Category: Breakfast/brunch

Categories
Breakfast/brunch

Chilli cheese toast

It is a rare Sunday that we don’t have eggs for lunch/brunch. We’ve built up a wide repertoire of different egg recipes, such as shakshuka, kimchi grains with egg and of course the standard avo and poached eggs. This recipe is a fairly new one for us, it is an Indian take on the traditional British Welsh Rarebit, with an egg on top. The egg can of course be omitted, it is just as good.

Recipe (serves 2)

  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 thick slices bread
  • 100g mature cheddar, grated
  • 2 tsp English mustard
  • 1-2 green finger chillies
  • Coriander or spring onions chopped
  • 3 large eggs
  • tomato ketchup or other sauce to serve

Method

  • Melt 1 tsp of butter in a non-stick frying pan and fry the onions until soft. Don’t let them brown. Set aside to cool.
  • In a bowl mix together 1 egg, grated cheese, chilli, coriander/spring onion, mustard and cooled onions.
  • Lightly toast both sides of your bread
  • Spread the cheese mixture over your toast and place under a grill until bubbling and with some golden spots.
  • As the cheese goes into the grill fry your eggs
  • Tomato ketchup is apparently the sauce of choice for this snack in India. I’m not a ketchup fan but for those that are I am told by others in my house that ketchup really does compliment this dish..
Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food

Veggy sausages

Sunday breakfast/brunch/lunch is probably the meal I most consistently enjoy and look forward to. A fry-up is on my list of old favourites, served with these very tasty veggy sausages. They also freeze brilliantly if you don’t eat them all.

Do take a look at some of my other favourite breakfast/brunch recipes.

Recipe (makes approx 16)

  • 200g unsalted cashews, soaked overnight if you have time
  • 200g cooked vac-packed chestnuts
  • 250g firm tofu
  • 1 small red onion, peeled and grated
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
  • 150g breadcrumbs
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked and roughly chopped
  • 100g cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1 tbsp soy or tamari sauce
  • 1 egg, beaten

How to make

  • Put the cashew nuts and chestnuts into a food processor and blitz to a fine-ish breadcrumb texture.
  • Mash up or finely chop the tofu (depending on whether it is silken tofu which can be mashed or the other type) in a large mixing bowl
  • Add the rest of the ingredients except the olive oil and mix well.
  • Put a little oil onto your hands and shape the mix into sausage shape. Lay them on an tray and put them in the freezer to firm up for 5 minutes or so if cooking straight away. Otherwise put them in the fridge until you are ready to fry them.
  • If freezing, they can be reheated in the oven either defrosted or from frozen.

Categories
Breads, muffins etc Breakfast/brunch

Corn bread

Ottolenghi does it again with this wonderful corn bread. We had it for lunch with a couple of salads, so so delicious. I halved the recipe (to serve 5) and cooked it in a 25cm cast iron frying pan. As well as via the link given here, the recipe can be found in Simple, page 19.

Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food

Kimchi fried grains, and fried egg

This is one of our favourite Sunday lunch/brunch meals. I always make extra grains to use in a salad later in the week.

Ingredients: serves 2

  • 2 tbsp flavourless oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts separated
  • 1 carrot, cut into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler
  • 2 heaped tbsp kimchi
  • 250g of cooked grains – you can cheat by buying a pouch of pre-cooked mixed grains
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 toasted nori sheet, crumbled togarashi, furikake or nori flakes, to serve (optional)

Method

  • In a frying pan or work heat some oil and over a high heat add the white parts of the spring onions, carrot ribbons and kimchi. Stir-fry for 2 mins
  • Add the grains, soy sauce and sesame oil, then stir-fry until the grains are hot; about 2 mins.
  • In a second pan, heat some oil until fairly hot. Crack the eggs in and fry until the outside edges of the white are crispy
  • Plate up with the grains, top with an egg and garnish with the green parts of the spring onions, the toasted nori sheet and the togarashi, furikake or nori flakes, if using. Togarashi, Furikake and nori flakes are all Japanese types of seasoning. Togarashi is a spicy mix, Furikake is a rise seasoning and nori flakes are nori flakes!

Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food Other

Welsh rarebit

For a cheesy supper or brunch snack not much beats welsh rarebit. I know you could simply grill some cheese on toast but this is really worth the additional 20 minutes or so to make. There are many variations of the basic welsh rarebit recipe, I particularly like this one made with Guinness (or any other stout).

As you can see from the pic above we had it here on toast. Although I didn’t do it this time, my favourite way of serving it is atop a portobello mushroom. If going with the mushroom option then brush them all over with oil and place in the oven for 15 minutes to cook before spooning the rarebit mix on top.

Whether topping toast or mushrooms, when ready to eat pop under the grill for a few minutes to heat through, until golden brown in spots and bubbling.

This quantity will make enough for 4/6 servings. If you have spare mixture left over it freezes well to be used another time.

The left over Guinness can be used to make soda bread or find yourself a Guinness chocolate cake recipe. Of course, if you are being really organised you can make the bread first to use as your toast base.

Ingredients

  • 25g butter
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 75 ml Guinness
  • 140g mature cheddar, grated
  • 1 tsp English mustard
  • 2 eggs beaten

To make

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry onion for 10/15 mins until soft and translucent.
  2. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.
  3. Gradually add the Guinness to make a smooth sauce; add the cheese and mustard.
  4. Finally add the eggs on a low heat until the mixture thickens. Do NOT overcook or have the heat too high otherwise your eggs will scramble.
  5. Your mix is now ready to top on your toast (toast both sides of the bread) or mushrooms and grill.
Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food Vegan

Granola

This is easy but I won’t lie it can seem a bit laborious; there’s a lot of nut chopping and then regular turning of the Granola in the oven. It makes a lot though so you don’t have to make it too often.

You can eat this granola as is but you can also add dried fruit once cooked.

Ingredients

  • ½ tsp salt
  • 170g oats
  • 170g mixed grains or oats only (I get these from a health food store)
  • 200g mixed nuts, roughly chopped (you have to do this by hand with a sharp knife; don’t attempt to do it in a processor, you will end up with mostly ground nuts)
  • 50g mixed/sunflower/pumpkin seeds
  • 50g coconut shavings
  • 40g coconut oil
  • 120ml/172g runny honey
  • 1 large egg white

Method

  1. Put the dried ingredients into a large mixing bowl and give a good stir
  2. Put the coconut oil and honey in a microwaveable bowl. Heat until the coconut oil has melted into the honey
  3. Pour into the dried ingredients and stir until all are covered in the  oil-honey mix
  4. Fluff up your egg white and mix through the granola
  5. Spread the granola onto a wide baking tray (the biggest you have) and place in the oven on 150C. It will take approx. 40 mins to cook. You will need to stir it regularly to cook evenly. It is ready when it looks ready ie golden in colour.
  6. I leave for 10 mins before doing the first stir and then decrease the time between stirrings as I go.  
Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food Sweet stuff

Twisted cinnamon bread

I love any bread, cake pastry, bun etc with cinnamon. I’m always trying out new recipes. This latest was particularly good.

As the recipe suggests (found on BBC Good Food) it is best eaten the day it is made but it is still very good the next day, especially when spread with a little of the tahini and honey butter as recommended. Beyond that it is probably best to freeze, either whole or in slices.

The icing: I swapped out the icing in the recipe for my favourite tahini icing, which is literally, ‘the icing on the cake’!

Tahini icing: 60g icing sugar, 30, tahini and 1 tbsp water

Making the whole thing (as with any yeasted breads and cakes) in one day can be a bit of a pain as you wait around for each of the proving processes. I did what I often do when I’m making dough, I made it one evening and let it prove overnight in the fridge. The next day I took out of the fridge and let it warm up before rolling out the dough to add the filling and make the twisted log.

Categories
Breakfast/brunch Love food Vegan

Spiced apple porridge

I have been converted to porridge over the past few years after a childhood (and adulthood) of avoidance. This spiced apple porridge from Waitrose (once again!) is so good. The recipe says it makes for two but I really don’t know how much porridge you can eat at one sitting but I definitely can’t eat what the recipe suggests.  In case you are wondering – nor can Liora or Andy. I make a batch at the beginning of the week and use it through the week. A word of warning though – it doesn’t look great cold and it will solidify but it tastes just as good as when made fresh. You will just need to add some water to loosen the consistency and then stick in the microwave.

The recipe can be found via this link. Having made this a few times I am a bit loose about the quantities. I always start with two cooking apples, chop them (small cubes) and weigh before cooking then add a proportional amount of porridge but it really doesn’t have to be exact. It is after all just porridge, not a cake.

Once you have cooked the apples give them another weigh and then keep half for the porridge mix and keep half aside for topping off your cooked porridge.

I always use a mix of semi-skimmed dairy milk and water, using much more overall liquid than the recipe suggests.

As well as spare porridge for another day, you should also have some apple left over for topping.

Enjoy ?