Filed under: Babelas food, Breakfast (at Tiffany's...), Eggs | Tags: 5 minute recipe, babelas cure, breakfast, closet snare, flapjacks, moreira project, nigella's flapjacks
With the rhythms of the Moreira Project and Closet Snare live at Assembly still echoing fondly in my head from last night, I woke up this morning and felt an intense desire for two things: serious hot chocolate (see Chocolate Concoction for Churros) and flapjacks. As flapjacks are synonymous with the domestic goddess’s image, I paged through Nigella’s guide and found a flippen fantastic flapjack recipe. It takes 5 minutes to mix and 5 to cook. Thus making it the ultimate pick-up, no matter what your state of being is at the moment…
For about 12 fat flapjacks:
Two cups (500ml) flour
1 Tablespoon (15ml) bicarbonate of soda
1 Teaspoon (5ml) of sugar
A pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups (325ml) milk
30g Butter
2 eggs
To serve, your choice of what you feel like, here are a few suggestions:
Honey/syrup
Cream/full cream bulgarian yoghurt
Bacon/parma ham
Cheese of sorts
Banana/fig/raspberries/strawberries/peaches/blueberries
To start:
Step 1: Put on some music (the CD that you bought last night at the concert…).
Step 2: Melt the butter. Measure all the ingredients into a blender. Whiz until all the ingredients are incorporated.
Step 3: Get a medium sized pan out (non stick if you have). Spray with non-stick baking spray or alternatively melt a teaspoon butter, but the pan must be on a medium to low heat (don’t turn the temperature too high, otherwise you’ll have nicely blackened flapjacks instead of beautiful golden ones).
Step 4: With your hand, feel just above the surface of the pan if it is heated. Spoon a big dessertspoon full of the mixture into the pan, let it ooze into its freeform and continue until you have three. When you see bubbles slowly emerging on the surface of the flapjacks, and the bottom becoming slightly loose from the pan, flip each one over sperately with an egg lifter. The surface should be remeniniscent of a golden caramelised colour. Continue for about 30 seconds on that side. When finished, wrap in a bowl with a clean tea towel. Continue until the batter is finished. Don’t hesitate to try some with butter and syrup before you actually sit down and eat… life is too short and you never know what could happen with it in the meantime, especially with siblings/lovers floating around with a hungry look on their faces …
On the photo:
A dincum stack of friday-night-recovery flapjacks for breakfast with:
Bottom: fresh figs
Middle: banana
Top: crispy fried bacon
All over: full cream bulgarian yog
hurt and honey
Where: eaten in bed
*This recipe has been loosely adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a domestic goddess, Chatto and Windus.
Caroline solely ran a guesthouse for an Englishman for 4 years. She even entertained guests and cooked for them, while having to run the budget as well. This is her totally original recipe, with which had guests from all over the world coming back for more.
Her secret ingredients for 12 big muffins
2 cups orange juice
3 ½ cups Cake flour
1 T Baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 Eggs
½ cup fruit cake mix
All you need to do is:
First turn on the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Take out a muffin pan and grease it well with butter inside, or spray with baking spray. Whisk the orange juice, eggs and sugar together in a medium bowl. Next sift the baking powder and flour into another smaller bowl. Using a metal spoon, fold in the dry ingredients you have sifted into the liquid mixture. Check so that everything is mixed evenly, and then fold in the fruit cake mix. Spoon the mixture so that it fills about ¾ of each hole in the pan. Pop it in the oven, start checking at 25 minutes, if the point of the knife comes out wet when you insert it in the middle of one muffin, let it go for another 5 minutes. That’s it! Have it just like that, or with some honey and butter, jam and cheese…
Is that a trick question? It is just that there are so many different strokes for different blokes. To name a few: Antonio Carluccio, Giorgio Locatelli, Michel Roux and Delia Smith, all of them big-time chefs, have their own ways of cooking their perfect boiled egg. Even though it only consists out of one essential ingredient (with exception of any accompaniments) – a free-range or organic egg of a large size – cooking it just the way YOU like it may seem like a (baked) Alaska at first. It is all about the timing and the egg, really. First try it this way and then experiment a bit more until you know you’ve got it right.
For one person you need:
One egg! Preferably a large, fresh, free range or organic one
A small pan
Some salt, tomato sauce and toast sliced in fingers and buttered, to serve
How to go about it:
Place your pan, filled up ¾ with water, on a high heat and bring to the boil (usually about 5-10 minutes, if you place a lid on the pan it will go a bit faster). When water is rolling with bubbles, turn it down a bit to a medium-low heat. Using a big spoon, handle the egg as if it were a baby and gently place your egg in the water and let it slide off without knocking against the pan. (Sounds quite harsh, I know, but it is meant to be eaten!) It may crack out of pure pressure, but at the end it would not harm your egg that much. If you find the white is escaping too freely when cracked, add 1t of white wine vinegar next time when you pour the water in the pan. Otherwise, definitely try this tip – make a small hole with a needle on the pointier part of the egg and add to the water. Now put on that timer – while you make the toast – 4 ½ minutes for a soft center, but firm white, 30 seconds less if you like a totally velvety and oozing yolk. For a hard boiled egg, which still has some life in it though, boil it for 7 minutes. When we traveled to Grahamstown for the Arts Festival we boiled some eggs the previous night, let them cool down, then we put them in the fridge to take with for brekkie on the road the next day and they were a hit. I associate hard boiled eggs only with padkos (food eaten on the road) and salad nicoise.
That is how I boil my egg.
Nah, just kidding. The science involved in creating an omelet for does not require a degree, it only asks for a good flip of the hand and some nice eggs… padah! Somehow it was always something I only considered when in a restaurant, until Caroline, a proud Sotho woman, showed me how to make a light omelet. She was the driving force behind a guesthouse for many years until it was sold, and made all the courses, including breakfast, herself.
For one person you need:
2 large free-range eggs
One tablespoon butter
One handful of grated cheese (cheddar works best for grating, as it is a hard cheese) or filling of your choice (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
How to:
Break the eggs in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper, then whisk with a whisk or fork until all is well combined. Place the butter in a small frying pan, about 20cm in diameter, let it melt on a medium heat but not burn or turn brown. Next add the eggs and cook quickly, while whisking lightly, not to scramble, but just to stir the setting a bit. Shake it to loosen it up at the sides. This would that about 2 minutes. Toss your filling on the one side of the omelet, now using an egg lifter (which is broad and flat). Remove from the heat and fold the omelet in half. Turn over the pan so that the handle is facing upwards and slide it carefully onto a plate, using the egg lifter to loosen and help this action.
Your omelet is ready for action (meaning eat)!
Filed under: Breakfast (at Tiffany's...)
“But I can’t even cook an egg!” No worries, this is the best place to start! No two-step involved – master the eggs and you can conquer someone’s heart.
For 1 person you need (multiply quantity as needed):
1 tsp soft butter
2 eggs
50 ml full-fat milk or single cream (ever-so decadent)
A pinch of salt and 3 grinds of freshly ground black pepper
How to go about it:
Mix your eggs, milk and seasoning in a bowl with a whisk/fork. Put a non-stick pan on a medium heat and melt the butter in it. When it is melted, lift the pan up and shake so that the pan is covered evenly. Put the pan back on the heat (don’t let the butter burn though) and quickly add the egg-mixture, and turn the heat on its lowest let it cook for 1 minute, then turn off the heat. You can use a whisk, but I found it too scrambled – use a wooden spoon or egg lifter instead and stir like mad! Even though the heat is turned off, the eggs will cook over a slow heat, thus resulting in a creamy mixture instead of rubber eggs.
Serve hot on toast with tomato sauce or tomatoes on the stove (see under) and avocado, or add to complete a full boere breakfast…
“Tomatoes on the stove”
A lot of people I know will go mad for this – my friend (this is the only breakfast she will willingly scoff in the morning), but most importantly my mom and the rest of my family. You can eat this on toast or off toast, with eggs or without eggs, as tapas or out of the pan…tried and tested.
For 5 people you need:
8-10 overripe tomatoes, a minute from their use-by date, or really, really red ones
1 T sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
How to go about it:
Cut the tomatoes up roughly, in chunks (the smaller the tomato is cut up, the faster it becomes cooked), but please don’t do this one in a food processor, the taste is not so rustic at the end! Throw the tomatoes in a deep pan (no need to add oil, the tomatoes make their own yummy juice), turn it on a medium heat and add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine and lower the heat a bit lower. Cook this for 20 minutes, whilst stirring every now-and-then, so that it does not get caught at the bottom and burn. After 20-odd minutes of wishful stirring, you’ll see a sweet/sour kind of tomato jam/sauce/concoction (give it your own name, we call it “tamaties op die stoof” – tomatoes on the stove) that is ready to serve…
Filed under: Breakfast (at Tiffany's...)
There is something about the poached egg. The poached eggs that you get in restaurants look as if they were magically produced, so perfect, but I guarantee you they make it with one of those egg-poaching machines (I saw one in Sandton, Johannesburg of all places), so they’re not so difficult to get hold of if you prefer a perfect poached egg. But who said life – and eggs – should be perfect? If you are not into those machines and just want to take a shot at making a poached egg, like I did, go for it!
For your poached egg, you need:
One egg, of course
1 T White Wine Vinegar
Pinches of salt, to garnish
How to: Place a medium deep pan on a high heat, add the vinegar and let it come to the boil. When it boils, reduce heat to a simmer. Now – the only tricky part – break the egg into a cup, slowly so that the yolk does not break. Make a hurricane of water by stirring it clocks wise with a big spoon, with the other hand slide the egg slowly in the water by holding the cup close to the water. Stop whirling and let it simmer for 4 minutes (= medium-soft egg, 3 minutes = very soft on the inside, 5 minutes = hard). Remove the egg with a slotted spoon (one with holes so that the water drains out) and serve with a bit of paprika sprinkled over for a kick.
You can make Eggs Benedict (by the way – who is Benedict?) if you want to!
First place 2 strips bacon in a pan on a medium heat, keep watching it and turn it over after 2 minutes. Prepare the egg. While it is poaching in the water, put your toast in the toaster and take one handful of spinach leaves, stalks removed, and put it in another pan with 1T water on a medium heat to wilt it a bit. One minute before your egg is ready, take your toast out and butter it, put your spinach on the toast and then add the bacon, and lastly the egg. That’s all! Let’s eat.
You can do it yourself! Another spectacular way to use eggs, rather than just plain scrambled eggs (although that can be extra creamy and good to) and it looks really impressing when you bring it out for breakfast.
For 4-6 persons you need:
2 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced into rings
6 medium eggs
pinch of saffron, steeped in a medium bowl and about 1 T freshly boiled water
salt and freshly grinded pepper
Bring a pan with salted water to the boil on a high heat, add the potatoes and then simmer for 8 minutes. Next drain the potatoes in a colander. While you let the water srain out of the potatoes, heat a swish of olive oil over high heat in a non-stick pan of +/- 25cm, add the potatoes and onions and turn the heat down. Cook this for about 10 minutes, while stirring every now and agagin, but very gently as not to break the potatoes. The onion should be soft, but try not to burn it, add another few drop of oil if you see it is sticking. Add the eggs to the saffron and beat lightly with a fork/whisk. Pick up the pan with the onions and potatoes in eat, shake lightly to distribute it evenly, place back on the heat and pour the eggs over. If you need to, flatten the potatoes out to the sides a bit. Once the egg-mixture is set at the sides, about 1 and a half minutes, loosen the sides with a spatula. Turn off the heat. Put a big plate, enough to cover the whole pan over the pan and holding with both hands, 1, 2, 3 tip it over so that the tortilla lands on the plate. Next slide the tortilla back into the pan so that it cooks on the other side. Serve cut up like a cake, at room temperature or still warm.
It just came to me – no – actually I have been thinking about it a few days now already. The Italians and French are way more worshipped when it comes to food, but where are the Spanish? This one is for all the ones out there with a spanish flair…
One morning while my family and I were on experiencing Madrid, I asked them if I could treat them to a traditional Spanish breakfast (recommended by the guide book). After walking on empty stomachs for quite a while having a hearty breakfast of beans, eggs and chorico’s in mind, we came to sit in the restaurant only to discover that I had led them to a traditional breakfast of ever-so decadent chocolate and churros, … my fantastic family was in want of something different but nevertheless they laughed all the way.
Churros
Makes one plateful
You need:
Vegetable oil for deep frying
1 cup water
½ cup butter
¼ tsp salt
1 cup cake flour
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
If you are using a deep frying machine, turn it on a medium heat, otherwise, no problem, pour a few glugs of oil into a deep saucepan until it is half full and turn the heat on over a medium heat.
To make the churro dough:
Heat the water, butter and salt so that it boils – the butter must melt completely – then turn the heat down so that it is of a low heat. Now add the flour and stir as if it is a question between life and death! I mean stir vigorously until the mixture starts to pull away from the sides to form a ball, about 1 minute. Take it off the heat. Beat the eggs in all at one, you can use a whisk to make it easier or keep using your wooden spoon, until it is smooth.
Let it all cool down. Take a breather. When it is ready, spoon the mixture into a large star tipped cake decorators tube. If you do not have one, see page ….for other options (“ ‘n boer maak ‘n plan” – literally translated as “a farmer makes a plan”). Hold the tube full of churro mixture at the bottem with your right hand and at the top with your left, so that when you squeeze, everything does not bulge out of the top. Now squeeze 3 long snail of +/- 15 cm each directly into the heated oil. The oil will make a lively sizzling sound. Check the churros and make sure they do not stick, if they do, use two forks to separate them. When they have turned golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Then squeeze the next batch into the oil and while they fry away, roll the drained churros in sugar and pile on a plate. Repeat this with the mixture until the mixture is finished. When you have a sky-high pile, pour the remaining sugar over and serve to dunk in the special chocolate concoction below…
Chocolate Concoction for Churros
This can be made without adding the milk, stored in an airtight container of sorts and then used when needed. It is way better than powder hot chocolate, you will agree.
200g dark chocolate
1tsp corn flour (Maizena)
4 tsp sugar
2 cups milk
Break the chocolate up roughly and throw in a blitzer or pulser together with everything else except the milk. Give it a way whizzes so that the chocolate is broken up quite finely and everything is mixed. Place in a container or use straight away. Put the milk in a saucepan with the chocolate and heat over a low heat. Keep whisking it so that the chocolate dissolves into the milk. Continue to whisk for 5 minutes, so that the mixture starts to thicken (because if the corn flour. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth. Pour into 4 individual cups if you do not know each other too well, or one bowl if you are friends/family. Do not pour the mixture over the churros, but rather use it to dunk your churros in the chocolate after every bite. Mmmmmm… sweetness.
