spork me

French Herb Omelet with Avocado and Tomato

This round at the omelet worked much better, mostly because the stove worked. Served with avocado and tomato on a fresh roll.

Herb Omelet with Avocado

I saw a link to this video on how to make a French herb omelet on Eating Things with Noah, and after watching it a few times thought I’d give it a try. I made some no-rise bread, I chopped herbs, oiled the pan (I don’t have a small non-stick, so I attempted to “season” the All-Clad), and turned on the stove. It turned off. I turned on the stove again. Off. The electricity was flowing, but the heat wasn’t coming on. Bugger.

Into the oven goes my 2 herb omelets, which I baked for about 7 minutes, stirring a bit 3 minutes in. With a slice of bread and some avocado, it was still nice, just a bit disappointing that my precious stove didn’t work.

After 3 days of testing it out to see if it was a fluke, the repairman came at 8am… only to have the heat come straight on. Of course.

Arepas with Black Beans, Haloumi and Avocado

My trusty arepa recipe was amazing with grilled haloumi, black beans seasoned with a touch of cumin, and a few slices of avocado for breakfast. Goodbye, hangover.

Wagyu Steak Sandwich with Haloumi, Avocado and Chutney

Steak was seasoned with salt and pepper, sliced and grilled, and the haloumi grilled, before assembling and popping on the sandwich press. Yum.

Cilantro and Lime Poached Eggs with Avocado and Blue Potato Cakes

I’ve been trying to be more diligent about writing my recipes down while I’m actually making them. To be honest, the potato cakes are a bit of a blur, I’ve got a reasonable idea of how I made them, but if all else fails just wing it with what you have on hand. They’re fried, you can’t fail.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 avocado, sliced
5 eggs
3/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
3 medium blue potatoes (or any potatoes), boiled and mashed
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp soy sauce
Salt, pepper, and olive oil

In a bowl, mix the mashed potato, flour, soy sauce, 1/2 cup cilantro, 3/4 the lime juice, 1 egg, salt and pepper. Make 4 balls, flatten, and fry for 5-7 minutes on each side in a bit of olive oil.

Boil water in a pan. In the meantime, in glad wrap, make pouches of 1 egg, salt, pepper, a few drops of lime juice, and cilantro (splitting the remaining lime and cilantro between the 4 pouches). Lower the egg pouches into the water, at a low simmer, for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the water, and carefully remove the glad wrap. Serve on avocado and the potato cakes.

Salmon, Cilantro and Avocado Pasta

I wouldn’t typically put a nice piece of salmon in pasta dish, but here you go. It doesn’t taste too heavy with the cilantro and lime, and I used skim milk (gasp!), but I promise you it will be fine.

Ingredients:

Half box of spaghetti, boiled to package directions
2 large salmon fillets
2 cups of milk
1 cup of white wine
1 cup shredded cheese (I used Parmesan)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 red onion, sliced
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 avocado, cut in cubes
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Sear salmon, seasoned in salt and pepper, 2 minutes on each side in a bit of olive oil. Set aside.

In the salmon pan, saute onions in butter, once soft mix in the flour until the liquid is absorbed. Add the milk and wine and stir until the flour absorbs and it comes to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring, until thickened. Add the cheese and stir until melted.

Remove the skin from the salmon, and break into bite size pieces into the sauce. Mix in the coriander and lime juice, and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes more so the salmon is cooked through (it would have still be fairly raw), then mix in the avocado chunks and spaghetti. Serves 4.

Chili Chicken Tacos with Black Beans, Fresh Salsa and Avocado

I’m not super into skinless, boneless chicken breasts. They’re dry, and bland, and unlike real meat, they don’t have that same rich melt-in-your-mouth thing going on. I mostly just feel like I’m being cheated. We’ve got some foster kittens again at the moment, so I bought it to make a little piece for them, but didn’t entirely know what I was going to do with the rest. This was excellent and pretty quick to make, and you could serve with whatever you want in the tortilla. I heated up a can of black beans, mashed an avocado, and made a bowl of fresh salsa. Great leftover as well.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch by 2 inch strips (roughly)
1 chili, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
2 tsp salt
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Olive oil

With a mortar and pestle, smash up the chili, garlic and salt until it’s a paste. Add in the lemon, paprika, chili and coriander, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, and keep mashing. Mix into the chicken and set aside.

Heat up a bit of oil in a pan on medium heat, and cook the chicken for about 3-4 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Serve warm.

Mole Poblano

There is no doubt that this is a good recipe. It’s the first time I’ve worked with dried chili peppers, and it’ll be a while before I’m brave enough to do it again. A few things you should know;

The recipe cites to read the instructions on handling dried chili’s before you start. I couldn’t find them. They would have been effing useful. My face, my arm, my eyes, everything I touched burned. It was under my fingernails for 2 days despite the repeated scrubbing. Use gloves.
The instructions I googled said to dry roast them in a pan before you start. Do not do this without proper ventilation. The coughing fit not just me, but my whole house, subsequently went into was terribly unpleasant.
Do not make chili substitutions unless you know what you’re doing. Especially do not do this if you mix up which chili’s are “hot” and which are “mild” and use the opposite numbers of each.
If all the above goes wrong, and the sauce is too spicy, add another can of tomato puree, or tomato paste, until it’s a tolerable temperature. Don’t try and man up and eat it, just add the effing tomatoes. Add a bit of extra chocolate as well. Because you can.
Drinking milk should ease some of the burn temporarily. Alcohol also helps, but for a different reason.

Sage Toad in the Hole with Tomato and Avocado

This is a pretty classic breakfast, but I added a bit of a twist to it to make it “extra awesome”. You’d be surprised how much flavor this adds, and it would probably work with most fresh herbs. Enjoy.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 thick slices of bread
2 eggs
8 sage leaves
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced
Salt, pepper, and butter

Made an egg-sized hole in the middle of both pieces of bread. Heat up a pan to medium, melt about half the butter, layer 4 sage leaves (2 under where each piece of bread will go), and put the bread on top. Crack an egg in the middle of each, put on the rest of the sage and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, flip (adding the rest of the butter), and cook for another 3-4 minutes to finish. Serve with tomato and avocado on the side.

Eggy Crumpet with Chorizo, Tomato and Avocado

I thought crumpets were a joke until I moved to Australia, more something to make fun of British people about than to eat. Turns out they’re not too bad, and this is a pretty delish weekend breakfast.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
4 crumpets
Pinch of chili
Salt
Butter
1 chorizo, sliced
1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes, sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced

Mix the eggs, milk, chili and salt. Soak the crumpets while you get the rest ready.

Heat up a pan on medium high, and melt a bit of the butter. Make sure the crumpets are good and full of the egg, and pop it in the pan. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, and remove.

Quickly saute the chorizo until just cooked through, adding the cherry tomatoes for the last minute to warm them up. Serve on the crumpets with the avocado.