I’m a strong proponent of breakfast. I eat breakfast everyday and without it I am a grump. During the week breakfast is my quiet time. I usually have a bowl of yogurt with granola and I look out the window and watch the people commuting to work and the construction workers making a lot of noise as they work. After breakfast I’m powered up for the day.

But I like breakfast the best on the weekends. On the weekends Ryan and I get to eat together and often we make something special – pancakes with bacon, egg sandwiches, or baked oatmeal, with orange juice and fruit on the side. Recently I made this recipe for breakfast which looks special and is actually simple to make. I was inspired to make this because I’ve been itching to try quail eggs ever since I first wandered through a London grocery store. I’d never seen quail eggs in person before I moved here. And aren’t the eggs charming? Small, speckled, and lovely to look at. That white on in the picture below had two yolks in one egg! I’d never seen that before and it was such a cool surprise.

However, it turns out I don’t like quail eggs. Sigh. They have a higher yolk to white ratio, so they are a bit creamier than chicken eggs. Ryan felt they tasted pretty similar to chicken eggs and liked them. I thought they were gamey and unpleasant. Luckily, this recipe is versatile so if you don’t like or can’t find quail eggs you can use regular eggs (which I did and looks just as cool).

A few notes before instructions. The recipe is written to make 2 servings. If you’d like to make more you need 1 ramekin, 2 potatoes, and 1 chicken egg or 3 quail eggs per person – use this as a guideline to make more. As written, the potatoes will get dark and crunchy on the edges but will be softer in the middle (because it’s a thicker layer). If you want crunchy potatoes all over make the middle thinner or cook for longer (but that could lead to even darker edges). Finally, quail eggs don’t crack and easily or cleanly as chicken eggs. The shell sometimes cracks like a spiderweb but doesn’t actually break enough for the insides to come out. I strongly recommend that you break quail eggs into a separate bowl before putting them in your potato nest. This recipe is from Jo Cooks.

Messy level: The messiest part of the recipe is shredding the potatoes. They get a little liquidy and starchy, which can get a little dirty, but it isn’t so bad. You’ll also need a few bowls for preparing the potatoes, but at the end you should be able to pop all your tools in the dishwasher for an easy clean.

Eggs in a Hash Brown Nest

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Author: Jo Cooks

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 4 Yukon gold potatoes
• 1-2 tbsp Parmesan cheese (use more or less based on taste)
• 1 egg, beaten (this goes in the potatoes)
• 6 quail eggs or 2 chicken eggs (depends on preference)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4-5 sprig rosemary, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°/180°.
2. Shred the potatoes using a box grater or food processor.
3. In a medium sized bowl, add the shredded potatoes, Parmesan, egg and mix.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Divide the mixture between two ramekins. Press down in the middle so you make a nest. If your potatoes are large, or you want the final product crispier, you may not use all of the mixture.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until crisp and brown.
7. Remove the ramekins from the oven.
8. If you like the flavor of rosemary, break off a few small pieces from a sprig and scatter them on the potato.
9. Add the eggs to the top of the potato nests. If using quail eggs put 3 in each. If using a chicken egg use one in each.
10. Bake for 5-6 minutes for quail eggs, 6-7 for chicken eggs. (Or until it is done to your liking)
11. Remove from the oven.
12. Arrange the rosemary around the edge of the ramekin for garnish.

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I love sweets and I love chocolate lava cake. At restaurants it always seemed like such a fancy and complicated dessert. Sometimes you have to even order it at the start of the meal. It’s rich, decadent and gooey. How does it get like that? Do chefs inject chocolatey goodness? Is there some complex technique I’d need to master? I was so curious.

And then I did the research and it’s not hard at all. This recipe is a compilation of some recipes I found online. I’m sure Roy’s recipe is more complex, because I found some complex ones. But you can also make a quick, delicious, and impressive chocolate lava cake at home. It’s so darn easy! Also, it’s fairly portioned controlled. Usually when I bake I have one to two dozen of something, then Ryan and I eat too many, and then I take the rest to work and make my friends and coworkers eat too much.

This recipe makes 4 servings. I made two lava cakes the first night (because I only have two ramekins). Then I refrigerated the batter. A day and a half later I microwaved the batter for 20 seconds to make it less firm and then I cooked it according to the directions. They tasted just as good a few days later. Seriously, this recipe is delicious, gooey, and a great indulgence. Remember it’s an indulgence and a special treat and don’t think about the obscene amount of butter, sugar, and eggs.

Ingredients:

3.5 – 4 oz chocolate – I used an 80% dark chocolate bar. You could also use baking chocolate. 3.5 oz is about the size of one bar of chocolate. I used 4 oz to make it more chocolatey.

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup of confectioner’s sugar

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

6 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 425°

2. Melt butter and chocolate. You can either do it in a double boiler or you can microwave it for 1 minute. I don’t have a double boiler so I used the microwave. Microwave for one minute and the butter will be completely melted. 

3. Whisk the butter and chocolate until the mixture is smooth

4. Whisk in confectioner’s sugar. This makes the mix much thicker

5. Whisk in the eggs and yolks.

6. Whisk in the flour. It will now be a nice chocolate batter.

7. Spray your ramekins well with butter or nonstick spray. Fill the ramekins about 3/4 of the way full.

8. Cook for 10-12 minutes. It should be a little soft in the middle. The way to tell is the opposite of every other time you’ve baked. Stick a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out a little moist then you’ve still got the gooey center.

9. Once it’s done cooking you have two choices:

Choice A: Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and eat from the ramekin

Choice B: Wait 3 minutes for it to cool. Using a pot holder grab the ramekin and flip it over quickly, but gently, to drop the cake on the plate. Everything else I read said to put a plate on top of the ramekin, flip the whole thing over, and then lift the ramekin straight up and off. Ryan and I tried this and it went terribly. We could not get a good enough grip on the ramekin and we ended up with one smashed cake and one askew cake. Just quickly lifting and flipping left us with a clean and nice looking cake. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

This is an example of Ryan removing the cake from the ramekin. He’s re-enacting as you can tell because I already sprinkled confectioner’s sugar.

Messy level: Super low! I made the batter in a glass food container. There were almost no dishes and I was able to snap on a lid for easy storage. Make sure to spray your ramekins well because that will also help with the clean up. The ramekin we sprayed the least had the most baked on cake and required a lot of elbow grease to clean.

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