Bae's Scrambled Eggs

Confession time.

I haven't always been a foodie. 

For a long time, I was perfectly happy eating breakfast wraps from Starbucks and ice cream from the frozen food section of Walgreens. It was actually PIF who got me to really start viewing cooking and dining as an art. See, PIF grew up in India and then held fancy internships all throughout college that gave him exposure to great food (think The Fat Duck, Eleven Madison Park, and Indian Accent). He'd also followed chefs like Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay and had learned the basics of French cooking. When we first met, PIF (who was new to Chicago) would thoroughly research restaurants in city and take me to the best ones we could afford. Perhaps more importantly, he would also cook me food the "right" way. This was how I learned that I'd always been eating overcooked fish and dry scrambled eggs.

This recipe, which PIF adapted from an episode of a Gordon Ramsay TV show (let's be real, it's hard to keep them all straight) is simple yet delicate and refined, making it a perfect brunch dish. It's also easy to make in large quantities if you're entertaining.



Bae's Scrambled Eggs
Inspired by Gordon Ramsay

Cook time: approximately 20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 T of butter
1 T heavy cream
salt
white pepper
(optional) finely chopped chives
crusty bread

1. Add butter and eggs to a cold sauce pan.
2. Turn on low medium heat. Add eggs and whisk ingredients continuously as pan heats.
3. Keep whisking until scramble thickens. To prevent overcooking, lift pan off the heat for 10 seconds every so often while continuously stirring.
4. When folds begin to form and eggs are no longer watery (but still wet), remove pan from heat, add cream, and continue stirring. (Around this time, begin to toast slices of the crusty bread however you see fit. If toasting in the oven, make sure to preheat prior to beginning to cook the eggs.)
5. When cream is fully mixed, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve with toasted bread and garnished with finely chopped chives 


Want to take really this recipe to the next level? We love serving this dish with decadent roasted tomatoes, peppers, and red onions we can smear on the bread along with our eggs.

The *Best* Roasted Veggies

Cook time: 30 minutes
Serves 2

2 red onions, cut into thick disks (approximately 3-4 disks per onion)
2-4 tomatoes on the vine, dependent on preference
2 whole red bell peppers
olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees (F).
2. Without separating the rings, in a baking sheet with edges, place onions evenly spaced and, using a basting brush (the back of a spoon works too) coat both sides of the disk with a little olive oil. (Both onions should only require 2 t or so.) Also season each onion with the teeniest pinch of salt and pepper. If you do not have a gas stove, don't despair, just coat tomatoes and peppers with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place on baking sheet as well.
3. As onions begin roasting, char first the peppers and then the tomatoes by turing the stove on high heat and placing the vegetables on the grate. As a side blackens, use tongs to flip the veggie to the next side.
4. When all four sides are nice and charred and the pepper is getting squishy, place them in a metal bowl and top with a plate. Do the same with the tomatoes, which will take less time (since they're already quite squishy.) You'll know they're ready when the skin begins to break.*
5. Once all the veggies are done, toss very gently with a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil and throw in the oven with the onions.
6. When onions are slightly brown on top, remove pan. Once they've cooled a bit, remove the skin from the peppers and use tongs to move peppers and tomatoes and a spatula to remove the onion disks to a serving plate. These veggies are great alone, so feel free to just smear them on toast. Otherwise, serve with the egg dish above!

Enjoy!

*Feast did a fantastic video about how to blacken veggies on the stove, which you can watch here


Austin City Limits 2015

It literally took me a full week to mentally digest, reassess, and prepare this post about our trip to Austin, Texas for Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL).

If there's one thing PIF and I love nearly as much as food, it's music, and Weekend 2 of ACL could not have been more perfectly designed for us. I survived high school in part by listening to Modest Mouse and meanwhile, PIF has been listening to one of his favorite artists, Deadmau5, for 10 years (I know, lots of mice up in here -- my dad has already made that joke).

Both Modest Mouse and Deadmau5 were playing during Weekend 2, and, if it couldn't get any more perfect, Modest Mouse was the set right before Deadmau5 on the exact same stage. We'd never seen Modest Mouse together, but when PIF and I saw Deadmau5 together for the first time nearly a year ago, it was a night that *cliche alert* changed our lives -- or at least our relationship (though I suppose they are one in the same). Deadmau5 was also doing an after-show, and we had gotten tickets to that so we'd be able to see his DJ set in a smaller venue. For these reasons alone, plus the chance to eat all we could in a new and fabulous food city, this was set to be a really special weekend.

Austin far exceeded our expectations.

When we reluctantly had to return home, we left agreeing that the best thing about Austin is that the food scene is so wonderfully creative. And I'm not just talking about the high-end, Michelin-starred, famously avant garde restaurants. Even the most affordable little cafes -- nay, even the food stalls at the festival -- were doing things we had never seen before.

Here are some of the highlights:

// Vox Table //

Smoked Hamachi Pipettes



As tasty as they are pretty and interesting - You slide all the speared goodies off with your teeth and then shoot the sauce inside the pipette into your mouth. 


Braised Akaushi Oxtail



We couldn't resist - oxtail isn't something you come by often. And this oxtail was so perfectly cooked, it literally melted in your mouth. And the little potato pillows were fantastic as well. 

// Odd Duck //

Raisin toast, pork belly, pb&j, fried egg, blue cheese, tomato jam





This dish shouldn't work. But it does. Oh, but it does. PIF and I ate in stunned silence. Buttery pork belly with all the other fixings - this dish was gluttony incarnated. And yet, because it was somehow perfectly balanced, it was surprisingly light.

Hot & Crunchy - Avocado


Photo via Instagram by @thesimplesol

Everywhere we looked people were carrying tortilla-wrapped fried goodness stuck inside a cone cup that looks like something you pull from a water cooler. We finally got ourselves one and immediately regretted not getting these at the fest all weekend. Huge chunks of fried avocado, topped with all sorts of goodies, wrapped in a beautifully fresh tortilla and stuck in a paper cone that allows eaters to keep their hands clean! Brilliant! 
(Side note: The Mighty Cone is the reason I developed a cardinal rule of music festivals -- only buy food from stalls that have a food truck. Why? They know how to either prepare food in a small space or know how to prep food that had to be transported.)

Chile Spiked Watermelon 


Photo via Instagram by @acleats

It was f*ing hot, we were probably dehydrated, and since we hadn't yet discovered The Mighty Cone, we didn't want to risk spending $10 on a shitty taco and the lines for smoothies and ice cream were about 100 people long. And that's when I saw him. A man carrying a giant wedge of watermelon, covered in a deep red powder, walking away from a stall with a line only a few people long. We walked triumphantly past the hoards waiting for ice cream, because just from the smell of it, we knew this was going to be good. At it was. The only pit fall? Big hunks of juicy watermelon covered in red dust is really, really messy. Which is why I've adapted it to this much more white-shirt-friendly version:


Chile Spiked Watermelon (clean version)



Ingredients 
(per 2 cups watermelon)

watermelon
zest & juice from 1/4 of a lime 
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
(less if you're weak -- just kidding. But 1/8 tsp will be pretty hot & spicy) 
1/8 tsp salt
a few pinches of pepper
mint (optional)

1. Cut watermelon into bite-sized cubes.
2. Grind together lime zest, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper using a mortar and pestle, or use the back of a spoon, until it's a uniform dust.
3. In a large ziplock bag, add watermelon and lime juice. Shake it up.
4. In small batches, add dust and shake bag after each addition so that chunks get evenly coated. Repeat until all the dust has been added and watermelon cubes are evenly coated. 
5. Place in refrigerator and allow to sit for 30-60 mins. (This will allow the juices to soak in and the cooler watermelon is more refreshing, in my opinion. However, if you don't want to wait, by all means go ahead and eat! It's still very tasty.)
6. (optional) Top with chopped mint.
7. Serve!


Not-Your-Grandma's Oatmeal



Somehow over the years, warm oatmeal got a bad rep and cold overnight oats took over. This is truly a shame because overnight oats do not hold a candle against this decadent breakfast, no matter how much Nutella you shove into that mason jar.

Not-Your-Grandma's Oatmeal
cook time: 1 hour (or 1 minute if you plan ahead)

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup water
salt
1/2 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
2 T ricotta
2 dates

Instructions
  1. Add a healthy pinch of salt to the water and bring to boil in a sauce pan. (Note: use one size larger than you think you need to avoid overflow and messy stove tops.)
  2. When at full boil, sprinkle in oats and stir until oats begin to thicken (about 4-5 minutes).
  3. Chop the dates into little chunks.
  4. When oats thicken, bring heat to a simmer, cover and let sit until water has been absorbed and oats are thick and sticky (approximately just under an hour).
  5. While still hot, stir in cinnamon and brown sugar.
  6. Spoon finished oats into a bowl. Top with ricotta and dates.
  7. (optional) Eat while wrapped in a really big, warm blanket.

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