Jeffrey Saad's Passion For Food » The art of family

Egg Tuesday – Three incredible egg preparations and my Egg BLT breakfast sandwich inspired by Laduree in Paris.

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:00:16 +0000

We are back in Paris and flying home in a few days. After eating so many different foods all I can think about is some simple comfort food. Nothing is more comforting to me than the incredible egg! Being in Paris I decided I should go to the “Egg Temple” – Laduree. As you can see from the pictures they put the egg on a pedestal: literally. What I love about the egg is it finds its home in the simplest homes on a budget all the way to the finest establishments in Paris. Its versatility and incredible flavor make it everyone’s favorite. I wont even get started on the incredible array of pastries, cakes and tarts they make. My scrambled eggs were like nothing I have seen before. They looked like a bowl of polenta as you can see yet each pearl sized curd was as tender and light as the most perfectly scrambled eggs I have ever had. I am fairly confident they are using the authentic French method of whisking the eggs with milk or cream over a baine marie (fancy words for pot of boiling water with a bowl on top). Using this indirect heat they are able to whisk/stir the eggs until the become firm yet without drying them. The omelet was thick and without cheese (tender but not so flavorful). The fried eggs were deliciously unique. They fried them in a very small skillet so that the egg would set up very thick. They cook them on a higher heat. As a result the bottom ends up crispy and rich from the sizzling butter, the whites in the middle are tender and perfectly set and the yolks on top are soft and luscious. If you have a very small skillet try it. What excited me the most was a lunch item they had on the menu. A club sandwich with the addition of sliced hard-cooked egg. So simple but I have never done it. (Fried egg, yes). When I get home here is what I am going to try:

Yield: Two breakfast sandwiches

4 slices white bread or bread of choice toasted or grilled

2 large hard-cooked eggs sliced

4 slices bacon cooked as you like

4 large slices of ripe tomato

4 leaves of your favorite lettuce (enough to cover the bread in one layer)

Paprika pickle mayo

Paprika pickle mayo recipe

4 TB mayo or your favorite sandwich spread

1 med size pickle or 6 cornichons (the jarred baby pickles) chopped very small.

2 tsp smoked paprika

Pinch of salt

Mix all together.

Spread the mayo evenly across the four slices of toast.

On two of the slices layer and divide evenly the egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato

Place the other two slices of bread on top and press down. Cut in half and serve.

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good. Do good every day. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

San Sebastian – when sand meets umami!!

Jeffrey Saad — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:23:25 +0000

The saltiness of manmade brined green olives with the natural sea salt of perfectly fresh anchovies skewered together with a sliver of slightly spicy local green chile was the most incredible first bite of Pintxos (Tapas in the Basque region) (pronounced “Peen Shows”). I literally had to close my eyes to take in every bit of the pleasure. These three ingredients came together to create a new flavor that was unbelievable. The anchovy was mild (un-like the cured ones you may be used to)but tasted fully of the sea. It melted into the olive and was ignited by the chile creating an incredible sauce in my mouth. We went on from there to try dozens of Pintxos. Each bar has 80% of the same thing but then the other 20% is their own unique twist or their signature Tapas. One of my other favorites was a salt cod crostini with thinly fried onions and chiles! The salt cod (bacaloa) is actually not salty at all. The texture is almost creamy with a mild sweet fish flavor. The chiles and onions gave it a touch of richness, the perfect crunch and a cleansing chile bite. Don’t even get me started on the jamon Serrano!! Next blog…

The kids and I finished the day by swimming way out into the bay to mount a floating dock with a high-dive diving board. Watching my kids laugh and fly through the air was as much as I could ask for. Staring back at the crescent-shaped perfectly tan-colored sandy beach was almost visual overload. The Neo-classical, Baroque and Gothic architecture wrapping around the promenade and climbing up to two bookend mountains was a stunning site. Amazing place, amazing food, awesome family. I am so grateful. Enjoy the ones you love and eat something tasty!

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Egg Tuesday – Southern France baked eggs

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:00:02 +0000

Hello all. I hope you are having a great summer. My family and I are having a great vacation. We have moved from Paris to the South of France in a picturesque village called Biot. We are traveling with our good friends. We rented a little house together and spend every day going to markets to gather food and come back to cook together. I am so grateful for the quality family time. This mornings breakfast was baked eggs with perfectly juicy, ripe tomatoes, Merguez sausage, locally made pork sausage, herbs de Provence and some cumin-toasted croutons. I caramelized some onions until dark, creamy and sweet and layered them on the bottom of a casserole dish. I then added the chopped sausages to the same sauté pan as the onions and sautéed them until golden. I added the chopped tomatoes and herbs and cooked them for just a few minutes until the tomatoes collapsed into a naturally rich, sweet sauce. The juice of the tomatoes mopped the roasted sausage and onions flavor from the bottom of the pan to become one luscious sauce. I added that mixture to the casserole pan. I then broke the eggs over the top and baked the dish (It is a funky oven so it took awhile to cook and the yolks got a little firmer than I prefer but normally it should only take about 8 minutes at 350). The Merguez sausage is usually made with lamb, beef, and paprika (Spain and N. Africa is its origin) and added a full meat flavor creating a “steak and eggs” flavor. The sauce tasted like it cooked for hours due to the perfect tomatoes. The dry herbs re-hydrated and dissolved into the sauce to give it a distinctly French perfume of fields of savory herbs. The croutons gave the dish a crunch as well as a chew and the bread soaked up the sauce. A quick grating of lemon zest and some chopped parsley added a cleansing freshness to the dish. I don’t know what was better enjoying an incredible egg dish or just being with the ones I love around a big table laughing, relaxing and being grateful for everything! Enjoy!

Yield: 8 friends/family!

2 large red onions sliced thin

2 Tb olive oil

3 Cups Merguez sausage sliced into 1” pieces (use any sausage you like)

3 Cups fresh pork sausage

4 perfectly large ripe tomatoes or 1 24 oz. can plum tomatoes in their juice

1 TB herbs de Provence (or any dried herbs you like)

2 tsp salt

8 eggs

Croutons – recipe below

In a large skillet over medium heat add the olive oil. Add the sliced onions and press out thinly. Stir the onions and spread out evenly every few minutes until dark brown, soft and sweet. Transfer to a 12×9 casserole dish and spread out evenly.

In the same pan add the sausages and sauté until golden (about 5 minutes)

Add the tomato, salt and herbs and cook just below a simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to casserole dish. Crack eggs on top. Place in oven and cook until whites are set and yolks are at desired doneness.

Croutons

2 Cups ½” torn bread pieces

2 tsp olive oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

pinch of salt

In a large non-stick skillet over med-high heat add the oil and the cumin.

Add the bread and toss to coat evenly in the oil/cumin mixture. Cook tossing occasionally for 3 minutes until golden.

Garnish

Grated lemon zest and chopped parsley.

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good. Do good every day. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Egg Tuesday in Paris!

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:00:21 +0000

I hope this finds you eating something delicious, dreaming about your next meal or sitting back savoring something you just finished enjoying!

The egg always feel like the all-American breakfast but when you travel you realize it is a beloved staple all over the world! Every country seems to have their egg classics.

France is no exception. From the decadent Croque Madame (Griddled ham and cheese with béchamel sauce) to the poached egg, lardon (cubes of bacon) and frisee salad to my favorite – The quiche! This is no ordinary quiche. Check out the video and have a tasty day! Take care and thanks for reading!

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good. Do good every day. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy

All things Pig in Paris…

Jeffrey Saad — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:20:43 +0000

Tender chunks of trotter (meat from the pig’s hoof) fried into a croquette, a thin layer of pork fat from just under the prosciutto skin wrapped around perfectly cooked wild mushrooms and fried until crisp and sweet but without the overwhelming “fried” flavor, shreds of tender ox tail juicy between lightly toasted bread with a horseradish crème fraiche, sweet chunks of cool crab and avocado suspended in a light gelatinous custard, smoked salmon perched lightly on top of Mache (peppery greens), are the first tastes of Paris after arriving just two hours before from San Francisco! Paris is no exception to the head to tail trend of enjoying every part of the animal. My good friend Serena turned me on to this tiny place that has nothing more than a 10’ stainless steel counter separating you from where all the culinary magic happens. As you tilt your head back to enjoy another sip of crisp rose (which goes down like water in the summer heat) you stare at the menu cards hanging down from the ceiling to contemplate your next choice. All small plates, all delicious with wine to match. Fortunately they had a simple fried chicken dish for my son as well. This may all sound incredibly rich but they understand the balance between fat, acid, sweet and salt. When you get those four things in balance the best flavor of the food comes out and it does not taste too rich. So good! The last time we were in Paris this was our favorite little run down crepe window. It has now become this incredible miniature culinary dream! Thanks Serena.

A quick stop at my favorite chocolate maker Pierre Herme for a lighter than air macaron, a stop to see the most beautiful organ in St. Sulpice and back to the room for a quick two-hour nap before we all pass out. Off to dinner, which was as Parisian as it gets in a six-table restaurant with the woman who owns it and one guy in the kitchen making it all, happen. That is another story…

Every time I come to Paris I fall in love again. I had originally thought it was because it was the first place I had been in Europe and didn’t know better. After traveling to many countries I realize it really is magical and my love is as true for the city as it is for my beautiful wife (who is sleeping soundly right now at 3:00am while my son, daughter and I are wide awake!) I will fall asleep dreaming about my next culinary treat tomorrow…

I hope you are well, eating something great and doing what brings you joy!

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Pan Y Tomate – bread and tomato, simple yet delicious!

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:00:48 +0000

We are moving to San Francisco in less than a week! The family is very excited for the next chapter of our lives. This will be the last video you see in our current kitchen. I am enjoying the true “mystery basket” daily cooking challenge of trying to empty out the refrigerator and cabinets. I had some ripe tomatoes, some rustic bread, my favorite smoked paprika

and of course the always ready, willing and able incredible egg! I fell in love with pan y tomate on the first trip to Spain. Like the Tortilla Espanol (scroll a few blogs down on my blog)it is a Tapas bar staple and for good reason. It tastes great with everything, it is inexpensive and super easy to make. I decided to take it up a notch and turn it into breakfast. Check out the video and enjoy!

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good. Do good everyday. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat Well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Caviar served on moving boxes and Pad Thai noodles at 1:00am…

Jeffrey Saad — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:40:32 +0000

What a great night. We had a party to say goodbye to a decades worth of great friends in Los Angeles as we prepare to move back to San Francisco next week.

It was not about the atmosphere as we have moving boxes lining the walls and everything but the bare minimum packed. But it is always about the food! I took a recipe idea that I created for the Incredible Egg Facebook and turned it into a crostini appetizer – chunks of thick cut golden bacon roasted with green onions, deglazed with oyster sauce and mixed with soft fried eggs served on small peanut oil crisped toasts. I made a curried pea soup with a bag of frozen peas, the last of my homemade chicken stock, and some Indian spices. As the night progressed the hunger came back. I had still had some crostini left but the crowd needed something new. What shall I put on it? My rock star mother in law brought us a huge tin of caviar from the Caspian Sea when she returned from Iran last week! A little butter and the caviar, heaven! One of the many perks of a lovely Persian mother-in-law!

1:00 AM, down to six of us and still hungry. I had a bag of frozen shrimp shells (I always buy shell on shrimp, clean them and freeze the shells to use in stock and sauces)in the freezer, some thin dried egg noodles, Chinese sausage, the remainder of the egg mixture from the crostini and some more green onions……Pad Thai it is! I sautéed some shallots, added the shrimp shells and made a ten minute intense shrimp stock by boiling it down and reducing 3 cups of water to less than one. Just enough intense broth to absorb into the egg noodles and give the Pad Thai that creamy texture. (You want Pad Thai to be moist and a touch sticky but not saucy)In my new Hong Kong wok that I am still breaking in I blackened some garlic and chile arbol (aka chile flakes) in peanut oil and then tossed them (infuses the oil with a deep flavor of garlic and toasted chile) I added the finely chopped Chinese sausage, and green onions. After just 45 seconds the green onions had softened and the fat in the dried sausage came back to life giving off a nice shine and flavoring the oil and onions with its sweet spice. I added the egg noodles (which I had boiled for just a couple of minutes to soften), the shrimp broth, and the remainder of the oyster egg mixture and a splash of soy sauce. (The key to wok cooking is to first flavor the oil, then sear the meat and veggies in stages to add flavor to the pan and to allow each ingredient to cook correctly, then add your sauce, then your noodles allowing the noodles to absorb the sauce and become flavor sponges!) I let the noodles simmer for just a few moments to take in all the flavor of the broth. A garnish of chopped cilantro and that was it. The refrigerator was practically empty, we were all eating, laughing and enjoying the Pad Thai with the remainder of a great off-dry Sauvignon/Semillon white wine from Washington.

I am grateful for an incredible decade in Los Angeles, the friends we have made and the incredible times my family has had. On to the next chapter to create more great memories, meet more great people and do my best to bring joy to the world one dish at a time! Enjoy

Eat Well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Egg Tuesday – Sunday Morning Packing, Longboarding and a great Breakfast!

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:00:03 +0000

For me the egg is the ultimate comfort food. I had worked up an appetite between longboarding with my son (he keeps me young!) and packing. We are moving to San Francisco next week! We are trying to buy as little as possible to deplete our pantry and refrigerator so we have less to move. My challenge was to make something out of what was in the refrigerator. I had oil- cured black olives, feta cheese, some Persian bread my mother-in-law had brought over and a handful of cherry tomatoes on the counter and of course, the delicious and versatile egg. I heated a clove of chopped garlic in some olive oil. As soon as I could smell the perfume of the garlic I dropped in the cherry tomatoes (which I cut in half). Their juices came out and immediately stopped the garlic from going brown and absorbed the garlic’s flavor. I added some chopped black olives and cooked everything for just a minute until the tomatoes gave up half their juice to create a sauce but still had some body. I hit the pan with a squeeze of lemon juice and transferred the mixture to a bowl. I dropped the Persian bread (It is like thick flat bread with sesame seeds on the outside. Foccacia would be a good substitute or any bread you have) into the toaster and then used the same pan to fry the eggs (I added a touch more olive oil so the eggs would not stick). I put the fried egg on top of the Persian bread and then topped the eggs with the tomato mixture and some crumbled Feta. I cut the egg and watched the hot yolk melt the feta cheese and become a rich, creamy sauce. Cooking is all about balancing flavor, texture and the acid/fat balance in a dish. The sesame seeds on the Persian bread had toasted golden and smelled nutty. The bread was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside with a malt-like sweetness. The tomatoes and lemon took turns being the perfect foil to the rich, salty feta cheese. The black olives consumed my mouth with their deep oily cured flavor but only for a moment until the feta cheese (a classic combination) took over again. The egg white was the perfect tender layer dividing the bread and the toppings. My wife loved it (that is success for me) the kids loved it and we felt like we had a nice “brunch” and were back to packing. My pan is going to be the last thing to get boxed! Have a great week and eat something delicious!

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good do good everyday. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat Well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Egg Tuesday – From China to Grandma’s kitchen in Wisconsin

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:21:41 +0000

After a trip to China eating “1000 year old” eggs I was just as excited as the kids to have a simple, incredibly tasty puffy pancake. My grandma used to make this for all of my cousins and I every summer when we visited my grandparents at their lake house in Wisconsin. She would be so happy to know that it is still a family favorite.

Her recipe is the perfect blank canvass to create your own family favorite. This morning I had a banana so I browned the butter with the cubed banana and a pinch of cinnamon in the baking dish. I then added the batter. The batter was immediately infused with the toasted cinnamon butter. The bananas were creamy, the crust was crispy and chewy at the same time and the center of the pancake was tender and of course “puffy”. Isabella loves fresh raspberries and my son Sebastian prefers just syrup (as much as we will let him pour). Here is the recipe. Have a great day and enjoy! Thank you grandma.

2 oz. unsalted butter

1 banana, chopped into ½” cubes

Pinch of cinnamon

3 eggs

½ C. milk

½ C. AP flour

1 Tb sugar

Pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400. Drop the whole piece of butter into a casserole dish and set in the oven (make your coffee while the butter melts and the oven pre-heats)

In a medium size bowl crack the eggs. Add the flour, milk, sugar and salt. Whisk to combine until fairly smooth. (Yell to kids to wake up, they have 30 minutes to get dressed for school).

When the butter is melted and just starting to turn light brown (smells like roasted nuts!) pull the pan out of the oven. Stir the bananas into the melted butter with the pinch of cinnamon. (This is a great way to infuse flavor into the bananas vs. mixing everything into the batter although if you want to save a step you can). Pour the batter into the pan and place it back into the oven. Bake for about 12 minutes until puffy, golden brown and the kitchen smells like a bakery! Use a spatula to cut and plate. Top with fruit and syrup of choice. (Yell to the kids that they need to come eat before it gets cold). Watch your family smile and get very quiet as they eat every bite.

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good do good everyday. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat Well, Enjoy life, Be happy

Egg Tuesday – Mini Orange-Maple French Toast Breakfast Casseroles

Jeffrey Saad — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:00:35 +0000

I love this recipe because it combines the best of my breakfast favorites and everyone enjoys it! It is like a combination of French Toast, eggs and a little bit of savory dessert all in one! It is a version of a strata (egg custard and bread baked casserole). You can use any type of bread you like to give it your own signature. You can add cinnamon, cloves, vanilla or any spice combination you enjoy. This is quick, easy and super delicious. You can make it as individual servings or in one large casserole dish. You can see the full recipe here on incredibleegg.org. Enjoy!

Feed the hungry by making a pledge (no cost) to eat good do good every day. America’s egg farmers are donating up to one million eggs to feed the hungry.

Eat well, Enjoy life, Be happy