Chef Derange

I have had some mad ideas over the past few days... for example...

Mock Eggs Benedict
Toast 1/2 of an English muffin. Butter it and sprinkle drops of lime juice and a few of Tabasco on it. Smear them around with the knife. Lime juice is better for this as it's not as acid as lemon juice.

Fry an egg (preferably in a ring holder - cut the bottom off of a can ot tuna or both top and bottom of a can of water chestnuts, wash well, grease interior and flop down in the skillet with a bit of butter in the middle. )

What happens here is I got the taste of the Benedict sauce without all the butter and egg yolks. For purists: Benedict sauce
4 egg yolks beaten with 4 T lemon juice
1 stick of butter, melted and beaten steadily into egg/lemon juice mixture. Return to the pan you melted the butter and whisk over the still-warm but off burner. Couple of shots of Tabasco as you like.

Next up! Panko Japanese Bread Crumbs
A box of them caught my eye in the supermarket, so I bought it. The box has a very complicated recipe for scallops in a sauce, baked with the crumbs. We had scallops so ...

I mayonnaised each cleaned scallop; rolled the scallop gently in a plate of Panko crumbs and baked at 400 for 14 minutes. I served them with lemon juice on the side. The panko crisps up as though it had been deep-fat fried! But it wasn't! (Crow! crow! I haven't deep-fat fried anything in 25 years.)

This is a version of "Ameritriciana?" (Ruth Ellen, help me out here!)
1 slice of bacon, cooked, well-drained and crumbled.
2 cloves garlic, chopped and sauteed in olive oil with red chili flakes
Pasta of choice and when it's nearly done, throw in a handful of frozen peas. Drain well and mix everything together.

The real dish uses pancetta and a cream sauce. Mine is presumably healthier for you.

Hmmm... what can I go invent next?

Blog #525