This week we're fully embracing the random and not so much the recipe. In other words, I've had lots of kitchen 'adventures' lately. Where to start? Hmmm, since it's almost Easter, let's start with eggs.
Finding myself with far too many eggs in the fridge I decided it was the perfect time for some egg experiments. Thee experiments at once if you really must know. I planned to feature eggs both yesterday and today, but by the time I finished I was about ready to throw eggs at the wall and then stress-bake an eggless cake. I resisted both and continued peeling those extremely stubborn eggs and turned them into egg salad. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself again.
In conjunction with tea from Monday I planned to share Chinese Tea Eggs with you. I dabbled with them last year but haven't tried them since. I think the eggs below were the first food photo I took with my then new camera. The crackled appearance seemed like a fun twist for Easter so I set out to make them again.
After hard-boiling the eggs then steeping them for hours in tea, soy sauce and spices you have flavored eggs with an almost stained glass appearance However, if you put them in the center of the top shelf in my fridge, you will have frozen hard-boiled eggs with shattered shells that rip and tear the rubbery yet frozen egg. What fun. Needless to say I wasn't up for another round.
Meanwhile, in a slow cooker on a nearby counter top sat 6 eggs. This post on Seven Hour Eggs and Huevos Haminados caught my attention (I'll spare you the history and science lesson, but you foodies may want to check it out.) Basically with long, slow cooking methods the egg whites turn golden brown and acquire a nutty, almost meaty flavor. This worked for me once before so I decided to show it to you here. Only this time it didn't really work. I'm guessing this has to do with the temperature setting on my slow cooker and the age of the eggs. It will be a while before I'm curious enough to try again. Quite a while.
The oven was feeling a little left out so I set out to perfect the hard-baked egg. I'm sure you've all seen the muffin tin trick floating around on Pinterest. When I tried it last fall I got soft, underdone eggs. This time around I increased the oven temperature slightly. Instead of under-baked eggs I had rubbery, over-baked eggs. I really, really, really need to invest in an oven thermometer.
I think I'll stick to traditional methods for hard-boiling eggs. Then again, I don't even really like hard-boiled eggs. Or egg-salad. But sometimes a hard-boiled egg in a salad is okay. Got that? Good.
I'm not even going to start on my other 'adventures' from this past week. I'll just leave you with the links for two recipes I tested and actually would make again. Homemade bread and peanut butter cookies pretty much fix everything.
Mama Pea's Sandwich Bread
and
Sally's Monster Cookies
Food for Thought: "Failure is the condiment that give success its flavor." -Truman Capote
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