Fridge Forage Friday :: Sweet Potato, Caramelised Onion, Goat's Cheese and Thyme Tortilla

Sweet potatoes, like butternut squash are one of my all time favourite staple ingredients. Along with a little fridge and store cupboard foraging, and some herbs from the garden I can soon manage to  rustle up an easy lunch or supper, like this hearty tortilla.  

Sweet Potato, Caramelised Onion, Goat's Cheese and Thyme Tortilla

Ingredients for one medium sized tortilla/omelette :

• A medium sized sweet potato
• Two small or one medium sized red onions
• Olive oil 
• Balsamic vinegar
• Two fresh or roasted garlic cloves 
• Four large eggs or equivalent
• One small goats cheese or any salty/sour cheese. Blue veined cheese would also work well.
• A sprig or two of fresh thyme 
• Chilli flake (optional)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

1. Scrub the sweet potato well and place on a baking try in the centre of a moderate oven. Cook for about thirty or forty minutes or so, depending on the size of the potato; until it's still tender but firm enough to slice. Sweet potatoes contain more water then regular ones so cook much more quickly.
2. Whilst the potato is cooking pop a couple cloves of garlic on the tray leaving the outer papery skin and drizzle with olive oil, these will roast until soft and sweet.
3. Meanwhile, pour a little olive oil into a frying/omelette pan and add the sliced onions. Allow to cook slowly until soft and sweetly caramelised. Season with a little sea salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
4. When the potato and garlic cloves are cooked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes. 
5. Squeeze the sweet paste from the cooked garlic cloves and pour in a few drops of balsamic vinegar and mix with the onions. Ensure that the onions cover the base of the pan evenly.
6. When the potatoes are cooled, carefully peel off the skin, slice and then pop on top of the onions. Season.
7. Slice or break up the cheese into small chunks.
8. Crack the eggs into a small bowl, season, add a sprinkle of chilli flakes and beat with a fork. Remove the leaves from the sprigs of thyme and add to the bowl.
9. Return the pan with the onions and potatoes to the heat adding a little more oil if necessary. When hot, pour the beaten eggs over the other ingredients. Allow the eggs to begin to set and then reduce the heat a little and place chunks of the cheese evenly on top to melt into the tortilla.
10. You may like to cover with a lid at this stage to ensure the top sets or if using an oven proof pan place in the oven or grill for a crunchy golden brown topping or you may prefer the cheese to be gooey and melting...it's up to you.
11. Leave to cool down a little and then cut into wedges and serve with salad.

This is s substantial omelette. The potato and onions are sweet and the balsamic vinegar helps to cut the sweetness. The goats or blue cheese give a welcome salty sourness. I served this with peppery wild rocket (arugula) leaves and a radish and red onion salad. The two finely sliced give a crisp freshness when seasoned and dressed with lemon juice and a little oil. I wouldn't use a honey or maple syrup based dressing as this dish has enough sweetness and benefits from the sharp balance of the lemon juice. 

cooks tip: Any time that you are using the oven for about an hour, pop in a little parcel of foil or baking parchment with a whole head of garlic. Once cooked the cloves become much more mellow than raw garlic and you can keep them in the fridge for a couple of weeks. They are amazing for all sorts of things, like to add to soups or stews, mashed parsnips or potatoes, with sandwich spreads or when warm from the oven to simply spread over crusty bread...yummy...

I'm joining Tracey today for a recipe swap...wan't to come too?

Making Mushroom tart with walnut spelt pastry and Birgit's Stone Soup

My sister 'B' came to visit from East Sussex last Thursday evening. Staying over for a 'girlie' (I use the term loosely) day and a couple of nights while A was off on a course in London. The first evening, brother-in-law M treated us all to a delicious early anniversary supper by the river here before heading off home after dropping B off. 

The next day we  drove to Abingdon village  on the way spotting a plant stall in the District Nurse/KHS members' drive  and had to stop and fill up our baskets. We yarn shopped at Masons haberdashers (not the prettiest  website but  really helpful staff a great range of yarns, fabrics and all kinds of interesting crafty things)... B bought yarn for a crochet class she's running, and I bought a dress pattern.  We had green tea/coffee at Throwing Buns  named after an old local tradition and had to have toasted teacakes when we discovered they made them because they reminded us of mum. She would always have a pot of tea and a toasted teacake...Aunt D too, come to think of it.

Back home to forage for stone soup lunch and a rest to reserve our energy for a late night museum grand tour. It's really good fun you can go around the museum by torchlight bumping into shrunken heads and listening to live music. But we got too settled into talking and watching  a couple of episodes of The Edible Garden and the latest Sherlock Holmes film which was very exciting and I highly recommend watching, and decided to stay at home instead.

After supper of Mushroom Tart with Walnut Spelt Pastry,  and Sprouting Broccoli with salad leaves.

I used the Sharpham Park organic spelt flour and made the pastry with the recipe on the packet that you can link to the website for it here.  I adapted the filling omitting the cream, lemon and herbs but using four eggs and two egg yolks. I sauteed the shallots in olive and didn't add any extra butter, doubling the garlic cloves two four and used cheddar and not parmesan cheese...just because it was requested.  

I was a little concerned that the pastry may be very hard.  It is substantial but not too hard. This is a really tasty flan that is delicious hot or cold. I served it with steamed sprouting broccoli and spinach and watercress leaves with a simple balsamic vinegar/ honey/grainy Dijon mustard dressing.

B asked for the recipe so it must be good...!

I was sad to see her go as I dropped her at the train station next morning...just like I had H the week before but we've made exciting plans for the future... and I've got to drop her plants off soon...she couldn't manage to carry them back home...what with all that wool...

My favourite spicy weekend brunch. You can find a similar recipe here I just added mushrooms and little cherry tomatoes and omitted the spices, just keeping the chilli and garlic. I wanted to use this dish I got a couple of weeks ago for a copper at the KOA shop. It looks like the Berber one I have left from a trip to Turkey years ago, they all broke in the suitcase coming back, except one that I treasure. I wasn't quite sure if this one was meant to be used, or hung on the wall for decoration...it has a little hole/hook thing. I didn't want to poison anyone if it has toxic dye or anything in it, so I used grape leaves. I think they look really nice, I might do it more often!

Persian Style Eggs the way mama borzorg used to make

This is my absolute favourite photograph of mama, she's looking for pots and pans in her kitchen cupboard.

Mama used to make amazing herb omelettes, that were totally green with finely chopped herbs, called Kookoo-ye Sabzi. Delicious, but very time consuming to make. Cooking for other people was never too much trouble for mama, and one of the ways she demonstrated her love for you. It looked almost like a green cake, solid with a crunchy golden brown tinged exterior and warm soft herby center. Closer to a fritata or tortilla than traditional French style omelette.

My husband loves to make what he calls Persian onion omelette, he also makes a tomato version. I would consider it to be scrambled eggs with caramelised onions. I'm not sure if this is a true Persian dish, or a family derivative. (I'm not sure....I think that might be a maths word.....but I hope you know what I mean) Whichever it is, it's a really yummy way to cook eggs and the way we often make them for brunch at the weekend.

For two people you will need the following:

• 4 to 6 free range eggs depending on the size, and their appetite.
• One thinly sliced onion. I like the sweetness of red onions and they add colour to this dish.
• A little oil or butter for cooking.
• Fresh sea salt and crushed black pepper.

If like us, you like hot food, you could add a little fresh chilli for an added zing.

Method:

Simply fry the onions in oil or butter until caramelised in a frying or omelette pan.
Add the eggs, season and then mix to combine all the ingredients together in the pan.
Continue cooking until the eggs are done, making sure not to overcook them as they will continue cooking for a little while in the hot pan, and can quickly dry out.

Serve with fresh natural yoghurt, warm pitta bread, green leaves and salad onion...yum

I have lots of memories of big family breakfasts at mama and baba's house, with lots of relatives staying. Too many people to sit at the table. We would sit on the floor cross legged, with an enormous tablecloth, picnic style.This is the traditional Persian way to eat. With a big dish of eggs cooked this way, Persian goats cheese, with tomatoes, fresh cucumber, and massive dishes of fresh herbs that made the whole house smell like you were walking through a summer meadow; or a kind of chicken porridge called Haleem...that took a while for me to get my head around, but eventually ended up loving....Some people eat it with clotted cream or my darling 'A' likes it sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon and a spoonful of butter stirred in. I prefer it just as it comes but with a spoonful of butter...mmm all salty and tasty...


There are some distinctive unusual Persian omelettes ranging from one made with strained yoghurt, leeks, carrots, slivers of almonds and saffron, to a sweet one, Azarbaijan style made with sugar and saffron. I'm going to try to make some of them over the next few weeks.

Baked Eggs with Creamy Nutmeg and Spinach

I picked up a recipe card for Baked Eggs with Creamy Nutmeg and Spinach in Waitrose last week. I love both eggs and spinach, and this looked like one of those comfort nursery type recipes for a rainy day. We had one or two of those last week and so I raided the fridge to see if I could have a go at making it. I'm really glad that I did. It truly has a big comfort wow factor.....it reminded me of something I'd eaten somewhere in the past, but I couldn't quite place it. I kept getting flash backs of Paris, but not an exact memory. I think I must have had something similar in one of those little bistros there, that serve snacks like croque monsieur. It is a bit of a hastle to make because you have to cook the spinach first and then refresh it and bake the dish in a water bath. But it is really worth making if you feel like indulging yourself with a little homely pampering. When you push your fork into that creamy cheesy topping and the egg bursts and a little river of warm salty egg yolk runs out, it can rain all it likes.....although I even find something a little comforting about the sound of rain drumming on the kitchen window.
You can find the recipe here if you'd like to make it. I substituted the creme fraiche with low fat yoghurt because that's what was in the fridge and the cheddar with grated parmesan, and it worked really well. Oh and I couldn't find my nutmeg so didn't use any.

Not Quite Arnold Bennett Omelette

Arnold Bennett

'Tis very comforting to knowThat every other day or soA Book by Bennett will appearTo charm the Western Hemisphere.I see him now, with zeal sublime,Pounding from dawn to dinner-timeFour typewriters, with hands and feet.When the four novels are complete,He'll fold, and send à grande vitesseHis Quadrumanuscript to press.

I've been wanting to make Arnold Bennett eggs ever since I watched the lovely Miss Dahl make them in her beautiful, languid way. You can watch her make them too, on www. bbc.co.uk/food. There seems to be something rather indulgent about making a dish that was designed especially for a writer staying in the Savoy Hotel in London, whilst he penned a complete novel. I know that his contemporaries like Virginia Woolf considered him old-fashioned but I rather consider Virginia Woolf to be the old fashioned one, he was cool! He wasn't snobby and wrote about everyone. He noticed the little people. I just love his quote 'my mother is far too clever to understand anything she doesn't like.'

But getting back to his omelette, fish and eggs are not really ingredients that you may consider to be perfect partners. Yet there are a number of classic recipes that include both. For example Kedgeree, and Haddock with Poached egg. They're usually served as breakfast dishes. They do work, and I've enjoyed both in the past, usually in old-fashioned hotels when everyone else is enjoying a full-English breakfast.

I don't think that this is a dish that I could serve up for family supper....not to my family anyway. Eggs and fish. So I had to choose my moment to make it.......and you couldn't say that it was the authentic recipe. More a raid the fridge dish.

And so a couple of days ago when nobody was about....I had a go. There are lots of versions of this recipe. Some quite complicated with cream, butter and cornflour where you separate the eggs and whisk the whites so that they souffle up. Others that require you to make Bechamel and Hollandaise Sauce. I like Sopie Dahl's recipe because it's a much lighter, easier version. But even that I changed a little.

To make a substantial omelette for one person you will require;-
Three, beaten, free range organic eggs
A little creme fresh (I used yoghurt because that's what was in the fridge.)
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The zest of one lemon
A handful of chives
100g undyed haddock fillet pin boned but with the skin left on
100mls of milk
2 fresh bay leaves
8 to 10 Black Peppercorns

. Place the last four ingredients together in an ovenproof dish then cook for ten to twelve minutes in a preheated, oven at 200c. As I was using what was in the fridge I substituted with ready cooked smoked mackerel which worked fine.
. Meanwhile place the cream fraiche in a dish add the lemon zest, grated cheese and chopped chives.
. Remove the fish from the oven. Cool, then remove skin and flake.
. Put the butter and olive oil into an omelette pan making sure that it's ovenproof and begin to cook the eggs until the bottom is set but the top still runny. Fold in the creme fraiche mixture into this and then return to the oven for five minutes or so until the omelette is completely cooked through. Serve with green salad.

yummy lovely combination.........and I've just remembered, nobody refuses the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with bucks fizz on Christmas morning...

Granddad's Pinstripe suit and Eggs with Bread and Butter

Recently, I think it was when I was drinking champagne for breakfast on May Day morning with some family members........(believe me....that doesn't happen very often).......I'm not sure how it came up, but I suddenly remembered granddad's navy blue, pinstriped, three piece suit that I used to wear. I was going through my Annie Hall/Katharine Hepburn phase at the time and it looked really good with braces(suspenders), a white vintage collarless shirt and black base ball boots. Well I thought so! Fortunately for me, he was very slim because I was very slim too. Although Annie Hall style does allow for a little bagginess!

I always remember my paternal grandfather, 'grandad Boardman' wearing a suit, even when he'd retired. Grandad would go shopping for fresh bread from the bakery every day. He'd put on his handmade brogue shoes, that he'd polished so highly you could almost see your reflection in, don his overcoat and hat, and pick up the turkey bag that was a little straw bag that the butcher used to give away with the Turkey at Christmas. When he returned he'd take off his jacket and put on a cardigan and a butchers striped apron. His clothes reminded me of those worn by the character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird, one of my all time favourite films.......They were real grown-up men's clothes.

I used to love looking in his dressing table drawers, where he kept the silver watch that he wore on a chain in the pocket of his waistcoat, when not in use. I remember opening smooth, round leather boxes that contained hair brushes, a squirrel shaving brush and cuff links. It was all so neat and orderly, I just loved it.

A couple of weeks ago I found a receipt for a check Crombie overcoat that he'd bought in 1952 for £35. That must have been a months salary!! He always had beautiful clothes....which is probably why I wanted to borrow them!

I had another reminder of grandad when Caz who writes the fascinating bird with the golden seed blog (which you must check out on http://www.birdwiththegoldenseed.blogspot.com/ ) reminded me about a childhood recipe for Eggs with Bread and Butter she'd discovered in Tessa Kiros's beautiful Apples for Jam recipe book. I'd totally forgotten that's how grandad used to make them for us.

...Although it really is a children's recipe I just had to try it once more..........So I did, whilst nobody was looking just to see if it would still conjure up those childhood memories.....

Although I prefer home-made brown bread I had to use white bread to recreate the authentic flavours. That's what he would have used. It would have been milkroll bought from the bakers shop at the end of the road.

...I couldn't find milk roll so bought Warburton's Toasty because it comes from the North of England where I come from, and it has nice waxed paper packaging, not plastic.

....And butter, not margarine or soya alternative. Just good old high cholesterol salty butter....... Butter the bread and then cut it up into little girl sized pieces and put them in a cup.

Then you have to boil an egg for exactly two and a half minutes. Then simply crack the egg into the cup, season with a little sea salt and mix it all up.

I was a little girl in my grandparent's house all over again...........

ps don't tell any one.......