Baked eggs

July 7th, 2010

Baked eggs

I love eggs. My friends were a bit shocked when I told them that between the two of us we often go through a dozen eggs a week. Some of them go into cake, but an awful lot are eaten au natural. Maybe a boiled egg here, plenty of poached eggs and sometimes even double cream doused scrambled eggs.

I’m especially all for eggs for tea – eggs really are the best fast food. If it’s just me, it mighty be poached egg on toast or on top of a quick stir-fried rice, and I do love a baked egg; so obviously this recipe in Delicious immediately jumped out at me. I made it last night and am eating leftovers for my lunch as I write. I couldn’t wait to tell you to make this, and make it soon.

These are Turkish eggs, rather than the Mexican huevos rancheros, so the sauce is headily flavoured with fennel and cumin. The recipe suggest serving it with a sumac flavoured yoghurt, but plain old yoghurt will do or go completely inauthentic as we did and have it with some mashed avocado. Again, if you were being authentic, you’d eat them with flatbreads, but we had lots of French bread, all the better for scooping up the delicious sauce. We had it for dinner, but obviously it would make a perfect breakfast, in fact I was wondering how to adapt it for my own brunches
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The Breakfast Club – 26th June

June 28th, 2010

Coffee and tea ice cream

Another week, another Breakfast Club. It seems I’m getting into my stride now and this one wasn’t the all-consuming week of work that was the last one. Thankfully the weather was glorious and tied in perfectly with the menu: a refreshing elderflower cocktail to start (made with our homemade elderflower cordial) and coffee and tea ice cream to round things off (with plenty of food in between).  Recipes to follow!

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Elderflower spritz

June 28th, 2010

Elderflower

We’re lucky enough to have an elder at the bottom of our garden and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the advent of the flowers since January, fast forward to June and the flowers are in full bloom. After fashioning a hook, we harvested a load of flowers and using this recipe made elderflower cordial, filling the flat with the scent of elderflowers in the process.

With the baking hot weather on Saturday, we decided to serve big jugs of elderflower spritz. Simply elderflower cordial and soda water with a few slices of cucumber and some mint from the garden to freshen it up even more. Cucumber, mint and elderflower make for a super refreshing combination that’s perfect for hot weather. You can certainly use shop-bought elderflower cordial and I would swap the soda water for fizz if you want something alcoholic…

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Coconut bread and lime marmalade

June 18th, 2010

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These fabulous recipes come from my friend and guest blogger Kat. This coconut bread is so, so good and actually improves with age. We’ve been enjoying it for breakfast all week, note that the lime marmalade is the perfect partner, even for marmalade deniers (like me).

This recipe is adapted from the sunny Bill Granger’s Sydney Food – I can’t help but salivate and dream of an Australian brunch when I read it. This tropical bread is fantastic slathered with lime marmalade, or do as Bill does and serve with a salt fish relish, if you can lay your hands on any. The bread is best made earlier than you want to eat it – ideally the day before – as this makes it much easier to slice and toast. And toast it you must.

The lime marmalade is a really simple recipe, only three ingredients, but I’d advise that a fourth ingredient is a nice clear Sunday afternoon to potter around whilst the limes are bubbling away. It helps to have a nice sharp knife too to make the chopping as efficient as possible. Beware doubling the recipe (as I did!) as it’s a lot of limes to finely chop. The sugar thermometer helps, but is by no means necessary. I just love an excuse to buy some more kitchen related gadgetry.

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Strawberries with elderflower and pistachio yoghurt

June 16th, 2010

Strawberries with elderflower and pistachio yoghurt

Strawberries are bang in season now and even some of the smaller supermarket varieties are still deliciously sweet. I came up with this recipe while trying to think of a light and refreshing way to start The Breakfast Club: strawberries macerated in elderflower, topped with a rich pistachio yoghurt.

By blending the pistachios, all of the oils are released and this makes the Greek yoghurt even thicker and richer, as well as a beautiful pale green colour, sort of like pistachio butter.

While this is a lovely way to start the day, it would also be an easy and smart way to round off a meal. The pistachio yoghurt can be made ahead and will keep for a few days in the fridge, while the strawberries will sit in their marinade for an hour or two.
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The Breakfast Club – June 12th

June 13th, 2010

The Breakfast Club

Phew! After weeks of poring over potential menus, testing recipes and designing various pieces of stationary, we finally held the very first Breakfast Club!

With lots of help, especially from my co-chef Kat, things went off without a hitch. (Except for worrying about the weather, how to poach eggs for 12 people at once and whether there’d be enough food…) There are still places left for brunch on July 10th and plans are afoot for afternoon tea and dinner, I’ll keep you posted!

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An old favourite

June 11th, 2010

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This vegetarian shepherd’s pie is hands-down the most popular recipes on the site; several friends have also made it and they always tell me how much they love it. Despite all this, I’ve not actually made it again since writing the recipe.

This week, amidst the craziness (and rain), I had a real hankering for pie-based comfort food and remembered this recipe. I stir-fried some spring greens with lots of garlic and stirred this through the mash, but otherwise followed the same recipe. And herein lies the beauty it seems, the rich tomato and red wine sauce for the lentils really holds everything together.

Perfect as a meat-free dinner (aren’t we all trying to eat less meat?) and will still satisfy those that complain when there’s no meat on the plate.

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Breakfast muffins

May 25th, 2010

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Ah Ottolenghi, my obsession with him continues; he can do no wrong! Between my foodie friends and I, we’ve cooked our way through most of the book, even the recipes without pictures, and none were short of spectacular. I’ve visited the restaurant for brunch; always in time to see the counter fill up with beautiful food. See this blog post from Nordljus for lovely pictures.

As part of my research for The Breakfast Club, I baked these little muffins.  Carrot, apple and pecan muffins to be precise;  topped with a buttery, seedy, crumble topping. Sweet enough to eat at any time of day, but wholesome enough for breakfast. My office of hungry developers were very pleased with the result…

As usual with Ottolenghi, don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients; just trust that it will generally always be delicious. On closer inspection, you’ll probably see, as I did, that you have most of the ingredients to hand. I also substituted the seeds in the topping for a seedy sprinkle I had lurking in the cupboard, so don’t feel you need to be a slave to the combination, you’re just looking for the right amount of crunch and texture.
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The Breakfast Club

May 11th, 2010

breakfast

I’ve been awaiting the arrival of warmer weather more eagerly than most. Mostly because it means that I get to start hosting my pop-up restaurant! My flat is teeny tiny, but we do have a huge terrace kinda thing and I’ll be hosting delicious and decadent pop-up brunches throughout the summer (with a little help from other fabulous cooks).

Think Sunday papers, proper coffee, teapots, homemade pastries and more food than you’ll know what do with. I’ve spent the long, cold winter planning and testing recipes so (I hope!) they’ll be suitably scrumptious.

I’d love to see you there!

Click here for more details.

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Chickpea and fennel salad

April 29th, 2010

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Tasty tomatoes are starting to appear at the farmers’ markets now. So tasty that all you need is a little salt and olive oil. Another favourite of mine, fennel is coming into season too. This salad is a celebration of the tomatoes, fennel and the beginning of summer (fingers crossed!).

Roasted cherry tomatoes, paper thin slices of fennel and loads of herbs. Happily, it keeps perfectly in the fridge, the extra time gives the flavours time to meld together so it’s perfect for lunchboxes. Try adding some grilled meat or fish.

The quantities below are really a rough guide, use what you have and also what you like. Use more coriander if you love it like I do, mint would be lovely too. I added chickpeas to make it more filling and to make it into dinner, added a few squeaky slices of haloumi. Some oily, black olives would go perfectly here too.
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