Since my last cooking post wasn’t entirely serious (or helpful), here are some real recipes I enjoyed. I have very unusual tastes in cooking, the first one is designed for texture and the second is designed for color – I’m not really one for tasting food as it goes down 😉 . I’ve also included the recipe I bake for taste, which I got from someone else.

Sunrise sandwich

An open face sandwich based on texture.

Ingredients (per sandwich):

• 1 hard boiled egg yolk
• 1 pineapple ring
• 1 large slice of smoked salmon
• 1 slice of tasty cheddar cheese
• 1 slice of bread

The only cooking required is boiling the egg, which should be done well before-hand so as to allow it to cool. The ingredients are then put together in that same order: bread on the bottom, followed by a layer of cheese, followed by a layer of smoked salmon and with the pineapple ring on top. The hard boiled egg yolk fits snugly inside the hole of the pineapple ring, giving you a vague sun-rise impression with the yellow circle on the red salmon. Eat half of it, then stand it up on the plate, to look even more like a sun rise!

The interesting thing about this combination is the pineapple juice. With two protective layers, it does not soak into the bread but instead stays on top of the salmon. The hard boiled egg yolk also soaks up the pineapple juice to some extent, to form a paste. The combination of the pasty texture, the pineapple texture, and the salmon and cheese textures, provides great variety in a single bite. People with taste buds have tried it too, and liked it, so it’s not carried by texture alone. But it certainly looks unique with the pineapple on salmon and yolk-paste forming on the inside of the ring.

It’s not a big issue if you place the cheese on top of the salmon, as they both block the pineapple juice. Here’s a picture of one that I “mucked up”:

“Way of White” burrito

An almost monochromatic breakfast burrito (which I made when I was playing Dark Souls).

Ingredients (four servings):

• 200g cottage cheese
• 4 eggs
• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 4 flour tortillas

This one actually has some preparation. Scramble the eggs, perhaps add a dash of milk and salt, and set those aside. I wanted the potatoes cooked to be malleable yet not mashable, so I ended up cutting them into thin strips and frying them in some oil in the same frying pan I used for the eggs, until soft and slightly browned. The assembly is straight forward – place some cottage cheese, fried potato and  scrambled eggs into a tortilla and wrap it up.

I found this one to be interesting because it’s surprisingly balanced for a meal where a hint of yellow is the only color. But again the interplay for textures was appealing, with the thick potato complementing the thinner cottage cheese and the scrambled eggs falling in the middle, all able to mix pieces together easily in the burrito but not merge into one substance. It also met my requirements for a breakfast, two high sources of carbs and two of protein gives you plenty of energy to start the day with.

Cookies!

Finally, for taste, here’s the choc chip cookies recipe I use. I was given it by the lunch lady at work, who has been graciously trying to teach me basic kitchen skills – although I doubt I will ever reach her level. That’s why at work, I only cook breakfasts.

Ingredients:

• Choc chip bits 125g (ostensibly – just use the whole packet)
• 1 egg
• 1.75 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 125g butter

Method: Mix ingredients and bake for about 20 minutes at 180C.

As you can imagine, my favorite part of this recipe is the simplicity. Although I have not yet met its equal for taste either, that’s probably just because they are so very fresh when I consume them.

Update 15/2/2018

After making these again in the US, I have a variant with imperial units. Since it was easier to stick to round numbers, this ends up having a higher egg balance and being a little crunchier.

• Choc chip bits – 1 packet (I didn’t even look at the size)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 lb butter

Method: Mix ingredients and bake for about 20 minutes at 350C.

Edit 25/2/2015

I went back and recreated them all so as to add photos, a very useful hint to the outcome if you haven’t made the recipe before. I couldn’t find the right cottage-cheese over here, but ricotta is a suitable substitute. Also rye breads are very good for the base of the sunrise sandwich, although you may then want to call it a “sunset” sandwich for better color alignment.