The other day, I bought my first bottle of truffle oil. Or, rather, porcini-inflused oil with truffle flavor. Truffle oil is a pretty controversial ingredient because most of the time it's incredibly expensive even though you're just paying for olive oil flavored with the main chemicals that produce the flavor of truffles. This bottle was $4, so it probably doesn't have real truffles in it at all.

That's okay. The mushroom oil was still pretty great as a last minute drizzle on top of some French-style scrambled eggs. I did that this morning and also added scoop of mascarpone at the end instead of sour cream or crème fraîche like I normally use. They were served with sautéed collard and portobello mushrooms and some gluten-free toast.

It was fucking delicious.

I know, I know. Truffle? Mascarpone? I'm totally in foodie territory now. Yesterday I made an omelet mixed with mascarpone and filled with Asiago, Fontina and Parmesan cheeses and arugula and portobello mushrooms. That was pretty foodie, too, except I didn't think of drizzling truffle oil on at the end which probably would have sent it over the top. Served with a side of brown rice.

I have about five varieties of soy sauce each serving a different purpose. What makes someone a foodie? Can you measure how obsessed you are with food by the number of different kinds of cheeses you have (eight) or by the number of different kinds of oils/fats you have (also eight)? Is it because I'm so invested in cooking and perfecting flavor and flavor combinations that I spent hundreds of dollars on spices including ones from Africa no one's ever heard of and that I feel the need to have several varieties of rice so I'd be able to pair it just perfectly with whatever I'm eating?

Yesterday, at the specialty butcher shop, I found a tub of rendered duck fat and I wanted to buy the fuck out of that and roast some organic Yukon Gold potatoes in it.

A year and a half ago, I just wanted to make some really tasty roast drumsticks. That's how it all started. Then I wanted to make macaroni and cheese. And steak. Now it's become me slaving over bain-maries making a quail egg Hollandaise sauce. Venison burgers with kimchi. Making sugar cookies with lavender and mascarpone because butter is too boring.

____________________
Sofi.

Please consider the environment before printing this post.

I haven't posted in here in so long it's ridiculous. I've been going through a lot lately, but nothing that's stopped me from cooking meals. If anything, I'm more focused on cooking than ever. I'm pretty sure I'm actually going try to make it my thing.

Lately I've been experimenting with infusing more flavors into sunny side up eggs. I had this realization that I could steam the eggs with things other than water and it'll add flavor to the egg. My favorite has been rice wine but I've also tried beef stock and soy sauce. The possibilities are endless, though, like, I could put in vinegar or lemon juice or milk or coffee or miso soup or oyster sauce or Coca-Cola or beer.

I think in my free time I want to get into being a freelance personal chef so I can make my cooking more well-known around here.

____________________
Sofi.

Please consider the environment before printing this post.

Potato wedges flavored with ground turmeric, ground lavender, ground cumin, ground coriander, celery seed, smoked paprika, onion powder, ground red pepper, black pepper and sea salt and shallow-fried in the oven with safflower oil. Breakfast sausages braised in Carlo Rossi blush wine and beef stock and seared in butter. Sunny side up eggs fried in butter and seasoned with smoked paprika, dried savory, black pepper and sea salt. Lightly sautéed mixed greens.


My friend has been kind enough to leave me a huge jug of Carlo Rossi blush wine, a mild sweet wine with the flavors of strawberry and cherries. I have yet to pour myself a glass of it but I've been using it in my cooking nonstop. Today I mixed it with beef stock to braise my breakfast sausages in and the sausages came out very sweet. It was pretty darn cool. The sweetness was a bit overwhelming because afterwards I felt like I needed something to balance out the sweetness. I probably needed more savory flavors.

____________________
Sofi.

Please consider the environment before printing this post.