Breakfast : Tiny Bites

Easter recipe round-up

2 Comments Karen HamiltonMarch 23, 2008

Happy Easter from the Hamilton household! How did you spend the weekend? My husband and I like to celebrate every year with an Easter egg hunt for two. This year, I also took advantage of the long weekend to try a bunch of recipes that have been on my radar for some time.

Pan-Seared Sesame-Crusted Ahi Tuna

Source: Cook’s Illustrated: The New Best Recipe

A Hamilton household favourite. This is technically a new recipe for me because this one comes from my husband’s repertoire. He was more than happy to let me try my hand at it on Friday while he took in the second night of March Madness. This dish is so quick: a few minutes of prep and a few minutes to sear. My only regret was that the tuna steaks I had to work with were triangular and a little thin. If you can find it, select steaks that are rectangular blocks at least 1.5 inches high, like these ones that we’ve used in the past.

Ingredients:

For the Tuna

3/4 cup sesame seeds
4 8oz tuna steaks, at least 1.5 inches thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Ginger-Soy Sauce with Scallions

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 medium scallion (green onion), sliced thin
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes [we use a tiny bit of shichimi instead]

Directions:

Combine all of the ginger-soy sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Spread the sesame seeds on a shallow plate. Pat the tuna dry. Use 1 tablespoon of the oil to rub both sides of the steaks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Press both sides of each steak in the seeds to coat [we do all 4 sides for good measure].
Heat the remaining oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat until the oil begins to smoke. Swirl to coat the pan. Add the tuna and sear 30 seconds with moving them around the pan. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue to cook until the seeds are golden brown, about 1.5 minutes. Using tongs, flip the steaks carefully and cook, without moving, until seeds are golden brown on the other side. It’ll take about 1.5 minutes for rare to 3 minutes for medium-rare.
To serve, cut into 1/4-inch slices. Serve with ginger-soy sauce.

Braised Peas with Spring Onions and Lettuce

Source: Cook with Jamie

Kurt usually serves his sesame tuna with a side of steamed asparagus. Ho hum. Now that I was in charge of the meal, I cracked open the Cook with Jamie cookbook that we got for Christmas and zeroed in on something with peas. It’s still too early for fresh peas, but the frozen organic peas we found did just fine. We substituted red pearl onions for the spring onions only because I was too lazy to figure out what it was. It isn’t a term used very often in Canada; green onion is what I’m more used to.

The dish complemented the ahi tuna and the pinot grigio that we had for dinner. It was much soupier than I expected (note to self: inspect cookbook photo first). Next time, I’ll serve it in a bowl or on top of the rice to absorb its flavours.

Ingredients:

A pat of butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon of flour
1 cup vegetable stock [substitute with chicken stock if necessary]
6 spring onions, trimmed, outer leaves discarded, and finely sliced
14oz fresh or frozen peas
1 butter lettuce, sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO—splurge for the good stuff)

Directions:

Slowly heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the flour and stire around, then slowly pour in the stock.
Turn up the heat and add the onion, peas, and lettuce with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until tender.
Taste, correct the seasoning and squeeze in a little lemon juice. Serve drizzled with a splash of EVOO.

Nutella Banana Muffins

Source: Delicious Days

Fellow food blogger ChichaJo, whose Philippine culinary adventures I am duly noting for our Christmas vacation in Northern Luzon, tried an irresistible nutella and banana muffin recipe that she found on Delicious Days. It was just the thing to bake for my family’s Easter dinner on Saturday night. Following in ChichaJo’s footsteps, I likewise used Nutella to frost the finished goods along with a sprinkling of silver cola balls. It was a hit at the family party. My lola (grandmother) doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth but she made room for several of these.

Mushroom and Saffron Soufflé

Source: La Tartine Gourmande

Breakfast has never been a meal that I eat on time. Brunch is much more to my liking; Sunday brunch especially. Wanting to try something other than the usual soft-boiled egg for this Easter morning, I flipped to the bookmark of a savoury soufflé recipe on La Tartine Gourmande. The original recipe called for crab, which wasn’t available at our grocer, nor was it an ingredient that we felt like having so early in the day. Instead, I tossed in few brown mushrooms, shallots, and smoked applewood cheddar. Kept the saffron in for the pop of colour.

Verdict: puffy, golden, and deeeelish. You have less than 30 seconds after the oven opens to capture the soufflé at its airy peak. I missed my chance to capture it towering 2 inches above the lip of the ramekin. Happily, this is definitely a recipe that warrants a repeat. Hope to have photo evidence of the heights it can achieve before Easter comes again next year.

Categories: Books and Such, Breakfast, Dessert, Food, Recipes