Inspired by a two-hour-egg we had at our anniversary dinner at Deuxave earlier this summer, we decided to try it ourselves for a dinner party.  Who cooks an egg for two hours?  That’s what we thought too.  Upon further research, we found a whole world of cooking ‘sous vide’, and while it doesn’t make a ton of sense for us to invest in a professional sous vide (both for space constraints and that most cooking sous vide tends to involve meat).   We used a recent post by Bon Appétit as a guide and the results were great (we let it cook for slightly longer — closer to ~75 minutes instead of their posted 50, we found that it set just a bit better).  We’d recommend this thermometer which was easy to read and clean.

We nestled our sous-vide-style-egg in a bed of caramelized onion, sage, butternut squash light cream sauce tossed with pasta, and the flavors worked out perfectly.  Enjoy!

Inspired by fresh tomatoes, we decided to make a healthy summer soup with basil. It is a classic recipe that you can never go wrong with which is both quick and easy.  It freezes really well. I prefer using an immersion blender but one needs to be careful about not scratching the bottom of the nonstick pot. I made this soup without the roux to make it more healthy. One could use butter and flour to make the roux to enhance its taste further.  Also, I used 3 cubes of home made vegetable broth but if one is using store bought, then please follow the instructions on that. Serve it with cream and crackers!

Inspired by our afternoon high tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, several weeks ago, we decided to try making our first jelly. When we received our tea platter, we saw this small bite-size sandwich amongst other delicacies in front of us. While we confirmed with the waiter that everything was vegetarian, he casually mentioned one of the appetizers had onion jelly at its core. We did a double-take because at first glance we were sure it was strawberry, raspberry or another red-inspired jam. Onion jelly? Turns out, it’s amazing — a unique combination of sweet and savory, that we’ll be sure to try to port to other vegetables soon. The hint of sage, port wine, and our spicy red wine vinaigrette (from Boston Olive Oil) add a unique twist to the traditional red onion jelly recipes.  We served with crackers, baguette slices, and the cheese monger at Formaggio Kitchen recommended Pantaleo goat cheese which worked especially well!

Inspired by the melanzane stack we had in Cape Town at Col Cacchio’s during our vacation last month, we decided to make it as an entrée instead of an appetizer. It was a small stack of deliciousness with deep flavor. This recipe takes layers of grilled eggplant interspersed with fresh mozzarella and sun-dried tomato pesto topped with slightly roasted pine nuts. By using a tomato sauce base, we were also able to make a healthier pesto without too much olive oil.

It is a fantastic dinner party entrée and very easy to make in large quantities. We served it with whole-wheat black pepper pasta and garlic bread. To make the wheat pasta taste even better, we usually make it carbonara-style by cooking it with garlic-salted-beaten-egg-whites right after it’s done cooking, but we didn’t have eggs last night!

Inspired by steel cut oatmeal we had for breakfast at the Westin Cape Town, we were tempted to replicate the same delicious taste at home. This was our first attempt at using our new brûlée torch set, and we’re looking forward to more tries in the near future!