Sunny Side Up

Last night, I took some of my cuts of meat out of the freezer to prepare for the next few days of meals. I was a little disappointed when I came home tonight to find that none of them had defrosted enough. I really don't like defrosting meat in the microwave because it tends to start cooking as it defrosts, and then it doesn't cook evenly. Instead, I looked to my trusty Breakfast for Dinner option. This time around, I opted for Sunny-Side-Up Eggs on Mustard-Creamed Spinach with Crispy Crumbs. This recipe is from Bon Appetit and while the recipe says it serves 2, it only calls for 2 eggs. I doubled that portion since one fried egg and some spinach is probably not the most substantial dinner - and I set to work!

Mise en place

What we have here:

1/2 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs

5 teaspoons Dijon mustard, divided

2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 9-ounce package of fresh spinach leaves

3 tablespoons half-and-half

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

4 large eggs

thyme sprigs

Just like yesterday, I had to go with the dried thyme instead of fresh - I really have NO idea where my thyme went! So the first step here is to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. While you are waiting for the oven to heat, mix 2 teaspoons of the mustard, 2 teaspoons of the oil and the mustard seeds with the breadcrumbs in a bowl. They will get kinda lumpy and stuck together, at which point, transfer them to a baking sheet. I used a pyrex dish instead because my baking sheets are being bogarted by some seedlings that my husband has started and laid out to get sun in front of our large window. We'll have veggies this summer, but right now, I have no baking sheets. You want to bake this for 6-8 minutes in the oven.

Meanwhile, fill a large, deep skillet with water enough to cover the bottom, and pour in your spinach. Toss the spinach over high heat, for about 2 minutes, or until it all wilts down. It looks like you've got a lot of spinach until you get some heat on it!

See?

Once the spinach is all wilted, you want to transfer it to a sieve set over a bowl, and press out most of the water. Transfer the spinach to a saucepan, and pour in the half-and-half, 3 teaspoons of the mustard, and the thyme. Stir this over medium heat until it thickens and then season it with some black pepper. The recipe says 3 minutes, but it didn't take that long for me...

Once that was done, I put some of my fresh Italian Parmesan Herb bread in the toaster, while I fried my eggs. Heat the remaining oil in the skillet you used for the spinach (wiped down, of course) and once the oil is warm, crack your eggs right into the pot. Fry them until the whites are sturdy and white but the yolk shakes a little...unless of course you don't like runny eggs - you can cover your pan for a minute or two to get the heat through the top of the whites (and the yolks if you want). The steam cooks them evenly without having to flip the egg and risk breaking that yummy yolk!

Still needs a minute or two!

Well, that was easy and quick, huh? I plated the spinach and topped it with 2 of the fried eggs. I then sprinkled the breadcrumb concoction on top and served with a side of Parmesan Herb toast!

My yolk broke!

It all paired together nicely and it made for a comforting Tuesday night dinner. I still haven't caught up with that hour of sleep we lost this weekend I think, because I'm exhausted! Thank goodness for quick meals! :)

A Successful Attempt at a Korean Favorite

Remember my recent post about all different types of Asian cuisine and their differences? Well, tonight I made an attempt at a Korean favorite of ours, Bibimbap. Traditionally, Bibimbap is a dish served in a warm clay pot, consisting of rice, vegetables, thinly sliced beef and a fried egg, topped with a Korean red chile paste. The recipe I decided to use is a part of The Professional Chef, a textbook from The Culinary Institute of America. I usually use this book as a reference guide, in order to master techniques, but I thought I'd give this recipe a shot, and I'm very glad I did!

From Flickr - by Eunmi Han

This particular version of Bibimbap called for some skirt steak to be marinated in some soy sauce, garlic, ginger, green onions, sesame oil, crushed sesame seeds and pepper. The marinade was really tasty and added some great flavor to the dish. Once I'd made the marinade, I put the vegetables together. The recipe called for daikon, radish, carrots and cucumbers all julienned. One of my cucumbers had gone bad in the refrigerator :( and I didn't have any daikon, but I used some jicama instead, and also added some julienned shiitake mushrooms as well. Even though the recipe called for raw vegetables, I threw them in the wok with some peanut oil for a few minutes, just to soften the carrots and take the chill off the rest of the veggies. Everytime I've ever had Bibimbap, the vegetables have been cooked so I altered that part a little bit. I threw them in a stainless steel bowl and topped it with a pot lid so that steam could continue to cook the veggies a little bit while I finished off the rest of the dish.

While my rice cooked in my wonderful rice cooker, I threw the marinated beef into the wok with a bit of vegetable oil. It didn't take more than a few minutes for the small pieces to cook through, and while that was happening, I fried two eggs in a skillet, keeping them "sunny-side up" so that they would be runny when the yolk was broken over the dish. My rice cooker clicked when it was finished and I spooned some sticky rice onto each plate. I topped the rice with my steaming carrots, jicama, radish and shiitake mushrooms. I sprinkled some chiffonade of iceberg lettuce on top of that, and as it started to wilt from the heat, I piled on some beef. Lastly, I laid the fried egg on top of all of this!

For the sauce, the recipe really just called for Korean Red Chile paste but I wanted to thin the paste a bit so I mixed in some fish sauce, some rice wine vinegar and a little bit of sweet rice wine. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, and thinned down to more of a sauce...which was great for dripping over the already delicious concoction.

Normally, this dish is served in a clay dish that stays warm for an extended period, and continues to cook the rice while you eat, making it crispy and crunchy on the sides of the bowl. It adds something special to the dish, but even without those clay dishes, I really think I nailed the authenticity. It was so delicious and reminiscent of our trips to Korean restaurants! It's always a good feeling when you know you can make something that you love to order out - less money spent, more confidence in my culinary achievements! Try making your favorite restaurant dish at home...and share your experiences with us! We're rooting for you!

Also, check out my new and improved Stock Your Kitchen page. I've renovated it so that you can automatically add my recommendations to your Amazon shopping cart, should you be interested in purchasing something that I've mentioned in any of my posts. Hopefully, this will be more convenient!