Recipe: Chorizo Hash with Sous Vide Eggs

A touch of habanero hot sauce takes it to a whole other level!

Chorizo Hash with Sous Vide Eggs!
Serves 2 (but easy to half and make for 1!)
Special equipment: Sous Vide (if you have!)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 Russet potatoes
• 1/2 medium onion (diced)
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic or 2 sprigs of garlic scape (if you can find it)
• 1 link of chorizo (I use the uncured type, if you use the harder chorizo, just dice it)
• Herbs of your choosing (I like rosemary and thyme)
• Handful of cilantro

First, if you're going to sous vide your eggs, get your water bath started and set to 62.5°C. Once it reaches that temperature, gently put your eggs in for 1 hr. If you don't have a sous vide - try making a 6 minute egg (boil water, drop down to simmer, put in egg, time for 6 minutes and then run under cold water). If all fails - make some over easy eggs.

Nice not bath for my lovely eggs.

Pre-heat a non-stick pan over medium flames with about 1-2 T of olive oil. Peel and dice your potatoes into 1 cm cubes. Get them into the pan and toss them in the oil. Continue to toss them every couple of minutes and allow them to cook through and slightly brown.

Any breakfast that starts with potatoes is off to a good start.

As you cook your potatoes, get the rest of your ingredients ready!

Mise en place like a boss!

Once the potatoes have cooked through, toss them into a bowl with a little salt and half of your chopped or dried herbs. Seasoning potatoes while they're warm gives them a great flavor.

In the pan that the potatoes just came out of, put down your chorizo with your garlic and break it up into small pieces.

The smell of chorizo is intoxicating...or maybe it's the garlic.

Once the chorizo is broken up and 75% cooked through. Add the red pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes and add the onion. I always find that if I don't stagger it, the onions are mush before the pepper finished cooking.

Onions and peppers are a breakfast's best friend.

Once the onions and peppers are about cooked through, throw the potatoes back in. Add some salt, pepper, and the rest of the herbs along with your cilantro!

Toss it all together and divide into two plates. Keep warm if you need to, if not, run your eggs under cold water for 30 seconds (so you can work with them) and crack 2 eggs on top of each plate. Garnish with hot sauce and some extra cilantro.

DELICIOUS.

Love when the yolk oozes over the potatoes.

Enjoy with a friend (or significant other)!

Granola Recipe (Gagnon & Yu Family Blends)

Caution: Extremely delicious and addicting, eat at your own risk of being addicted to deliciousness.

I've adapted this recipe from Alton Brown's Granola Recipe, and have customized it into two blends. One for my father (余 家 "Yu-Family" Blend) and one for Joe (Gagnon-Family Blend). Once you have a base, it's pretty easy to customize.

Ingredients

• 3 C Old-fashioned Oats (be careful not to use quick oats)
• 1 C Shredded (unsweetened if available) Coconut (3/4 C if you're making the 余 家  Blend)
• 2 C Seeds & Nuts
• Gagnon-Family Blend: 1 C Slivered Almonds, 1/2 C Pumpkin Seeds, 1/2 C Sunflower Seeds
• 余 家 Blend: 1 C Slivered Almonds, 1 C Chopped Walnuts
• 1/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1/4 C Maple Syrup
• 1/4 C Vegetable Oil
• 2 tsps Vanilla Extract
• 2 tsps Cinnamon (余 家 Blend) or Pumpkin Spice Mix (Gagnon-Family Blend)
• 1 healthy pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 250°F. Combine oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon/pumpkin spice, and brown sugar in a bowl and mix well. Combine syrup, oil, salt, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and mix until uniform. Slowly drizzle the wet mixture into the dry as you stir. Mix until oats are evenly coated and pour onto 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper (divide evenly between both and spread out evenly).

Bake in the middle of the oven for 60-75 minutes stirring and rotating the trays (up and down) every 15 minutes. You're oats should be golden brown and your nuts should be toasted but not dark brown. If it looks like your nuts are starting to burn - pull them earlier.

Let cool, enjoy and try to exercise self control!

*Note: For a base you just need the oats and all of the wet ingredients. The coconut can be omitted (but I suggest you don't) and the nuts/seeds just need to add up to 2 cups (I would highly recommend you do at least 1/2 a cup of slivered almonds).

Gags: 29 going on 45. Older man, even older soul.

This past Saturday, I forced Joe to celebrate his birthday (which he shares with his younger brother Dave). Joe never wants to make a big deal out of it, but I still try to make it special.

It's become a 'tradition' in our household that if it's your birthday, you get to dictate breakfast. I think Joe may miss Hawaii because he requested an Acai Bowl with Homemade Granola.

Birthday Boy reminiscing of waves and warm beaches.

After breakfast we were off to Boston to attend our friend Katie's housewarming party. Before we got to Katie's we stopped for lunch in Boston. Joe chose our lunch spot and naturally he chose Mei Mei's Street Kitchen. They now have a brick and mortar, but when we worked in Boston, Joe would go every Friday to their food truck for lunch. If you go, Joe suggests the Double Awesome (two poached eggs on a scallion pancake with pesto) with Spicy Ketchup.

Traditional dumplings, scallion pancake sandwich, corn fritters, and kale salad.

After lunch we headed over to Katie's condo for some drinks and fun.

Our wonderful host and bartender!

Trying out Katie's delicious Mojito Concoction

Discussing interns.

Can't wait for their wedding in the fall in Portsmouth!

A great spread complete with the most addicting artichoke dip.

Enjoying some pizza.

Learning about why interns are BS.

Gags looks intrigued.

Adorable!

College Roomies!

Post our delicious snacks, drinks, and pizza we headed to the beach for some fun.

Ben introduced us to Waboba? A water skipping ball.

But Gags skipped a little too far and Ben had to go retrieve it.

Team work to catch the ball! Another one our fall weddings we're looking forward to!

Ladies looking lovely with the sunset behind them.

Kudzma showing off her ultimate frisbee skills.

Claire being adorable as usual.

Craig showing off his best Tom Brady (too bad Brady is a baby)

All of us, enjoying our time together :)

We finished the night off with a fruit tart and some sweets from Flour Bakery in Boston. Thanks Kudzma for letting me crash the party and make everyone sing to Joe.

Happy Birthday Gags!

<3 td="">

Gags had an awesome birthday and we had a great time seeing our BC friends.

Bonus recipe: Acai Bowl

Acai Bowl (for 2!)
Acai bowls are super easy to make and super healthy for you. We had them a couple of times in Hawaii and we're hooked on them. How could something so simple taste so delicious?

Ingredients

• 2 Unsweetened Acai Smoothie Packs (by Sambazon, found in the freezer section at Whole Foods)
• 2 Bananas
• 1 cup frozen blueberries/raspberries
• 1/2 cup almond/soy/regular milk (we typically drink almond)
• Honey
• Granola (Recipe to come shortly!)

Put the 2 Acai packs (break up slightly with hands before squeezing out), 1 banana, 1 cup frozen blueberries and 1/2 a cup of milk into a blender. Blend and add more milk if too thick (but should be fine) - you want it the texture of a thick smoothie. Top with a drizzle of honey, the other banana sliced, and granola (homemade if you have it!). Easy and refreshing!

Fried Goat Cheese & Honey

On our most recent trip to Tapeo for $5 tapas at the bar, I asked the bartender what her favorite tapas was and she told me it was the Queso Con Miel (Goat cheese with honey and sweet onion). Since I asked after Joe and I had closed out our tab and it sounded easy enough, I decided to make some at home (despite the fact that I had not yet tried their version) and although it was simple, it was delicious.

Fried Goat Cheese & Honey (w/ Onions)
Ingredients:

• 1/2 T butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 tsp white truffle oil (optional)
• 1 baguette
• Small log of goat cheese
• 1/2 C flour
• 1 egg (slightly beaten)
• 1/2 C panko breadcrumbs seasoned with 1t oregano
• Honey

Recipe:

1. Slice the onion into half moons about 1/4 in. thick. Set a pan over medium low heat and melt the butter in the pan. Then, add the sliced onions and cook slowly over low heat until it is caramelized and fragrant. This should take about 20 minutes if done correctly so let it sit on a low heat stirring them only every 5 minutes or so (it could take longer depending on the size of your onion). At the end, hit it with just a hint of truffle oil to enhance it further.
2. While the onions are caramelizing, cut a small log of goat cheese into 1/2 in. thick rounds. Coat each in flour, dip it into the egg wash (the beaten egg) and then coat it with the panko bread crumbs. This should create a nice coating all around the cheese round. Set it on a parchment paper and finish coating the rest of the log. When complete set it in the fridge for 5 minutes to set up.
3. Slice a baguette into 1/2 thick slices and toast until golden brown. You can spray it with a bit of Pam to help it along.
4. When the onions are done, remove them from the pan and place them on your serving platter. In the same pan heat up some olive oil over medium heat and fry the coated goat cheese until they are golden brown on each side. 
5. Place the goat cheese on top of the onions and drizzle about 2 T of honey on top of it. You can add more if you like things a bit sweeter. 
6. Serve with the toasted baguette.

This is great as a snack or as an appetizer. It's simple but packed full of flavor and I can never resist anything that's both sweet and salty! I'm going to have to try it at Tapeo, but this version is a delicious snack as well!

BBQ Leftovers Make Good Tacos

Last night, some of my BC'08 friends threw a BBQ. At the end of the night, there were a couple of burgers left, so I took one home. I was in charge of the cucumber, tomato, and onion salad so I had some of that leftover at home. With my two leftovers and some corn tortillas (from Reyna's market in Pittsburgh), I had dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

For the "Chinese Burger Sauce":

- 1 T hoisin

- 1 T sweet soy sauce

- 1/8-1/4 t 5 spice powder (depending on how much you like the flavor)

- 1 t sesame oil

For the Cucumber,Tomato, and Onion Salad (If you don't have any on hand):

- 1 English cucumber, halved and sliced thinly

- 1/4 pint of cherry tomatoes, each halved and sliced thinly

- 1/4 vidalia onion, sliced thinly

- 2 T rice wine vinegar

- 2 T canola oil

- cilantro or scallions to your preference (I chose cilantro)

Other ingredients:

- 1 leftover burger patty (about 1/4-1/3lb burger) or ground beef

- Corn tortillas (I like going for the double shell, so I need 6 tortillas to make 3 tacos)

1. Combine the rice wine vinegar, canola oil and herb of your choice in a small bowl. Season it with salt and pepper (around a 1 t each) and wisk it until the oil and vinegar are combined. Then put the cucumber, tomatoes, and onion in a plastic bag and pour the marinade over it and let it sit while you make the other components.

2. Heat a small pan and throw your leftover patty into the pan and let the patty heat up a little. While that is starting to warm, in another small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the "Chinese Burger Sauce".

3. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, break the patty apart until it resembles ground taco meat (see below).

4. Add the sauce and combine.

5. Remove the meat from the pan (clean the pan) and heat up some corn tortillas. To heat up corn tortillas, throw the tortillas on a pre-heated pan coated with PAM. Heat for about 20 seconds on each side.

6. Assemble the tacos by putting some ground meat onto the tortilla and topping it with the CTO salad. If you're into spicy, throw a little sriracha on there!

This recipe is what I like to call a "template" recipe. You can customize it and make it your own. The sauce on the beef is an adapted char siu sauce. I would think, some black bean paste, garlic, and sugar would make a great sauce as well. Since the cucumber salad is going to be acidic, the meat can be a little sweet to give overall dish a sweet and sour balance. If you don't really like sweetness, substitute the sweet soy with regular soy sauce.

The best part of this dish is that it's an easy,fast, and delicious way to get rid of leftovers!