Eggs Benedict

Delicious Sunday breakfast meal. Especially after a nice weekly Sunday morning run. Combines great ingredients into a little heap of godliness.

Eggs Benedict is made up of four layers.

• English Muffins
• Middle layer, consisting of anything ranging from artichokes, ham, bacon to fried onions, peppers, chili, whatever your hart desires (for breakfast).
• Poached eggs
• Sauce Hollandaise

In this recipe, we are going to look at the Sauce Hollandaise which tops of everything with a delicious (hopefully) creamy touch.

Sauce Hollandaise

What you need:

• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• Some pepper and salt
• Tiny bit of water
• 1 cup of butter

1. Set up culinary apparatus as follows: small saucepan with boiling water, on top a bowl that is larger than the sauce pan underneath.

Note: The boiling water cannot touch the bottom of the bowl.

2. In bowl above the sauce pan whisk together 3 egg yolks, lemon juice, pepper, salt, bit of water (about a tablespoon).

3. Slowly add melted butter and keep whisking!

4. Remove from heat when starting the clot a little.

Note: don't overdo the lemon juice. Gets acidic and sour quite easily.

Preparation

1. Cut open the muffins.

2. Add middle layer. Personally, I fried onions and peppers.

3. Place poached eggs on top.

3. Top it off with the Sauce Hollandaise.

4. Omnomnomnom.

509 Bagels

Another little cooking adventure not to miss in Canada is self made bagels. Make sure you collect all kinds of toppings, any kind of nuts will do. There are 'everything' toppings in any big grocery store, sesame is awesome, and a little tip of mine, garlic powder.

What you need:

• 4 cups of flour (whatever kind you prefer)
• A spoonful of sugar makes the bagels go down
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of dry yeast (in McGill I use Fleischmann's - pretty good stuff)
• Warm water (warm to the touch)

1. Add yeast to a little warm water in a cup cup. Get out your largest bowl. Add flour and salt and sugar.

2. Make a little moon crater in the middle of the flour, size of your fist.

3. Pour in some vegetable oil, warm water and everything else liquid in the crater and start slowly mixing the flour into it.

4. Add the yeasty water, keep mixing with that large wooden spoon of yours - scrape the sides to get all the flour mixed into it.

5. I've heard somewhere that a good dough is a dough that sticks to the bottom of the bowl but not to the sides.

6. Knead. Most important step. Sprinkle some flour on a kitchen surface or cutting board and flatten dough. Fold. Flatten. Fold. Flatten. You get the idea.

7. Split the dough into fist sized (why is everything fist sized in this recipe?) balls of dough.

8. Let rise in a warm place. Warmth is good and essential. Cover with kitchen cloth. 30 minutes.

9. Meanwhile, boil some water in a big wide pot or wok works well, too. Water should be couple of inches deep.

10. Dough should have risen by now, hopefully. Roll them out and then use that special bagel shaping hand technique. Check it out on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYEXQU1r5tY

11. And then place them gently in the boiling water. Boil a minute on each side.

12. Finally, dip them in a flat dish with seeds and nuts and whatnot.

I recommend sprinkling garlic powder over the top. Cinnamon is great. Kneading raisins into the dough works like a charm too.

13. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes on each side until gold brown.

Making Poutine

Hi folks, this is a recipe for all you peeps out there who like the Quebecois favourite, poutine. Supposedly originated in Montreal. It's also for all those people out there who are curious about what happens to milk when you add acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar to it. Cheese curds! What are they? My own personal guess would be something somehow related to underdeveloped cheese. And I think the most important bit of poutine making.

Poutine is awesome. Especially at the end of a great night out with your buds. It can betransformed into many different works of art. Add some salami or hot sauce or peppers or onions. How about some mayonnaise and ketchup?

What you need:

• 2 Lemons
• 1l of Milk
• Bag o' Fries (or potatoes)
• Gravy
• Salt & Pepper
• Time (it's gonna take overnight)
• Recommended: Tabasco

Simple, right?

So first of all, you want to make the cheese curds:

1. Add lemon to lukewarm temperature milk in a sauce pan.

2. use a dishcloth or preferably cheesecloth to cover a sieve which you have placed on top of a large bowl, larger than the sieve. Stir the milk and lemon juice, then filter out all the curds that have collected, by pouring it in the cheesecloth lined sieve.

3. Add salt and stir with a spoon. Wrap up the cheesecloth with the curds. Discard the whey (in the bowl - supposedly you can use it for other stuff too if you wanna keep it). Place a plate (smaller than sieve) on top of the wrapped up cloth and add a weight, such as a large can.

4. So while you let that rest for a while (over night) you can go do something else. Like have a beer with friends or something, maybe catch some sleep. And then on the next day, get excited for some self-made poutine.

5. Follow the instructions of your fries (usually frozen). Or if you want to get really fancy with it, make your own, go cut some actual potatoes if you really want. Don't forget to add salt and pepper those fries!

6. Now for the gravy. The gravy is a little difficult if you're willing to spend the time actually making it from scratch. Involves fat from chicken or something.. Anyways, I used a simple product from the local supermarket, that you just add to hot water..

7. And now for the special part of the show. Putting it altogether. Here are some pictures:

8. It is absolutely essential that you experiment. Tabasco works wonders, and adding beef and fried onions and peppers is great, too. Get creative.