French toast

I had some old eggs and bread running around in the fridge so I thought what could be nicer as Sunday brekkie than to do French Toast.

Normally, my toast comes out soggy. The best french toast I know is from Burger King - they have a kind of crust on it, but I can't decipher how they do it. However, I'm pretty sure it's deep-fried, most unhealthy!

I got inspired by a batter I saw on telly recently. Beat egg whites until fluffy and put in corn flour, fold it it, never mind the lumps, these will be little surprising crispy bits. This works well for things like frying fish to give it the extra crispy texture, without a heavy batter.

I decided to do a little experiment:

Experiment #1
Coat bread with egg wash, and then dip in corn flour and pan fry.

Experiment #2
Coat bread with egg wash, then dip in normal flour and pan fry.

Between these 2, the different isn't entirely discernable. With corn flour, the flour amalgamates easily with the egg wash, making the coating slightly crunchy but smooth. With plain flour, the flour acts as a separate coating by itself and you can still see the flour bits on the bread, not so pretty. However, it's most crispy than corn flour, probably because it doesn't amalgamate with the egg.

Experiment #3
Combine the corn flour and normal flour into the egg and beat. There will be lots of little lumps.

This was the worst of the lot, didn't make it any more crispy, looked ugly (uneven finish) and just made the bread a bit 'tough' to chew on.

So I think the best compromise is still to coat with corn flour. Pretty and yet slightly crispy.

Brown sauce

A couple of nights ago, we went to the Swimming Club and tucked into an interesting dinner at the clubhouse. Dad decided to go with the steak, and it came on a hotplate, with the gravy served on the side in a gravy boat. How quaint! We seldom see gravy boats around nowadays.

Inspired by the brown sauce, I decided to go track down its recipe. I found this interesting link on all you ever wanted to know about brown sauce and some brown sauce variation recipes.

Description from website:
Brown sauce is the 'little black dress' of the culinary world. It is the must have recipe that can be used alone, or that can form the basis for other dishes, suitably dressed up with other ingredients.A basic brown sauce is made by browning flour in oil or fat, then gradually adding a meat stock and other seasonings and cooking until the sauce is thick. This sauce can be used alone over mashed potatoes and meats.Common additions to brown sauces are mushrooms, onions, peppercorns or ground pepper, and wine. If using wine in your sauce, reduce the amount of meat stock accordingly.
Many of these sauce recipes begin with a roux, a mixture of butter and flour that is cooked over high heat until the flour browns and no flour taste remains. A roux can be light or dark, depending on how long the flour is browned in the butter. Care is needed - there is a fine line between a dark roux and a burnt roux.Roux can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator until ready for use. Make sure to cover it tightly (use empty, clean butter tubs) to keep it from absorbing flavors from other items.Be careful when purchasing 'brown sauce' online or in stores; make sure you know what you are getting. In the UK, the term means something different than in the US - it is a condiment for meat, which in America would be called 'steak sauce'.In Asian cookery, brown sauce is also a fundamental foundational sauce, but is made from soy sauce, with oyster sauce or other flavorings, and thickened with corn starch.
What's the difference between 'brown sauce' and 'brown gravy'? There isn't any, really.