Come on Over: Molecular Gastronomy Welcome Home Brunch

Technically this shouldn’t be “come on over,” it should be “go on over there,” since everything was done at my parents’ house, but hey! It’s that whole entertaining idea. Now, I should start off by saying: don’t try this at home. It was good, and it was fun, but you could probably make almost this same breakfast just as well without all of our weird experimentation, and it would take half the time it took us. But we wanted to have a little fun and try out some weird culinary toys we’ve recently acquired, so off we went!

The Occasion: A Welcome Home Brunch for my Daddy, who returned at long last from a yearlong “work trip” to Tokyo.

The Menu:

Fruit Salad with Spherified Yogurt

Eggs Benedict with Sous Vide Eggs, Pickled Shallots, and Sous Vide Hollandaise Foam

Crepes of Wrath’s “Perfect” Breakfast Potatoes

I’d given the Boy a Sansaire, or home immersion circulator, which we decided to test in conjunction with a molecular gastronomy kit my Mom had given me. This resulted in us choosing the above menu, and kicking things off by sous-viding (is that a verb?) our Hollandaise.

The display looks weird here, but that’s just the photography – it was really showing the temperature.

Meanwhile, I chopped fruit and prepared the fruit salads (everything but the spherified yogurt, which was a recipe out of the aforementioned molecular gastronomy kit).

The Hollandaise emerged from the sous-viding, eggs went in, and we blended the Hollandaise to get it nice and smooth. We added some lemon juice and got it in the siphon, ready to be foamed.

Meanwhile, one or the other of us (first the Boy since I was scared, then me), spherified the yogurt. This was a fun but verrrrry delicate process – still, I wish I had video, because science is cool.

Oh, and somewhere in there we cooked the potatoes.

And at LONG last, everything was ready!

The verdict? Everything was delicious, but – and it’s quite a but – it probably could have been just as delicious with a lot less work. The potatoes, the simplest dish, were quite yummy, but the yogurt could have been sweeter (I used the called-for plain in fear of messing up the spherification) and also could have been un-spherified, the Hollandaise foam deflated quite quickly, and the eggs took For. Ever. To be fair, the yolks were incredibly luscious, but the whites seemed a little under, so I think we need more sous vide practice.

Still, it WAS fun, which was the point of the whole exercise, and my parents enjoyed it (or did a good job pretending too as is their duty as my parents). So: Brunch.

Much Ocean, No Moose

As promised, below is a selection of the five million pictures I took when the Boy and I drove up the Eastern coast of Maine and Canada to Prince Edward Island (PEI for the locals) and then back down again to Massachusetts. It was truly gorgeous, and though I didn’t catch a glimpse of the moose I was hoping for, we truly had a fabulous time.

The Boy flirting with danger before our first lobster roll at Red’s.

A friendly rooster on the door of the first bed and breakfast we stayed at, in Camden.

On the nearly-mile-long breakwater leading to the Rockland Harbor Breakwater Light.

We made it! The Rockland Harbor Breakwater Light itself. You can’t go inside, but the walk to get there is a lovely adventure.

Cairns on the (very steep) trail we climbed from Camden to the top of Mt. Battie.

0.5 miles can’t be that bad, we thought. Well, it was 0.5 miles straight up. This was towards the top of the mountain, where we were rewarded with a gorgeous coastal view.

A hidden trove of mushrooms. Don’t worry, we didn’t eat any…

But I did force the Boy to pull over to a roadside stand on one of our drives so I could purchase some wild Maine blueberries. When in Rome, right?

Visiting the sea caves in St. Martins – all red rock and moss. You had to walk out when the tide was low so you didn’t get trapped inside.

Speaking of moss…

The beautiful New Brunswick coastline as seen from a lookout on the Fundy Trail. A wonderful little national-park-like area which was driveable, hikeable, and had a number of interesting stopovers. We were a bit rushed as we were heading to PEI that day, but I for one certainly could have spent more time there.

An old sea captains’ graveyard discovered on a small windy path on the Fundy Trail.

A suspension bridge on the Fundy Trail. It shook when we walked across. Awesome. (But actually.)

The bridge to PEI.

Adirondack chairs on the coast near our incredible B&B.

A hidden lighthouse discovered during a day spent exploring PEI.

A view of the beach on the other side of the lighthouse. Can you spot it way off in the distance?

PEI is the proud home to three tremendous windmill generators. I find them rather beautiful.

Murray, the resident cat of the Johnson Shore Inn.

Gorgeous blossoms.

The Boy admiring the view in Acadia National Park. Doesn’t that distant building look like the lair of an evil genius?

Jordan Pond. We stopped at the Jordan Pond House for lunch, mainly to get their famous popovers. Other than popovers and lemonade, I’m not sure I’d recommend it…but it is a beautiful place. Beware the parking!

Some velvety-looking berries in the Park. Again, don’t worry, we didn’t eat them (though we did pick some wild blueberries and raspberries though at various points during the trip).

Atop Cadillac Mountain on our last day – the highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard.

And finally, a stop for dinner in Portland – a vibrant city with a lot of good eating. Here, a lock wall near the water…thanks for sharing the trip!

Eating In: Sweet Breakfast Risotto with Berry Compote

I am (if I haven’t mentioned this before) a great lover of breakfast. It used to be an exclusively sweet-tooth driven love – pancakes, french toast, waffles, crepes, chocolate croissants, and anything you could cover in piles and piles of berries. More recently, however, the Boy has brought me with him over to the savory side, so my breakfast affair stretches far and wide.

This particular breakfast (largely based on this recipe) was born of hunger, intrigue, what we had in the pantry, and the sweet-toothed side of my breakfast romance. It’s a sort of breakfast risotto, and while I am not sure it is my most favorite breakfast, it is certainly something different and could lend itself to umpteen variations.

You begin by boiling some stuff on the stove – fruit for the compote, and rice and milk for the risotto.

Once your rice has absorbed all the milk, making it look just like risotto (or rice pudding, I suppose), you throw in some sugar, vanilla, and yogurt, stir it up, and plop it into serving bowls.

And finally, you top the risotto with some more milk and the compote, and enjoy! It’s an unusual breakfast, with a mix of hot and cold textures, but though it takes a minute on the stove it’s actually quite easy. In the end, it feels rather high-end and special if you enjoy rice-pudding-like creations. Give it a try and let me know what you think…

Sweet Breakfast Risotto with Berry Compote

Adapted from Marta Greber’s Milk Rice with a Cherry Compote

I really liked this upon the first bites, and became a little less enamored of it as time went on. I think the reasons for this was twofold – one, I turned this recipe into two servings, which was a bit much – it’s filling! So I’m suggesting 3-4 servings here. Two, Marta Greber suggests adding lemon zest to the risotto and orange juice to the compote – I didn’t have either, but they might add some nice brightness.

Yield: 3-4 Servings

Ingredients

Compote

Handful of berries

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Risotto

1 cup arborio rice

4 cups milk

Pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons yogurt

Directions

In a small pot, place the berries with the brown sugar. Bring to boil and then lower the temperature and cook for about 15 minutes until the sauce gets thicker, stirring occasionally.

While berries cook, place rice in a pot with 3 cups of the milk and the salt. Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the rice absorbs all the milk. Stir it so it won’t burn. When milk is absorbed, add sugar, vanilla extract, and yogurt.

Divide rice between bowls and add extra milk. Top with the berry compote.