We're all out of cottage cheese and I haven't had a chance to make any more bread yet, so I was at a bit of a loss as to what to make for breakfast.

Luckily we still had some sour cream left in the fridge and I'd gotten a small package of smoked salmon on sale last week. And with the dried chives in the pantry and the neverending supply of eggs from the chickens, that gave me everything I needed to make these simple but special-feeling scrambled eggs.

Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 8 large eggs
• 2-4 Tbsp. milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 150g smoked salmon, chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 1/2 c. sour cream or crème fra&icric;che
• 1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
2. Beat the eggs with the milk and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and allow to cook for a minute or two without stirring.
4. Gently stir the eggs and allow to cook until nearly set (another 2-4 minutes).
5. Stir in the smoked salmon and chives and cook for a minute or so longer.
6. Serve topped with sour cream/crème fra&icric;che and lemon zest.

Reiver wanted to try some unusual waffles while he was here. Initially I made croque-madame waffles, which were delicious, but not weird enough for him. (The toppings were interesting, but it was still just a basic waffle underneath.) So this was the next waffle recipe that I decided to try.

I'd made the buckwheat waffles that form the base of this recipe before. But hadn't had a specific set of toppings or flavour profile in mind when I did. This time I figured I'd follow the suggested recipe in the book and top them with smoked salmon and sour cream¹. So, basically like blini, but in waffle form.

Buckwheat Waffles with Smoked Salmon

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 4-6 buckwheat waffles
• 250g smoked salmon
• 1/2 c. crème fraîche or sour cream
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives and/or dill
• 2 Tbsp. capers
• black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Prepare your waffles.
2. Top each with a couple slices of smoked salmon and a dollop of crème fraîche/sour cream.
3. Garnish with red onion, chives, dill, capers, and/or pepper and serve.

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¹ The recipe technically called for crème fra&icric;che, but they didn't have any at my usual grocery store and I didn't want to make a separate trip out to get it, so I just used sour cream instead. Still delicious and slightly lower fat than the alternative! ^Back

This is probably best done with lamb, but the recipe specified lamb or beef. And we have a lot of beef right now. So that's what I used. I liked the little meatballs. Although I wish the sauce was a bit thicker. I've been debating whether it would be nice to head it back up and add a little flour or cornstarch to turn it into a sort of gravy.

Kefta Tagine with Herbs, Spices, and Lemon

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

Kefta

• 450g ground beef or lamb
• 3 Tbsp. crème fraîche or grated beef suet¹
• 2 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Sauce

• 3/4 c. hot water, divided
• 1/8 tsp. crushed saffron threads
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/8 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter or ghee
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine all the kefta ingredients. If you have a food processor, combine them in the food processor and process until everything is well mixed and broken down. If not, just mix it with your hands as best you can.
2. Form mixture into olive-sized meatballs. (The original recipe says this should make ~24 meatballs, but I got twice that number. I guess they have really big olives in Morocco!) Cover and chill until ready to cook.
3. Meanwhile, combine the saffron, cumin, ginger, pepper, cayenne, and turmeric and add ~1/4 c. of the hot water. Stir and set aside to steep while you chop the onion.
4. Place a tagine on a heat diffuser and warm over medium-low heat.
5. Add the onion, butter, and spice-water.
6. Rinse the spice-water container out with the remaining half cup of hot water and add that as well.
7. Add the salt and 3/4 of the cilantro.
8. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
10. Turn the meatballs, cover, and simmer for 15 more minutes.
11. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.
12. Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and serve with rice, couscous, and/or bread.

¹ I didn't have either, so I used 2 Tbsp. of tallow mixed with 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream. ^Back

The kidlet has just started school which, of course, means I need to pack him a lunch every day. And, because I get way too excited about these things, I went out and got some ridiculously cute cookie/sandwich cutters. I haven't been doing a lot of sandwiches so far, but I did have some crème fraîche and pie pastry that needed to be used up, so I decided it was time for the most kawaii hand pies ever!

Apple & Crème Fraîche Hand Pies

Ingredients

• 2 apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 c. sugar
• ~1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• pie pastry (enough for a single crust pie)
• ~7 tsp. crème fraîche

Directions

1. Combine apples, sugar, and cinnamon in a small pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are soft and sugar has caramelized.
2. Meanwhile, cut out your pastry shapes. (Circles, squares, or triangles are fine; I just wanted an excuse to use the animal shapes.) This recipe made 7 pies for me, so you'll want 14 shapes total (7 pairs of tops and bottoms).
3. Spread half the shapes with ~1 tsp. crème fraîche each, leaving a small border.
4. Top with a generous Tbsp. of apple mixture.
5. Wet the edges of the pastry and place the matching top crust over the apple assembly, pinching the edges to seal.
6. Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 20 minutes.

P.S. I made the little bows on the kitty faces by combining two kitty ear cut-outs with one frog nostril cut-out. ;)

Beef Stroganoff

This recipe comes from The Home Creamery, which -- in addition to ­recipes for various dairy products -- includes some recipes for things to do with them. This recipe is written for sour cream, but we had made a delicious batch of crème fraîche and had just about the right amount left.

This recipe is slightly altered from the original to account for that and upping some of the seasonings.

We served it over whole wheat rotini, but like all stroganoffs it would probably work with a wide variety of substrates, including rice or egg noodles.

Ingredients

• 45mL salted butter
• 1kg sirloin and/or striploin steak, cut across the grain into strips
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 500g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 15mL flour
• 3mL hot paprika
• 3mL cayenne
• 10mL freshly ground black pepper
• 320mL crème fraîche

Procedure

1. Melt 15mL of the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add the steak and cook, turning often, until browned and cooked through. Remove to bowl with a slotted spoon.
3. Melt another 15mL of butter and add the onions. Cook, stirring often, until soft, ~10 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms, reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms shrink, release their liquid, and soften, ~10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and onions to the same bowl as the steak.
5. Add the remaining butter, the flour, paprika, cayenne, and black pepper to the pan. Cook, stirring constantly, for one minute.
6. Stir in the crème fraîche to form a homogenous sauce.
7. Return the meat, onions, and mushrooms to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce until heated through.

Ramps, if you've never heard of them, are basically the scallion's wild cousin. They're in the Allium genus and look like scallions with extra wide leafy tops. The leaves are much less stiff and more tender than your typical onions or chives and very flat and broad. Their season is very short and they are extremely difficult to propagate so they are, as far as I know, exclusively harvested from the wild.

I am generally very wary of buying anything that is harvested from wild populations (plant or animal). These were available through our produce basket though and I know that Mama Earth tends to curate their offerings pretty carefully. I also took a look at the supplier and it does seem like they are trying to follow sustainable harvesting practices. So, provided it is, in fact, being done sustainably, I'm okay with buying some and supporting that.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do with my lovely ramps. I wanted something to really showcase their flavour. I debated just grilling them with a little olive oil, but that wouldn't really be substantial enough to be a meal on its own. I was tempted to try a ramp risotto, but it looked a little more complex than I was willing to deal with this week. In the end I settled on a very simple quesadilla recipe. It was simple, quick, easy, and should showcase the ramps nicely while still being substantial enough to be a (not very balanced) meal. Perfect!

I know you can't actually see the ramps here, but trust me: they were delicious!

Ramp & Chorizo Quesadillas

Slightly adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 uncured chorizo-style sausages
• 1 bunch ramps, chopped
• ~1 c. grated Cheddar cheese
• 2 (10") whole wheat tortillas
• butter (optional)
• crème fraîche or sour cream, to serve

Directions

1. Remove sausage casings and crumble sausage meat into pan.
2. Cook on medium-high until meat is cooked through and starting to brown.
3. Remove sausage from pan with slotted spoon and set aside.
4. Add ramps to pan and cook in rendered fat from sausage. Add a couple Tbsp. of water to help deglaze the pan if necessary.
5. Remove ramps from pan and toss with chorizo.
6. Add cheese to ramp mixture and toss.
7. Add a very small amount of butter (if using) to pan.
8. Place a tortilla in the pan and cover 1/2 with ramp mixture.
9. Fold tortilla in half (sandwiching the ramp mixture between) and cook until tortilla is slightly browned and crisp.
10. Flip quesadilla over and cook until second side is starting to brown, cheese is melted, and quesadilla is hot all the way through.
11. Remove from heat, cut into quarters, and top with a dollop of crème fraîche (or sour cream).

The thing that originally prompted me to make crème fraîche was actually an excess of oranges. We got a bunch of oranges in our last produce basket, which is great... except neither TF nor I tend to really eat oranges. I'll happy eat grapefruit for breakfast. And he'll go through clementines at a somewhat alarming rate. But we don't really "do" oranges. (The kidlet isn't really keen on citrus in general right now, so we can't count on him to be a fruit sink here either.) This meant that I had to search for things to do with surplus oranges.

The first got sliced up and put into a citrus-avocado salad, which I found tasty after a couple minor tweaks, but TF wasn't too keen on. (I may do a write-up for it at some point but, given that neither of us were crazy about it and we're not likely to revisit the recipe any time soon, it's not exactly a high priority right now.) The next orange recipe I found was much more of a hit though: homemade whole wheat bread slathered generously with maple-cinnamon butter, toasted, and topped with vanilla sugar saturated sliced orange and homemade crème fraîche. That, as it turns out, went over exceedingly well!

Unfortunately I was in such a hurry to sit down and devour my delectable breakfast, that I forgot to snap a picture of the fully assembled dish. So, I will just borrow the photo from yesterday's post to show you the crème fraîche-topped maple-cinnamon toast:

So now just imagine that with three or four thin slices of juicy orange and a drizzle of maple syrup on top and you'll have an idea of the deliciousness that was my breakfast this morning!

Maple-Cinnamon Toast with Citrus & Crème Fraîche

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

• 1 orange, thinly sliced, seeds removed¹
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla sugar²
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temp.
• 1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 4 (1/2"-thick) slices whole wheat bread
• 1 c. crème fraîche
• extra maple syrup to serve (~1/2 c.)

Directions

1. Toss orange slices with vanilla sugar and set aside. (I prepped mine the night before and let them sit in a Ziploc bag in the fridge overnight.)
2. Combine butter, cinnamon, sea salt, and maple syrup. (I just tossed the cold butter in a dish with all the other stuff and let it sit on the counter overnight. By morning it was soft enough to easily mix everything together.)
3. Spread one side of each slice of bread with some of the cinnamon butter.
4. Bake at 450°F for 8 minutes.
5. Place toast butter-side-down on a plate, top with crème fraîche and orange slices, drizzle with maple syrup, and enjoy!

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¹ The recipe does not say to peel the orange and the picture on Epicurious shows unpeeled orange slices. I think that if your slices are thin and even and neat, having an unpeeled orange would work and does produce a striking visual. The peel also gives those thin slices some structural integrity so they don't just disintegrate on you. That said, I chose to remove the very outer part of the peel with a vegetable peeler (mostly so that I could candy it). The remaining pith did lend some structure, but wasn't as substantial or chewy it would have been had I left the whole peel on. I think fully peeling the orange and using a very sharp knife to cut somewhat thicker slices would also work well. It all depends on what you're after.^Back

² The original recipe calls for 2 Tbsp. sugar + seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla bean. Going that route would definitely give a more pronounced vanilla flavour which I think would be quite lovely. I went with the vanilla sugar mainly because I had it easily to hand and because there were enough other flavours going on that I wasn't really expecting the vanilla to take centre stage anyway. If you want to really taste the vanilla though, definitely use the vanilla bean!^Back