Thursday, September 14, 2006

Pain Perdu

No, not pain . . . "pain," as in the French word for bread. Somewhere, I read that the original recipe name for French Toast is actually "pain perdu," which translates to "lost bread." I guess that's what those crazy French did with bread that they misplaced for a couple of days. Anyhow, breakfast today:

example

This is not the best French Toast I've ever had, but it's definitely the best vegan French Toast I've ever made. I've been tweaking this recipe for the cookbook for quite some time now, and after Crystal and Ryan were kind enough to test both the normal and vegan versions for me, I concluded it was time for a wee bit more work. So, back to the kitchen.

I think I'm happy enough with this version, given it's as healthy as I can make it while still leaving it tasting excellent. My only complaint is that it sticks to the pan just the teeniest bit . . . but then again, that could be because something is off with the cure on my cast-iron frying pan. (I re-cure it every month or so, and it's still not as slick as a whistle. Argh.) I wonder if I used a nonstick skillet, whether that would happen. I bet not.

Then again, I'm trying to get away from my nonstick pans, after all of this craziness I've been reading about Teflon lately. I don't think there's a huge health risk to me using them, but I'm more concerned about the icky that is produced when making Teflon.

One more excuse to go out and buy a couple of beautiful, stainless, All-Clad saucepans and saute pan, right? ;-)

(We'll have to wait for that one until a job shows up.)

Speaking of a job, I should go keep looking for one now.

P.S. Best strawberries of my life. Swear to God. Hooray for organics!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This french toast looks great. From what I can see under that goodness of fruit! I would love a cast iron pan. Tell me about the "curing" would you?! I want to get one but don't know how to use it right (that's so bad, I have a food science degree!). I agree with the Teflon. I have a few non-stick and a whole set of Emeril stainless steel ones (from tv). I saw some awesome Caphalon pans and pots at BB&B and they were over $100 each! I loved them but only dream. By the way, I just threw out 2 teflon pots because they were years old and I finally noticed I think I've been eating bits of (nasty) teflon from it flaking off. I finally tossed them (and re-made a few foods that were ruined from the flakes).

I am excited for your cookbook...

Anonymous said...

A great place to find off price expensive pans/pots/cookware is TJ Maxx/Marshalls/AJ Wright/HOme Goods. Basically any store part of the TJX Corporation! I once found a really nice Caphalon pan for like 8 bucks.

The french toast looks really really good!

I've found that organic strawberries are far superior to non organic...actually most organic fruit tastes a lot better. I haven't noticed that with veggies so much, but with fruit is is so noticeable!

-nikki
http://iloveheeze.blogspot.com

Catherine Weber said...

Jody, you can test the oatmeal recipe for me! I'll email it to you (I think I still have your email address written down somewhere . . . !!)