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. 

Sweet like..... Sweetcorn

I have a funny relationship with sweetcorn. Without meaning to put you off your breakfast they are the one food that your body cannot digest (that's what I heard anyways) so it leaves me wondering why we bother? But then when I taste its crunchy sweet golden goodness it suddenly doesn't matter that its going to go straight through me, it tastes amazing!

These fritters are a go-to recipe for me as I always have the ingredients lying around the kitchen. They are incredibly easy to make but taste great and I often add any other vegetables going off in my fridge.

Sweetcorn Fritters 

2 heads of sweetcorn or 1 can of sweetcorn - fresh is best, tinned is ok, frozen doesn't work!

sprinkle of fresh red / green chilli

30g / 1 heaped TBS self raising flour 

1 egg 

1 egg white

Butter for frying 

S&P

Using a large knife, remove kernels from the cob, put into mixing bowl with whole egg, chilli, flour and season. in separate bowl beat an egg white until stiff and fold into the sweetcorn mixture. Melt some butter in a frying pan with a touch of oil so it doesn't burn. Place large TBSP of the batter into the pan, this amount will make around 6 decent sized fritters. Leave the patties to go brown on one side then flip them over and cook over side. Drain them on some kitchen paper and eat as soon as you can bear the heat in your mouth. Keeping it fairly healthy I had these with some cooked beetroot and some salad but I've had them before with some smoked mackerel (good) and on another occasion with fresh sausages (great)! Once I had them with a bit of cream cheese and chilli jam - terribly bad for me but tasted sensational. 

Pancakes Galore



Posh Pancakes!!

So it was Shrove Tuesday the other day, otherwise known as Pancake Day, otherwise known as the only day of the year I ever seem to eat pancakes even though I do really like them!

My housemate P and I decided to go a bit upmarket with our pancakes this year - its great living with another foodie, we eat well in our house. This recipe also has by far the easiest method for making hollandaise sauce that I ever tried, bonus! Admittedly this recipe is not healthy in the slightest, but the whole idea of Pancake Day is to use up all your rich food,  I don't have a problem with having this as a treat on a special occasion.

Posh Pancakes: Asparagus and Speck Pancake Recipe

Original recipe that we have tweaked a little can be found here, Thanks Simon!

You will need:
(Pancake batter)
100g flour
2 large eggs
salt
250ml milk
50g melted butter

This made around 8 pancakes, we only used 4 for the recipe and then the rest we had for pudding with brandy cream and golden syrup (yes I'm eating salad all week) 

(hollendaise sauce)

3 large egg yolk

250g butter, melted (the recipe said to use unsalted but we used salted and it is indeed a whole packet of butter)

½ lemon, juiced

S&P

 

8 slices of Speck (the original recipe uses parma ham but we found the speck just has a lovely smokiness that sets this dish off)

8 Asparagus Spears, blanched

Parmesan cheese (this makes all the difference, even though its not in the original recipe)

 

Make your pancake batter by just dumping all the ingredients into a large bowl and whisking until smooth, then cover and put in fridge. Blanch the asparagus spears in boiling salted water for a few minutes and then put in cold water until you need them.

To make the hollendaise; melt the butter by putting it in a microwavable dish and zapping until melted, set aside.  Take the egg yolks, add a tablespoon of cold water in a saucepan and whisk over a very low heat until it becomes smooth and thickens this took a good four to five minutes. Remove from heat and then slowly dribble in the melted butter (making sure you don't get any of the scummy white butter residue) whisking all the time. Once it has all been incorporated add the lemon juice and S&P and whisk again. Set aside.

 

 

Take your asparagus spears and wrap a piece of speck around each spear. Take the pancake batter, put a little butter or oil in the pan and make your pancakes! P was an expert as this and did some great pancake flipping! once your pancake is done take two of the speck wrapped spears of asparagus and place in the middle of the pancake, grate some Parmesan over and then wrap the sides over and place in buttered oven dish. Repeat another 3 times so you have 4 pancakes and then put the dish in the oven for 20 minutes on a moderate heat until the pancakes have crisped up.

Warm the hollendaise sauce through, very gently whisking all the time. Take the pancakes from the oven and add the hollendaise sauce, we think this works better then flash grilling it as the recipe suggests.

 

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!