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Easter Brunch

This year was an early Easter, why it was not even April yet. The flowers had not started blooming and nor had the trees. An Easter egg hunt in the garden was out of the question since our garden looks like a pig sty, literally! Its just missing the pigs (although when my kids go out to play .... ). We invited all my husbands siblings to come over this Easter so that they could check out our new house (or so we could show it off maybe, or maybe just force ourselves to finish the details!!). So we had an Easter brunch. I don't know why but we always have brunch for Easter.

Ham and lamb are of course not on the menu!!

This is what we had:

Hot Cross Buns:

Going fast, as usual! I make these delicious spicy buns once a year on account of their time consuming preparation. Let to rise around 4 times they are super light and fluffy but you need a whole day to make them. Of course you could stress yourself out (like I did this year) and try making them early morning! If you do plan at least 4 hours (needless to say brunch was more like lunch!). Easter would not be the same without them.

Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary

Super easy and gone before you can get a second serving! Scrub the spuds, put them in a oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil and add salt, pepper and fresh rosemary to taste. Mix everything up and bake at 180 C in a fan oven for ... oh lets say ... until they are tender (depends on the size of the spuds, mine took around 50 minutes). Give them a turn after around 20 minutes to make sure everything is coated with oil.

Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Mushroom Risotto

My very own recipe! Inspired by my Georgian friend who stuffed tomatoes for us the week before. They look oh so pretty. I made a mushroom risotto to fill them with using 3 different types of mushroom, portobello, brown button and oyster. Then I topped them with Parmesan cheese. I loved them but I couldn't get my kids to touch them. "Mum what's inside the tomatoes?"; "mushroom risotto"; "Yuck!". At some point I will post my mushroom risotto recipe but it might take a while because I've given up cooking it since this is the usual response. See "Risotto and My Kids"

Mini Cheese Omelets

Made in my pancake pans filled simply with grated Swiss Emmental. For the batter whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of milk (you can use soy or lactose free) and a pinch of salt to make one small omelet. Rub the frying pan with oil, pour in the batter and then sprinkle it with cheese. To make sure that the top of the omelet also cooks put a lid on the frying pan. When it is almost cooked fold the omelet in half pressing down to make it stick together. If you wait until the omelet is completely cooked it won't stick together. Put the lid on again if necessary and cook until done. Simple and delicious!! And yes, my kids ate them :)

Boiled Eggs

Easter would not be Easter with out these. I did have more, I didn't have everyone on a diet, but they got eaten before I was done with the rest of the food. As I said, the hot cross buns took a bit longer and we had lunch instead of brunch!

Boiled eggs are simple to make but here is how to make them so that the egg yellow does not turn that dark grey colour.

Put the eggs in a pan with cold water. The water level should be one inch higher than the eggs. Put the pot to boil without a lid. Once the water boils remove the pan from the heat, cover with a lid and let it sit for 6 - 8 minutes. Then wash the eggs under cold water to stop them from cooking. You will find that there is no grey colouring :) 

Have fun next Easter and try to make it a vegetarian one!