South American Style Eggs with Fresh Tomato Salsa & Turkish Bread Roll

June 2, 2014December 28, 2018 amcarmen3 Comments

For brunch yesterday I had planned to make a sandwich with my Turkish bread roll. I had bought some Hungarian salami, tomatoes, rocket leaves, and a spicy capsicum spread to go with it. When I actually started to gather the ingredients for my sandwich I realised I had an untouched carton of a dozen eggs, I then decided to poach an egg or two to go with my sandwich. I then also spotted chorizo sausages at the back of the refrigerator and I instantly wanted to fry those up too with some caramelised onions.

I then ended up completely changing what I had in mind as I started to chop up the ingredients. I slowly craved for scrambled eggs with chorizo on the side… And then I thought of those South American Style Eggs that I had at Café con Leche about a month ago. I stopped there – I scrapped the salami and decided scrambled eggs with chorizo it was! I didn’t want the bread to go stale as well so I ended up toasting those in the oven and having them with my lunch. I also wanted to use the tomato and rocket leaves I bought so I ended up making a fresh salsa with it. My simple sandwich turned into something so epically large that it left me 5-months pregnant with a food baby (an expression that I always use to describe a very good, but gluttonous, meal).

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 10-15 MINS | SERVES 1

INGREDIENTS

For the eggs:

2 large free range eggs
1 Mexican chorizo sausage, sliced
2 tbsp milk
1/2 spanish red onion, diced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Ground salt and pepper

For the tomato salsa:

1/2 large tomato, diced
1/2 spanish red onion, diced
1 lime, juiced
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Handful rocket leaves
Ground salt and pepper

Turkish bread roll

METHOD

For the tomato salsa, combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and toss to mix. Let it sit for an hour for the flavours to infuse (this is entirely optional, I let mine to sit for about 10-15 minutes and it still tasted amazing).
Preheat oven to 180C. Slice the bread roll in half and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and toast for about 10 minutes or until golden brown (mine were a bit overdone only because I completely forgot about them in the oven).
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. and sauté onions until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring, until just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Bring the heat down to medium-low and add he egg mixture and cook, stirring, about 3 minutes (or more depending on the desired firmness of the eggs). Transfer to serving plate with bread roll and tomato salsa.

On a side note, while attempting to give this recipe a fancier name than just Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo, I came across a Spanish recipe called Migas con Chorizo. Migas meaning a dish of eggs scrambled with torn-up corn tortillas, with Chorizo sausages. I am definitely keeping this in mind the next time I want to make eggs with chorizo.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Big Breakfast for One

April 27, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmenLeave a comment

The most wonderful thing about life when it comes to food is breakfast. I always look forward to breakfast, but I think 90% of the time I actually go without having a proper breakfast, or no breakfast at all – which does sadden me a bit. This is either because I get up too late for breakfast and just skip to brunch, or when I do get up early, I’m rushing off to Uni and usually grab a banana or whatever fruit I have lying around on my way out (which also rarely happens so I just end up waiting until class is over and then packed left-over lunch it is).

What makes me happy though is that I can have Breakfast for Lunch or Breakfast for Dinner. Breakfast all day everyday (please excuse my apparent over-excitement over breakfast). Today, I had my breakfast for lunch, and man it was so good. Who doesn’t love bacon and eggs for lunch?

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 10-15 MINS | SERVES 1

INGREDIENTS

1 slice of wholemeal bread, toasted, buttered & cut diagonally in half
2 slices of gourmet tomatoes, grilled
2 fresh free range eggs at room temperature, poached
3 slices of rindless bacon, grilled
Handful of loose leaf baby spinach, wilted
1 tbsp white vinegar
Knob of unsalted butter
Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Poaching the eggs:

Bring small saucepan of water to the boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low-medium – the water should be just simmering. Add in the vinegar and stir.
Crack one egg into a small bowl and quickly, but gently pour it into the water. Repeat with the other egg. A really soft poached egg should take around 2 minutes, but if you want it a bit more firm, it will take about 4 minutes. To check if they’re cooked right, carefully remove the egg from the pan with a slotted spoon and give the yolk a gentle push (you can tell just by your instincts if it is under or overcooked – or perfect)!

I honestly think that the rest is pretty self-explanatory.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Cafe con Leche

April 26, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmen4 Comments

Today I visited one of my most loved food spots in Sydney, Cafe con Leche, a Latin American café just on Fitzroy St. in Surry Hills. My high school friends from Brunei decided to meet up for lunch, and while we were discussing places to eat, naturally I suggested Cafe con Leche. How I came to know about this little gem is quite funny actually. It all started when my friend Jialing got on the wrong bus to campus and got off at the stop on Fitzroy St. She told me she smelt something so great and saw the café just across the street, so one Wednesday afternoon in between classes, we decided to go to this magical-smelling café. While we were digging into our meals, Jialing came across that ‘magical’ smell again and asked one of the staff where the smell was coming from. To our surprise, she said, “Oh it’s from the muesli place next door”. We had an “oh…” look on our faces, but honestly, if it weren’t for Farmer Jo’s sweet smelling muesli, we probably wouldn’t have known about Cafe con Leche. This was around late last year and to date, Cafe con Leche is and will always be in my top places to eat.

The food is simply divine, and affordable I may add. Good service, quick, and the staff, very friendly too, but I miss seeing this one lady who used to serve my friends and I when we first started going. She was always so shocked (in a good way) to see how happy and excited my friends and I got when our Arepas for three touched our table (we are always excited to see food arrive to our table, especially when we’re so hungry).

If you haven’t been or heard about Cafe con Leche, now is the time to befriend me so that I can join you and keep going back for more! Today between the 3 of us, we had the Ham and Chicken Quesadilla, South American Style Eggs and an Arepas for 2 plate to share. It was so good.

Arepas for 2, $12 – served with ogao, sour cream, guacamole, ropas vieja and aji

Ham & Chicken Quesadilla, $9 – served with cheese and tomato with guacamole

South American Style Eggs, $14 – scrambled eggs chorizo, served with an arepas and guacamole

As I mentioned above, I have been here many times and have tired numerous dishes on their menus, and of course photographed every meal (a true foodie). So if the above dishes aren’t to your liking, then here are some other dishes to try, all a big thumbs up from me. L-R: Arepas for 4, Chorizo Salad, Ajiaco (Colombian chicken soup) and Beef Lasagne.

Café con Leche
104 Fitzroy Street
Surry Hills, New South Wales
Australia, 2010

– Ally xx

Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs

April 23, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmen2 Comments

Every month Coles releases a magazine that makes the most of fresh seasonal produce, as well as featuring tasty everyday recipes that are quick, easy and something that whole family will love. Coles Magazine is like my Bible for food. I NEED to get a copy for myself every month, and the best thing about it is that it’s free! Pictured above is the March 2014 issue of Coles Magazine. I looked back to last month for today’s recipe: Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs.

I followed the recipe and changed minor things for various reasons, firstly instead of dill, I used chives only because I didn’t want to buy a whole packet of dill (I barely use this herb), and secondly, I didn’t add green peas as the recipe stated only because I didn’t have any to use. Nonetheless, the recipe turned out really well and it’s definitely a keeper. Cheap, simple dish that serves 4 – the only thing that was relatively expensive was the smoked salmon.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 12-15 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup sour cream
1 & 1/2 tbsp chopped chives, plus extra to serve
1/4 small red onion, finely chopped
100g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
4 large free range eggs
Slices of Pane di Casa bread from Bakers Delight, toasted and buttered
1 bunch baby asparagus, woody ends snapped off
Olive oil
Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease four ramekins (or in this case I used my mini cocotte pots) and place on a baking tray.
Combine the sour cream and chives in a small bowl, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Scatter the chopped onion evenly in each cocotte. Divide the salmon and half of the sour cream mixture among the cocottes and crack an egg into each. Top with the remaining sour cream mixture.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until eggs are just set. Meanwhile, grill the asparagus on a grill pan over high heat for about a minute per side or until tender. Turn the heat off and drizzle a bit of olive oil over the asparagus still in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving plate.
Set aside for a minute to settle. Top with extra chives, and (optional) a little bit of paprika.

BON APPÉTIT!

– Ally xx

Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach

April 18, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmen2 Comments

First off let me be the last to wish everyone a glorious Good Friday! Welcome everyone, to my very first blog post ever! I have been meaning to start up a food blog of all my kitchen adventures, well more like I have had other blogs before but I never kept up with it. So I decided to start fresh!

I just went through a hard week of procrastination and a 2500-word essay that was due yesterday and I’m so glad that it’s the Easter weekend and mid-semester break! So to celebrate the end of the first half of the semester, and of course Good Friday, I wanted to whip up a special BIG brunch for myself – though I think my eyes were way much bigger than my tummy, I only ate half of it and kept the rest.

Today’s recipe as the blog title says is: Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach:

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 15 MINS | SERVES 1

INGREDIENTS

For the Omelette:

4 regular-sized Swiss Brown Mushrooms, sliced
3 large free range eggs
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 gourmet tomato, diced
1/2 green capsicum, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp canola oil
Ground salt and black pepper to taste
Handful of shredded parmesan cheese
Knob of butter

For the Avocado Yoghurt:

1 small-sized avocado, roughly mashed
1 cup regular greek yoghurt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Ground salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup of loose-leaf baby spinach

Just note that I sometimes work without measurements in the kitchen, so some of the measurements in the ingredient list may not be very accurate. I’ve tried to remember roughly how much of each ingredient I’ve added in, but please feel free to adjust to your liking! Also, I don’t work with timers very often (unless it’s for baking or cooking with seafood and other meats). For this recipe I used my eyes to tell when something is cooked – probably not to perfection like Masterchef and all, but definitely cooked.

METHOD

Combine all the avocado yoghurt ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until needed.
In a large fry pan on high heat, melt the butter. Then add in the onions and stir until soft. Add in the mushrooms and stir until colour changes. Add in the capsicum, tomatoes and 1 sprig of the thyme leaves, stir for about a minute and transfer to a dish. We don’t want to over cook the capsicum and tomatoes, so that they still retain a slight crunch.
Turn the heat down to medium-low and add oil to the same frying pan. While waiting for it to heat up, beat the eggs in a bowl with the milk and season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture into the frying pan.
Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top and let the egg cook until the egg starts to set. Top half of the egg with the mushroom filling. Fold omelette in half, and cook for a further minute or so. Transfer to a plate.
Add the spinach to the same frying pan and stir until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the plate.
Garnish by sprinkling fresh thyme leaves over the omelette, avocado yoghurt and wilted spinach.

I remember when I was chopping up all the ingredients, my housemate came into the kitchen and she said, “Wow it smells so fresh in here!” And again we met again when the meal was cooked and ready to be devoured by me, she said “THAT LOOKS AMAZING!” She’s so adorable 🙂

BON APPÉTIT!

– Ally xx