Rachel Khoo’s Croque Madame Muffins – cute and super delicious!

It’s been a looooong time since I published a proper recipe post. I haven’t cooked as much I used to due to work, but now that I have quit my full time job as a Dilbert I reckon I could go back to more hardcore cooking! Yay!

# – Rachel Khoo’s Croque Madame Muffin.

Today I made Rachel Khoo’s version of croque madame, which are in muffin shape. Eversince I saw her made them on tv, I had wanted to do it so bad, but with work and the water rationing (by the way, it’s officially ending 1 May yahooooo!) I kept putting it off.

Not today!

Ingredients:

For bechamel sauce:

1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
200 ml of milk
1/2 teaspoon of dijon mustard (I used 1 teaspoon cause I like more kick)
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Other ingredients:

6 eggs
6 slices of bread
3 slices of ham/bacon (I used 3 slices of honey glazed hams which I cut into halves so they make 6)
A handful of grated gruyere or mature cheddar
Some butter

# – We begin by first making the bechamel sauce. Melt the one tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

# – When the butter has melted, add one tablespoon of flour and stir with a wooden spoon.

# – When it’s all combined, slowly pour milk in while whisking.

# – It will get clumpy but don’t panic and continue whisking.

# – Eventually it will become a smooth sauce. At this point, add the dijon mustard.

# – Followed by ground nutmeg.

# – Of course, season with a pinch of salt.

# – As well as black pepper. Love our electronic grinder with light, a gift from Lance and Mel! Thank you! Whisk till combined, switch off flames and let it cool. Set aside.

# – Now to prep the bread slices. Cut off all the crusts.

# – Flatten the bread slices with a rolling pin.

# – Butter both sides of each bread.

# – Lay them in the muffin tin to form cups. Please make sure you have greased the tin with butter earlier.

# – Now put a slice of ham into each bread cup.

# – Then, crack an egg into each cup, making sure the yolk doesn’t break and the white does not spill out of the cup. This is because I found that too much of egg white that spilled over the cup would soak into the bread making it a bit soggy and hard to remove from the tin. So, the next time I do this, I will separate yolk from white first into two different bowls and then only pour the yolk in, followed by the white. This way I can control the amount of egg white I put into each bread cup.

# – Lastly, spoon a heaped tablespoon of bechamel sauce over into each cup…

# – Stick the muffin tray into a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 13 minutes for runny yolks, 15 minutes for soft yolks or 20 minutes for firm yolks. I went for 13 minutes of course. (p/s: In my pregnancy haze I had totally forgotten to grate cheese over the cups before sticking them into the oven FML. So please do so with either gruyere or mature cheddar!)

# – Voila! Croque Madame Muffins, done!

# – Oooh la la.

It was very delicious! The crispy bread with savoury ham and the rich, soft egg were music in my mouth. The bechamel sauce certainly brought the flavours together, even without cheese it was very creamy thanks to the milk and butter. Must try!

Lets talk stupid.

A few nights ago, hubs and I decided to discuss about stupidity as a pre-slumber conversation. Hubs had recently just read an essay called “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” by an economist named Carlo M. Cipolla. It was published in 1976 and I wonder why it took us this long to finally learn about it.

All I can say is, wow, what a treat!

Never had I read something so illuminating and thought-provoking, helping me to put to rest most of my frustrations with the humankind (and sometimes loved ones).

According to Cipolla, there are 4 laws regarding stupidity and they are:

• Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

Right, how many times have we complained about stupid people and then, bam! More stupid people.

Well, for a quick case, just check Facebook – have you counted the number of people getting shocked at what politicians say or do…again and again and again? This simply goes to show that despite knowing and acknowledging that there are stupid politicians, people never failed to be surprised by more stupid politicians! It’s because we have always been underestimating the amount of stupidity.

• The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Yeap, no matter whether a person is kind, sweet, funny, witty, has clever parents etc….if they’re stupid, they’re stupid. None of the other traits affect one’s stupidity. Perhaps the other characteristics might make you notice it more or less but you want the quickest ways to find out if one is stupid? Give them Facebook.

• A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

Now this is my favourite point, because it’s explains stupidity so fluidly and so precisely. Stupidity – people who cause losses to other people while not gaining anything themselves and possibly also causing losses to themselves. People washing cars during water rationing, hello? Whether it’s money, time, energy or loveeeeeeee. Baybeh, ask yourself…are you stupid?

I admit, this particular point has got me to think about my own stupidity and I must say I am stupid to a degree. I get frustrated with stupid people, which is causing loss of energy to myself and that in itself is stupid.

So from now on, I want to be non-stupid.

• Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

Yeap, stay the eff away. But what if the stupid people are your family? What if they suck the life, happiness and joy out of your life? How can you stop dealing and associating with people that are both stupid and family? I have come to terms with that and yes, you can choose friends AND choose family.

My belief is that people that have any semblance of self-awareness will come to realise that they are behaving stupidly and are causing losses to themselves and other people. But if even with such knowledge that they continue the rampage of stupidity….then it’s time to cut them out till they’ve sorted their own shit out.

stupid horse

So are you stupid or non-stupid? Can you tell?

BreadFruits – fresh, delicious brunch and breakfast in Desa Sri Hartamas.

I had seen a couple of people posted about this place on Instagram and couldn’t help but be intrigued. Located in Desa Sri Hartamas, it’s 10 minutes drive from home which is a great plus for us. Upon entering the premise, we noticed that the place offered fresh fruits too.

# – Was raining, so I couldn’t take a better picture of the restaurant front.

Going through pictures of food served at BreadFruits on Instagram, especially of the antipasto platter (a set of cured hams, cheeses, bread, soft boiled eggs etc) really had me thinking about eating at BreadFruits for days.

Alas, when we’re finally there, it dawned on hubs that I couldn’t eat either cured meat or soft cheeses due to my state of pregnancy, FML. What to do? Had to order different stuff lor….

We were there at an odd time, around 4pm so the restaurant was not that packed but they were never short of visitors. Mostly people coming in for fresh juices and fruits.

# – Inside of BreadFruits.

# – The menu cover.

Since I couldn’t eat the antipasto set, I decided on a “Roasted Banana Bacon French Toast with Passion Wild Honey”.

# – Tell me this doesn’t make you want to eat the eff out of it.

The sweet and savoury combo was spot-on. The bananas were perfectly caramelised and the back bacon was cooked just right. Toasted almond flakes provided a nice crunch. The pot of wild honey infused with passion fruit that came with tied everything together splendidly.

My only complaint is that there wasn’t more of the bananas and bacons as the rye bread french toasts were quite big, I had to be quite diligent with making sure that every bite of french toast came with some banana and bacon :)

That being said, calling it a complaint is a gross overstatement!

Hubs ordered a “Satisfry Up”, which is BreadFruits’s version of a big breakfast. It’s pretty customisable and comes with tea/coffee and a glass of fresh juice, good value!

# – Real sausage and bacon with perfectly whipped up scrambled eggs. Hubs was really pleased that it’s served with a side of salad too.

As for drinks, they have a large variety of healthy juices to choose from – I picked “Liver Cleanser” made out of beetroot, celery, carrot and orange.

I was impressed it came in a pint glass with not a single cube of ice – pure unadulterated juice happiness!

# – My blood-red liver cleanser with hub’s juice of the day that came with his big breakfast (think it must be melon-based juice, we couldn’t tell but it was niceeee).

Hubs had both a cappuccino and a latte, which he said were good.

# – The latte.

We couldn’t leave without ordering desserts, as the dessert display was calling out to us the entire time….

# – Angels sing.

We settled on beetroot seed cake and a lemon meringue pie. The beetroot cake was moist and full of texture. It tasted like a very good carrot cake, minus the frosting.

Hubs especially enjoyed the lemon meringue pie though I would much prefer a thicker lemon curd filling. It’s a good pie nevertheless with nice short crust pastry.

# – Healthy but tasty beetroot seed cake.

# – Lemon meringue pie.

So will we go back? Hell yes.

In fact we toyed with the idea of staying till dinner time so we could try out the delicious looking pastas and spanish egg bake but we didn’t lah. That would just be weird.

They also serve a house specialty – a 7 minute slow cooked soft boiled organic egg which I really, really, really want to try.

So finally! A place that serves delicious and healthy meals without demonising bacons! Last but not least, the prices are pretty reasonable with the most expensive things ranging mostly in the higher RM20s.

BreadFruits
17, Jalan 26/70a,
Desa Sri Hartamas,
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 03-6201 0090
Hours: Mon – Sun, 08:30 – 21:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/BreadFruits/