Category: Breakfast

St Niklas Granola

Hello friends! Today we a celebrating the festive season with another lovely homemade gift. Unlike the Sparkling Lavender Mustard or my Christmas Pudding, each of which need to rest for about a month before being ready to gift, the St Niklas Granola can be whipped up in an hour or so and gifted as soon as it cools!

St Niklas Granola2

Annabel Crabb & David Sedaris

The recipe for the St Niklas Granola comes from the Book Special Guest by Australian Journalist, Annabel Crabb.  I adore Annabel Crabb, she is smart and funny and she writes a good recipe!  The St Niklas Granola is inspired by those spicy Dutch Christmas cookies called Peppernoten.  In the introduction, to the granola, she also speaks of the rather suspect story surrounding them. I believe this is the same story as told by David Sedaris in his story “Six To Eight Black Men”.  I linked to his reading of this way back in 2015 and can heartily recommend it.  It is so funny!  (And the Fig, Fennel and Pistachio Roulade that was the featured recipe would also make a wonderful Christmas gift for the Foodie in your life!  

Listening to Six to Eight Black Men has become one of my Christmas traditions.  Making the St Niklas granola may well become one too.  

St Niklas Granola

 

Speaking of Christmas traditions, Fairytale of New York is one of my favourite (Christmas) songs and features on any Christmas playlist I compile.  I was upset to hear of the recent passing of Shane McGowan.  His duet with Sinead O’Connor, Haunted is also one of my favourite songs.  How beautiful is her voice here?  It gives me shivers to hear it.  It is so sad to think that we have lost two such talented musicians this year.  

But back to the granola…

St Niklas Granola Recipe

I am not much of a breakfast person, so I usually eat my Granola as an after-dinner treat instead of dessert.  Sometimes, I also just grab a handful for a little snack on the go.  Some yoghurt and fresh fruit make it as good in the morning as it is in the evening.  The hit of spice and, especially the little hits of ginger when you get them are soooo good!  I love Annabelle’s suggestion of serving it with ice cream as a dessert too! 

St Niklas Granola recipe (1)

And of course, when I suggest you give this as a gift, what I really mean is make an entire batch and keep half for yourself!

 

St Niklas Granola3

Have a wonderful week! 

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Bruléed Grapefruit

I am not normally a breakfast person.  If I am super organised I throw some granola and yogurt into a bowl and eat that once I get into the office.  Or I will grab a bagel on my way.  But usually, my breakfast is a coffee (or two).  Nowadays, maybe because I am walking my dogs early in the morning or because I am at home and surrounded by food, by about 10:30 I am HUNGRY!   Bruléed grapefruit, which many of you will recognise as the darling of the 1970’s diet book has become my breakfast of choice.

Why?

  • It can be made in stages so easy to do between calls
  • So tasty!
  • All those 1970’s diet books can’t be wrong  – this is kind  of healthy for you!
  • Using a culinary blowtorch is fun!
  • It looks so pretty and colourful, it cheers me up (all these days we need all the cheering up we can get!).

Bruleed Grapefruit 1

How are you all coping with life in social isolation?  I am in week three of work from home and oh boy, it’s a rollercoaster.  I woke up with a sore throat the other morning and immediately assumed I had the ‘rona. Which I do not. The days seem to drag even though my work has seemingly doubled.  And how can I go from looking totally respectable in my bathroom mirror to looking like trash 5 minutes later on a video call?   But I’m still working which is something to be very grateful for when there are so many people being laid off so the vortex of ugly between my bathroom and my computer  seems like a small price to pay!

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Variations

I like to top my bruléed grapefruit with some coyo and usually either some granola or chopped pistachio nuts.  Of course on the day I decided to take photos I had neither in the house.  So, I topped it with a maraschino cherry.  Which was delicious!

Other toppings could include:

  • Greek or Flavoured Yoghurt or whipped cream
  • Berries or other fruit
  • Nuts or seeds of your choice
  • Vanilla ice cream (hey, you’re working from home, who’s going to know!)

Another way to mix this up is to vary the flavourings in the sugar:

  • Add some cinnamon for a warming and sweetly spicy effect
  • Adding lavender or other flower infused sugar will bring out the floral notes in the grapefruit
  • Give it an Asian twist by adding a little chilli, some chopped up  crystallised ginger and a dash of salt

Hmm…my recipe plugin is not working at the mo so here is recipe old school style

Bruléed Grapefruit

  • 1/2 ruby red grapefruit
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar
  • A large dollop coconut (or other) yoghurt
  • 1 Maraschino cherry

Place the grapefruit cut side adown on kitchen paper and leave for around 5 minutes to drain any juice from the top.  The drier it is, the better it will brulée.

Sprinkle the sugar on the cut side of the grapefruit.

Set your blowtorch to high and move to and fro over the grapefruit to caramelise the sugar.  (If you do not have a blowtorch, set your grill (broiler) to high, wait until it is hot and set your grapefruit under it until the sugar caramelises).

Serve immediately with a dollop of yoghurt and a cherry on the top!

Bruleed Grapefruit 4

I have no stories since it is week 3 in the house but I thought it might be interesting if we started to share how we are entertaining ourselves during social distancing.  This is what I’ve been up to:

Doing

This puzzle again….Arrgghhhh…what is wrong with me?

Watching

I watched Dare Me on Netflix which I really liked.  I am about halfway through The Haunting of Hill House which I am loving but I can only watch in small doses because it scares the hell out of me.

For film club I need to watch The Martian and Stand By Me.

Hmm…maybe we all need to watch The Martian…

Reading

I am reading Two Can Keep a Secret which is the sequel to One of Us is Lying which I loved!!!!  As well as an Agatha Christie for the next Dining With The Dame.

 

What are you reading, watching doing during lockdown?  I would love to get ideas for new things!

Stay home, stay safe, eat grapefruit for breakfast!

Name Plates: Eggs Benedict

Hello brunch!  Eggs Benedict is one of my favourite brunch dishes.  Mind you, I would also eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I’m not that fussy!  But today’s project is to uncover the eponymous Benedict,

Eggs Benedict 1

What Are Eggs Benedict?

Okay, so…given this is such a brunch favourite, I know many of you will already know exactly what Eggs Benedict entails.  And all of you are quite welcome to skip to the next section.

For those who are in the dark, Eggs Benedict is a dish typically served at breakfast or brunch which consists of two halves of a toasted English muffin, topped with bacon or ham, a poached egg and Hollandaise Sauce.

Who Was Benedict?

Larousse names Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans as one of the possible birthplaces of Eggs Benedict.  And there is certainly an amazing looking Eggs Benny on their website.😍  However, all the other research I have done points to New York as being the birthplace of Eggs Benedict.

Delmonico’s is a contender.  A regular customer, one of the Le Grand Benedict family, got bored with the regular breakfast and asked for “poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham, Hollandaise sauce and a truffle on top” as a more exciting alternative.

In 1967, a letter to the New Yorker said that  Commodore E.C.Benedict, a yachtsman and retired banker was the inventor of Eggs Benedict.

Eggs Benedict 2

My favourite story, however, and so the one we are going to go with,  suggests that the recipe was devised by one Lemuel Benedict in 1942 when he strolled into the Waldorf Hotel with a raging hangover and asked for  “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise”.

Instead of looking askance at him and saying in a very stern manner, “We Sir, are a classy establishment and hence not familiar with the practice of measuring our sauces, Hollandaise or otherwise in units of sex workers”,  the kitchen complied and Eggs Benedict was born!

Can we just take a step out to talk about how delicious Hollandaise Sauce is?

OMG..it’s the best thing in the world.    Sometimes, when I really don’t feel like cooking?  I will buy a jar of Hollandaise sauce, heat it up in the microwave and just dip vegetables…asparagus, broccoli, beans, etc right into the jar for my dinner!

Hollandaise Sauce

And do you also know that it was only very recently that I reaslised Hollandaise is just French for “from Holland”?   I mean, it’s totally damn obvious when you think about it but….at the time?

The Recipe

Given it’s likely New York origins, I used the recipe from the New York Times for my classic version of Eggs Benedict.

Some variations are below.

Variations

The interwebs abound with variations of Eggs Benny.  You can change the meat:

  • This Naughty Benny swaps out the ham for mortadella and adds an onion jam.

You can change the base:

You can combine it with other brunch favorites such as this Benedict BLT.

Or add some Italian Pizzazz with an Eggs Benedict Pizza.

You can also swap out the sauce 

For those who like a bit of booze with their Benny, this one has a beer-based sauce.

I guess the only constant is the eggs…

Oops, scratch that.  Here’s a vegan version.

  • A myriad of other versions can be found here

Modern Day Benedict

In my mind, there can only be one:

What’s your favourite version of Eggs Benedict?

And to whom would you dedicate a modern dish of poached eggs, ham and hollandaise sauce on an English Muffin?

Have a wonderful week!

Breakfast Banana Cream

I know I said that we were going to skip the G is for Good Health section in the A-Z of Cooking because I had already made the Cheese and Date Bread. Then I remembered that the banana cream I have been eating for breakfast for weeks came from this same section.   And for those of you who care about such things my favourite version is also vegan because guess what?  The Banana Cream contains no cream. That’s 1970’s health food for you.

Banana Cream2

So pretty.  And it’s delicious too.  And so easy to do.  It takes all of about 30 seconds to make .

But first a little digression.  They…whomsoever they may be…say that you are what you eat.  It might be why health food often gets such a bad rap.  I mean who wants to look like the burghul salad which is the first recipe featured in the G is for Good Health section of the A-Z of Cooking.

Burghul SaladSo back to breakfast and the no-cream banana cream.  This tastes and feels rich and luscious so you can almost feel a bit decadent when eating it.  Banana CreamThe basic recipe for the banana cream is bananas, yogurt, honey, lemon and crushed nuts.  I have played with this for a number of weeks now and my favourite combination is to use coconut yogurt and maple syrup. The one highlight of that time I did Paleo was discovering coconut yogurt.  OMG that stuff is the BEST.  Shame it is so hideously expensive.  At the time I looked into making it and it can be done relatively easily. I’ll add that to the to do list!  And maple syrup is one of my favourite flavours.  Its so good.  But you can use plain yogurt or honey – whatever your favourites are.

I have also eaten the banana cream as a topping for granola and swirled into warm oatmeal //porridge and it is good with both!

I have used walnuts as the nuts in these pictures but almonds are also good.  Sub in whatever you like. Or, if you hate nuts, use a sprinkle of granola for a lovely crunch!

I’m not overly fond of bananas but I have eaten the banana cream a couple of times a week for a few weeks now and there is no sign of it going off high rotation.  I make the serving size below and put half in a container in the fridge for the following day – it keeps quite well overnight.  Quick, versatile, delicious so simple and healthy to boot!  So much nicer than that burghul salad!

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Breakfast Banana Cream

A quick, easy and healthy breakfast dish. Vegan optional.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large banana
  • 125ml coconut or plain Greek Yogurt
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp toasted walnuts or almonds

Instructions

  1. Place the banana, coconut yogurt, maple syrup, lemon juice and half the nuts into a food processor.
  2. Blitz until just combined.
  3. Spoon into serving dishes and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

I feel that the A-Z of Cooking has given us two very simple recipes in a row.  Next time we head there it should be for the Gourmet section.  I have semi-chosen what I am going to cook and it involves a deep fryer so I am going to have to beg, borrow or steal one sometime soon.  And if gourmet food and deep frying don’t quite go together in your mind, remember it was the ’70s – all sort of things happened that made totally no sense.  Deep fried gourmet food was the least of their worries!

Have a great week!

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Vincent Price’s Buckingham Eggs Jaffle

You made a what???

For for those of you who are already totally confused, let me explain.  A Jaffle is an Australian term for a toasted sandwich. And it is a much loved food for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, a midnight snack or any of the times inbetween.

And I made one based on Vincent Price’s Buckingham Eggs.  And it was very good!

Buckingham Egg Jaffle2Like I guess many of my generation, the first real inkling I had of Vincent Price was as the voice in Thriller….

I had no idea he could not only cook, but cook like a boss,  until I started blogging.  It’s one of the reasons why I am so excited that the 50th edition of Vincent and Mary Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes is about to be released.  And I am reliably informed by Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers that, in her view, it is the best cookbook ever written!  And Jenny knows her stuff!!!

Only a few more sleeps ’til that happens but first, Jenny invited her blogging pals to take part in a cookalong with some of Vincent and Mary’s recipes.

I hadn’t really intended on making the Buckingham Eggs for the cookalong .  I was totally primed to make Vincent Price’s Champagne Chicken but, it was only 10:00am. Possibly a little too early for a roast dinner.  But I was hungry and a jaffle seemed like the perfect thing to tide me over til dinner time. A quick glance at the fridge revealed eggs, cheese and anchovies. I had a thought process that went something like this:

  • You could make the Buckingham Eggs
  • But I want a jaffle
  • The Buckingham Eggs sound really good.
  • So does a jaffle.
  • Anchovy and Mustard butter…-
  • Egg and Cheese Jaffle
  • Hmm…what if we…
  • I like where you are going with this

And thus the Buckingham Eggs Jaffle was born. I’m sure neither Jenny or Vincent would disapprove of my tweaking the recipe slightly to satisfy both the devil and the angel on my shoulder!  For the purists, here is a link to the original recipe as cooked by Jenny:

Buckingham Eggs

For my version make an English mustard and anchovy butter.  I could not find any anchovy paste so I mushed up an anchovy.  The mustard adds  some heat and makes it a beautiful colour!Buckingham Eggs1I could just eat this on toast forever and be totally content!

But, wait, there’s more!

Eggs and cream and cheese and onions. I meant to add some Worchestershire Sauce but I totally forgot!  Oh well, all the more reason to make it again next Sunday!

Buckingham Eggs3Now, add the onions to the egg mixture and scramble them really lightly.  You need them to thicken up but still be quite moist as they will continue to cook once they are in the jaffle iron.

Now, butter both sides of the bread (if you’re feeling decadent ) or the one side if not.  Place the buttered sides on the surface of the jaffle iron. This is important otherwise your bread will stick like crazy. Place the cheese on one side and the thickened egg mixture on the other side.

Buckingham Eggs4Fold The Iron over.  Trim any bits of bread hanging out of the iron and place over a low heat.

Jaffle 3

The only tricky bit is that once the iron is closed you have no way of telling how much the inside has cooked unless you open it up and have a little peek.  Make sure you turn it over at least once so both sides get toasty.  As a general rule, once the outside is a dark golden colour, the inside will be perfect.  This is the colour you are aiming for:

Buckingham Eggs5At the risk of sounding a bit hippy dippy, when cooked like this, the egg and cream mixture and the cheese become one in a gorgeous creamy melange.  This is surrounded by crispy, salty, slightly spicy bread…..OMGZ delicious.

Buckingham Eggs6This made a super brunch, but if darkness is falling across the land and the midnight hour is close at hand, this would also make a super late night snack!

A massive thanks to Jenny for including me and to Vincent and Mary Price for the recipe.

For all the deets on the cookbook launch and activities around it, click any (ALL) of the links below:

Vincent Price Treasury Cookalong with Silver Screen Suppers
Vincent Price Legacy Tour – for details of celebratory events in the UK
Amazon Page for the 50th Edition of A Treasury of Great Recipes
Champagne chicken up next!  Stay tuned….

 

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