Celeriac & Potato Rosti

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Another Brunch Recipe

It appears that of late I'm writing a lot of brunch recipes. Maybe that seems more romantic than calling them light dinners for one - which is what they are!

So celeriac is a pretty ugly vegetable, maybe that's why I have never cooked with it much. Generally it's treated in a similar manner to a potato. That's where the idea came for combining the two in a lovely rosti.

I won't lie this fell apart slightly when I flipped it over - still tastes great and works really nicely with the poached egg and baby rocket from my balcony.

Ingredients - Serves 1

1/4 of a head of celeriac - outer skin removed and grated

2 small potatoes - grated

Pinch of thyme finely chopped

1 egg yolk

To Serve

baby spinach or rocket

1 poached egg

Method

Pop the grated potato and celeriac into a clean tea towel. Push it all into the centre and then cover with the teatowel. Give it a really good squeeze to push out the excess moisture. Put into a large bowl add the thyme, egg yolk and seasoning. Mix thoroughly.

Heat a small amount of olive oil over a medium heat in a non stick pan. Spoon the mixture onto the pan into whatever size you want. I think mine were however too large, making it harder to flip over. You want to keep them pretty thin so that they'll cook right through. Press down firmly with a spatula. Give them about 3-4 mins on each side until a rich golden brown.

Serve with a poached egg sitting on top of some fresh baby rocket or spinach. My secret to perfect poached eggs (well I'd say good not perfect) First really fresh eggs. Secondly when your water reaches a good strong boil, twirl the water in the pan to create a mini vortex. Pull the pan off the heat. Then gently slide the egg into the spinning water from a cup. The movement of the water will keep the egg white together in a natural shape and will stop it from spreading out and getting thin. Always drain the egg well on kitchen towel to avoid soggy bread/rosti.

Enjoy

Rhubarb & Ginger Compote, with Honey Pecan Granola & Strawberry Yogurt Pots

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Dashing Dessert Breakfast

Looking for a breakfast that tastes as good as a dessert. That packs a nutritional punch, with some great healthy fats and a good whack of protein and calcium. Then look not further. If all that nutritional waffle has put you off - do not be deterred! These are super yummy, pretty snacks that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

Granola is an old favorite of mine - perfect start to the day with fruit and yogurt. I have three recipes here, here and here. To this one I added a good handful of crushed pecan nuts, desiccated coconut, a tablespoon of vegetable oil and a tablespoon of honey


Returning shame faced after a run in the park I tucked into one of these. Some lovely army men were doing maneuvers in the park. They promptly all sprinted passed me, they were however in full gear and carrying huge backpacks. Ah well - what can you do. I was carrying a set of keys!

Ingredients - Makes 6 portions
Rhubarb Compote
4 stems of rhubarb - cut into 3cm chunks
3cm of fresh ginger grated finely
1 tablespoon of brown sugar


750 ml of yogurt - I used Glenisk
1 punnet of strawberries
1 jar of granola (links for recipe above)


Pre-heat oven to 150c


Method
To make the compote mix together the rhubarb, ginger and sugar in a small oven proof dish. Cover and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft. Allow to cool.


Get glass ramekins, wineglasses or any small containers you have that are made of glass. Cut strawberries length ways in 1/4 cm slices. Push them up against the side of the glass to show the cut side out. Then layer in alternate layers of yogurt, compote and granola. Finish with a layer of granola.


Serve and enjoy. There are lots of alternative fruits you cold use such as blackberries, apple, mango or raspberries. Feel free to use other flavored yogurt, or make your own by stirring the compote through a whole pot of yogurt.

Chorizo and Waffle Hash

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Chorizo & Potato Waffle Hash

So the first post we ever made was the Waffle Omelette. At the time I wasn’t sure about having a blog, but decided to give it a try. I posted up the waffle omelette and then emailed the blog to Lola - and the rest is history, since then I’ve mostly posted my more serious recipes and pretended I never ate convenience foods. I do love potato waffles though - and have a box in the freezer for food emergencies- actually who am I lying to here - they’re there for hangover emergencies!

We made this the morning / afternoon after our dinner party and LOVED it, in the way you can only love food the morning after the night before.

Picture doesn't do this justice!

Serves 2
6 pieces of chorizo
1 onion
some garlic crushed
some red and yellow pepper - diced
Fresh thyme
fresh parsley
6 Birdseye potato waffles
2 eggs

Fry the  onion over a med/high heat along with the chorizo, after 2 mins throw in the garlic - cook for another two mins or so and then add in the thyme and peppers. While you’re doing this you can grill the waffles (it’s the only way for me!) Then in a separate pan- fry up two eggs as you like them (both our yokes cracked - but we weren’t prepared to start again.

When your waffles are crispy and golden brown - break them up - add to the chorizo and onion mixture - pile onto two plates top with a fried egg and a generous sprinkling of black pepper - and you‘re good to catch the re-run of x-factor.

Hash is an American invention - yes? Invented by cowboys I believe!

Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

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Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

This is a traditional english breakfast dish but I just ate it for dinner and it hit the spot nicely! There is no need to be pedantic about what time of day things should be eaten, I always think!

You can make this with any smoked fish but if its raw fish make sure to poach it in milk for 8-10 mins previous to adding it in to the rice.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 smoked mackerel fillets

2 eggs

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger

1 yellow or red pepper

1 red chili

1 teaspoon garam marsala

1 teaspoon curry powder

160gr basmati rice (I used wholemeal/brown basmati, but you could use white just as well)

1 bunch fresh coriander or dill

begin by washing the rice thoroughly

Then boil it according to the cooking instructions on the pack. Wash the eggs, then, using the tip of a very sharp knife, drill a small hole in the end of each egg. This will stop them cracking when you drop them into boiling water. When there is 10 minutes left to go on the rice, add the eggs in their shells to the rice and cook the rice and eggs together (just handier this way!).

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely, and grate the ginger. Saute everything in a frying pan until the onion is soft and transluscent. the add the spices and the chopped pepper.

When the rice is cooked, remove the eggs and set aside. Add the drained rice to the frying pan with the onion etc in. Stir well. Flake the mackerel fillets into chunks and remove the skin. Add this to the rice mixture and stir well.

To serve, peel the shells off the eggs, cut them in half and put them on the plate as a garnish to the kedgeree. Chop the coriander of dill and sprinkle this over just before serving.

Yet another breakfast/brunch treat! We must have a brunch party soon to try out all these recipes on real people!

Huevos Rancheros

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Viva Mexico!

Apparently Mexico are doing pretty well in the World Cup right now... I have managed to not watch a single match so far... oops!

I figure most Irish people are behind Mexico, what with the green strips and beating France 2-0 an all... Also on this blog we seem to have developed a serious liking for Mexican food. So I decided to whip up some Huevos Rancheros this sunny Saturday morning. Perfect for brunch! They went down a treat and made us love Mexico even more, I'm now even contemplating a visit!

Serves 1 hungry person, or two not so hungry people. All quantities can be doubled or tripled depending on how many eggs you want for brekkie!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 a red chili

1 small red onion

2 cloves garlic

2 flour tortillas

Start by making the tomato sauce. Chop the onions, garlic and chili (take out the seeds if you don't want it too hot!) and saute in some olive oil in a frying pan until the onions are soft and translucent. Then add the tin of tomatoes and stir everything together. Simmer for about 10 mins or until the sauce 'comes together'.

Push the sauce to one side of the pan and add a bit of olive oil to the exposed pan. break the eggs into this oil and fry them. Meanwhile, in another frying pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and heat up the tortillas, one at a time for 30 seconds on each side. When they are done and browned transfer them to a plate. by this time your eggs should be nearly done. Leave them sunny side up, even if, like me, you usually don't eat them like that. Place them on top of the tortillas and then top the eggs, covering the yolks with the hot sauce. This will cook the tops of the eggs.

Serve topped with some grated cheese if you like, or some pinto beans, or, like I did, a bit of avocado.

Muchos Yummios (sorry!)

Deep Fill Leek, potato & Bacon Omlette

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Lest I forget (completely) 

My photo archives show me some very tasty dishes I have cooked over the last year - but due to circumstances they never reached the pages of this blog in sufficient time - and I've forgotten how exactly how I made them, I have a good idea though. So no longer will these photos lie on my hard-drive unloved and unseen - the will be released onto the pages of our blog - and if anybody wants further details - just ask - and I'll do my best to remember!

Not a recipe

I guess I mandolin-ed  a few spuds – chopped some leek – cooked the leek in some butter with thyme and garlic – then added the spuds and cooked until they were soft. Then when this was all soft and golden and delicious – I whisked up some eggs with a little milk and seasoning  - then I chucked these over the leek and suds allowed to cook on the heat for a while. I probably then grated some cheese on top – then banged it under a hot grill which made it go all puffy and crisped the top,

Then I dressed some rocket leaves with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and shaved some parmesan and tomatoes. There appears to be some bacon in there too – that would have been fried up just before adding in the leeks I guess.There may well have been some chives in there  - or parsely

The one thing I remember for sure was – that is was delicious. Oh yes! It would have been a shame to let this recipe slide past just cause I’m forgetful

Pork and Chorizo Hash

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Triple Pork Breakfast

Well it's not a fry - which is the traditional way of eating three types of pork first thing in the morning, I guess we could bill this as slightly healthier alternative, just! 

Ingredients

Serves 6

1 large white onion - Roughly diced
4 streaky rashers - thinly sliced
Fresh thyme
3 inches of chorizo - cubed finely
Left over pork - diced
1 red pepper - cubed
1 green pepper - cubed
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
4 large potatoes - cubes and cooked
3 cloves of garlic - finely sliced
left over corn

eggs for frying should you so desire!

In a hot pan - fry up your rashers some olive for a few minutes, then add in chorizo, cook until your rashers and chorizo are both a little crispy. Drain and put aside. Fry onion in a little of the oil left in the pan - which should have a nice red colour from chorizo. After two minutes add in the garlic, then fry until the onion is starting to turn transparent. Then add in your peppers and thyme, cook for another few minutes until they start to go tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients - and allow to re-heat. Gently turn the mixture every so often to ensure it all gets heated through properly. I like to allow it to stick to the pan a little producing nice little caramelised parts (others may call this burnt - I call it yummy!)

We served this with a fried egg on top - and some freshly chopped chives, and a nice apple chutney on the side. This is a great brunch/lunch/supper dish, really filling and satisfying. You could use any kind of left over pork, ham or chicken or corned beef, as well as combining with any left over cooked veg that you have.

This used up the leftover pork that the lovely Bord Bia sent us, Lola made it into the delicious Roast French Rack of Pork with Apple and Prune Stuffing  My mum used to make bubble and squeak - any recipes for that would be greatly appreciated!

Apple Filo tarts

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Sunday paper-thin treats

I had a yen to make Parisian apple tartlets like these, but unfortunately, once again I couldn't find any ready made puff pasty in the whole of the Dublin 7 area (ok, I tried 3 shops and gave up). You may remember that we had a similar problem back in August when we were making the Beef and Guiness pie, and I actually had to go to effort of making my own! It turned out ok, but as all my tv cooking heroes (Nigel, Nigela, and Jamie) say, its not worth making your own puff, as the bought stuff is always going to be better. Anyway, Its a Sunday afternoon, and the less palaver involved the better.

Once again to the rescue came our local middle eastern shop Alauras. It stocks frozen filo, which can be used to make baklava (I will have to try it one of these days) and Lucy's famous home made jambons, (another improvised recipe which called for puff pastry but had to settle for filo) Using frozen ready made pastry means that these tarts are so quick and easy to make, and if you actually use puff pastry then you don't have to bother with all the brushing of melted butter. Just pop the sugar and apple on top of the pastry, and bake!

On reflection, I think I would actually prefer the filo version. These tarts were crunchy, melty, delicious. Perfect with a cup of coffee and the Sunday papers!

Ingredients:

Frozen filo pastry, defrosted

4 oz butter

1 large apple (2 small) such as coxs or braeburn

2 oz brown sugar

ground cinnamon

Start by melting half of the butter in a pan. Brush 6 individual tartlet cases with some of the butter. (If you don't have cases, you can just layer the pastry up in tart-sized squares on a buttered baking tray. This is what you would do if you were using puff pastry, too)

Layer the pastry, one sheet a a time into the cases, brushing each of the pastry sheets with the melted butter as you go. There should be 5 or 6 layers of pastry in each tart. Press the pastry in to the tins and leave the excess corners sticking out (I think they look lovely like that). Brush the top layer of pastry all over with the butter. Sprinkle some of the brown sugar into each of the buttered pastry cases.

Peel and core the apple, cut into quarters and slice very thinly. Arrange the apple slices in a fan shape in each of the pastry cases, and sprinkle with the remaining brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on each. Cut the remaining butter into tiny cubes and sprinkle these over the apple and sugar.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at about 180c. You want the apple to be cooked and tender, the sugar melted, but the pastry not over cooked or burned.

Leek and Bacon Crepes

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Crêpes avec Poireaux et Lardon It was the weekend of the brunch. We started on Saturday with a place I would like to nominate for 'Best BLT' in Dublin, The News Cafe in Blackrock. They also do a great fry - with their own recipe flat sausage - nice.

Then it was onto these for Sunday brunch. I ate the best crepe ever in Roscoff while waiting for the ferry. They were divine and a very fitting end to the two week eating and cooking binge that was my summer holiday. I wrote a little about them here.This is my attempt to re-create them - hampered only by my lack of a drop of white wine for the sauce. We cheated and bought pre-made pancakes - I will blog the recipe for pancakes - pancake Tuesday special perhaps.

The photos come courtesy of Delo - you can see more of his photos here. Be warned there are many, many , many photos of bicycles!

Ingredients
Serves 2
4 pancakes
3 leeks - sliced in 2cm slices
Lardons (or rashers sliced in strips)
4 slices of Provolone Cheese (or similar mild cheese)
2 tablespoons of cream
Butter!
Salt and Pepper

Cook the some butter over a medium heat for about 3-4 mins then lash in the lardons and continue to cook until your bacon is nice and crispy and the leeks are bright green - with nice little orangey brown edges yum. I once said my favourite colour is the inside of a leek - LOVE it - then eat it - that's what I say, except horses - don't eat horses, bad French people, but I love your pancakes.

Ramble sorry. Then add in the cream, season and bring up to a gentle simmer to thicken. In a clean frying pan - flick in a nob of butter, until it melts. Then pop in your pancake. Place a big spoonful of your mixture into the centre. Push it out to be a little smaller than a postcard. Top this with some cheese. Fold over the edgesTo make a nice little parcel - and serve. This orange is nice - fancy fanta!

Breakfast in France

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Le Petit Dejeuner Galette

I didn't make this so maybe I shouldn't blog it, but it was a wonderful start to the day, delivered to me on a plate - I love holidays, thanks Delo.We ate a number of crepes and galettes while we were away, crepes are sweet, while galettes are savory and made with buckwheat flour. We bought these pre-made ones from the supermarket to play with back at the van. Often a galette comes with an egg on, the white quickly finds it way through the holes in the pancake and cooks while the yoke stay all gooey. Inside hidden away from sight are some nice little lardons (batons of bacon - see detail photo!) and some melty emmental. A grind of black pepper and a coffee and you're done.Also specialities in Brittany are creme de caramel au beurre salle, which is creme caramel made with salted butter, served on crepes with cooked apples or bananas and chantilly. There's always the classic lemon and sugar.

The best galletes we ate were in Roscoff and were just too delicious to photograph! Bacon with leeks fondue, the other had scallops with gratin vegetables, both were bursting with flavour and showed what a wide range of tastes and ingredients these little galletes can handle.... now I regret not taking a photo ah well, sometimes the moment is just too good to spoil

French Toast

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Breakfast of champions

Yes, I did feel like a treat this morning, and why not? Its sunday, and as an alternative to a big greasy fry, I decided that french toast with bacon was the order of the day. In my defence, I used honey instead of syrup... (like it makes a difference). This is a rare treat that is worth every single calorie.

Serves 2

4 thick slices crusty bread

2 eggs

6 sliced sreaky bacon

Honey, maple, or golden syrup

Beat the eggs in a shallow dish and season with a bit of salt & pepper. Coat the bread slices in the egg and fry in hot butter on both sides until golden brown. Meanwhile, grill the bacon until its crisp. Serve the whole thing drizzled with syrup or honey, and accompanied by milky coffee and the sunday papers. Heaven!

Banana and Pecan Bran Muffins

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Breakfast of Champions

Lucy bought me these coloured silicone muffin cases for my birthday, so I decided to test them out! This is the best muffin recipe ever: really easy and you don't need to many rich ingredients. There is no butter in them so they are cheap, too. You can substitute the banana and pecan for whatever takes your fancy. I have done marzipan and cherry, apple and cinnamon, blueberry, chocolate buttons, etc etc etc. In may we did carrot cake muffins with lovely cream cheese icing, its all the same basic recipe. However, these were particularly good for breakfast.

190 g Self Raising flour
150 g Sugar
pinch salt tsp
baking powder
80ml Vegetable oil
1 egg
80 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 ripe Banana

1 handfull pecan nuts

1 double handfull of bran or wheatgerm

for icing

1 cup icing sugar

tbsp water

(I know the measurements are a bit mad, but don't worry, it doesn't need to be exact)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the banana, mushed a bit and broken into little bits. add all the wet ingredients. stir until everything is mixed in. Voila!

Seriously, thats it!

Preheat oven to gas 6, about 250 degrees. Line a muffin/bun tray with paper cases (i'm using the lovely new silicone ones here), spoon in the mixture until its about 3/4 of the way filling each case. bake for 15-20 mins or until nice and golden.

Mix a tiny amount of water into the icing sugar, and when the muffins are cold, drizzle the icing over them.

Clonakilty Black Pudding with Apple & Sherry sauce served on a potatoe & chive cake

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Black Pudding - not just for breakfast

My long lost brother was returning to Ireland from France to celebrate his 30th birthday and I wanted to welcome him home with an Irish feast – so what better way to welcome him home than with some delicious Clonakilty black pudding starter and bacon and cabbage (which was a disaster)

Black pudding – Boudin Noir en Francais – was the source of our first swear word – ‘ca-ca boudin noir’ – which means ‘poo poo black pudding’. This gave us a laugh when me and Marty were little children living in Toulouse. I’ve been wanting to combine some black pudding with a nice apple sauce for a while as I’ve seen it on lots of menus out and about – you could also serve it as a nice brunch, lunch or light supper – Black pudding – not just for breakfast!

One last thing – a small word on black pudding – Clonakilty black pudding is made with the same ingredients – but with that addition of some whole grains, giving it a nutty texture unlike the other more pate types – Shaws of Limerick are also producing a nice version of it - if you
can’t get either of these I just wouldn’t bother – others may beg to differ – but that’s just me!

Serves 4

3 large potatoes – boiled (or left over mashed potato)
1 egg
A nob of butter
Another nob of butter
I teaspoon grainy mustard
A splosh of milk
8 rings of black pudding sliced 1.5cm thick
2 cooking apples – chopped into 1cm cubes
I small onion very finely chopped
2 servingspoons of sherry
1 teaspoon demerara sugar
bunch of chives – 20 stems or so – chopped with scissors is handy

While you are boiling your potatoes (you could also used some left over mashed potato) Fry up the onion in some oil or butter till translucent – turn up the heat and throw in the brown sugar – allowing the onion to brown at the edges, don’t burn. Then when a nice colour is achieved add in the sherry, stir. Then add in the apple and stir to coat – then turn down and allow to simmer gently – it will be a pretty thick mixture so use a non-stick pan.

Make your mash potato with a bit of butter, milk and salt and pepper. Mix in your snipped chives and mustard. Then crack your egg into the centre and mix well –season.

Then pop your black pudding under the grill – turning carefully as it gets pretty crumbly. Allow to brown gently on each side.

Heat a large frying pan and add a nob of butter, drop a servingspoon of potato mixture into the pan – then spread out a little so that it’s about 1-2cms thick – however you’d like them – when brown and crispy turn over. You may need to do this in two batches- pop on plate and put under the cooking pudding to keep warm.

Place your black pudding on top of your cakes and top with a dollop of the apple sauce – add a good grind of thick black pepper and a glass of Guinness and you’re done - welcome home Marty - we missed you Yum

Homemade Jambons

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Imagine it's your birthday and you're woken with presents, coffee and homemade jambons - wouldn't that be great I hear you say, why yes that's what I thought.

I love jambons - little greasypastriesfromthedelicounterofSpar - they're my hangover treat, and I've been looking for an excuse to re-create them at home.

Thy would have been perfect except I bought the wrong kind of pastry - they still worked out pretty delicious

1 piece of Fontina cheese - grated
2oz Butter
Milk
Plain flour - maybe 2oz or so
Puff pastry (not filo pastry that I bought - oops)
Lardons (bacon/ham whatever you fancy)
1/2 teaspoon of English mustard

Grease a baking tray, and pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6.

Melt the butter over a med heat and sprinkle in some plain flour - enough to turn it into a paste. Then gradually add in a little milk stirring all the time to avoid getting lumps, gradually add the milk until you get a smooth thick sauce. Then add in the grated cheese keep stirring until all the cheese has melted. stir in some salt and pepper and the mustard. Bear in mind you want to keep this pretty thick - if it's too thick just add a dash of milk.

Fry up or grill your bacon and chop into little pieces.


Cut your pastry into 4 inch square pieces, put a heaped serving spoon of the cheese mixture into the centre of each square, and sprinkle on some bacon. Pinch the corners together to form a little rim around the edge.

Brush the pastry with a little mixed egg, and pop into the oven for 15-20 mins - till golden brown and bubbly.Pictured above is the vegetarian option - no bacon just a sprig of parsley

Allow to cool slightly - then devour - yum!

So yes - I did use the wrong pastry - so imagine like mine but puffier - yeah - ok? Great

Waffle Omlettte

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Waffle Omelet

No potatoes in your kitchen - hankering for a Spanish omelet? just replace your potatoes with cut up sections of potato waffles and you're set

Yum Yum