copycat brunch – the social house’s farmstead eggs benedict

When I first reviewed The Social House in 2008, I couldn’t say enough good things about the place. The homey, retro decor and the menu - featuring standard breakfast and brunch classics with a little somethin’ extra – quickly catapulted Lorenzo Wyche’s newest venture to the top of my ‘favorite places for breakfast in Atlanta’ list. Since the restaurant’s opening, however, the long waits and occasionally inconsistent food have made it lose some of its lustre for me. But there’s one favorite from The Social House that I still regularly crave for weekend brunch.

The Farmstead – one of 5 variations of eggs benny on the restaurant’s menu – includes leeks, mushrooms, gouda, and country ham along with the requisite English muffin and poached eggs. For my at-home version, I replaced the country ham with turkey bacon, though if you’re a vegetarian, you could skip the meat altogether and it’d still be very flavorful dish. The smokiness of the gouda and the aromatic butteriness of the leeks will make you forget everything you thought you knew about traditional eggs benedict. But the best thing about this dish? It can go from fridge to plate in about 15 minutes.

DO try this one at home.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
1 leek
6 to 7 slices turkey bacon
2 english muffins, sliced in half
3-4 slices smoked gouda cheese
mushrooms (preferably crimini, aka baby portabella)
4 eggs
1 Tbsp olive oil
apple cider vinegar (optional)

Preparation:
Prep the leeks by cutting off and discarding the root end and the leafy tops. Cut the remaining section down the middle and rinse well, making sure to remove any grit or dirt between the layers of the leek. Slice the leek crosswise. Stack bacon slices and chop into pieces. Chop the mushrooms.

Put a pot of water on to boil for the eggs. If you have it, add a dash or two of apple cider vinegar to the water. The vinegar helps the egg whites hold together better – which makes for a prettier poached egg. When water comes to a low boil, add eggs one at a time. I like my eggs poached medium well, so I let them go for about 6 minutes at a simmer (not a full boil!). In the meantime, place the English muffin halves in the oven on low broil to toast.

In medium or large skillet, heat olive oil and add cut bacon. Sautee bacon for 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. Add the leeks and saute until slightly softened. Add mushrooms and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer toasted English muffin halves to serving plate, and top each half with a slice of smoked gouda. Pile bacon-leek-mushroom mixture on top. Add another slice of gouda to the mound, and finish each stack with a poached egg. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on each egg, if you like.

Eat. Enjoy.

cheers,

k

lime and garlic panko-crusted prawns

Two days prior to the recent ‘Atlanta blizzard’, I found myself with a predicament.

1. I had a refrigerator full of food. But little of it was fit for consumption by either humans or many other carbon-based life forms.
2. I had absolutely zero desire to submit myself to a grocery store full of Southerners stricken with pre-snow hysteria, forming lines longer than Crystal Gale’s hair.

So when Sunday came around and the snow started falling, me and the beau hit the near-deserted streets and headed to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.

Thanks to the ‘blizzard’, the Farmers Market was more calm than usual, so I took my time sniffing, examining, and exploring all the fresh and exotic wares. Just before checking off the last item on my list, I caught sight of a great deal. Huge, whole, head-on shrimp (so huge I decided to promote them to prawn status) for 4.99/lb. I was a bit daunted by the look of the alien heads with long antennae, but not enough to pass up such a bargain. Plus, I thought it’d make for good presentation to cook a couple with the heads / antennae intact.

Here’s how I handled the little monsters.

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the best quiche i never had

Last Sunday, the beau and I decided to take a walk to the neighborhood discount retail store. I came across a really good deal on some porcelain tart pans, but hesistated a moment before deciding to purchase them.

“What would I use them for, really? I mean, it’s not like I’m gonna make a bunch of tarts anytime soon.”

“Ooh! you could make a quiche,” beau replied, then went on to extol the wonders of various quiches he used to make and enjoy.

I for one can’t stomach scrambled egg dishes, but I love a great cookware deal. Plus, when I saw the delighted anticipation on beau’s face, I caved. I’m a sucker for anyone that appreciates my cooking.

That day, I broke in one of the pans with my first quiche ever. I had some fresh spinach, mushrooms and broccoli florets leftover in the fridge from a meal earlier in the week, and 2 or 3 mostly empty bags of shredded cheese. With a few pointers from my handy go-to kitchen bible, “How To Cook Everything“, I turned out what was apparently a very tasty dish (I didn’t taste it myself, but beau raved about it and polished most of the thing off before kickoff that afternoon).

This past weekend, my good friend Regina had her annual holiday ladies’ gathering at her house. This year’s theme was ‘tea and crumpets’, and guests were invited to bring a ‘crumpet’ to share. I’ll give you one guess what I brought.

I made one quiche to share with the ladies and another for beau to eat while he watched the Falcons try to make the playoffs. This time the dish was a double success. Within 20 minutes after setting it on the ‘crumpet’ table, all but one slice was gone. And a few minutes after that, I got the following text message from beau:

this quiche is sooo frickin’ delicious!

If you say so.

Here’s the recipe (some approximations):

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my thanksgiving staycation – part 4

Home for the Holidays – Tastes to be Thankful For

A sure sign that I’m getting old? The family entrusted me with the preparation of the turkey this year. Of course I couldn’t disappoint, so I ended up giving that bird more love than it had since it’d been born.

Fresh sage, thyme and rosemary from my little herb garden got finely chopped with some garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil. This was rubbed all over the bird and under the skin. Before that, I threw a few charcoal on the grill, let them burn down to low heat and covered with hickory chips to get a good smoke going. The herb-rubbed bird got the smoke treatment for about 20 minutes, just to infuse with some flavor. Then I stuffed the cavity with celery stalks, a quartered onion, and a cut apple and put her in the oven. About halfway through the cooking time, birdy got doused regularly with a basting liquid composed of turkey stock (from a carcass i absconded from a party earlier in the week), more of the herb-garlic mixture, brown sugar, butter, and a touch of grade b maple syrup.

 

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salad shoot – ksolo in atlanta intown

Almost forgot to mention:

Check me out in the August issue of Atlanta Intown Paper! This is the last of the summer food panel series that I was fortunate enough to participate in. This month’s food panel topic is salads. Visit Atlanta Intown’s website or click the image below…ain’t I cute!

And while we’re on the topic, I thought I’d share one of my all time favorite go-to salad recipes – the asian noodle salad. This one’s extremely simple, affordable, and very portable for summertime picnics, bbqs, etc. You’re going to want to keep this one on hand for Labor Day and beyond.
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Shrimp Cobb salad rolls

Good lawd, it’s hot outside!

Looks like we’ve officially entered the dog days of summer here in Atlanta, and temps will consistently hover at mid-90 or more every day for at least another month. Most days, just the thought of eating is enough to make we want to break out into a profuse sweat, but it’s not exactly feasible to go on a fast ‘til September. During this time of year, I instinctively switch to lighter fare (read: white wine instead of red, LOL), but I still need something substantial enough to keep me from getting hungry again a few hours after I’ve eaten.

I was watching a recent episode of The Barefoot Contessa on DVR, and saw a delicious-looking preparation of a lobster Cobb salad, which Lady Ina served in hot dog buns. Talk about shabby chic, right? The recipe below is my adaption of Ina’s recipe – for budget purposes, I ‘shabbied’ the lobster for shrimp, and for presentation purposes, I ‘chic-ed’ the hot dog buns for whole wheat bolillo rolls.

This one is light, quick, and tasty enough that you’ll still be thinking about it a couple of days later. The recipe makes enough for about 4 sandwiches. Or if you like, you can skip the bread altogether, and just eat it as a salad.

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the spirit of spring – a cocktail recipe

It’s that time of year when I start getting impromptu invites from friends who’ve cleaned off their patios and decks and have people over to share good food, good conversation and verygood drinks. I hate showing up empty-handed, and it’s not always time- or cost-effective to cook something to share with a crowd. That’s when I reach for one of my favorite cocktail recipes. It’s easy to make yet still unique enough to spark some conversation around the drink itself.

What is this springtime spirit, you ask? None other than the beloved Brazilian beverage: the caipirinha.
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goody, goody gumbo

Yes. It’s officially spring, but the weather in Atlanta apparently only got the first part of the memo. The sun is shining and the mulberry trees are beginning to bloom, but the temperature is toying with me. One minute it’s almost 70 degrees, the next it’s dipping into the 30s.

While waiting for the rest of spring to show up for good, I decided to whip up one last hearty stew of the season – a gumbo. It’s the perfect dish for beating the brrrs and more importantly it gave me a headstart on spring cleaning my fridge.

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