Etta's Eggs Bennie with Dungeness Crabmeat and Chipotle Hollandaise

Hello? Yummy surprise!!! I just got my Tom Douglas e-newsletter and he included a recipe for this benny that I had one Sunday for brunch at Etta's in Seattle.

You know, I had seen Tom Douglas in a fleeting moment cruising over Iron Chef America. I remember seeing this chef prepare and talk about things in a way that just, I dunno, reverberated. I never did get to figure out who he was at the time cause I didn't get to see the whole episode. Then one day when we were looking for a good brunch place before hitting Pike Place Market in Seattle, we stumbled upon Etta's. Then I saw his face on a cookbook they were selling at the restaurant on all that is crab cakes and I thought "Oh my god! It's him!!!!" Best brunch ever. Baked goods were amazing, too. I would love to check out his other restaurants, but in the meantime will enjoy:

Etta's Eggs Bennie with Dungeness Crabmeat and Chipotle Hollandaise
For a luxurious winter brunch, try this customer favorite from Etta’s menu. The blender hollandaise is a breeze and you can make it as hot and spicy as you like. If your Valentine’s date turns into a sleepover (lucky you!), this is a great, sexy breakfast for the morning after. For 2 servings, make the full amount of hollandaise (because that works best in the blender) and cut the rest of the ingredients in half.

Serves 4
For the chipotle hollandaise:1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)2 egg yolks2 tablespoons very hot water2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice1 teaspoon seeded and minced canned chipotle en adobo, or to tastekosher salt.

For the rest of the eggs bennie:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter4 ounces spinach leaves, washed, dried, and stems trimmed (about 8 cups loosely packed leaves)6 ounces fresh crabmeat, picked over for bits of shell4 English muffins, split and toasted8 eggs, poached

To make the hollandaise, place the 1 cup of butter in a saucepan and melt it over medium heat. Put the yolks in a blender and blend for a few seconds. Slowly add the hot water to the yolks and blend a few seconds more. In a thin steady stream, gradually add the hot butter to the blender, blending until the sauce is emulsified. (You can pour the melted butter from the saucepan into a Pyrex measuring cup to make it easier to add it to the blender. But be sure to add the butter to the blender container while it is still hot.) Add the lime juice and chipotle, and season to taste with salt. Keep the hollandaise warm, over a pan of hot water or in a thermos.

Put the 2 tablespoons butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the spinach leaves and cook gently a few minutes just until they begin to wilt. Push the spinach to one side of the pan and add the crab. Heat the crab very gently for a moment, then remove the pan from the heat.
Put the split, toasted English muffins on 4 warm plates. Top each muffin half with some of the spinach, then with the warm crabmeat. Then top each muffin half with a poached egg. Ladle hollandaise over each egg and serve immediately.

Turkey Chili

I made this recipe for the large Haney family Christmas. I had lots of requests for the recipe, so I e-mailed it on but realized I should also post it. Here it is! I made both our family recipe of beef chili and this turkey chili in order to have enough to feed 15, plus some non-red meat eaters. The recipe is a twist on a turkey chili I read of Rachel Ray's on her web site. It is quite healthy, very tasty, and freezes well.

Turkey Chili
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1.5-2 pounds ground turkey
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoons grill seasoning blend
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 to 3 tablespoons hot sauce (or about 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper instead, my preference)
1 large onion, chopped roughly
2 large peppers, any color (I like red or orange myself!), chopped
1-1 1/2 cups chopped zucchini
1 can of mixed beans with juice
1 small can of sweet corn (reserve the juice)
1 can tomato soup plus 1/3 can of water

Heat a pot over medium to medium high heat. Add olive oil and the turkey meat. Season the meat with: grill seasoning and let cook for a couple of minutes. Add chili powder, cumin, Worcestershire, and hot sauce/cayenne. Break up the meat into small crumbles. Brown meat 5 minutes, then add the chopped onion, peppers, and zucchini and cook 10 minutes more. Add tomato soup and water and bring to a bubble. Add beans with juice and the canned corn (reserve the corn juice) and let chili simmer 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and spice heat level to your taste. If it needs to thin out, add canned corn juice. Remove from heat and serve. Serves 8-10. Freezes well.

I also sometimes add a bit of brown sugar (not more than 1 tablespoon) so it is a good mix of richer sweet (but not too sweet!) and heat.

I realize now that I don't think we have even officially recipe tested our family beef chili. Carlyn finds it average, but everyone loved it. I think it's a keeper. Car, did you want to try the beef chili and compare?

XMAS Recipes cont'd

Today's posting is another one of my recipes for the XMAS dinner that we had. This one is the amazing: Maple Pecan Orange and Green Salad with Pecan Garlic Dressing. I received the recipe from a friend of mine about 7 years ago who, in turn, had found it in the 5th annual recipe contest with the Edmonton Journal. Here it goes.

1/2 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch of spinach
1 can mandarin oranges
1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 cup pecan halves

In a non-stick skillet combine pecans and maple syrup. Cook on medium heat until pecans are coated with syrup and carmelized. Remove and cool on a plate that has been coated with cooking spray. Tear greens and put in bowl with oranges, onions and pecans. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
8 pecan halves
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste.

In a blender combine all ingredients and process until well blended. Add dressing to salad mix and serve immediately.

Personal notes: I used more pecans and more maple syrup when making this recipe. Plus, I kind of toasted the pecans in the skillet prior to adding the maple syrup to ensure that I had the "roasted" flavor.

French Onion Soup -the recipe

Serves one (jason doesn't like it so I never make it for him)

1 large onion or 2 medium ones sliced (into rings)
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tsp sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder to taste
1.5 cups beef broth or OXO to make that amount with water
1 slice of white bread
1/3 cup grated provolone, mozza or swiss
Sprinkle of kraft grated parm or real parm

Saute onions in butter in saucepan over medium heat until wilted and carmelized. add sugar and garlic powder and saute for a minute or two more. Add beef broth. Salt and pepper to taste. simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes to blend flavors. Meanwhile toast the toast and grate the cheese and preheat oven or toaster oven to broil. Place soup in oven proof bowl, top with toast and grated cheese. Place under broiler and broil until cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven and top with additional parmesan cheese if desired. Serve.

French Onion Soup starts it off

It’s a new year, a new day…ready to divide and conquer family recipes and take them to the ultimate food tasting level at Vancouver and Sherwood Park’s Test Kitchen.

Car sends me our latest quest: French Onion Soup. This is a good way to ease into 2008. A soup! A soup comprised of onions and broth, pretty easy – so I think to myself. This soup is actually one of the easier comfort foods I can think of making; however, on Sunday the task proved to be a bit more challenging. Believe it or not, I hadn't made this before even though it is one of my favorites.

First off, I need French Onion Soup bowls. I mean, how can you make this soup without the bowls? I barely, I mean barely made it into a kitchen store as its closing that afternoon, and probably paid double what I needed, however they are nice, good quality bowls that would be put to the test in mere hours!

The recipe Car provided was for one serving, but hey, it’s easy to double a recipe – so I think to myself. Well, only if you can read the recipe correctly...

After cutting up my onions, watching them carmelize, and taking in the fragrant mouthwatering smell, I get out my beef broth. Mmph-- 25% less salt. I already know I am not going to like less salt in my broth for this one, but that’s alright because I can always adjust the seasonings when done. Just then I add too much garlic salt. Hah! I was doubling and then miscalculated my doubling of what I read. Apparently can’t read.

I eventually end up tweaking and adjusting ad nauseum between various amounts of salt, OXO(because 25% less salt doesn’t cut it!) and sugar. It was reminiscent of a bad hairdo that you can’t leave alone and you keep adding too much product until then it feels like you need to wash and start over. Well, I guess it wasn’t that bad…but at the time it felt like it. The recipe testing pressure was too much! Then to top top off the average experience thus far, I had Romano cheese to melt on top which wasn’t any of the cheese options that Car provided like swiss, etc. I did; however, get the toasted french bread right.

In the end, I felt like a cheat on this recipe test but it was all worth it when the spoon hit my mouth. Yummy, cheesey, onion tasty goodness.

French Onion soup - naked

The most recent culinary challenge was the creation of my french onion soup. As it is January - the month of resolutions of fitness and weight loss - I elected to make the soup without the bread and cheese on top. Yes, I know that I just took all of the fun out of this recipe - but you know, it was really good anyway. And now it is my new recipe: Naked onion soup

The Rotato Express

Unbelievable! In only 20 seconds (yes, 20 seconds because I timed it) the potato goes from with skin to skinned:

Okay, so I have to admit...it's a kitchen gadget I asked for this Christmas. I was prepared to be unconvinced about the value, because how hard is it to peel a potato? But I really don't like peeling potatoes or apples, so I wanted to give it a try and Santa delivered. I thought to myself -- quit being lazy, but, really, how different is this than an electric can opener?

Well, I tried it for the first time this week and I am a believer. I don't think I would try anything to gnarly on it, but I like what it did. It is quick, easy to use, and the peel is nice and thin. I actually think thinner than I usually do which reduces potato being wasted and I hate waste. Nice!

Paula Deen's Boursin Cheese Potatoes

Here is the veggie side dish that we did for the XMAS dinner. How could one resist Boursin cheese potatoes... Like a scalloped potato with all of the goodness that one needs to make some hefty new year's resolutions not to be so hefty!

3 pounds red potatoes, unpeeled
salt and pepper to taste
1 pint heavy cream
one 5 oz package of boursin cheese
fresh chives or parsley for a garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and slice potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds (I used a mandolin to ensure that they were even). Toss potatoes with salt and pepper. Heat cream and cheese together on the stovetop until cheese has melted. Layer half of the potatoes into a 2 quart baking dish (better with a deep dish than a long flat one). cover the potatoes with half of the cream mixture, then layer the last of the potatoes on top. Finish with the last of the cream. Cover and back for one hour.

Note: as I was lacking oven space, I used the slowcooker for this dish. Cooked for approx 5 hours on low....think that the oven option might be better results but this was great in a pinch

Nigella's Chocolate Berry Pavlova

Over XMAS time Jason and I hosted a dinner for the inlaws and Jason's cousins. The menu turned out pretty well and I was asked to share some of the recipes. I thought that this would be as good a forum as any so I will slowly proceed to do so over the next few days (as I grab snatches of time between Grace's needy crying)

First up (I am going backwards) is dessert. It was a Chocolate Berry Pavlova from Nigella Lawson's book, Forever Summer. It is super easy but looks super impressive.

For the chocolate meringue base:
6 egg whites
300 g of sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder sifted
1 tsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
50 g of dark chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form and then add the sugar one spoonful at a time until stiff and shiny. sprinkle over the cocoa, vinegar and chocolate. Fold everything together gently. Then mound on the parchment paper in about a 23 cm diameter (personal note: do not exceed this diameter or it will spread too much. You also might want to draw the circle on the paper prior to doing this). Place in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 300 F and cook for 1 to 1.25 hours until meringue is crisp on edges and dry on top. When you push the center is should give slightly. Turn off the oven and leave the door ajar to cool completely.

For topping:
500 ml whipping cream
500 g fresh berries
2-3 tbsp of coarsely grated dark chocolate

When ready to serve, beat the cream until soft and thick. Pile it on the meringue. Then pile berries on top of that. Finally, grate the chocolate over top of the berries.

It is tremendous

God Bless and Happy New Year

January 2008: Dine Out Vancouver

Hawaiian Elk Chili

So I made this recipe recently for some Ground Elk that I had in the freezer. It is an awesome little chili - kind of a sweet and . sour sort of thing. Thought it would be good with ground beef or turkey/chicken so I thought I would pass it on. I can't take credit for it though, it came from the Alberta elk association.

1 to 1.5 pounds ground elk
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper
2 cans pork and beans
1 cup ketchup
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp mustard
3 tbsp vinegar
1 can pineapple tidbits in syrup
1 tbsp chili powder
1 can kidney beans

saute onion and ground meat until browned. Drain off fat. Add remaining ingredients and either bake in oven for 45 minutes or simmer in crockpot for 1.5-2 hours. Freezes well.