Light Night and Leisurely Breakfasts...

Have you noticed that there seems to be a correlation between how much fun you're having, and the blurriness of the photo's you take? Or that the best moments go by totally unrecorded. Except of course for those fuzzy images that are ingrained in your memory forever. 

I woke up on my birthday morning to: card, coffee and gorgeous green orchid from A. No idea where he was hiding it! Followed by veggie brunch with spinach and bubble and squeak, and Becky's baked beans at one of our new favourite places. They have the most enormous portions, and pancakes to die for, big fluffy ones. If I'm totally honest they don't have the best veggie food...but that's not what we go for. The atmosphere and service are amazing and I just love looking at all the quirky decoration.

Then came the fun of opening cards and parcels that arrived in the post. Nice kitchen related things, cookery books, cosmetics, Japanese scented candle, plus phone calls and being serenaded 'happy birthday'.  After very late brunch...3pm followed by vintage shopping...we settled in Saturday night to a couple of episodes of Nordic Noir; the first two programs in brand new series of Borgen. I still love it...

We'd planned to be in London with H, but I was still feeling a bit like a hamster with a swollen throat, so we decided to catch up this weekend instead. She came home, boyfriend too, from uni in Bristol. 'A' made his famous pizza's and 'H' made her sunshine toast. I did lots of baking, whipped up gallons of pancake batter. As usual double batches so that I can freeze some to make stuffed pancakes.We all had fun flipping them in the frying pan. Don't you just love having time to enjoy leisurely family breakfasts.

It was Light Night in town Friday with the St Giles Fair. The museums opened until late. As usual we missed the lantern procession but there was live music everywhere. Traditional and modern, outside and inside. Making good use of the acoustics in spaces like the Ashmolean. Fake snow machines (still waiting for the real stuff) hot chestnuts roasting, lights sparkling...what more could I want... 



Some Leisurely breakfast ideas:

Wafer thin wheat flour pancakes 

Ingredients:

• 4oz of plain wheat flour
• 2 free range eggs
• 1/4 of a pint of milk and water...mostly milk, or non-dairy alternative
• A pinch of fine sea salt
• Butter or non-dairy alternative

Method:

1. Sift the flour and pinch of salt into a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and crack the two eggs into it. Beat the eggs into the flour
3. Gradually add the liquid, incorporating all the flour until you have a smooth batter.
4. Melt a nob of butter and add two table spoonfuls of it into the batter, stirring well.
5. Pour some of the remaining butter into a frying pan on the hob coating it thinly. 
6. Pour in a couple of tablespoonfuls of the batter to coat the pan pouring it to ensure it reaches the sides making a thin layer. 
7. Cook until the pancake has set. Toss and continue to cook the other side until cooked. 

This made about six smallish pancakes. These are scrumptious served with fresh lemon juice and a dusting of icing sugar or maple syrup.


Spelt pancakes with smoked haddock omelette

Spelt pancakes

Ingredients and method:

• Exactly the same as for the wheat pancakes except substituting the wheat for spelt flour.

Smoked Haddock omelette

Ingredients for two mini omelettes:

• One smoked haddock fillet. Salmon or other fish works well too
• Four free range eggs
• Butter or oil to cook

Method:

1. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat well. You may like to add a little black pepper, but as the smoked fish is very salty I don't think it needs any more salt adding.
2. Flake the fish into small pieces making sure that you remove any skin and bones. 
3. Pour a little oil into a omelette or frying pan, removing any excess with a piece of kitchen paper.
4. Allow to heat up then reduce the heat and then pour in the eggs. Once the omelette has begun to set but the top is still liquid place pieces of the fish on top.
5. Cook until set.
6. Place a small omelette onto one of the spelt pancakes. Roll up, cut in half diagonally and then serve. This is delicious served with a sweet chilly sauce. 

Chilli bubble and squeak with baked eggs.

Ingredients for four people:

• Two leeks
• Two large portobello mushrooms or a couple of handfuls of small ones.
• Two  ripe tomatoes or a couple of handfuls of cherry ones
• Left over roasted vegetables. I only used the garlic, red onions, sweet peppers and potatoes for this.
• Olive or rapeseed oil for frying
• Four free range eggs
• Dried chillies to taste
• Sea salt and black pepper plus a tiny bit of turmeric about a quarter of a teaspoonful. 

Method:

1. Trim, dice and was the leeks very well.
2. Pour a little oil into a heavy bottomed frying pan, add the leeks and saute. If using any pre-roasted garlic cloves add at this point. After removing any papery skins add the soft pulp.
3. If you have any fresh sweet peppers, de-seed and add to the pan at this point. Cook until the leeks and peppers are beginning to soften
4. Slice the mushrooms and tomatoes then cut into small cubes, add both to the pan. 
5.  Cut roasted potatoes and any other pre-cooked vegetables into similar sized pieces and add.
6. Season, stir well, cover and allow to cook until all the vegetables have cooked down to a soft texture.
7. Make four wells in the mixture and crack an egg into each one. Season each egg with a little salt and black pepper, cover and continue cooking until the eggs have set but are still runny in the centre. 

This was a big thumbs up from everyone, either with-or-without eggs. It's great when you find something everybody likes. A really spicy dish mellowed by the creamy eggs. Very substantial it would make a great lunch or supper dish too.

If you have a very sweet tooth Lemon drizzle cake or you can use the same batter, add a little more lemon juice, lots poppy seeds and omit the sweet syrupy glaze to make Poppy seed muffins 

I hope you find time for a leisurely breakfast some time soon...

debx

Belleau Kitchen Challenge...Random Recipe 30

I love Dom's Challenge and I do it every month. I follow the challenge to the letter. I count the books, or randomly select one as required. Then I bake the cake, knead the bread, make the casserole or toss the pancakes. Just as the challenge dictates. I take the requisite photograph. Usually more than one...I take photos...lots of them. 

The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. I can feel Dom saying, "OH NO YOU DON'T!" 

"I DO DOM, HONESTLY"...But you don't know that I do it every time. You see, I'm a little bit tardy...and I love the making and photographing but I'm not so good at the words. The post will be there...the draft copy all ready to press the 'PUBLISH' button...except for the text. They are still there, all the ones I've missed...waiting in a kind of blog-land limbo. Like the Persian Milk bread I made two months ago...apart from the words. That's when I start to dawdle...I drag my blogpost-writing feet. 

But at last I've got a riddle on. Still it's going to be on the last minute...just in the nick of time... 

Here's my contribution to the lovely Dom's, Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge No 30, which isn't hard at all and really fun to join in. You can find the rules here on Dom's blog.

My random book number thirty turned out to be Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights. Page thirty, Indian sweet potato pankcakes. Perfect Sunday breakfast. 

To make enough for two people you will need:

• 2 egg whites
• 340g/1 1/2 cups of cooked coarsely mashed sweet potatoes
• 2 medium sized spring onions/scallions, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1 pinch of ground cumin
• Salt and pepper
• Groundnut oil

The method is very simple. You beat the egg whites in a bowl and then add all the other ingredients apart from the oil, and mix well with your fingertips. Heat up the oil in a frying pan. Then form neat little pancakes...and drop them into the hot oil, squashing down a little with a spatula. Then cook for about five minutes on each side. Sophie recommends turning over for a final blast of heat on the first side before serving. 

I can't express enough just how tasty these ordinary looking little pancakes are. They have crunchy outsides and hot soft spicy middles. I forgot to add the onions, so we ate the pancakes with the crunchy fresh spring onions and cold sour yoghurt. Scrumptious. I will definitely be making lots of these. They would be a great vegetarian alternative to a cooked English breakfast...good for visitors.

The process of making them was so relaxing...Maybe something to do with the lovely Miss Dahl herself and her languorous way. Whilst standing over the pan cooking the hot little patties I had found myself imagining  Miss D lip-sinking Bollywood films (you must read the book) or of beautifully bangled and sari clad ladies bending over open fires tending their pancakes, and my mother-in-law teaching me to make Persian lamb cutlets along with wise words in her broken English, not to turn them too soon....

It's this simplicity that I love about Sophie Dahl's cooking. Not too many ingredients, but good ones. She even cuts down on the tools, using fingers instead of fork for mixing. But the best bit about her book is the history, always a little nostalgic tale attached...a nod to her tale-telling granddad...or should that be tail...

...there's just time to for you to join in if you get a riddle on too...coming...?
debx

One Day A Week Vegan

I love salads and this one is perfect for the kind of weather we're having at the moment. Sunshine one minute, thunderstorms and showers the next.


Warm butternut squash salad with edible flowers


Ingredients for two people:

• Baby spinach leaves
• One small red onion
• Half a capsicum (red, yellow or orange not green so that it's nice and sweet)
• One small or half a large butternut squash
• A handful of brown mushrooms or one smallish Portobello mushroom
• Pistachio slivers or other nuts. Pine nuts would be nice or pumpkin seeds...something to give a bit of crunch to the salad
• Some fresh rosemary
• Olive oil for cooking
• Pumpkin seed oil for dressing the salad
• Balsamic vinegar
• A little clear honey 
• Edible flowers
• Sea salt and fresh black pepper
• Dried chilli flakes
• A clove of garlic

Method:

1. Wash deseed and cut the squash into smallish cubes.
2. Place on an ovenproof dish, drizzle with olive oil, season and top with fresh sprigs of rosemary adding a pinch of chili if liked. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty or thirty minutes until tender.
3. Meanwhile wash deseed and cut the pepper into strips.
4. Peel and slice the onion very finely.
5. Slice the mushrooms and saute in a small frying pan with salt and pepper and the crushed clove of garlic. Set aside.
6. Assemble the salad. Place washed spinach leaves into a bowl or assemble directly on serving dishes. Add the onion, mushrooms and pumkin. Sprinkle with the nuts.
7. You can use the garlic oil from the mushrooms and any juices from the roasted squash to dress the salad, removing the stalks of rosemary. Or pumpkin seed oil which is a delicious nutty salad dressing which is really good for you. Add a little balsamic vinegar to cut through the oil and I like a drizzle of honey as I'm a big fan of sweet/sour salad dressings. 
8. Not forgetting the edible flowers...I topped ours with a gorgeous yellow courgette flower...perfect...

This is a delicious salad.  The flavours and textures are well balanced.  The pumpkin and mushrooms add body, the nuts crunch as well as being a good source of second class protein. But best of all it just tastes so good...yum...


Desert was sweet juicy Esher doughnut peaches. 


Lunch was one of those concoctions made from what's on-hand...perfect when that happens to be some Baghali Polow, Persian Broad(Fava) Bean and Dill rice left over from last night's supper. Served up with long red peppers slow roasted with olive oil until slightly charred and creamy ripe avocado.

Talking about slightly charred. Breakfast almost didn't happen! I'd totally forgotten I'd left my first attempt at granola in the oven until I could smell a smoky sweetness drifting upstairs to where I was busy doing something else...I opened the oven in the smokefilled kitchen to find little hard black footballs that had once been sweet dried fruits and crunchy nuts!  Such a waste of all those good things.  I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. 


If you are porridge eater this is a great summer-time alternative.

To make my Fruit and Nut Granola you will need:

• Three cups of rolled oats
• One cup of nuts...I used almonds this time
• Half a cup of seeds...as mine had all burnt up in my first attempt I used pistachio slivers instead
• One third of a cup of Agave syrup or you could use honey or muscovado sugar.  Agave syrup is very sweet so you will need to adjust and maybe use more honey or sugar according to how sweet your tooth is!
• One quarter of a cup of olive oil
• Half a spoonful of vanilla paste
• A couple of teaspoonfuls of cinnamon

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
2. Lay onto an oven tray
3. Bake at 150c for half an hour or so until toasty
4. Leave to cool and then store in a jar

I love mine with lots of fresh fruit especially ripe pears and peaches or berries, the juice of one orange freshly squeezed and maybe a little honey or agave/maple syrup.  Or with mixed dried fruits steeped overnight in fresh fruit juice...scrummy...


Another tasty vegan day...


I'm linking over here to fat Tuesdays today...