A Splash of Purple on your Plate

I am a sauce kind of girl. I love sauces - tomato, mayo, mustard, tartar. BBQ whichever, whatever, I love a sauce! It's always a struggle on a Sunday morning when I have to think about what sauce to have in my sausage or bacon sandwich - should I go tomato or BBQ, red or brown. Well, Premier Inn have gone and thrown another colour into the mix - Purple Sauce! Yes, purple - my favourite colour when I was a teenager (yes I know, very unoriginal).  

 

 

Purple food stuff may not sound like the most attractive offering but when I received my bottle from the lovely people at Premier Inn I was very pleasantly surprised at how "naturally" purple it was - naturally purple, what a phrase!

 

 

It probably looks natural because it is made from natural ingredients, the main one being blackberries (yay for a sauce using such a traditional British fruit). It also contains spices such as black pepper, chillies and cumin. It is also pleasing to see that it contains no artificial colours or flavourings which makes me pretty happy!

 

 

 

I tried this sauce on my favourite breakfast treat - a sausage sandwich. And it was the perfect compliment to the juicy, fat Cumberland sausages I picked up from our local butcher. As a side note I like to griddle toast my bread for a sausage sandwich....so good.

 

 

 

Back to the sauce, I really enjoyed it. To me it was a really interesting mix of the smokiness of a BBQ, the fruitiness of brown sauce and the tangy-ness of a tomato sauce - it was like the perfect combination of all my favourite breakfast sauces. I usually like mustard on my sausage sandwich but the slight heat from all the spices meant I didn't need to add that either!

 

 

 

 

I'm very lucky that I was sent a bottle of the sauce so this can make a regular appearance at my breakfast (and lunch and dinner) and if you want to give this a try then you'll find sachets of Purple Sauce on the breakfast table in Premier Inn restaurants across the country from 20th July – get there quick, it’s only available for a limited time.  Although I personally think that they should be selling it on the supermarket shelves - a sauce this good needs to be available to all!

 

 

 

Disclaimer: The lovely people at Premier Inn sent me the sauce to try. All thoughts and ideas are my own

How do you like your eggs in the morning?......... {huevos rancheros}

Sunday mornings are usually spent in bed and lets be honest quite often with a slightly sore head from the night before. H usually loves one of my bacon sandwiches on a Sunday morning but recently we have been a bit more health conscious so said sandwich have kind of come of the menu. Instead this weekend I rustled up some Mexican Eggs (Huevous rancheros) which are so tasty with a real kick and totally get rid of any lingering hangover. There are a number of recipes out there for Huevous rancheros and this mine. Enjoy. By the way - this recipe works best when you make it listening to the soundtrack to Chef. 

Huevos Rancheros

handful of chorizo, diced 

1 small onion, diced 

1 green chilli, finely chopped 

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped 

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

2 tomatoes, diced 

1 tin chopped tomato

handful of coriander, chopped 

1 tsp smoked paprika

a little grated cheese 

lime 

tortilla wraps, I used wholemeal 

eggs 

fry off your chorizo for a couple of minutes and then add the onion and chilli and a bit of oil if it needs it. cook until soft. add in the garlic and after a few minutes add the fresh tomato. cook until the tomatoes have soften and add the tinned tomato along with the paprika and 2/3rds of the coriander - as always when using tinned tomatoes add a tsp of sugar and season with salt and pepper. allow to simmer for 10 minutes. in the meantime fry as many eggs as you need. brush your tortilla with a little oil and place in hot frying pan and allow it to puff up on each side. place your tortilla on the plate, add a couple spoonful of the tomato mix, squeeze over some lime juice and a sprinkling of cheese. top with the egg, another squeeze of lime and some coriander. 

Le Petit Déjeuner - Œufs en Cocotte

So last night whilst making my Chicken Burritos I also decided to make one of my favourite breakfast dishes as I have a lot of smoked salmon in the fridge, and after partaking in my weekly French lesson it had to have an element of French Cuisine. The French know their breakfasts and they know their eggs -these baked eggs are so simple and I have been addicted to them ever since I saw recipes from both Nigella (ok not so French) and Rachel Khoo. Nigella suggests that you can make these with double cream but to be honest that’s a bit rich for a Friday morning breakfast, in fact it’s a bit rich any day and Rachel makes hers with Crème Fraiche – I go that one step further and make these with half fat crème fraiche. I added smoked salmon and spinach cos they were in my fridge but smoked ham or smoked mackerel also work well…. I add the extra ingredients into the crème fraiche as it seems to work better rather than layering them but how you put these pretty pots together is entirely your choice. Bon Appétit

Œufs en Cocotte

Eggs

Crème Fraiche

Smoked Salmon

Spinach

Salt and pepper

Little sprinkling of parmesan

Take you crème fraiche and put in to bowl (you need roughly 2 tablespoons per egg). Tear up some smoked salmon and spinach and add. Season (lots of black pepper here kids)

You then but a tablespoon of the mixture in a ramekin and pat it down. Crack an egg in over it and layer another tablespoon of mixture over the top. Simples! I then put these in the fridge ready for the morning but you can cook them straight away. When you are ready to cook them, sprinkle the tops with a bit of parmesan, place them into a roasting tray and fill the tray with boiling water until they come about halfway up the ramekin. Place in a medium to high heat oven and cook for around 15 minutes for a nice runny yolk (if you are cooking them from the fridge they may need around 5-8mins longer)

This could have done with a couple more minutes to brown off the top, but I’m a busy gal and I had to rush to work. However it tasted delicious with my toast and the joy of finding the golden orange yolk takes me right back to my childhood…..perfect breakfast any day of the week!