This is an interesting approach to an omelette. It's a little bit like a soufflé... That you then fill and fold in half.

Like I said, interesting.

I did enjoy it though. And it was kind of fun to try something a bit different for breakfast. I did find myself wishing there as more filling though. I mean, I did have slightly less mushrooms than called for but, even so, I feel like the quantity given in the recipe isn't enough for the amount of omelette. I guess the eggs are meant to be the star of the show. The filling is actually listed as completely optional! But I feel it really needs the filling to complete it. And I really liked the filling, so I've doubled all the filling quantities below. Feel free to use less filling if you'd like, but this is how I'd make it if I were going to be doing it again.

Puffed Omelette

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, separated
• pepper, to taste
• 1/4 c. cold water
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 150-200g mushroms¹, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme (or 1/2 Tbsp. fresh)
• 2-4 Tbsp. grated cheddar or Gruyère

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Grind a bit of pepper into the egg yolks and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.
4. Add the water and salt and continue beating until soft peaks form².
5. Add ~1/3 of the whites to the yolk mixture and mix well. Don't worry about deflating the whites at this point. Just make sure everything is evenly mixed. This first portion of whites just helps to loosen and lighten the yolk mixture to make it easier to fold in the remaining whites.
6. Add ~1/2 of the remaining whites and carefully fold them in.
7. Fold in the remaining whites until just combined.
8. Melt a little of the butter (1/2-3/4 tsp.) in a large oven-safe pan over low heat.
9. Add the egg mixture to the pan and cook for ~3 minutes. Do not stir!
10. Transfer the pan to the pan to the oven and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15 minutes³.
11. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter over medium heat.
12. Add the mushrooms and cook for ~5 minutes.
13. Add the garlic, parsley, and thyme and cook for another minute or so.
14. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
15. Remove from heat and set aside until omelette is ready.
16. Once omelette is cooked through, add the mushroom mixture to the middle of the omelette and top with cheese.
17. Carefully fold the omelette over.
18. Cut in half and serve with toast and/or a sauce of your choice⁴.

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¹ The recipe doesn't specify what kind of mushrooms, so normally I'd default to cremini here, but I just happened to have some excellent black oyster mushrooms from the folks at Noki Farms sitting in my fridge, so I tossed those in. They were delicious! I definitely recommend using oyster mushrroms if you have them. The black oyster mushrooms were great and I would definitely use them again, but I think pink oyster could also be wonderful. They would give it an almost bacon-y vibe. (Plus they're just so pretty! I'm always looking for an excuse to buy them.) ^{Back 2} Sadly, I think I over-beat my eggs slightly. It was still a nice omelette, just probably not quite optimal. (And possibly why my omelette tore when I tried to fold it over.) ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for baking the omelette for 12-15 minutes and gives dire warnings against over-baking as this will cause the eggs to become tough. Given such warnings, I elected to bake my omelette for only 12 minutes, turn the oven off, add the filling, and then put it back in the hot oven for 2 minutes. I think this was fine, but I found I actually preferred the more "well-done" outer portions of the omelette, so I think I will just bake it for the full 15 minutes from now on. ^Back
4 I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I think it would be excellent with some of this fancy ketchup! ^Back

I only had a tiny fraction of the amount of avocado that I was supposed to for this recipe, so imagine these patties topped with a lot more guac/avocado mash than they are in the photos. Also, the recipe as written just calls for mashing up the avocado with a bit of tomato, lime juice, and salt. This is fine, but I wanted to gussy it up a bit (especially since I had so much less than I was supposed to), so I opted to add some fried garlic, cilantro, and ground Kashmiri chilies.¹

The patties themselves were also relatively simple: just some onion, cumin, oregano, and jalapeño mashed up with some beans with a bit of egg and panko to bind it. This seemed a bit bland to me, so I added some garlic and a bit of adobo sauce from some chipotles in adobo. I also replaced some of the cumin with dhania-jeera masala to add another layer of flavour. I didn't add any black pepper this time, but I feel like that wouldn't've gone amiss either. There's room to play around with the seasonings a bit.

Black Bean Patties

Adapted from Healthy Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Patties

• scant 2 c. cooked black beans
• 1 Tbsp. garlic oil, divided (home-made or store-bought)
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. adobo sauce from chipotles in adobo
• 1 large egg
• 6 Tbsp. panko breadcrumbs

Topping

• 1 avocado
• 1 roma tomato, seeded and diced
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• 1/2 tsp. balti masala (optional)
• 1 tsp. minced fried garlic (from garlic oil or store-bought)
• 1/4 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest (optional)
• ~1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
• ~1/4 c. salsa verde, Envy sauce, or cilantro-mint chutney

Directions

1. Mash the beans and set aside.
2. Heat 1/2 Tbsp. of the oil over medium heat.
3. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño and cook until soft (3-5 minutes).
4. Stir in the cumin, masala, pepper, oregano, and salt and cook for another minute or so.
5. Add the onion mixture to the mashed beans along with the adobo sauce and stir to combine.
6. Mix in the egg and the breadcrumbs.
7. Shape into patties. You should get 4-8 patties depending on how big you want them.
8. Heat the remaining oil over medium heat.
9. Add the patties to the pan and cook until heated through and browned on both sides (5-6 minutes per side).
10. Meanwhile, mash the avocado and mix in the tomato, lime juice, masala(s), fried garlic, Kashmiri chilies, cilantro, salt, and lime zest (if using).
11. Serve the patties topped with the avocado mixture, yogurt/sour cream, and salsa/Envy/chutney.

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¹ I feel like I added one or two other things as well, but I can't remember what they were now. That said, I think a little balti masala and/or dhania-jeera masala would go nicely in this. Use whatever you feel best fits the vibe. ^Back

So, TF and I went to a protest last week. People are upset about the sex ed curriculum again. The alt-right/homophobes don't want kids to be allowed to try out different names or pronouns at school or learn that queer people exist, so they decided to have a protest about it. So, OFL and some other folks helped to organize counter-protests at the same locations. TF and I were at one of the counter-protests.

I'm glad we went. But it's also kind of depressing that it was even necessary. It's depressing that so many people are still so homophobic that they see even discussing the existance of queer people as an "adult topic" and queerness as somehow inappropriate for children.

Anyway, none of that is really relevant to cauliflower. But I needed to tell you that story to tell you this one:
While we were downtown, we spotted a sign for "Taste the 4th Sense", which TF immediately recognized as being somehow related to a business she used to frequent at the Fergus Market (nearly 20 years ago)!

We got chatting with the owners and it turns out that yes, it is the same business, just under new ownership. They still make a lot of the same products (including the garlic oil that was a staple of TF's pantry when we first met) and also have an incredible selection of locally made sauces and spice blends. And you're allowed -- encouraged, in fact -- to taste and sample everything before you buy it! It's really a wonderful shop.

We came out with three new sauces + some Christmas presents and a new cookbook.

I haven't looked through the cookbook in any detail yet, but I did notice this cauliflower and bok choy recipe near the beginning. And by sheer coincidence TM recently gave us a bunch of baby bok choy. And cauliflower was on sale at the grocery store last week. So this seemed like a natural fit as an additional vegetable side to go with our dinner last night. And, man-oh-man, it was so tasty!

I was worried that the BBQ sauce would make it too sticky and sweet, but it was just right. And despite some initial misgivings, the cauliflower and bok choy were great together! And the cashews and the mushrooms really take it over the top. It's just fantastic. Definitely a keeper.

Sheet Pan BBQ Cauliflower

Slightly adapted from Awaken Your 4th Sense: Volume 1 by the Taste Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower¹, cut into florets
• 225g mushrooms², sliced
• 2 Tbsp. garlic oil (either home-made or conveniently ready-made from Taste)
• 1/2 c. raw cashews
• 9 heads baby bok choy³
• 1/2 c. BBQ sauce (preferably Big Stooley's Smoked Jalapeño Apple BBQ Sauce), divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet with a silione baking mat.
2. Toss the cauliflower and mushrooms with the garlic oil and spread, in an even layer, over the prepared baking sheet.
3. Distribute the cashews evenly over the vegetables.
4. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes, stir, then continue baking for 15 minutes longer.
5. Meanwhile, rinse the bok choy and cut into bite-sized pieces.
6. Toss the bok choy with 1/4 c. of the BBQ sauce and add this to the vegetable mixture on the baking sheet.
7. Bake for another 15 minutes or so, stirring every 5 minutes.
8. Once the bok choy stems are tender, remove from oven and drizzle the remaining 1/4 c. of BBQ sauce over the vegetables.
9. Serve as an appetizer or vegetable side dish.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 450g cauliflower florets. We just used a whole head of cauliflower which worked out to ~600g of florets. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for shiitake mushrooms, but they didn't have any at the grocery store when I went, so we just ended up doing it with cremini. (And it was delicious!) That said, I think shiitake or oyster mushrooms also would have been excellent in this. Maybe next time I'll visit the folks at Noki Farms and see what they have available. Their mushrooms are always so fresh and lovely (they grow them on-site) and I think some of their black pearl or pink oyster mushrooms would be fantastic in this dish! ^Back
3 The original recipe only called for 3 heads of baby bok choy, but we had 9 and they needed to be used, so we just put them all in and I quite like that ratio. I would do it that way again in the future. ^Back