VDP: Egg Ribbons

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Eggs. Is there anything they cannot do? From savory to sweet, the egg is the undisputed queen of the kitchen. Without it we have no custard, no quiche or crème caramel, no egg-pasta and no omelets. Without the whites of the egg we have no fluffy meringue preparations, no macaroons and no tender cakes (or crispy Dacquoise for that matter). The egg is good fried, poached, boiled, baked or cooked up very thin and made into ribbons. What? You never heard of that last one or maybe you have but never tried it?

It is much easier than it looks and it is guaranteed to impress your guests whether you use it in a salad like I do here or sauce it with some butter and cheese and serve it like pasta as a first course. The recipe here is from Jamie Oliver’s latest book “Jamie at Home“. He serves his egg ribbons with Bresaola and Arugula. I served them on top of a mixed spring green salad with almonds, Parm cheese and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.

Making the ribbons could not be easier. Mix a couple of eggs really well with a tablespoon or two of water, some salt and pepper. Using a non-stick pan wiped with olive oil make thin crepes of the egg mixture. These cook fast, so keep the heat medium and watch it constantly. Each will take about 30 seconds to a minute to cook and you only have to cook on one side. Layer the cooked crepes, roll them up and cut as you would Pappardelle.

A Meat-y Update

I have not been neglecting my Vegetarian project. Well, maybe I have in the past couple of weeks, but not intentionally. See, we had a good friend staying over our house for a week or so and he had some specific requests for meals. Pretty much non of his requests were in the vegetarian domain to say the least. I am not really complaining, you see, we ate really good guilty stuff. In any case , the foods I cooked were worth sharing before going back to VDP posts, especially when I remembered to take a picture or two. Among other things we had…

Cheese Burgers (cooked these in my cast iron skillet). For a weekday dinner these were terrific and quick.

Lamb Kofta Kebabs with hummus, lentils and grilled (yes, right on the charcoal grill) flat bread. I cannot express how pleased I was with the breads cooking perfectly on the grill and not sticking to the grates. I will be doing more of this for sure.

Deep Dish Pizza filled with ‘shrooms, sausage and cheese. First try at this type of pizza. It came out pretty good, but next time I’ll need to use less dough in the pan.

Long and slow cooked Chili with all the trimmings. I properly diced the meat instead of grinding it. It results in a better texture and appearance. As you can see, it included a lot of spices plus chipotles.

Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan - 2005) A

Diana had never seen this! I also wanted to see if I’d still enjoy a repeat (my 3rd I think) viewing after watching “The Dark Knight“. This one is still fresh and a brilliant kick-start for a whole new realm of “comic book movies”. I did like Dark Knight better, but this deserves the A as well.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan - 2008) A

You know all the hype about this? All the talk about Heath Ledger and a Posthumous Oscar? Well, this wonderful very quick 2.5 hours more than lives up to it. It is a gritty, grim, realistic and psychotic crime film. Ledger is the star here, his Joker is pure genious and he does steal every scene he is in, but the rest of the charcters here are equally unique from Alfred to Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon. They are all grounded in reality and have their own ideals and morals and are played perfectly by the likes of Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Cain. Speaking of characters, kudos to WB who -I assume- very cleverly chose to hide a very interesting development. These days trailers and pre-release hype give almost everything away…not this time.

The action and special effects are very impressive including one awesome chase scene and a trip to Hong Kong. It is easy to get carried away with gadgets, vehicles and ’sonars’ here but Nolan has the sense not to do that and use the Bat gadgets but not make a star out of them. That sonar would’ve gotten to be very annoying if used excessively, especially at a midnight screening.

The Descent (Neil Marshall - 2005) A-

As a horror movie with genuine dread and terror this works great. It is not about creatures or gore (although you do have those) but about a descent into a deep dark unexplored cave and getting stuck in there. That alone is pretty scary, add to that the dark gloom and the red/green lights from flares and flash lights, the aforementioned bat/humanoid creatures and the distinct personalities and deep secrets of the six spelunking women and you have a hell of a horror film.

The Boondock Saints (Troy Duffy - 1999) C+

I don’t know…I expected more from this since everyone seems to love it. It’s got it’s moments and it’s eccentric performance by Willem DaFoe, but overall it’s just ok. Too many problems for me to just gloss over and just appreciate it’s slick structure and cool shootouts (or ‘firefights’). Stuff like where did these brothers come from? How come they are so efficient at killing even though “they have no criminal record”? Their ‘dad’ coincidence? The DaFoe character’s decisions? Is this slapstick comedy or a serious drama? just to name a few.

Brick (Rian Johnson - 2005) A-

On second viewing, Brick is still as fresh and unique as the first time I saw it. More directors should take note of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and cast him in worthwhile roles.

Cloverfield (Matt Reeves - 2008) B+

An enjoyable creature-feature crossed with Blair Witch Project and I liked it on those terms. It does what it is supposed to do and at a little over 80 minutes it is not too long or the handy cam would’ve been unbearable. I think it is a very smart decision not to focus on the ‘monster’. It is mostly viewed from a distance or in fuzzy focus when it eats the camera man! Instead we get a very well orchestrated but restrained mayhem in the streets and skyscrapers of Manhattan as we follow the fate of the few characters from Rob’s going-away party. One big plus and what, for me, moved this from a B to a B+ is the opening and closing scenes with Beth and Rob, they are tender and very poignant in light of all else that happens on that one tape.