Gruyere, Leek and Potato Tart with Poached Egg

After having not posted forever, I finally have a post again, this time it actually comes from the sister Blog, Country Gourmet Traveler, but because it is really a breakfast blog, I have to post it on this Blog as well

The

Breakfast is a delicious Potato, Leek and Gruyere Tart with a poached Egg and Garden Greens. Simply delicious and relatively easy to prepare.

The Gruyere Tart can actually be made in advance and can be frozen, then you just defrost the Tart and bake it up again.

Of course you can as well use this dish for a lunch or a brunch..... anything is possible. I always think of Asia where there is no continental Breakfast as we know it, yes there are breakfast dishes, but not like we have in the Western World

Anyway, let's not talk too much, here is the recipe and enjoy

Recipe

Dough
300 g Flour
135 g Butter
6 g Salt
120 ml Water

Filling
150 g Leeks
30 g Onions
10 g Garlic
150 g Potatoes
100 g Gruyere Cheese
120 ml Cream
120 ml Milk
3 ea Eggs
1 g Nutmeg
4 g Salt
2 g Pepper

Poached Egg
10 ea Eggs
1 l Water
50 ml Vinegar

Garden Greens
100 g Mesclun Lettuce
50 g Baby Carrots
50 g Green Asparagus
70 ml EV Olive Oil
30 ml Balsamic Vinegar

Method
Mix all ingredients for the dough quickly
Keep in the fridge at least 2 hours, best overnight
before using
Roll the dough 3 mm thick, cut round discs and put in Individual quiche forms, punch holes with a fork and freeze
Bake at 180 C straight from the freezer till half baked

Cut the leeks in small cubes
Cut the onions in brunoise
Chop the garlic finely
Peel the potatoes and boil till soft
Saute the vegetables in butter, add potatoes
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg

Beat egg, milk and cream till well mixed
Season withsalt and pepper

Put the vegetables in the quiches, pour Royale on top
Bake in the oven at 180 C till golden brown and baked

Bring the water and vinegar to a boil
Take the pan off the heat
Give the water a swirl and add one egg at the time
Poach to your desired cooking temperature

Plate the tart, put the poached egg on top
Cut the carrots and asparagus in fine slivers
Plate the salad next to the tart and drizzle with oil and vinegar

Recipe is for 10 friends

Noodle Soup for Breakfast

For us in the Western Hemisphere it might be a little unusual to eat noodle soup for breakfast, but believe me in Asia it is the norm. Yes one can have the traditional American or English Breakfast, but usually one has other savory treats here.

The noodle soup today was actually a really simple one, we just took some instant noodles, nice and spicy an cooked them as per direction, but then to make it a bit different we wok fried quick some oyster mushrooms and bok choy, then a hard boiled egg and finish....and yes it was delicious.

One might say now that it is nicer to have a freshly made soup, true, but not everybody has time to cook everything from scratch and I have to admit, some of the ready products are really quite nice, then with the little extra flavor one has a lovely meal that is quickly prepared.

Try it out, have an Asian start of the day, you will see that after that you have eaten enough but you won't feel overly full which is a great feeling to start the day

Cute Breakfast

Good Morning everybody!

I know I haven't written in a while, but that does not mean that I have not had breakfast every day, no, I had great breakfasts daily and had a super start in the day.

Today I am not writing about what I had for breakfast, but about the cute photo I got sent the other day. I am not a big fan of food being dressed up un naturally, but this one really was very cute and I wanted to share the photo with all of you.

I often eat rice for breakfast as I am not going on that well with Gluten anymore (still love my bread and pasta, but have to reduce) I thought that the way it is presented is really great, just something different......still I would not do it for my breakfast, but it makes me smile

And I hope it puts a smile on your face

Have a great day

My daily Breakfast nr.9

This morning was another Sandwich morning. Similar to the last breakfast sandwich, I had fried eggs, bacon and all the juicy sauces int he sandwich, but this time I got it served in a soft bun.

The eggs were still liquid and of course it dribbled on the plate and on my chin......yes not very "comme il faut" but so yummy.

To get every morning a nice surprise with breakfast is really a great way on how to start the day on a happy note.

Breakfast Sandwich

Today I got e real treat, a breakfast sandwich.

Yes, it is nice to have a change, still the same ingredients, but presented a bit different. The sandwich had the following layers

White Toast
Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
Cheddar Cheese
Fried egg, still with a bit runny egg yolk
Bacon, nice and crisp, but not dry
and topped with another white toast

I didn't even want to cut it in half, I just wanted to bite in it and everything started to ooze out, it was just so delicious, every bite was a treat

This sandwich and a cup of coffee just made me so happy and carried me through a hectic and busy morning.

My daily Breakfast nr. 6

Today had had another absolute treat, low cholesterol this time, at least sort of. I had rice, white scrambled egg with onions, tomatoes and peppers and a little beef stew. I tell you this is the real power breakfast.

We had some egg white left from making a Leche Flan, so ,y Fiancee used it to make scrambled eggs, Spanish style with peppers, onions and tomatoes, really nice.

Then we had a bit beef stew left from last night, so I had some of that and then of course the rice, the gluten free version of power int he morning.

Now I am ready to tackle the day, Friday the 13th.....had already my first ups and downs but there are more ups, so it will be a good day

Pan Cakes

Now I am getting very serious, I have eaten many, many pan cakes in my life and most of them are not even worth talking or writing about because they are simply made from a pan cake mix

To make homemade pancakes is actually really easy, the only difference is that one needs to beat the egg white to make them fluffy, but otherwise there is no difference, except in taste. To have this lovely flavor of the vanilla bean is just great.

There is no baking powder in it, no preservatives, just plain nature, fresh eggs (maybe even organic ones) fresh flour, sugar, vanilla bean and milk, that's it. one can add of course the usual suspects, bananas, blueberries, chocolate chips or anything else that makes the pan cakes even more irresistible

We had ours just plain but then we had some lovely crispy bacon with it, that was really a great breakfast treat

The recipe makes a huge stack of pan cakes, so make sure you invite enough friends to try them out, you will see it is a great success

Try it out!

450 g Flour
180 g Sugar
6 ea Egg yolk
6 ea Egg white
300 ml Cream
300 ml Milk
Half a Vanilla Bean

Mix all ingredients together except egg white
Beat egg white till soft peak
Fold under the batter

My daily Breakfast nr 5

Just because one is trying not to eat gluten, one does not have to suffer, no, not at all. I have just changed the bread int he morning for a lovely, fragrant Basmati rice, with fried egg and bacon, just the way I like it.

So this morning was great, getting up and then shortly afterwards the smell of bacon, eggs and freshly brewed coffee went through the apartment, that is the way to get up.

With a full tummy I don't even get annoyed when the transport is late for a couple of minutes....not like our neighbor who has a big thing every morning because she gets picked up a couple of minutes too late....have a nice breakfast, a up of coffee and chill.

Breakfast is the most important meal in the day, OK, maybe not as "unhealthy" as mine this morning, but one should make sure that one has a good breakfast. My day usually goes a lot better after breakfast.

So enjoy your breakfast and have a great day

My daily Breakfast nr 4

 

Today I had a mega sausage with some scrambled eggs. It was just delicious and yes the sausage was so big that I shared it, otherwise it would be too much for the breakfast.

I love sausages for breakfast, lunch and dinner....and even between meals. This one here is a sausage called Knackwurst. It is a German sausage which makes a cracking sound when one bites a piece of, therefore the name.

I guess one could have smaller sausages, but I got it as a sample and have to say, it was delicious and I might get some more soon

We just fried it a bit with little oil, then took the sausage out and made the scrambled eggs in the same fat, so it has a bit of the flavor of the sausage

My daily Breakfast nr 3

Another wonderful breakfast, something that really gives one power for nearly the whole day. It is called Lugaw and comes from Philippines. It is a rice soup that is made with chicken, garlic, onions and ginger and often a little saffron is added.

Today I had my Lugaw with a boiled egg but no saffron, so it is a bit white, but really yummy. I love eating it and scraping the meat of the chicken wing that was in it, a great start for the day....with coffee of course

In Philippines you will eat Lugaw all day long, there are many different versions but one is always the same, it is based on rice. We eat often a cup of Lugaw when we are in town, just if there is a little hunger coming

My daily Breakfast Nr 2

today I got these lovely fried eggs over easy on Pumpernickel with little pork chipolatas. Mmmmm, what a start of the day. The eggs were still beautifully soft inside and I love it when the egg yolk runs over the bread.

The pork chipolatas come from a local shop. The meat was ground very fine which is not my favorite, but they were still nice. It is not easy to find great breakfast sausages here in Accra, but I don't give up

For the hotel I have somebody in France looking for a butcher that will make the sausages for us, so we will have a unique breakfast sausage here in the hotel. I will tell you more when I get the first samples

Simple breakfast but delicious, of course with my coffee, today no sleepy picture of me....better so it might fright readers away

My daily Breakfast Nr 1

I had a new thought....yes it happens sometimes. We photograph all the times when we eat, never mind if we have taken already a picture, we take another one when we do it again, so I thought, why not post them so apart from the recipes there are just simple breakfast ideas.

Every morning while I get ready for work my Fiancee treats me with a surprise breakfast, I tell you I feel so spoiled, being a chef and being able to just sit down and getting a breakfast cooked with love

Today I got treated with a lovely Spanish omelet, a light version without the potatoes. There was just fresh green peppers and tomatoes in it and as a surprise some lovely cheese filling. With that I had some toasted baguette and some pumpernickel. I love pumpernickel, especially with lots of butter and jam....which I had after the omelet basically as my dessert

Like this and a lovely cup of coffee, my day just starts absolutely in the best way.

Still sleepy!

The perfect scrambled egg

It is not difficult to make a scrambled egg.......so why do we get so often a scrambled egg that is not perfect, not even close to perfect, sometimes so bad that it is just terrible?

Very simple, it is actually not that easy to make an absolutely perfect scrambled egg, one has to follow a couple of basic rules, have a good non stick pan, heat should not be too high, the egg needs to be seasoned only slightly and only before it is cooked and then of course.....you need really good, fresh eggs! There really is a difference between a good egg and a not so good egg.

The secret is to have some cold cream and add it at the end when the eggs are basically cooked as this will stop the cooking

So that is what you need for 4 people

8 ea Organic, fresh Eggs
2 Pinch of Salt
1 Pinch of white ground Pepper
50 g (1.8 oz) Butter
90 ml (3 oz) Cream

Whisk the eggs with a whisk till they are well scrambled














Heat a non stick pan to medium heat
Add the Butter, melt. It will bubble but should not get brown
Then add the whisked eggs, season now with salt and pepper

With a non scratch spatula mix the eggs on the heat till they are nicely scrambled

When the eggs are done add the cream, mix and take off the heat.

Serve immediately with garnishes of your choice