Sooooo. Nothing like a six week hiatus to make me feel bad about myself. Apologies for the lack of updates here on The Saucy Coq in the past several weeks. A lot on my plate to get the new decade rolling in the right direction. Back on track now!

Like every Christmas, my family’s go-to gifts for me fall in the kitchen & cooking genre. And, rightly so…I’m always up for experimenting with new foods and techniques. This year, my sister got me a blow torch with some nice ramekins. The next gift I opened was some Vanilla beans from Madagascar. Then, she let me know that there happened to be a dozen fresh eggs and cream in the fridge. “Merry Christmas” she said, “I want crème brûlée”.

Crème brûlée, French for “burnt cream”, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel.  This was actually my first attempt at making the rich dessert. For starters, as I’ve mentioned many times, I don’t bake. Secondly, even though crème brûlée is a pretty basic affair, it’s always remained a restaurant dessert for me. Enter the blow torch. If you weren’t a fan of Home Improvement in the ’90s, you wouldn’t understand, but the torch makes me feel a bit Tim Taylor-esque. Grunting, looking around the kitchen for anything that will volunteer to be torched.

For now, it’s just this custard mix. For the future, I’m scared.

Crème Brûlée

3/4 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 large vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  If you have a whole vanilla bean, use the tip of your knife to open up the bean length-wise, then press the knife down at an angle and scrape it along the length of the bean to remove the seeds. It actually looks like a brown paste inside, but what you’re extracting are all of the seeds, and, all of the flavor.

Place the cream, vanilla bean and its pulp into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, but do not bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually. If the cream is still hot, it’s important to add the cream in small batches so as not to cook the eggs.

Pour the liquid into 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan and pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake just until the crème brûlée is set, but still jiggles in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Remove the crème brûlée from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top. Divide the remaining sugar equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy top. Allow the crème brûlée to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Sooooo good.

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WEEKENDER BRUNCH: PORTOBELLO EGGS w PANCETTA

by TSC on December 19, 2009

Leaving for the holidays tomorrow for a week means we’ve been spending the last couple of days trying to piece together meals and snacks from the food on hand in our kitchen, rather than buying food that will go bad. Knowing I wasn’t going to want to wake up this morning and head out in the snow for food, I needed a plan last night. We had a few eggs, a bit of the homemade Basil Pecan Pesto and some parsley on hand…just needed a medium to serve the eggs on. Typically, I’d pick up a nice fresh baguette from the store, but we weren’t about to eat a loaf of bread in one sitting. So, I headed to the store and bought two huge portobello mushrooms and a few slabs of 1/4 inch thick pancetta.

We have a little indoor grill that I used to cook both the mushrooms and the pancetta, but if you don’t have one, you can use a grill pan or even the oven.

Portobello Eggs

Vegetable Oil
2 large portobello mushroom caps
Glug of olive oil
Pinch of salt
2 slices pancetta, 1/4 inch thick
3 large eggs
2 additional egg whites
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Hot sauce
Fresh cracked pepper
2 tbsp basil pecan pesto
2 tbsp fresh parsley or basil, chopped fine
2 tsp freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

Coat a grill or grill pan with a bit of oil. Remove the stem of the portobellos and with a spoon, gently scrape out the gills (dark inside) of each mushroom cap. Brush both sides of caps with oil and sprinkle with salt. Grill mushrooms over medium-high heat until juices begin to release, about 7 minutes per side. Transfer each mushroom to a plate, top side down.

On the same grill or grill pan, cook pancetta over medium-high heat until it begins to get crispy and you get some nice grill marks, about 5-6 minutes per side. I actually placed a big heavy cast iron pan on top of the pancetta for two reasons: it helps the fat render from the meat and it will help to keep the pancetta slices flat, rather than curling up. Place 1 slice bacon onto each mushroom cap (and the other on the plate if you like).

Whisk eggs, egg whites, dijon, hot sauce, a splash of milk and a pinch of pepper until well combined in a bowl. Melt a bit of butter in a medium nonstick skillet and heat over medium-low heat. Add eggs and scramble until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Season with S&P.

Divide eggs among mushroom caps. Drizzle 1 tbsp pesto over each; top with parsley and 1 tsp Pecorino.

Good brunching!

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TUSCAN WHITE BEAN AND SAUSAGE SOUP: A WINTER CLASSIC

December 16, 2009

It’s still not officially winter here in NYC as far as I’m concerned. Cold, maybe. Dark early, yes. But winter? No, not if you’re Canadian.  I did however have to break out a scarf a couple of days ago, and it signaled the first day that I really felt I needed a good hearty winter [...]

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GINGER FIZZ COQTAIL

December 11, 2009

Hello to my fellow foodies on this fine December Friday. This week’s Weekender Brunch is cleverly disguised as an alcoholic beverage!
Since I started this website a couple months ago, I’ve begin to uncover a plethora of fascinating and seductive food blogs that have existed under my fingertips for years. One of my favorite new food [...]

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HOMEMADE BASIL PECAN PESTO

December 8, 2009

Pesto is a great thing to make yourself for several reasons: 1) it tastes infinitely better, 2) it’s much cheaper than a store bought version, 3) it’s open to a lot of variation. And, if you’ve never made it before, I think you’ll be surprised at how simple it is to make.
If you’ve bought pesto [...]

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EGG IN THE HOLE: HANGOVER EDITION

December 4, 2009

Round three of The Saucy Coq’s Weekender Brunch, and for this one I’m going with a good ol’ hangover breakfast. For some reason, which was probably no reason at all, I was extremely hung a couple Saturdays ago. Advil wasn’t working. Water wasn’t working. Another drink didn’t work. All I needed was a good, heavy, [...]

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SESAME-CRUSTED COD w ASIAN VINAIGRETTE

December 1, 2009

There I was again with some Cod in the fridge and no particular plan for cooking it. Luckily, there are so many options for cod! Other than being very inexpensive, you can cook cod 15 different ways (don’t quote me),  you can give it any flavors you can think of and it never takes long [...]

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WILD MUSHROOM PASTA with QUAIL EGG

November 30, 2009

We’re lucky enough to live across from a Whole Foods Market. Before you anti-establishment cooks ream me out for not shopping at a reeeeal market, I’ll tell you that I love buying the fresh, aromatic ingredients that any local purveyor has to sell me. Our weekends usually involve at least one trip to some destination [...]

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CURRY SHRIMP PIZZA: A SAUCY SIGNATURE

November 25, 2009

I do not remember under what circumstances I made this recipe up. It doesn’t sound like it would be as good as it is, but for some reason I tried it once upon a time. I do know that I’ve made a few different incarnations of it in the last couple of years, and they [...]

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GRILLED CORN w CHILI LIME BUTTER

November 23, 2009

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Corn.
Grilled corn is such a simple, versatile side dish that it gets it’s own post. Jealous? Whenever I’m short on time and need a “veg”, grilled corn is a solid go-to. It’s cheap, easy and you can dress it up any way you like. Yes, I [...]

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