Eggy Crumpets

2 large eggs
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped
6 rashers of good quality smoked bacon
Olive oil
4 round crumpets
Brown sauce or maple syrup to serve

Whisk the eggs together with some salt and pepper and most of the chopped chilli. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and fry the bacon in a tiny amount of olive oil. Meanwhile, really push the crumpets into the egg mixture, turn them over a few times so they can soak it all up like a sponge. When the bacon is done, push it to one side and tilt the pan so the fat runs into the middle. Add the crumpets to the pan and fry for a few minutes till golden, turn over and fry on the other side.
Serve topped with the bacon and some brown sauce or maple syrup. You can also sprinkle over the extra chilli pepper if you want to.

I made these, and then made them again right away because my husband missed them the first time around. They are so simple and easy and good and satisfying. They don’t take any longer then frying an egg, so they are way up there with the fastest of breakfast foods, and the chilli gives a great little kick to get you waking up in the morning.

The recipe says to serve it with either brown sauce or maple syrup, I went with the syrup because I can’t pass up an opportunity to eat bacon with syrup. Good stuff.

If you are not in the UK, then you probably can’t get crumpets. I would think you could do a similar thing with English Muffins (which by the way are American and not English). It won’t be the same because it won’t have the substantial heft and fabulous chewiness that a crumpet has, but it does have the nooks and crannies that are similar to the holes in the crumpet for soaking stuff up. It’s worth a shot.

This is from the new Jamie book…Jamie at Home. It’s new, it’s Jamie Oliver, what can I possibly say, except that I love it so very much already. There will be much Jamie cooking in the next few weeks. Buy this book, buy all of his books, he rocks!

Baked Egg Cups

I made Cookbad’s Baked egg cups . the other day...



They have been on the blog before, and I have eaten them before, but this is the first time I have made them. I’m not much of a breakfast maker, but I have guests at the moment who are big fans of a morning meal, and I’ve been meaning to learn more about it anyway, so this was my jumping off point.

These were really easy to make, and the cool thing is that you can get them totally ready the night before, and then just cover the muffin tin and leave it in the fridge overnight. Doing it that way saves you all the effort in the morning. You could scramble an egg in much less time then it takes to preheat your oven and put these in, but you would have to have an active part in scrambling an egg. For this you just wake up, turn on your oven, brush your teeth and then pop the tray in, and like magic you have beautiful little tasty fun breakfast cups of goodness.

I will definitely do this again.

One thing, mine had to go in for an extra five minutes, I think it has to do with the British bacon rashers being bigger then American Bacon. Check them in ten, but be ready for fifteen.

Perfect Roast Potatoes

Choose a floury variety of potato, such as a maris piper, Cara, or King Edward, and cut fairly small, egg size, if you like. Parboil in gently boiling salted water for 8 minutes – stop before the potatoes are cooked right through. Drain and leave to cool completely, then scratch roughly with a fork and season with a little fine salt.
Only roast the potatoes around the joint if there is plenty of fat in the tin – at least 5mm – and plenty of room. Better to preheat the oil (goose fat or lard if you have them, sunflower or groundnut oil if you don’t) in a separate tin, adding any fat from the roasting tin just before the spuds go in. Do not add the potatoes till the oil is sizzling hot. Baste or turn them carefully as soon as they go in the tin so that they are lightly coated with oil from the start.
Roast for the last 45 min of your joints cooking time, turning at least once. If they look as if they could use a bit more browning/crisping, leave them in after the joint has come out to rest and whack up the heat (for the Yorkshire puddings). Drain well and keep in a warm oven, uncovered and not too piled on top of each other. Season again with salt and pepper before serving.


So as it turns out, there are only 2 secrets to making the perfect roast potatoes. The first, is fuzzing up the outside. This recipe has you actually scratch them with a fork, others that I have seen have you bang them around in a pot till the edges get messed up a bit. The important thing is that the surface area be increased and made ragged, because that allows for maximum crispiness.
The second secret is, unfortunately, cooking them in goose fat. I hoped this was not the case, and I tried doing the same thing, but with oil instead. I have to admit, the goose fat potatoes wiped the floor with the healthier oil roasted ones. I’m not saying you should use goose fat in cooking all the time, but you gotta try it at least once, just to see the difference.
I got this recipe from The River Cottage Meat Book. Great book, great recipe, great potatoes.

Tortilla Soup

1 large onion, cut into chunks
3 large tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, peeled
4tbsp olive oil
1 litre/1&3/4 pints chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6x1day old tortillas
Oil for shallow frying
2 fresh red or green chillies, seeded and chopped
To Serve:
Chopped avocado
Sour cream
Lime wedges

Put the onion chunks, tomatoes, and garlic cloves in a baking dish and roast in a preheated oven at 180/350 for 15-20 min, until the vegetables are soft and the tomato skins are beginning to look black and charred. Skin the tomatoes and puree with onions and garlic in a blender or food processor.
Heat 2 tbsp of the oil and sauté the puree mixture for a few minutes. Simmer until it is thick and reduced. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, season with salt and pepper and simmer, covered for 15-20 minutes.
Cut the tortillas into thin strips and shallow fry in some oil until golden brown. Drain on some absorbent kitchen paper and then add to the soup. Simmer gently for a further 5 min.
Fry the chillies in the remaining oil in a small frying pan until crisp. Serve the soup garnished with the fried chilli, some of the chopped avocado, sour cream and lime wedges.

This was from a book called Essential Mexican Cookery . This is a good basic beginner book for Mexican cooking. The recipes don’t call for any ingredients that are terribly hard to find, and I get the feeling that it is more of an overview of Mexican cooking. If you’ve never tried Mexican cooking before, this book is definitely non-threatening. Also, I have really enjoyed the dishes I’ve made from it. I don’t know if they are the most authentic or not, but they have been consistently tasty.

This soup was lovely. The crispy bits of tortilla soak up all the soup and make it feel really hearty, and the roasting of the vegetables gives it a wonderful depth of flavor. I totally loved this. I had tortilla soup in a restaurant once and it was more of a clear broth type soup, where as this is more of a thick hearty one. I think both work for me.

Treacle Sponge

oops...



29/08 - 2655
3tbsp golden syrup, plus 3-4 extra to serve
175g self raising flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
175g very soft butter
3 large eggs
175g soft light brown sugar
1tbsp black treacle

Butter a 1.2 litre pudding basin well. Cut a double thickness of kitchen foil measuring approximately 30x40 cm.
Grease a tbsp and measure the 3tbsp golden syrup into the pudding basin.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and add the soft butter, eggs, sugar, and black treacle. Using an electric hand whisk, beat the mixture for about 2 min or until it has thoroughly blended. Spoon the mixture into the basin and use the back of a spoon to level the top.
Cover the basin with the foil, making a pleat in the center. Pull the foil down the outside of the basin and tie in place around the rim with string, taking the string over the top and tying it on the other side to make a handle for easy lifting. Trim off the excess foil all the way around.
Place the pudding in a steamer fitted over the saucepan of boiling water and steam the pudding for 2 hours, checking the water level half way through.
To serve, loosen the pudding all around using a palette knife, invert it onto a warmed plate, and pour the extra syrup over the top before taking it to the table. Serve with custard or ice cream.

This was my first attempt at a real traditional pudding (I tried a sort of modern specialty one before). As you can see from the picture, it gave me a bit of trouble.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with British puddings (sponges), they are cakes, but instead of being baked, they are steamed. They make special bowls for steaming them (pudding basins), they look like Tupperware, just a bowl with a fitted lid. One very important tip is that you cannot put your pudding basin in the dishwasher. They all say they are dishwasher safe, but still, they will warp just enough that, though you won’t see a difference, the lid won’t fit anymore.

Making this was no problem at all. The trouble for me, is my lack of proficiency with the lids, and my inability to remove a cake from a tin without damaging it. With regular cakes I use baking paper and spring-form pans to compensate, but with the pudding basin, I just had to butcher the cake a little taking it out. I did butter it very thoroughly, but I think I was a bit hesitant and sloppy with the palette knife. As for the lid, It was actually fine, I just wasn’t sure it would be. I didn’t make a handle with string, I just took it out of the pot with pot holders.

Next time (because there will be a next time), I will make the handle, I will be confident about the lid, and I will be strong and efficient with the palette knife. I believe that after having this as a test run, it would not be too hard to work out the kinks and become a great pudding maker.

This was really tasty, though a bit over the top sweet. It tasted better then it looked.

Chinese Chicken in the pot

1 chicken
5 star anise
450ml/3/4 pint water

Seasoning:
225ml dark soy sauce
225ml rice wine, or dry sherry
150g rock sugar, or 75g Demerara sugar

Using a cleaver or meat axe, chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl.

Blend the seasoning ingredients to make a rich marinade and pour 10 tbsp over the chicken. Marinate for 1 hour.
Place the chicken in it’s marinade in a large flame-proof casserole with the star anise, water and the remaining marinade. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer gently for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken is tender.

This is similar to the Pork Belly Hot Pot recipe that I made awhile back, but with a much shorter cooking time. I preferred the pork, but this is a good compromise if you don’t have all day to cook.

Chicken with sesame oil and honey

1 chicken (about 1.4kg)
2tbsp veg oil
125ml water
2 tbsp sesame oil
Seasoning:
4tbsp light soy sauce
3tbsp clear honey
1tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt

Using a cleaver or meat axe, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Mix the seasoning ingredients and add the chicken, marinate for 1 hour.
Drain the chicken reserving the marinade. Heat the oil in a wok and add the chicken pieces. Stir fry over a medium heat till the chicken begins to brown. Add the water and bring to a boil. Stir in the reserved marinade and the sesame oil and simmer gently for 40 minutes.


I marinated it for 2 hours, because my timing worked out that way, and that was fine. Also, I don’t have a meat cleaver, so what I did was use a decent knife to cut part way through the chicken pieces, down to the bone, then I held the knife still and whacked the back of it with a rolling pin to cut through the bones. This worked, though not as well as a meat cleaver would have, and it did do some damage to my rolling pin (but didn’t render it useless, so I kept on with it anyway). If you have fabulous knives that you love, I wouldn’t try this trick, as I imaging it’s pretty tough on the knife. Still, it did what I needed it too.

This recipe was dead easy to make, and really tasty. It’s not overwhelmingly flavored like what you get at a Chinese take away place, it’s much more subtle. I plan to make a noodle stir fry with the left over chicken and sauce.

Good stuff.

Abalone Mushrooms and green vegetables in oyster sauce

3-4 green stemmed flat cabbages (Bok Choy)
275g abalone mushrooms
4tbsp corn oil
125ml clear soup stock
1tbsp cornflour, mixed with 1&1/2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Seasoning:
1tsp salt
1tbsp oyster sauce
1&1/2 tbsp sugar

Clean the cabbages and cut them in half. Cut off and discard the stems from the mushrooms. Wash and slice into large pieces.
Blanch the cabbage and the mushrooms separately in boiling salted water for 1 min. Drain and plunge into clod water. Leave to cool, then drain again.
Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the cabbage and mushrooms. Add the seasoning and the soup stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce. Just before serving, stir in the sesame oil.

I used a mix of straw mushrooms, and abalone mushrooms. This is just a veg side dish, but it’s a really tasty one. I’m a huge fan of Bok Choy, and I love mushrooms too, so this is going to come in handy.

Stewed Beef with carrots

700g braising beef
2-3 carrots
1 piece of dried orange peel, soaked
1 spring onion, chopped
1tbsp grated fresh root ginger
2 star anise
450ml water
Seasoning
3tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1tbsp rice wine or dry sherry

Cut the beef into 2 inch cubes. Place in boiling water and scald for 1 minute, then remove with a slotted spoon and rinse again.
Peel the carrots and cut them into chunks. Drain and rinse the dried orange peel.
Place all of the ingredients, including the seasoning ingredients, in a saucepan with the water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the meat is tender. Add more water if necessary while the meat is cooking.

Oh my god, yuck. I’m sorry, but yuck. As it turns out, I really don’t like things that are cooked with dried orange peel. It is just a matter of taste, I’m sure plenty of people would find it good, I am just not one of them. It wasn’t inedible, and I could tell that it was meant to taste that way, but this is the second time I have tried a dish that had dried orange peel and twice I have hated it.

I like marmalade, but I think I will stick to that alone for my orange peel intake.

Aubergine Box

2 medium Aubergines, peeled unless you have found very beautiful ones
For the stuffing:
300g minced pork
2 spring onions, washed, cut into strips, then finely chopped
2.5tso finely chopped ginger
1tsp rice wine
3 pinches of sea salt
1dssp light soy sauce
1dssp cornflour
1 egg white
Seasoning:
Light soy sauce
Chinese cooking rice wine
White caster sugar
Warm water from the kettle
1 spring onion, washed and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

First make the stuffing. Mix the pork, 2 of the chopped spring onions, and the chopped ginger together very thoroughly in a bowl. Add the following ingredients, one by one: Rice wine, sea salt, soy sauce, cornflour. Next add the egg white and mix again thoroughly.

Peel the eggplants. Begin to cut a circular slice about 1/4 inch thick, but don’t slice all the way through. Next, make another round slice about 1/4 inch thick, but do slice all the way through. Now you have a half inch slice, that opens up, but is still held together on one end. Do this with all of the Aubergine. Put a heaped tsp of stuffing into each “box”, flattening the mixture evenly like butter. Close the box, and put them on a plate, ready for cooking.
Turn the heat up to high, and heat the wok till it’s hot. Add 2tbsp oil and turn the heat down to medium high. When the oil is hot, add the aubergine boxes, as many as will fit in one layer. After 1-2 minutes the boxes should be brown and toasted on the bottom. Remove from the wok and add 2 more tbsp oil. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side, till brown and soft. Cook them all this way, one layer at a time. Then turn the heat to low, and put all the aubergines back in the wok. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and 2tbsp warm water from the kettle. Allow the ingredients to simmer on a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Add the remaining spring onion, and the garlic and continue to simmer. Add one more Tbsp water and cover the wok with a lid and simmer for 2 more minutes.


These were actually incredibly easy to make. The cutting and stuffing was no problem at all, and I made them a bit in advance and left them in the fridge till I needed them. That was also no problem. I only did it about an hour before cooking them, but in the future I would feel confident assembling them in the morning and cooking them in the evening if need be. The cooking took very little time start to finish. I had to start with two batches, but they all fit into one pan for the final stages of cooking.

I cannot say enough good things about these, they were wonderful. The flavor and the texture all came out perfect. I saw another version of this recipe in another book, where they made these, and then dipped them in batter and deep fried them. I may try that too someday, but I don’t know, it would be hard to pass up a chance to make them this way. I will make these again and again.

I got this recipe from an odd book. It is a memoir called Music, Food and Love. It’s this man’s story about growing up in China, and being a musician, and then in the back, he also has a collection of recipes from his childhood. Cool book. This recipe rocked!