Tag Archives: eggs

Cheese, Eggs, Low carb, Seafood

Creamy Walleye Scramble, For One

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I may never eat scrambled eggs again without cream cheese!

Even though the fillets were small at less than 3 oz, each, two were too many for me, and three eggs was too much. Still, I persevered 😉

Creamy Walleye Scramble

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • Walleye fillets—my fish, including both fillets, was 5.5 oz. 3-4 oz might be a more typical single serving.
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
  • butter and olive oil for sauteing
  • salt & pepper
  • optional: fresh or dried herbs, like dill or chives

Preparation

  1. I’m using two of my favorite pans for this dish—stainless steel for cooking and browning the fish and nonstick for making the omelet. That poor nonstick pan has suffered abuse and will need to be replaced soon ☹️
  2. Begin by cooking the fish.
    1. Heat a stainless steel or cast iron pan, because you want some nice browning, over medium-high heat.
    2. Add 2 tablespoons butter or a combination of butter and oil, and as soon as the butter has melted, place the seasoned fillets in and saute for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Turn the fillets and cook the other side.
    3. Set aside while making the eggs. You could loosely cover the fish in the pan with foil, but do not put a lid on and let it steam and get all watery.
  3. To make the eggs:
    1. Whisk 3 eggs in a medium bowl. Don’t be like me and try to pick the smallest bowl possible, so that your egg splashes over the sides.
    2. Whisk in the cream cheese until mostly incorporated. It really doesn’t matter if there are little bits left in it, because they will melt in the cooking.
    3. Heat a nonstick pan over medium to medium-high heat. When hot add 2 tablespoons butter (and a few drops of oil to prevent burning). Add the eggs and let them set for a few seconds. Season with salt and pepper and herbs, if using. Begin to lightly stir and fold with silicone spatula, just to move them around and prevent browning.
    4. Crumble in half your fish, continuing to stir and fold. Remove from heat while the eggs are still moist.
    5. Plate the eggs and crumble the rest of the fish over the top.

Chicken / Poultry, Meat, Recipe Testing, Review

Recipe Review: Crispy Fried Chicken

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I’ve tried many methods for fried chicken. The ones that use only flour, or the three stage flour–egg–breadcrumb process, or the buttermilk marinade followed by breading, but it seems like the crispness doesn’t hold up for more than a minute or two past frying. They all taste good, but I really expect a crisp coating if I’m going to go to the trouble of frying. This recipe—Crispy Fried Chicken from Taste of Home—delivers. The name says it all.

What they do differently than most recipes is add flour to the egg wash, so that you are really dipping it in a batter before adding a final coating of seasoned flour. The final coating makes a shaggy layer that crisps up all over the chicken. Sometimes you get that shaggy look when you start with a buttermilk soak, but I find this egg–water–flour batter works even better than buttermilk.

I usually use an electric deep fryer, but I only made four pieces today, so I used a high-sided stock pot with a couple inches of oil. Unlike the original recipe, I did not use bone-in chicken; I used boneless thighs, which cook more quickly, about a total of five minutes in 375° oil for each piece.

Egg batter
Seasoned flour
Battered and breaded chicken
on fried chicken

Crispy Fried Chicken

  • Servings: will coat about 4 lbs
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
  • 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons garlic salt or garlic powder plus 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 2 teaspoons  white or black pepper
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning—I used a combination of sage and celery seed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • up to 4 lbs chicken pieces, with or without skin. I used boneless thighs.
  • cooking oil for frying
Preparation
  1. Combine the first five ingredients in a large bowl for the final coating and set aside. The original recipe suggests a plastic bag, but I find patting on the flour works better, creating a shaggier coating that has lots of crispy edges.
  2. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs and water, then whisk in the second amount of flour and salt, until the batter is smooth.
  3. Coat chicken pieces in batter then dredge in seasoned flour, patting the flour on until all the batter is covered and the coating is dry enough to handle and set aside.
  4. Heat cooking oil to 375° not allowing it to fall below 350° between batches. Fry chicken in small batches, depending on the size of your fryer, so that you keep the oil temperature high throughout. My boneless thighs cooked in 5 minutes, one piece at a time. The original recipe suggests that bone-in pieces would take about 5-6 minutes per side. My oil was deep enough that I didn’t need to turn my pieces over.

★★★★★ = Five Stars

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Dessert

Coconut Tapioca Pudding

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In this variation on tapioca pudding recipes, I use all coconut milk and do not bother with soaking the tapioca first. Neither do I use a double boiler—not a fan of double boilers.

Step 1: cook tapioca in coconut milk
Step 2: stir in yolks and sugar
Step 3: whisk in egg whites
wish I had a whole vanilla bean for the photo

Coconut Tapioca Pudding

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: requires stirring attention
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If you really must soak your tapioca pearls, do so in the coconut milk for about 30 mins. But why?

Ingredients
  • 2 cans coconut milk, whole fat, shaken well before opening
  • 1/2 cup small pearl tapioca
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preparation
  1. Combine the coconut milk and tapioca in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Stir often over a low simmer for 15 minutes, until the tapioca is translucent and tender. If you soaked the tapioca first, it may cook a little more quickly.
  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow. Mix about half the hot tapioca mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. Pour the tempered eggs and sugar into the pan and stir to combine with the rest of the tapioca mixture. Cook and stir over a low simmer for another 15 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and beaten egg whites. You really have to do this quickly because the pudding mixture is hot and will cook your egg whites.
  4. Pour into serving dishes. Eat right away or refrigerate to eat later.

Bread

Skillet Cornbread

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Skillet Cornbread

  • Servings: one 12 inch round
  • Difficulty: easy
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Preheat oven to 425°; this recipe makes enough batter for one 12″ cast iron skillet.

Dry Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups fine yellow cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Wet Ingredients
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups full-fat coconut milk (shake the can first to distribute the fat)
Optional Ingredients
  • 1 cup thawed frozen corn or drained canned corn or cooked fresh corn
Preparation
  1. Melt butter in cast iron skillet over medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and pour off most of the butter into bowl or measuring cup to cool slightly. Leave about 1 tablespoon of the butter in the skillet.
  2. Beat eggs and coconut milk, then slowly pour in reserved browned butter while still beating. I have had luck stirring in the butter after the dry ingredients are mixed in, so if you are worried about the butter cooking your eggs, you can add it later.
  3. Beat in dry ingredients. Your batter will be thick.
  4. Stir in corn.
  5. Pour the batter into the skillet. Bake for about 20 minutes until brown and done in the center.

As you can see, we ate our cornbread with venison chili:

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