Crispy Fried Soft Boiled Eggs

Last Saturday, NASA reported the moon would be closer to Earth than it had been in 18 years. Experts termed it the 'Super Moon'. Gave the excuse for photoshoot loving boyfriend to whip out his lens for a beauty shot for the moon.

Here's his take for the shiny egg of the sky.

And here's my take for the awesome eggs of my kitchen. Taah daaahh! Tasty crispy panko-crusted eggs with oozing gooey yolk.

Crispy Fried Soft Boiled Eggs

Ingredients:
Eggs (Up to 8 for the batter amount), cold
25g all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp Bolognese blend spices
1 egg, beaten
40g panko breadcrumbs

Method:
1. Boil water in a saucepan, enough to cover the eggs
2. Put eggs into boiling water, & let it boil for 5-7 mins (I boil 2 at a time, did 5 mins 30 secs gives a runny yolk like mine. Will do 6 mins 30 secs for a more cooked yolk)
3. Remove eggs from boiling water & soak it in an iced water bath for >15mins
4. Prepare 3 bowls - First bowl: combination of flour, salt, pepper and spices blend. Second bowl: beaten egg. Third bowl: panko breadcrumbs.
5. Gently peel off cooled eggs' shells and coat them with flour mixture, then dip them into beaten egg, then finally rolling them in the breadcrumbs.
6. Heat a saucepan on medium high heat with cooking oil reaching up to the midway of the eggs' height.
7. Place coated eggs into the heated oil for about 15 to 20 seconds. Turning quickly just to brown both sides of the eggs. Remove eggs from oil as soon as it becomes golden brown.

Meatballs

A random note - Panko is such a cute name for Japanese breadcrumbs.

Made these meatballs for the bloggers meetup at Edith's place. Prepared them the night before as I had a really tight schedule on Saturday, shuffling between Mom's birthday lunch and a friend's birthday dinner cum gathering. Hope everyone enjoyed it! I thought a little savory will be good among the wonderful sweets prepared by everyone.

They taste really delicious fresh from the pan. Texture wise, they were awesome. Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside due to the milk-soaked bread crumbs. I could go a little more heavy on the seasoning though. Was a little disappointed when condensation sets in when I covered the warm meatballs with foil for transportation and it turned cold and mashy when I reach Edith's place. Ahh well.

Meatballs

Ingredients:
120ml milk
40g panko breadcrumbs
350g ground beef
150g ground pork
1 onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 egg
1/4 tsp Bolognese blend spices
1/4 tsp chopped parsley
1/4 ground black pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of white pepper
Cooking oil

Method:

1. Combine breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl. Stir to combine then set aside till the crumbs have absorbed all the milk.
2. Place the ground beef into a large bowl and add onion, garlic and egg.
3. Add the breadcrumb mixture, Bolognese spices, parsley, black pepper and nutmeg. Season with salt, pepper and mix well.
4. Divide them into 35 (abt 20g each) meatballs.
5. Pre heat a large frying pan and add cooking oil. Add meatballs into the pan and stir them around and cook for 8 to 10 mins until golden brown.
6. Serve as desired.

Fried Parmesan Chicken

Some time ago, bf and I agreed to have a cooking mission every weekend where we'll take turns to cook for each other. Have to say it's kinda ambitious with our busy schedule and the so-called resolution ended up being a flop for months :P So we're back at it, probably not going to be a weekly affair, but it's nice to show our concern for each other by making the other party fat through cooking.

Sometimes I find cooking much easier than baking. You can just eyeball your ingredients and if you make any mistakes along the way, you can make amendments for it, unlike baking. Or maybe I'm just a novice cook, so I don't have fussy taste buds for savory food.

So he made cream pasta for lunch while I made fried parmesan chicken for the fried-anything-crazed fellow for dinner...and he loves it! Even though we used chicken breast, the meat is tender and succulent. I was initially half worried I'll not cook the meat thoroughly at first as it's pretty thick. The crust tastes amazing with parmesan cheese, it remained crispy and tasty despite laying there for a while before we ate it. The chicken will go well together with thousand island sauce or even some lemon cream sauce.

Fried Parmesan Chicken

Ingredients:
1 egg
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
2 pcs of chicken (any part up to your preference), approximately 200g each
Enough all purpose flour to coat chicken

Method:
1. Lightly beat egg with a pinch of salt and pepper
2. Combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese on a plate
3. Heat up oil in a pan, oil level enough to reach half of the chicken piece
4. Tenderize chicken by pounding with a meat pounder
5. Coat chicken with a thin layer of flour
6. Dip chicken into beaten egg mixture
7. Roll chicken in bread crumbs mixture
8. Fry chicken in the hot oil on low to medium heat until cooked...profittt!

Cheddar Ham Muffins

The past 2 weeks actually had been pretty awful for me. Ultra moody everyday. Seriously...when you wake up in the morning, you wish the day will end with a snap of fingers. But I'm glad I made it to the weekends. Don't feel like going home to get caught between a domestic dispute. Bf was out of town (and still is) to destination unknown. Guess I was trying not to think too much of him in case I get lovesick. Plus I caught the flu bug due to the temperamental weather, kinda worried now if I'll recover in time before my half marathon this Sunday.

Whilst I was missing my bf, I was secretly thrilled that I had a lot of time for myself. I was occupied with activities with friends and colleagues in the weekends. It reaffirms to me that my relationship is heading the right way as I don't find myself feeling lost due to having my life revolving solely around one person that I had nowhere to go nor had no invitations for outings in the weekends. And I'm happy that I have him as my bf, he's always the most understanding and accommodating person.

Having the long weekend for myself means I have more time for baking! Baked savory breakfast muffins for sister and her boyfriend. Savory muffins are pretty new to me, the results were kind of disappointing though. I was expecting cheese to ooze out from the muffins as they were promising with all the fizzling and cracking while inside the oven. Guess not! The cheddar gave the muffin an overall cheesy taste but sorry, no cheese ooze. Other than that, it's pretty filling for breakfast.

Cheddar Ham Muffins
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
70g all purpose flour
65g corn meal
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of coarse black pepper
Pinch of blended herbs - rosemary, thyme, red pepper
55g salted butter, melted
120ml milk, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tbsp sugar
70g cheddar cheese, shredded
30g honey baked ham, chopped into bits

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190°C
2. Whisk together flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, black pepper and herbs in a bowl
3. In another bowl, whisk melted butter, milk, egg and sugar together until well combined
4. Pour the liquid mixture over dry ingredients, and gently stir to blend until just combined
5. Add ham and cheese and stir just 2 strokes to combine
6. Divide batter evenly over muffin cups
7. Bake for abt 25 mins and transfer pan to a cooling rack
8. Let muffins cool in rack and serve them warm

Ramen Eggs

Learnt it during the CNY period after the many ramen pig out sessions with friends. Most of them will add an extra side for the egg. Kinda rude shock for me that a measly egg can cost a few bucks. "Must.Learn.Egg!!!", the oh-so-miserly-side-of-me shrieks.

Warcraft's elders' words of wisdom applies here - "Time is of the essence". Though online recipes may tell you 6 to 8 mins, the 2 minuted variance differs a lot in terms of results. General rule of thumb - The more runny you like your yolk to be, the shorter the cooking time. I did mine for abt 6 1/2 mins, hence the runny yolk. Make sure that your eggs are not kicking around violently in the pot. Simmering bubbling water shall do the trick. Cooking time varies from kitchen to kitchen, depending on how strong your stove fire is, size of your eggs and pans. Will take a few practices to get the timing right. But no egg goes to waste. If you overcook the eggs, just mashed them up, add some mayo, salt and pepper and you've gotten yourself a nice egg mayo filling for next day's breakfast.

One more thing to note is cold eggs crack, with a fire cracker pop-like kaboomz, upon contact with hot boiling water - that's why some recipes will recommend that you poke a hole on the shell to prevent that from happening, but my lazybone got the better of me, so I just dunk mine into the water. I do find that using fresh good quality eggs help to reduce the chances of this happening. Even if your eggs do crack, don't fret. Just remove the excess egg white which hangs out from the crack during the water bath and your egg is good as new.

Really inexpensive and easy to make. All you need is really just eggs. I soaked them in a ginger shoyu marinade overnight, but you can actually skip it and eat it in its good ol' eggy way.

Ramen Eggs

Ingredients
Eggs, straight out from the fridge

Marinade:
1 tbsp of Japanese shoyu
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tsp of dark soya sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
1 cup of water
Ginger slices, blanched in hot water

Method
1. Boil water in a saucepan, enough to cover the eggs
2. Put eggs into boiling water, & let it boil for 6-8 mins (I boil 2 at a time)
3. Remove eggs from boiling water & soak it in an iced water bath for >15mins
4. Combine all marinade ingredients in a separate bowl
5. Remove cooled eggs' shell & put them into marinade & put in fridge for at least 4h
6. You may serve the eggs chilled, or dunk it in hot ramen like all good eggs do =]