Garden Addict

I think I'm getting slightly obsessive about my makeshift veggie garden. Can you blame me?

I bought special tomato fertilizer so that my tomatoes get red already.

I transplanted (and likely killed) my coriander and rocket onto the ground as they had seeded and aren't good for eating. I'm hoping they seed out new eatable plants but I've started afresh anyway. I've planted new seeds hoping they turn out better.

I need to start making more salads.

Poaching an Egg is Hard

Since it's miserable outside today (it was hailing, for goodness sake. in spring!), we decided to ditch our usual cafe brunch. Well, I did anyway. D sort of went with my decision.

So, I went to experiment in the kitchen with the hope of recreating one of our favourite cafe breakfasts, the Eggs Benedict.

I thought making the hollandaise sauce would be the toughest bit as I didn't even have a clue of what made it up other than it was made out of eggs.

I found this recipe online and followed it (halving the ingredients as there was only the 2 of us). It came out fairly decent, especially for my first time. D even said it tasted better than the sauce we've had in some cafes.

ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 pinch ground white pepper
• 1 tablespoon water
• 225g (8 oz) butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

preparation method

1. Fill the bottom of a double boiler part-way with water. Make sure that water does not touch the top pan. Bring water to a gentle simmer.
2. In the top of the double boiler, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, white pepper and 1 tablespoon water.
3. Add the melted butter to egg yolk mixture 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time while whisking yolks constantly.
4. If hollandaise begins to get too thick, add a teaspoon or two of hot water. Continue whisking until all butter is incorporated. Whisk in salt, then remove from heat. Place a lid on pan to keep sauce warm until ready to serve.

I didn't put as much lemon juice (I don't like it too tangy). I also added a sprinkling of cayenne pepper for some kick.

The most challenging part of the eggs benedict were the eggs. Poaching an egg takes skill. A lot of it. By this time, we only had 3 eggs left as I had used the 2 for the sauce.

I used the first one and the white went all over the place. It wasn't very pretty. D tried and his was even more of a disaster as the yolk broke while he was cooking it. The last egg went into the microwave in a poaching gizmo but that was crappy as well.

In the end, we still ate the ugly eggs. I assembled the ingredients: bagel, ham, ugly egg and covered the whole lot with hollandaise sauce. A lot of sauce to cover the ugliness of the eggs. Turned out quite yummy actually.

If I could do it all over again, I would actually research egg poaching first before I tried it. Lots of how-to videos on the net like this one.

Garden Update

I was supposed to upload these pics a couple of weeks back. My garden has flourished even more since then but I'll leave you with these images for now.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Update 19 Dec 08: this mixtape is going to be defunct by end of 2008 because of closed minded, greedy corporate types. Read more about it here. Oh well, it was a really cool idea while it lasted.

How Brilliant

Obama won. Convincingly.

Americans aren't as stupid as I thought. There's hope yet.

Just Because

I'm so on-the-pulse, that I found out about this cool thing only months after the fact (well, 3 years+ really if you count when it first started).

There was a Melbourne Zombie Shuffle last June, wherein hundreds of zombie-wannabes shuffled through the streets of Melbourne. Why? No apparent reason, really. Just to honour the zombies, I guess.


It's the coolest thing I've heard about in a while.

Can you imagine yourself as a tourist, arriving in Melbourne the night before and then walking out of your hotel the next morning finding yourself swamped with zombies? How freaky cool would that be? Hehe.

Read more about it here or here.

I must remember to head into the city next time the shuffle's on.

In the meantime, I need to prepare myself by doing some research. This book looks like a good place to start.