pan-fried eggs and ham

August 30, 2017


Breakfast for dinner... classically American.

Today in class we had our time strictly devoted to the art of breakfast and it was awesome.

To start off, we began with an overview of eggs, different types, grades and cooking methods. After yet another demonstration by our sensei KJ, we all grabbed a handful of eggs and tried our skill at cooking the perfect pan-fried egg. To be honest, the eggs were the best things I have done since starting cooking school. I learned that a decent amount of oil is absolutely necessary in order to avoid burning and achieving a perfect pan flip. When it comes to flipping food in a pan, you have to commit. A half effort flip will only send your egg or food item into the spiders (stove iron). I learned this the hard way with my omelets last week.

After eggs, we moved onto a full on breakfast spread.

Crepes:
2 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1 T sugar
1/2 c milk
1 T butter, melted
1 T water
*blend all ingredients together thoroughly. Let rest in fridge for 2 hours.

- cooking the crepes was a learning experience. I mistaken thought that it was possible to flip a perfect crepe but I learned by watching Chef KJ to turn the pan while pouring the batter and allowing a short and sweet cooking time. After ripping a few crepes in the cooking process, I was instructed to give them a little longer in the pan before attempting to turn them over. That was great advice because each crepe after that turned out perfectly. I think that to plate it, I would put a berry syrup, a tiny dollop of fresh cream and a tiny sprig f mint to garnish.

Basic Pancakes:
1 c. flour
1 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1 pinch salt
7/8 c milk
1 egg
1 T butter,melted
*combine dry ingredients. Add liquids and mix until incorporated.

- cooking the pancakes was pretty standard. One of my favorite things in the world is a delicious pancake. I personally like my pancakes loaded with other things like pumpkin, spices, chocolate, seeds, fruit,  toppings and other flours. These were nice but I need to improve my cooking abilities so that I can come up with good ways to incorporate these delicious additions. I also learned that the desired outcome of the pancake should have a beautiful, even, golden brown coloring on the outside. Using less fat and oil in the pan gives you that, and using less butter than is already required is totally fine by me.
I love to plate up a stack of pancakes with fruit, a light syrup and a small scoop of nut butter.

French Toast:
eggs
Milk/cream
cinnamon
salt
sugar

After compiling these ingredients in a decent ratio, we dipped our stale challah in the mixture and made the French toast. I would have loved to make an orange sauce/syrup to drizzle over the challah. I think that would have added a fresh zing to a normally rich food. I really enjoyed the plumb-thyme syrup made by Chef KJ, it was also very fresh and flavorful.

WHAT I LEARNED:

Today I learned how to build more breakfast favorites from scratch. I love that I already had a general knowledge of these cooking procedures and that allowed me to be able to improve more quickly and use my creativity to keep making it better. I learned how to make a basic syrup, a simple syrup, and to use plumbs in a flavor maximizing way. I LOVED this class.