Category: microgreens

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Eggs and Cress

adding cress to scrambled eggs
Eggs and cress, these two just seem to be made for each other. Certainly the British feel so with their love of watercress on egg salad sandwiches for tea time. These curly cress are different that watercress. Watercress have a wide round leave and a more woody stem so what you find these days are baby watercress. Curly cress have a slender pointed leaf. They are a very pretty microgreen, whether served in food or sprinkled on top.
I think you can start the day beautifully  with lovely, soft eggs, scrambled and lightly tossed with beautiful, peppery curly cress microgreens. Who needs something with hollandaise sauce just to make a fancy breakfast dish? Of course a great bread, with or without gluten. For this breakfast I used a delicate kolach bread, but any bread with a slightly sweet, soft texture will make a tender toast. I buy our kolach from Robert and our eggs from Brenda. Both at thecurly cress microgreens Deville Market at North Cooking Lake.
I love La Vache qui Rit from Fromageries Bel.  It’s just about my favorite cream cheese. I’m also passionate about the combination of generous folds of delicate cold smoked salmon with scrambled eggs. My favorite is J. Willy Krauch & Sons smokehouse salmon, if you can find them. It’s a treat I enjoy any time I am down east. Going to the smokehouse is a guilty pleasure and well worth the drive, if you are taking a Maritime holiday. But I digress. If you aren’t a fish fan, a soft and mild prosciutto is also equal to the task.
Farm fresh country eggs are just about essential for a good scramble, as far as I’m concerned. Fresh eggs from a local coop almost always means the chickens were fed a better diet, frequently allowed to scratch for a living and are a happier chicken. All to give us eggs with a beautiful, upright yolk, a firm shell and just an all round better tasting, never mind more nutritious breakfast.
Of course we respect those eggs by cooking them over gentle heat, in butter, not oil, after having whipped them to fluffy perfection. Adding water to the eggs, not milk when whipping makes for a fluffy scrambled egg. The water will steam during the cooking process. The perfect scramble is pushed around the pan while cooking to keep it tender and soft, and still a bit runny. It shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes, making this a breakfast that doesn’t have to wait for the weekend. Note the addition of a tsp of water to the eggs. A lot of people add milk to scrambled eggs, but milk makes a tougher egg.
Ingredients per person:
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp of water
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 2 slices smoked salmon
  • 2 pinches of Curly Cress
  • 1 triangle of La Vache qui Rit
  • 1 slice kolach bread
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Whisk together eggs with the bit of water until light and fluffy.
  2. Heat a saute or fry pan over barely medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan.
  3. Make your toast, spreading with the cream cheese. Fold your salmon and place on the toast so you can see the edges of salmon draping over the toast. Eating is all about appearance, so it’s worth the extra couple seconds to make the first meal of your day pretty.
  4. Pour the eggs into the heated pan. Immediately and gently push around in the pan with a firm silicone spatula, don’t stir. The idea is to have nice, full, fluffy eggs. That requires a gentle touch. As soon as the eggs are showing signs of starting to set, sprinkle with the cress.
  5. Eggs should be just done, still having a slight creaminess to them. That will take barely 2 minutes.
  6. Mound the eggs onto the prepped toast and sprinkle with salt and pepper, as desired.
  7. Mmm, now that’s breakfast.
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Ahi Tuna with Sunflower Shoot Risotto

I’m on a bit of a mission. The question is constant, customers would like to know, besides the obvious, salads and sandwiches, how they can add more greens to their kitchen.  So my task, in this case, is how I can incorporate sunflower shoots into dinner because, well cress, dill, etc, those are pretty easy. But sunflower, that’s a little less obvious.  As a customer commented this weekend, she added bok choy greens to a recipe and it wasn’t the best flavour. I wanted to take advantage of the eye candy appeal of those round, crisp leaves. Sunflower shoots have the same delicious, nutty flavour as the seeds. It’s a taste millions have come to love.
Now combine this thought process with the inspiration from a recent conversation with Chef Sonny Sung, Bistecca, about pan toasting rice before making risotto. It’s the secret to taking rice from those bland white kernels, a supporting cast we bury in sauces, to a flavour infused part of our meal. I have to say, this was probably the best risotto I’ve ever made and really, and it didn’t change the length of time or effort to make.
Okay, we have crisp/tender, toasty flavoured arborio rice; crisp, nutty sunflower shoots; that just called for the ahi tuna steaks I had in the freezer, and….. garlic. I roasted the garlic to bring out its nuttiness, then combined with a good olive oil. If you have never had roasted garlic, it’s pretty easy to accomplish. Drizzle a bulb with a bit of oil, wrap in foil and toss in a 450 degree oven for about 30 min. As soon as you can smell it, it’s done. Use some of that, olive oil and a bit of butter to toast the rice. Brush the steaks lightly with the garlic oil and pan sear. Toss sunflower shoots into the riscotto just before plating. Sounds really good and I haven’t hit the stove yet.
Rice serves 4. One tuna steak, or a protein of choice per person.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup white wine
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup sunflower shoots (about 1/2  a 5×5 square)
1 tuna steak per person
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. To roast garlic, cut the top off a bulb, exposing the cloves. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, or another oil if you prefer. Wrap in foil and place in oven. Turn off the oven. It will stay hot long enough to gently roast the garlic, without the risk of overcooking. Take the garlic out when you can smell it. Usually that is roughly 30 minutes.  To remove the cooked garlic easily, turn the bulb over  a plate and squeeze from the bottom.
  2. Blend garlic and olive oil. Set a bit aside to garnish the plate, about a tsp for each plate.
  3. Brush garlic oil on both sides of each tuna steak and set aside to marinate. I marinated them for about an hour.
  4. Combine chicken stock, lemon juice, and white wine.
  5. Harvest the sunflower shoots and rinse. Set aside. Remember before combining with the rice to keep a few to garnish the plates.
  6. In saute pan over medium heat add a couple tbsp of the garlic oil and the tsp of butter.

    cooking with microgreens
    Toasted rice for risotto.
  7. When the butter is melted add the rice. Push around in the pan until the tips of the rice are toasted.
  8. Set the timer for 20 minutes. Add about half of the stock to the toasted rice and simmer and stir until the stock is almost taken up by the rice. It is a good a idea to give the pan a shake occasionally. At this point you will be slowly adding the remaining stock and stirring. Rice is cooked when it still has just a bit of bite to it.
  9. During the last few minutes of the rice cooking, heat another saute pan for the tuna steaks. It’s ready when a drop of water bounces around the pan from the heat.
  10. You have 3 minutes from the time the steaks go on, until they are seared. Tuna steaks are served rare, overcook and you will basically have canned tuna taste. Place the steaks straight down in the pan and set the time for 1.5 minutes. Don’t move until the timer goes off. Turn the steaks and set the timer for another 1.5 minutes.  Add the sunflower shoots to the rice. Toss lightly to combine and spoon onto the plates.
  11. Remove the steaks from the heat and plate. Garnish with the remaining sunflower shoots. Add a swoosh of the garlic oil to decorate the plate.
  12. Serve and prepare for the oohs and aaahs.