English Muffin Loaves イングリシュマフィンローフパン

Recently my wife mentioned that she was thinking of making homemade English muffins. I remembered that we used to make English muffins which we posted as several versions of English muffin. We initially started making them using muffin rings in a frying pan  (which apparently we did not post). The dough was very sticky and putting it in the English muffin rings was very cumbersome. We also cooked them without the rings in the cast iron skillet.  Looking at these past posts, I remembered how sticky the dough was, and how hard it was to form into the round muffins and how long it took to cook those muffins. I also remembered that my wife used to make something called English muffin bread. It had the flavor and texture of an English muffin but was much easier to make. We really liked it. When I mentioned this to my wife she said, “Great! Let’s look up the recipe in the Blog”. After some searching and although we saw it mentioned in this and other posts several times, (we even posted “Eggs Benedict” using slices of English muffin bread) we never posted how the actual bread was made.  Apparently, my wife baked this bread so many times in the past and it was such a ubiquitous part of our everyday meals we didn’t think it was anything special and it never occurred to us to post it. 

Since the recipe was not posted in the blog, the next question was “Where did it come from?” Then, my wife remembered it was from a spiral bound instruction and recipe book that came with the very first Kitchenaid stand mixer we bought years ago. Bingo! Between the two of us we found the recipe and here is the bread! (Picture #1).

Like the other English muffin recipes we previously mentioned, this dough is also extremely sticky and hard to work with. But the good news is that it goes into only two loaf pans instead of multiple individual rings which is extremely difficult to do. But it is basically impossible to divide the dough even into just two loaf pans by hand. Having made this bread so many times my wife developed a “work-around” method of tipping the dough directly from the mixer bowl into the loaf pans, dividing it up by cutting it into two pieces using scissors as shown in picture #2. (No clumps of sticky dough stuck to hands.)

Ingredients: (yield two loaves) 
5-6 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
¼ (generous) teaspoon baking soda 
2 1/2 cups milk (my wife used buttermilk)
Cornmeal

Directions:
Place 4 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a dough hook turn the mixer to speed 2 and mix for 1 minute.

On speed 2 gradually add milk/buttermilk to flour mixture. Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time. Knead on Speed 2 for 7 to 10 minutes. Dough will be very sticky.

Spread dough into two bread loaf pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, for 45 minutes. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool.

This is definitely THE WAY to make English Muffin-like bread! It toasts up beautifully and is great for breakfast slathered with butter.  

Home-made English Muffin 自家製イングリッシュマフィン

We posted English muffin previously but have not made them for some time especially since my wife started making English muffin bread. But for some reason, my wife started making English muffins again. One of the problems in making English muffins is that the dough is very sticky and it is very difficult to handle especially if you use English muffin rings. My wife used to cut the dough using a kitchen scissors to place it in the ring. My version of "no-knead English muffin" was a bit easier. This version my wife used came from YouTube and used a lot of cornmeal as a way to handle the sticky dough. (Although this was the amount of cornmeal shown in the video, a lot less probably would have worked just fine.) The result was rather rewarding. It is definitely an authentic English muffin.

I ask my wife to continue. This recipe came of aYouTube video called "Sheldo’s kitchen". My wife painstakingly wrote down the recipe, frequently stopping the video.

Ingredients:  (12 muffins)
4 cups (560 g) AP flour

1 1/2 tsp (10 g) salt

2 Tbs. (28 g) sugar

1 tsp yeast

3/4 cup (167g) greek yogurt

325 Ml water

oil 3 Tbs. (40 g) vegetable oil.

Double recipe:

8 cups (1,120 g) AP flour

3 tsp (20 g) salt

1/4 cup (56 g) sugar

2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 cup (334g) greek yogurt

650 Ml water (milk?)

oil 6 Tbs. (80 g) vegetable oil.

Directions:

Stir to wet all the flour. Stir to further combine and knead slightly.  In the first  90 minutes, 3 sets of stretches each 30 minutes apart. Take dough and pull out one side and fold it to the middle. Do that with each of the remaining 3 sides. Let the dough rest 30 minutes and repeat stretch 2 more times for a total of 3 stretches. Leave undisturbed for 1 hour. Put covered in fridge for 10 to 48 hours. The longer it is in the fridge the better the taste. 

Cover cookie sheet with corn meal. (A little less cornmeal than what I used here would probably work just fine). While the dough is still cold make it into a round. Put a large hole in the middle and pull the edges out straight and stretch into a log. Divide the log into 12 portions (24 if using double recipe). Make each portion into a flat round and move the edges to the middle then roll into a ball. Put on corn meal covered tray about 2 inches apart. Dust the top with corn meal. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Using 2 spatulas lift the dough into a skillet (no butter). Flatten the top. Cover with a lid and cook 6 minutes. (After 2-3 minutes rotate so it browns evenly.) Turn over and tap the top with a spatula to flatten. Cook another 6 minutes with lid off. After they have cooked 12 minutes check temperature. It should be 200 F to be done.  

Let it cool off a bit before separating the muffin using the "fork method".

These were our idea of genuine English muffins. They toasted up nicely with lots of “little nooks and crannies” to catch the melted butter. The crusts were crunchy and had a mild taste of cornmeal which was very nice. (One of the problems was during cooking the excess cornmeal tended to burn). While very good they were a bit of work to make. Making English muffin bread is much easier. 

No Knead English muffin イングリィシュマフィン

We were offered a digital baking cookbook from Washington Post by email to use during the covid-19 stay-at-home period. (We subscribe to the digital version of WP having given up on the paper version many years ago). One of the recipes in the cookbook was for no knead English muffin, and it piqued our interest. I used to make English muffins and even have metal rings in which to bake them. But the dough was so sticky just getting a portion of it into the rings was a struggle.  My wife, started baking English muffin bread so I stopped making English muffins.  Even so, getting the dough into the loaf pans requires a pair of scissors and some finesse. This recipe, however, sounded interesting and also looked easier to make despite taking a long time for the dough to rise. The picture below shows the final product toasted and buttered after my wife carefully separated the muffin into two halves using a fork.

Digression alert: according to my wife this fork method, which she learned eating many English muffins as a child, is "de rigueur" for cutting them into halves. It's done by inserting the tines of a fork from the edge of the muffin toward the center multiple times around the entire perimeter. Once this is done it easily pulls apart with just a gentle tug.  As you can see from the picture it works pretty well. The two halves remain intact and the nice nooks and crannies are preserved. The original recipe calls for pulling them apart by inserting your thumbs and pulling with your fingers...needless to say, my wife quickly vetoed that method after she saw the mangled mess that resulted from my attempt to implement it. 

Ingredients:
2 cups  bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1⁄4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1⁄2 cups cold milk (any percentage)
1⁄4 cup honey
1 large egg white, cold

1 cup fine cornmeal, for dusting
2 tablespoons or more unsalted butter for cooking

Directions:
Mix together the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients, mix well with a spatula until smooth but sticky dough forms (#1). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 4-5 hours in warm place. Dust a rimmed cookie sheet with the corn meal and drop on scoops of the dough using a large spoon (#2). Dust the surface of the dough with additional cornmeal and cover with a plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours (we did this over night). The dough spread out so each dollop was almost touching each other (#3). Heat up a large cast iron skillet on medium low flame and when it is hot, add the butter (#4). Using a spatula, put the dough portions into the skillet (#5) and cook 6-7 minutes turning the dough 180 degrees half-way through cooking to get an even browning (our first batch was a bit over browned). Flip the muffins over and cook the other side (#6). My wife inserted a bamboo skewer from the side to the center to make sure the muffin was cooked. We put the cooked muffin in the wire rack to cool.

These muffins were our combined effort. The next morning, we cooked up the muffins and they were great. Although it takes time to prepare the dough, it is much easier to make than what I went through before. The addition of the whole wheat flour made it much better than just making it with white flour. The whole wheat flavor really came through with a mild nuttiness. Also, the butter became richly browned and added another wonderful taste dimension. We will make these again for sure. We can improve these in two ways; 1. reducing the salt in half (above we reduce to 2 tsp)--it tasted too salty to us and 2. Use lower heat to cook the muffin. The heat was too high and especially the first batch- came out too brown. Making the English muffin reminded us of naan we made which was also very good. Maybe we should make that again.

Eggs Benedict エッグスベネデクト

This is certainly not an Izakaya food but I decided to post it anyway. Sometimes eating breakfast for dinner is a wonderful thing and this dish only goes with good sparkling wines (Champagne, Cava or Prosecco). So it could be possible to have this for a late night snack or something for celebration (we do not think we can eat this late at night). Obviously, this is not "low" fat or low calory and we eat this only on very special occasions. We need four components to make this dish; 1. bread, 2. Canadian bacon, 3. poached egg, and 4. Hollandaise sauce.

1. Bread: The bread is transitionally an English muffin which I used to make but, recently my wife started making "English muffin loaf bread" which has a same texture and taste of English muffin and it is bit easier to make (for one thing, you need not to struggle to put the sticky dough into individual rings, but most importantly, I do not have to make it!). My wife recipe may be different but here is one I found on line.

2. Bacon: This time, I did not have Canadian bacon so I used chicken breast and half  a strip of bacon to add bacon flavor. I cut half a strip of bacon into small pieces and made them crispy by rendering the bacon fat in a small frying pan. I removed the bacon bits from the pan and added slices of pre-cooked chicken (one I made few days ago) breast and saute for 30 seconds on each side to add bacon flavor and to warm.

3. Poached eggs: We poach eggs very simply using a small (8 inch) non-stick frying pan. Use one with a high side (not for a French omelet kind) so that enough water can be added allowing the egg yolk to be totally submerged. Add 1/2 tsp of salt (I do not add vinegar since we do not need it and do not like the vinegar flavor in our eggs). When it comes to simmer, break eggs in small cups and gently slide them in the hot water. The egg white around the yolk will stay together without any special techniques. After the surface of the yolk is just set but the yolk is still runny (4-5 minutes), using a slotted spoon, gently remove the eggs on a paper towel lined plate (the eggs may stick to the bottom of the pan but since it has a non-stick surface, they will come off.  If not, you could use a silicon spatula to persuade, but be careful not to break the yolk on the bottom).

4. Hollandaise sauce (for two servings of one egg each): Once you get hang of it, this is not as difficult as you may think. If you are an expert chef you could use a small sauce pan directly on fire but I use a double boiler so that I do not make scrambled eggs instead. Add lemon juice from half a lemon (1-2 tbs) in the double boiler on simmer. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and one egg yolk, whisk until frothy. Drizzle in 1-2 tbs of melted butter and keep whisking until thick and saucy consistency is reached (2-3 minutes). I usually add a small amount of water to loosen up the sauce to a nice flowing consistency.

5. Assembly:  Toast and butter a slice of  English muffin loaf (if you are so inclined you could use a ring mold to cut a circle or use an English muffin) on the bottom, place a slice of the chicken breast with bacon bits, then, a poached egg, and cover them with Hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle paprika and chopped chives (to make it Chrismasy since this was Christmas morning). By the way, we did not have any drink with this (we had cappuccinos instead) since it was breakfast but we could have Champagne or Mimosa.

The French know how to make it decadent and also artery clogging but this is a wonderful combination of tastes and textures.

Crumpets クランペット

My wife came across an article about using sour dough starter discards to make crumpets. Although we are not making sour dough starter (yet), making crumpets sounded interesting. We have never made them before and, to the best of our knowledge, nor have we ever eaten them. But they look like English muffins and our recent success making English muffins encouraged us to make crumpets. Also, we happened to have English muffin baking rings. These rings did not work out so well with English muffins because the batter is so sticky, it is almost impossible to get it into the rings. But they are necessary for making crumpets because the batter is so runny it won't hold its shape without them. We found a few recipes on line and, we ended up combining two recipes. The cooking part is a bit tricky and we finally came up with a method by combining the two recipes.

Both sets of pictures show the second batch of crumpets toasted served like English muffins (two layers separated, see below "How to serve"). The first batch did not go so well. You can see the nice crunchy surface with all the little nooks and crannies that capture the melted butter.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups water (lukewarm)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Direction:
1. Warm the milk in a saucepan. Make sure that it is warm but not boiling (I was not sure how hot the milk should be but the milk gets mixed into the dry ingredients including the yeast. I reasoned that if it was too hot it would kill the yeast so I made sure the milk was about 110F.
2. Whisk together the warmed milk, flour, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. (#2) I used a stand mixer with a paddle.
3. Once combined, add half the water and beat into the batter.
4. Continue to add more water until the batter is thick and smooth. Stop adding water once the batter reaches the consistency of thick cream. (I was not exactly sure what that consistency was, but I used up almost all the water so I decided that was enough).
5. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm, draft-free place until foaming. This should take about 1 hour (#2). After one hour, it smelled very yeasty and looked bubbly.
6. Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter (I added the salt in the dry ingredients).

How to cook (this is the most tricky part):
My wife carefully buttered the inside of the English muffin rings. Then, we melted the butter (my wife insisted it had to be butter not vegetable oil) in a large cast iron skillet on medium low flame.  The recipe I was following suggested if the batter seeps out from the bottom of the ring, it is too watery; add more flour. Conversely, if the surface of the cooking crumpet does not form many little bubbles the batter is too thick, add more water.  I started with one ring as a test. There was no seepage out the bottom (#3) and bubbles formed on the top. I concluded it was just right. So I went ahead and filled 4 rings (#4). The recipe said, fill the rings to just below the upper edge which I did.  After a few minutes, the batter expanded and started running over the top edge of the rings. The recipe said to flip the crumpets over with the ring still on to cook the other side. This resulted in the excess batter going all over the bottom of the pan (#5). The crumpets were too thick and the center remained somewhat wet and doughy even after cooking them for over 20 minutes. This batch was deemed "a lack of success".

So, the next batch we adapted some ideas from the King-Arthur website recipe for crumpets. We filled the rings just half full (#6). After a few minutes, the batter expanded coming close to the upper edge of the rings (#7) (this looked much better than the previous batch). But for some rings, the batter did not come up to the upper edge, so flipping them with the ring still on would not have worked out well. The King Arthur recipe indicated that after 4 minutes cooking, as the edge of the batter dries out a bit the ring could be removed using a tong. We thought removing the ring would be difficult but as long as the batter did not expand to reach the top edge of the ring, it was surprisingly easy. We then flipped the muffin to cook the other side (without the ring) (#8). This worked much better than the method suggested in the previous recipe. We let the muffins cool on the cooling rack (the first picture above).

Tips for cooking:
1. Fill with batter to half height of the rings.
2. After 4 minutes, remove the rings using a tong.
3. Then, flip it over.
4. cook each side for 5 minutes for a total to 10 minutes. Then take another 5 minutes, as needed, to make sure both sides are evenly browned.

How to serve:
The crusts of the crumpets we made were nice a crunchy with a lovely browned butter taste. But even with the second and third batches, the insides were a bit wet and doughy. So my wife decided to separate the crumpet into 2 halves like an English muffin using her special fork method and toasted it. This was much better for us. The inside dried out and added to the lovely crunchiness of the crust. In general these were pretty good but in the future, we may just stick with our previously successful no knead english muffin recipe.

Poached egg with Indian-style sauce 落とし卵とインド風ソース

Recently, I had surgery on my right hand and ended up sporting a large cast which made it impossible for me to cook anything for several weeks. During this time, my wife did all the cooking (quite admirably, I might add, despite the dearth of Japanese dishes). Recently she has become interested in Indian food particularly the use and combination of spices that provide complex flavor without a lot of heat. Although we have posted her dishes before, I asked her to “pinch hit” for me posting her Indian-inspired and other dishes exclusively until I am back in action. This is the first installment. The Indian dishes are all based on recipes from two books; "Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking" and "Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking". In most cases she took considerable liberties with the recipes (our apologies to the cookbook’s author) but they still tasted good.

We had this for breakfast. It is a type of curry sauce with a poached egg on English muffin bread. (My wife also baked the bread. Instead of making round muffins she made it into a loaf). I think the original recipe called for the use of hard-boiled eggs but we like runny yolk. Of course, we used pasteurized shell eggs for this dish. Breaking the yolk and mixing it with the sauce and eating it with the bread (you’ll need a fork and knife) was wonderful. Again, it was very flavorful with lots of spices but not spicy hot. Perfect for breakfast or a late night snack.



Ingredients:
1 medium onion chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 jalapeño chopped
1 cup of light cream
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cumin seeds
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp garam masala
2 tsp. tomato paste
2/3 cup chicken stock

My wife cooked the onion until it was browned and caramelized. Then she added the ginger and jalapeño followed by the cream, lemon juice, cumin seeds, cayenne, salt, garam masala, tomato paste and chicken stock. She cooked the mixture until everything was combined and the sauce had thickened a bit. (The original recipe call for putting 6-8 hardboiled eggs, cut in half, face side up into the sauce and spooning the sauce over them cooking for 5 minutes). Instead, she toasted some english muffin bread, buttered it, put the sauce on the bread and topped it with a poached egg—voila, Indo-eggs Benedict (?). 

As I said earlier, when the poached egg was broken the yoke ran into and mixed with the sauce. It was a luscious combination because the sauce was not too hot (spicy) but full of flavor. The toast added a lovely crunch.

Cornmeal bread コーンミールブレッド

This is another baking project by my wife. This recipe is from the "Beard on bread" cookbook. "Beard on bread" sounds funny. I imagined a beard growing from the surface of the bread but of course "Beard" is the name of the late, famous "cook, cookbook author and TV personality" James Beard. The annual  James Beard Foundation Award is considered the "Oscar" of the culinary world. In any case, my wife looked through the book and decided to make this bread.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup boiling water
1 Tsp salt
2 packages of active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (100 to 115 degrees)
1 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 cup warm milk
1-2 Tsp salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
4 to 4 1/2 All purpose flour

Directions:
Pour the cornmeal and salt into the boiling water. Stir vigorously until it cooks and becomes thick. (You are basically making polenta). Before the cornmeal completely cools and solidifies, add the cooked cornmeal, warmed milk, salt and brown sugar to a stand mixer with a dough hook. Stir to make a creamy mixture with no lumps. Let cool until slightly warm. Bloom the yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tbs. granulated sugar. Add to the milk mixture. Add the flour one cup at a time. Stir until the dough is smooth and elastic. (Add more flour if necessary). Knead in the mixer for 7-10 minutes.

Put the dough in a bowl with a small amount of vegetable oil. Coat the dough in the oil. Cover and let rise until doubled in a warm place. When doubled punch the dough down and make two loaves. Put in a well greased loaf pan (the more butter used to grease the crunchier the crust because the dough is basically frying). Let rise again until almost doubled. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 and continue baking another 20 to 25 minutes or until the loaves are nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped. The original recipe said to take the loaves out of the pan and put on the rack of the oven for a few minutes to crisp the crust. We didn't do that.

This bread reminds of us of English muffin bread my wife makes. Both have a nice crunchy texture. This one has a pleasant faint corn flavor, of course, from the cornmeal. This bread can be used in any dishes where English muffin bread is called for and also good every day bread.

“Hoshigaki” (dried persimmon) muffins 干し柿マフィン

 We bought dried persimmon or "hoshigaki" 干し柿 from Japan through the Japanese taste. We ate some and made a few small dishes. Although they were still good they were not getting any younger in the refrigerator, so we decided to make a concerted effort to use them. My wife tried to find recipes for dried persimmon on the U.S. (English language) internet and there seemed to be a few for fresh persimmon but basically none for dried aside from ‘eat them as-is for a snack.’ In contrast I found numerous recipes for dried persimmon on the Japanese internet. (I guess they are used more commonly in Japan.) In the dried fig stuffed muffins blog, my wife warned that a variation on the recipe using dried persimmon could be in the future so she decided to make good on her threat and use a variation of that recipe for the persimmon muffins.  Since many of the Japanese recipes paired dried persimmon with rum as a hydrating agent my wife decided there must be a good reason that combination appeared so consistently so she decided to use rum too. These muffins were very good. Since we used rum to flavor and loosen up the hoshigaki, the muffins were a bit rummy/boozy but had a nice subtle sweetness and texture.  These could also be a very nice dessert.

Ingredients (hoshigaki stuffing):

1 lb dried persimmon (#1 they are dusty white from the sugar that came out) trimmed and chopped
1 cup rum 

Directions (for hoshigaki stuffing)
Carefully remove the seeds (#2), some had seeds and some did not.
Finely chop (they are sticky and it is not very easy but using the heavy chef's knife, I was able to finely chop them.  The final weight was about 390 grams which made the stuffing for 17 muffins and some leftover).
In a small sauce pan, add the chopped hoshigaki and the rum and gently heat/mix.
Using a submersible blender, further chop it fine but not completely pasty (#3).

Ingredients: (For muffin batter)
2 1/2 cup AP flour

1 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2  tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 cup sugar plus 2 Tbs. molasses (original recipe calls for dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups rum

Directions:
Liberally grease the muffin tins (or use paper muffin cups #4). In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients. In another bowl mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add half the dough to the bottom of the muffin cups. Top with the fig mixture. Don’t let the fig mixture touch the side of the muffin cups (#4). Top the fig mixture with the remaining half of the dough (#5). Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for about 5 minutes and remove from the tins to a cooling rack.

The hoshigaki-stuffing made a really nice and unique muffin. The butter used in the dough really came through in the final product and surprisingly the butter flavor really complemented the rum flavor. The flavor combination of dried persimmon, butter and rum really worked well together. (Those Japanese recipes really knew the right flavor combination to use with dried persimmon). Since my wife used rum, the muffins were slightly boozy; maybe not the breakfast choice for everyone (although no problem for us) they would be perfect for dessert.

Egg-in breakfast muffins 卵とベーコン入り朝食マフィン

My wife cannot resist interesting bread recipes especially ones that involve some kind of stuffing inside. She found this recipe on line and she had to try it. These breakfast muffins have cheese and bacon in the dough and encase an egg; either a whole or scrambled. It is an all inclusive portable breakfast. (If served on a stick it would classify as a "breakfast-on-a-stick" at the local state fair).  We were thinking that we might take this to work for breakfast and decided to make the scrambled egg version since this can be, reportedly,  be frozen while the one made with a whole egg cannot because the egg white becomes rubbery. We served this as a weekend lunch with my wife's ribbon salad.

As you can see, the scrambled eggs are stuffed inside.

Ingredients:

Flavorings (#4)

4 strips of bacon, cooked crisp, drained on paper towel (#2) and chopped (#4).

½ cup shallots, chopped, sautéed in bacon fat using the same pan in which the bacon was cooked and excess dripping poured out (#3).

2 cups grated cheddar cheese (we used smoked gouda and English cheddar)

Scrambled eggs: 5 eggs plus cream, seasonings and butter (#1).

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2  cups All purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients (#4)

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

10 tsp Greek yogurt (original recipe called for sour cream)

4 tbs  melted butter

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. 
2. Grease muffin tins with with butter (original recipe calls for "Texas muffin tin to accommodate a whole raw egg in each muffin, we used a regular muffin tin and scrambled eggs crumbled into small pieces).
3. Place Dry Ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine.
4. Whisk Wet Ingredients in a separate bowl.
5. Pour the Wet Ingredients into the Dry Ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix. 
6. Fold in Flavorings, including cooked bacon (#5).
7. Place 3 tbsp of the batter into 4 muffin tin. Bang the tin to flatten the batter.
8. Make a divot in the batter and put in the scrambled egg (or crack in a raw egg if using a larger tin and so prefer). (#6)
9. Divide the remaining batter between each hole to cover the egg. (#6) shows covered eggs in front and uncovered eggs in back.
10. Brush the muffins with melted butter (optional), then bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. (#7 and 8)
12. Best served warm.

This was good and the smell when cooking was divine but the amount of work and fat content may make us think twice before making this one again. We could possibly achieve the same effect by just baking a biscuit, cutting it in half horizontally and adding scrambled egg. Nevertheless, the idea is very interesting and we will take this to work for breakfast next week.

Baguettes バゲット

Baguette by itself is obviously not Izakaya food but as more Western-style food is served in Izakaya, baguettes are often served (For example Marks' book p95, Herb Garlic baguette served with Beef Intestine stew). I have posted few dishes served with a piece of baguette. Sometimes, we may start our home Izakaya feast with small bruschetta and end with pieces of baguette rather than rice or noodle dishes. Although good quality breads including baguettes can be had in many boulangerie or gourmet markets, we still like to make our own breads on occasional weekends. The smell of baking breads and tastes and textures of freshly baked breads are difficult to resist and can be only enjoyed if and when you bake them at home. I used to make all yeast breads and my wife made quick breads. I got a bit lazy recently and have not made a loaf of white bread or English muffins for some time. My wife got a bit impatient with me and started making some yeast breads including white bread (back of the picture) and English muffin loaf (with my helpful suggestions), which is very good (for me in particular) but she leaves baguette for me to make. 

My baguette is very simple. I do not use any fancy natural yeasts or special flour, just bread flour either Gold Medal brand or King Aurthur. I do not have any secret, inherited starters. I am sure mine is not the quality of true artisanal breads but we like it, so I keep making it. There are only a few things which are very important in making decent baguettes at home. These are: a baking stone, a water sprayer, and a razor blade.

This is the rare occasion when I actually measure the ingredients rather pricisely. First I proof the yeast in a glass measuring cup (1 or 2 cup size). I add 1 package (1/4 oz) or 1 and 1/4 teaspoon of active dried granulated yeast (I use Fleischmann's or Red Star active dried yeast) in 1/4 cup of warm water (about 110F or when you put your finger, it feels just tepid) in which 1/3 tsp of sugar has been dissolved. Mix well and let stand for 3-5 minutes to make sure the yeast is active as will be indicated by the surface bubbling up. 

Mixing and Kneading: I start my dough in a food processor fitted with a dough blade (of course you could use your hands as well as a mixer fitted with a dough hook). For two bauguettes, I place 3 and 1/2 cup of bread flour in the food processor and add 1/2 tsp of salt. I then add cold water to the proofed yeast (above) to 1 cup mark and mix well. While the food processor is on (I use the low-speed setting), I add the yeast mixture in a steady thin stream. After I add one cup of liquid, I get 1/3 cup more water and keep adding to the flour until, a ball of dough is formed above the blade. You do not need all the additional 1/3 of water. I stop and open the bowl to touch the dough. It should be soft but not too sticky. The amount of water you have to add varies depending on the weather or the flour. You have to decide when you have added enough by the look and feel of the dough. I then let it stand for 5 minutes so that the moisture will more evenly distribute. After 5 minutes, I run the processor for 30 seconds or so until a single mass of elastic dough is formed. I flour a large Kneading board and hand knead the dough to finish using the heels of my hands for 5 minutes or more until the dough feels nice and smooth. I finish the kneading by making a nice tight ball. 

Raising: I let the dough rise three times. You could do the first two in an oiled large bowl but I usually use a gallon size Ziploc bag sprayed inside with Pam or a similar non-stick spray  (just because I do not have to clean the bowl this way). After I place the dough in the bag, I squeeze out as much air as possible from the bag so that the dough will have a room to expand. I then wrap it using two or three towels and let it rise to double the size (about 1 hour but you should go by the volume not by the time as the room temperature, the potency of the yeast, the amount of salt etc change the time it takes to reach this point). I take the doubled dough out and deflate and fold it over several times and put it back to the Ziploc bag for the second rising (another hour or until volume doubles again).

Forming: After the second rising, I deflate and fold the dough over a few times and then divide into two identical cylindrical portions (weighing is the best way to make the two portions identical). It is not easy to describe how to form the loaves but I press using the side of my hand to indent a cut surface and the pinch them together. Stretch and fold over the dough along the long edge. Repeat this as you elongate the dough. If dough feels too elastic, you could let it rest for 10 minutes before forming baguettes. Cover with a floured dish towel and let it rise for the last time until the volume doubles. Move it to a peel (below) which is coated with corn meal (so that the dough will slide).

Using a sharp razor blade, make multiple oblique slashes on the top and spray water on the surface of the dough (see image below). This is to set the crust. I used to throw several ice cubes into the oven on a cookie sheet after I put the bread in.  But I am afraid that this may have damaged the oven (my old oven was not working properly towards the end). So I changed to the spray method before putting the dough into the oven. It works reasonably well and forms a good crust. 

I slide the slashed and sprayed dough in onto a hot baking stone (400F, should be preheated and left at 400F for at least 20 minutes so that the stone is throughly heated).

Bake it at 400F for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350F and bake another 30 minutes. I let the bread cool on a cooling rack as seen in the first picture. As it cools the bread makes a cracking noise ("music of bread" as per Julia Child) as the crust contracts. Cool to room temperature before eating. We usually slice and freeze the portion we did not consume by the next day. I am not sure what causes the difference but many commercial baguettes from the grocery store have a crust but the inside is spongy or mealy in texture. (I suspect they use some kind of additive in the dough). Ours has a better crust and texture as well as a nice nutty toasted flour taste.

Poached egg, smoked salmon with crème fraîche ポーチドエッグとスモークサーモン

This can be a breakfast (for us) on weekends when it strikes our fancy or a mid-night snack after drinking (for younger fellow imbibers). I'm not sure how this got started but my wife came up with this one. It is a cross between bagels, lox and creme cheese (hold the bagel) and a variation of eggs benedict (hold the hollandaise). This variation may be (very) slightly, less deadly than the original because there is no hollandaise sauce and (hopefully) some benefit from the Omega 3 in the salmon.

The recipe starts with a base of toasted and buttered English muffin bread (homemade, my wife promised me to post her recipe soon). On top of that goes a generous smear of crème fraîche (if not available, use sour cream or cream cheese). Next comes a sprinkle of chopped chives (my wife puts the chives on at this point so they are held in place by the next layers. Otherwise they just fall off the piece on the way to your mouth.  One layer of good cold smoked salmon follows the chives and the whole thing is topped with a poached egg. We sprinkled salt on top of the egg and more chopped chives as garnish. (It doesn't matter if these fall off the chive flavor is locked in the lower layer.)

The poached egg should have a runny egg yolk so that when you cut into it, the yolk makes a wonderful sauce. The combination of all these ingredients work so well together. If you like smoked salmon, you will like this dish.

Since I mentioned several times how easy it is to make poached eggs but never really illustrated the steps, I decided to post some visual aids. We tried many methods including an egg poacher, a classic vinegar water method, Pepin's swirl-water-and-put-an-egg-in-the center-of-the-vortex method (it appears he is not advocating this silly method any longer) but our method always works, no fuss no muss.

1. Use pasteurized eggs (in the U.S., notice a red "P" in a circle).

2. Use a good non-stick frying pan with a high side wall and add enough water so that the eggs can be completely submerged. I also salt the water for subtle seasoning of the eggs (optional) but absolutely no vinegar. (We do not like vinegar tasting eggs). The water should be just barely simmering. Crack an egg into a small ramekin and slide the egg as seen here. 

3. Eggs will sink to the bottom. 

4. Eggs will stick to the bottom (Do not worry). Poach them until the surface of the yolks are opaque and set but the yolks are still runny (4-5 minutes).

5. Using a perforated (slotted) spoon, gently separate the eggs from the bottom. It should not be difficult if the pan is a good non-stick pan. If you encounter undue difficulty, use a silicon spatula to separate the eggs from the bottom of the pan, (if that happens you may want to throw out the pan and buy a new one).

6. Drain the water trapped by the spoon or dripping off the egg by touching the bottom of the perforated spoon to a paper towel and place it on the plate (Do not leave it on the paper towel. It will become very difficult to transfer without breaking the yolk). I usually keep one on the spoon as seen in the picture for easy transfer.

If you are into the looks, you could take off thin peripheral shaggy portions of the egg white to make it pretty.

Miso marinated tofu 豆腐の味噌漬け

This is a rather popular item in Izakaya but somehow I neglected to make it. One weekend morning, my wife suggested we have smoked salmon and avocado scattered sushi for breakfast!. We often have English muffin bread smeared with creme fraiche and topped with smoked salmon and poached egg for breakfast but we were out of pasteurized eggs. As long as my wife was OK with this idea, I was too. I even served miso soup with tofu, wakame sea weed and scallion. This left us with 80% of the tofu leftover. I decided this was good time to make miso marinaded tofu.

This is not really a recipe and there are so many variations including a smoked one but essentially, you remove the extra moisture from tofu, either moment (firm) 木綿豆腐 or kinu-goshi (soft) tofu 絹ごし豆腐, marinade in miso for 1 or more days. The miso mixture can be variable such as straight miso, mixture of red and white miso, and prepared miso with sugar, mirin, sake, soy sauce etc. These differences as well as the duration of marination make variations in both texture and taste to the end result. Best is to try some variations and decide which combination is best for you.

Tofu preparation: I used "firm" tofu just because this was what available (leftover). I just wrapped the tofu with paper towels and placed it on a perforated metal tray with matched bottom tray. I placed a similar shallow metal tray on the top of the tofu and weighed it down (I just used two large American-size yogurt containers (full) since they were in the refrigerator and had the right weight). I changed the paper towel after a few hours and let it sit in the refrigerator for over half a day.

Miso marinade: I do not like the end product to be too salty. I happened to have miso which was designated as rice miso or "kome-miso" 米味噌, chuukara 中辛. This means this miso is between white and red miso in terms of saltiness, not as salty as "red" but not as sweet as white or Saikyo miso (about 4 tbs), sugar (1 tsp) and mirin (I am not sure how much but about 1-2 tbs to make a pastey but not runny consistency). The kind of miso is totally up to you and you may have to experiment a bit to find your sweet spot.

I smeared the miso mixture on all sides and placed in a sealed container (Picture above). You could wrap this in plastic wrap but I did not.

I left it for 1 full day and had it as a starter for sake the next evening. I scraped off the miso marinade using the back of a knife and sliced it (The picture on the top). I smeared the miso back on the remaining tofu using the knife and put it back in a container. I served it with matsuame-zuke 松前漬 and octopus "bukkake" 蛸のぶっかけ (both bought frozen). This was a first for my wife and she really liked it. She said that if I didn't mention it was tofu she might have thought it was cheese. The consistency is like semi-soft cheese with some nutty and slightly salty miso flavor. 

The next day, I served it with baby arugula salad dressed with fruity olive oil and Champagne vinegar  (Picture below). We had this with red wine, Louise M Martini, Napa Cab 2007, which is a decent everyday red that we like. Although this was into the second day, my miso marinade was rather mild so the flavor was not too strong or too salty. (I would not go further than 2-3 days with the marination but you could try longer). I could not say this was a particularly great pairing but it was OK, at least, the tofu was very nice and generally goes well with the red wine.

Tofu is congealed soy protein and cheese is made from coagulated mild protein. So there is similarity. Obviously they are not the same, though. My wife said, if I served this to our unsuspected guests sliced like a cheese, most will think this is a type of semi-soft cheese. I may try this sometimes to see what kid of responses we get.

Focaccia bread フォッカッチア

This is a variation of my focaccia bread. Although this is a bit too thick to make sandwiches, it is much better as eating bread dipped in olive oil.

We like this particular Spanish olive oil. It has quite robust flavors. We recently got a newer pressing (for 2017).

This is not a recipe but a note to myself for future reference. I made this bread to reuse (rescue) the sponge (or starter or biga) my wife was attempting to make for her Panettone bread.  My wife started the "biga" as per the recipe she found on line (200 grams or 1 3/4 cup of flour, 125 grams or a bit more than 1/2 cup of buttermilk, a small pinch of yeast, mixed together and let to stand at room temperature for 12-16 hours or until the volume doubles).

It looked quite dry for sponge and she was afraid she had not followed the recipe precisely. So she prepared another batch which also looked quite dry for sponge. In any case, she did make Panettone using the second sponge which was successful. So, we had the first sponge left over. Rather than throwing it out, I decided  I would make a focaccia bread using this sponge.  Since the sponge was rather dry, I added more water and kneaded and left it in a Ziplock bag for several more hours (it was made 2 days ago). It started looking more like sponge. Since the sponge had 1 3/4 cup of flour, I added 2 more cups of bread flour, one package of yeast (proofed in a small amount of lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar) and about 1 cup of water (I added a bit more until a proper dough formed). I kneaded it in a mixer with a dough hook for 10 minutes.

I decide to let it rise three times. I finished kneading by hand to make a tight ball. In a large bowl, I added a small amount of olive oil and placed in the dough ball and turned to coat. I covered it with a plastic wrap and towel and let it rise for 1 hour or until the volume doubled. I punched it down and let it rise for the second time. After the volume doubled again, I punched it down and let it rest for 10 minutes on the board (to relax the gluten). Then, I spread the dough onto a 1/4 sheet non-stick baking sheet. I let it rise for the 3rd and last time for 30 minutes. I then, pressed the dough with my finger tips to make multiple indents. I brushed on chopped fresh rosemary soaked in olive oil and scatted oil cured black olive (after the stones were removed) and pushed them into the dough (see below).

I  baked it at a lower temperature than usual, at 350F for 30 minutes.

The focaccia came out less crusty and much thicker and bread-like in the center. This was one of the items in our bake-a-thon shown below. One weekend, we made Stollen (far left), English muffin bread (Upper middle), Panetonne (Upper right), White bread (Lower right) and my focaccia (center).

You may have notice both edges of the focaccia were already cut off for the tasting. We really liked the texture and flavor of the focaccia made this way.

Poached egg with curry sauce 温泉卵のカレーソース

This is another quick dish perfect for a late night after drinking or, for that  matter, as a breakfast the morning after. ( Of course we are not implying that was the case here). I just came up with this since we had leftover Japanese curry but most of the meat and vegetables were already consumed. As long as you happened to have leftover Japanese curry sauce, this is quick to make.

We just toasted a piece of bread (This happened to be English muffin bread my wife baked). My wife toasted and buttered it. She put on three slices of smoked cheddar cheese (below left). Meanwhile I heated up the curry sauce, added slices of leftover roasted pork filet, and dropped two eggs (one per serving) into the sauce and put the lid back on. I took it off from the heat when the surface of the yolk was just barely opaque and the yolks were still runny (below right). Of course, we used safe, pasteurized eggs for this.  I poured the sauce over the cheese/toast and placed the poached egg on the top. Because of the heat from the sauce, the cheese melted/softened.

We broke the egg yolk and enjoyed. The smoky flavor of the smoke cheddar cheese really worked here. The eggs yolk mixed with the curry sauce and made it richer. Since the curry sauce was rather mild, heartburn after breakfast was not a worry. This was a very hearty satisfying breakfast.

No Knead whole wheat bread 捏ねない全粒小麦粉パン

This is from Washington post's  free-bee digital baking cookbook. We made "No knead English muffin"  from this cookbook which was very easy and good. So we decide to try this second recipe from the same cookbook. It turns out this is the most rustic bread we've ever made (or even eaten for that matter). Later we learned this recipe is originally by Jim Lahey's cookbook "My Bread. The revolutionally no-work, no-knead method". So, we also got his book. Certainly, this bread looks nice, rustic and artisanal without kneading.

Cutting into it; a nice crust and very "hole-y".

Ingredients:
300 grams (2 1⁄4 cups) bread flour, plus more for the work surface
100 grams (3/4 cup) whole-wheat flour
1 1⁄4 teaspoons table salt


1⁄2 teaspoon dried instant yeast

300 grams (1 1/3 cups) cool water (55 to 65 degrees)
Wheat bran or cornmeal, for dusting (may use additional flour)

I weighed the flours and water. I used yellow corn meal for dusting.

Directions:
Step 1: Stir together the flours, salt and yeast in a medium bowl. Add the water; use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let the mixture sit at room temperature until its surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough has more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.

Step 2: Generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a rubber spatula or lightly floured hands to scrape the dough onto the surface in one piece. Use your lightly floured hands to lift the edges of the dough up and in toward the center. Gently pinch the pulled- up dough together, cupping the edges in your hands as needed to nudge it into a round (don’t worry about making it a perfect circle).

Step 3: Place a clean dish towel on your work surface; generously dust the towel with wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough feels sticky, dust the top lightly with more wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Fold the ends of the towel loosely over the dough to cover it. Place the dough in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it has almost doubled in size. When you gently poke the dough with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for an additional 15 minutes.

Step 4: About half an hour before you think the second rise is complete, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and place a 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-quart heavy Dutch oven or pot with a lid in the center of the rack. Preheat to 475 degrees. Use pot holders to carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven, then lift off the lid. Uncover the dough. Quickly but gently invert it off the towel and into the pot, seam side up. (Use caution — the pot and lid will be very hot.) Cover with the lid; bake (lower rack) for 30 minutes.

Step 5: Remove the lid; continue baking until the loaf is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 30 minutes more. (If you like a more precise measure, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread registers 200 to 210 degrees.) Use a heatproof spatula or pot holders to carefully lift the bread out of the pot and place it on a rack to cool thoroughly before serving or storing.

Certainly, looks great.

It was still warm when we sliced off a piece, buttered it and tasted it. This may be too crusty and rustic for us. The crust was extreme and almost felt like it broke into shards when we crunched it. It also didn't seem to have much flavor. My wife commented that it would make a nice crouton to dunk into  hardy stews or soups but not the first choice for breakfast with coffee. Certainly some liquid is required and wine alone was not enough to enjoy this bread.

The next day, we had a toasted slice of this bread with cauliflower parmesan potage (similar to what we posted), and a small salad as a lunch and it was great! Somehow resting overnight made the bread much better. The crust, while crunchy, was not as hard and the overall texture of the bread had improved. The toasty flavor of the whole wheat flour really shone through.  So what was the lesson learned here? We were clearly too hasty busting into this bread before it had cooled enough. It needs to rest at least until fully cooled or, at best, one day to mature to its full potential--and it is well worth the wait.  This is definitely a very good bread to have.

Subsequently, reading Jim Lahey's cookbook we found the following passage which confirmed what we stumbled upon and mentioned above. "After the bread is removed from the oven there is a final step in the process. The cooling step is crucial. Thorough cooling actually completes the cooking of the dough and when you slice a hot loaf you are releasing heat and moisture prematurely. The bread will taste under baked and wet."

Crumpet version 2 クランペット 第二弾

After we made blini using a newly rediscovered cast iron pan (supposedly called a "platar"), we challenged ourselves to use it to make crumpets. The last attempt at crumpets was less than successful; those crumpets did not develop the "hole-y" characteristic which makes a crumpet crumpet. This time with a new recipe and the newly rediscovered cast iron pan, we succeeded in making perfect crumpets. We served them with melted butter and a small amount of honey.

The batter is rather runny almost the consistency of pancake batter. In our previous version we used English muffin rings, as recommended in the recipe we were using, but the batter seeped out at the bottom of the ring. We had no such problem with our cast iron pan.

The new recipe had instructions as to how to control the heat to develop multiple holes as shown in the second and third pictures. You can see that while cooking, bubbles developed and then popped creating nice holes.

Ingredients:

1 times the recipe (about 14 crumpets)
300 g. (2 cups) AP flour
400 ml. (1 1/2 cups) warm water
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Baking powder (The recipe said baking soda doesn’t work as well)
2 tsp yeast
2 tbs. warm water

1 1/2 times the recipe (about 21 crumpets)

3 cups AP flour (2 cups AP and 1 Cup +2 Tbs. Cake flour) 

600 ml. warm water
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Sugar
3 tsp. Baking powder (The recipe said baking soda doesn’t work as well) 
3 tsp yeast
3 tbs. warm water

2 times the recipe (this is the recipe I’ve been using) 
600 g. (4 cups) AP flour (or 2 cups AP and 2 cups + 1/4 cup  Cake flour) 
800 ml. (3 cups) warm water (or buttermilk or regular milk)
2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Sugar
4 tsp. Baking powder (The recipe said baking soda doesn’t work as well) 
4 tsp yeast
4 tbs. warm water (1/4 cup)

(Use second to largest scoop not completely filled)

Directions:
Bloom the yeast in the warm water. Put the flour, water and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on speed 5 for 1 minute until smooth paste forms. Add the yeast mixture, sugar and baking powder and mix on speed 5 for another 30 seconds. Cover with cling wrap and put in a warm place for 15 to 30 minutes. The surface should get foamy but it will only increase in volume by 10 to 15 %.

Pre-heat the platar and coat the cups with melted butter. Using a small ladle scoop the batter into the cups. Heat control is key to crumpet success. Stronger heat is needed to begin with to get the holes bubbling. Cook on the higher heat for about 1 1/2 minutes until bubbles start appearing. Then lower the heat so the crumpet cooks through without burning the base, but strong enough to make the bubbles pop. Cook on the lower heat for about 1 minute until the bubbles start popping. Bubbles will start to pop around the edges first then in the center. Finally, lower the heat further and continue cooking for 2 1/2 to 4 minutes until the surface is set and it is clear no more bubbles will be popping. (According to the recipe, at this stage the final bubbles could be popped with the help of a skewer.)  Some wisps of smoke from the butter around the rings may appear. If there is a lot of smoke it means the skillet is too hot. Flip them over to cook the other side for 20 to 30 seconds to give it a blush of color. Cool on a wire rack. 

These crumpets were much better than the first batch we made. They got even better after the second day. We tasted them just out of the pan and the outside was crunchy but the inside was kind of wet and doughy. We initially thought they may not have been cooked through. But by the next day the insides had firmed up and were nicely chewy. The flavor was nicely accented with the taste of browned butter. We toasted them in the toaster oven and served them with melted butter and some honey. Mighty fine! 

Christmas "Eggs Benedict" クリスマスエッグスベネディクト

This was what we ate for Christmas day lunch. For breakfast we had just a cup of cappuccino and assorted home-baked Christmas breads such as stollen and panettone. So for lunch, we decided to splurge and made this Christmas  egg(s) Benedict with smoked salmon. We have posted this variation before. I added green (broccoli) and red (tomatoes) for Christmas color.

  

The bread was homemade English muffin bread which my wife baked on Christmas eve. I garnished the Hollandais sauce with chopped chives and paprika.

We had just enough Davidson's pasteurized eggs to make the Hollandais  sauce and two poached eggs.

I made the Hollandais sauce as before (for 2 servings) with one egg yolk, lemon juice (I used juice from one Meyer lemon), cayenne pepper and half a stick of cold unsalted butter. I first mixed the egg yolk, a pinch of cayenne pepper and the lemon juice in a double boiler. I whipped the mixture for several minutes until it became frothy and doubled in volume. I added thin pats of butter and mixed until one pat completely got incorporated before adding the next. After adding half a stick of butter, the consistency of the sauce is like soft or slightly runny mayonnaise. I tasted it and I initially thought it was too spicy but on the poached egg, it was just fine. I seasoned it with a pinch of salt. This was one of the better Hollandaise sauces I ever made probably because I added enough cayenne pepper and the lemon juice was from a Meyer lemon.

So, this was a rather luxurious lunch. We liked this version with smoked salmon better than Canadian bacon or ham.