Monday, November 11, 2013

Big breakfast

Big breakfast can be anything you wish it to be. Here we have our favourite few ingredients from left to right: truss tomatoes, sautéed swiss mushrooms, grilled haloumi cheese and fried bacon. In the middle on toast we have J's favourite, poached eggs.

Although it looks daunting, this is relatively simple to whip up and, if you're skilful, you might not end up with many utensils to wash.

First, start with the bacon, frying them in their own fat. When they start to brown, you can then use the aromatic oil to fry other ingredients. This way, you use less oil and everything fried in bacon oil is nothing short of delicious.

While the bacon is frying, slice the haloumi cheese into 1cm thick slices. Remove the bacon from the heat and fry the haloumi cheese in the bacon fat. In the same pan. position the tomatoes to cook them in the bacon fat and when the skin looks slightly shrivelled, remove from heat. Haloumi cheese should be brown on both sides when you remove them.

Add a knob of butter to the remaining bacon fat to cook the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms darken in colour. Add a pinch of powdered chicken stock or just salt if you don't have this.

Cook the poached eggs last.
1. Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil and add a spoonful of vinegar (use white vinegar or mirin)
2. Crack an egg into a bowl. Do not crack the egg directly into the pot as you want to drop it gently in to keep the yolk in tact.
3. Swirl the water gently with a spatula and time 2.5-3 minutes. You will see the whites starting to coagulate and once you can safely turn the egg over in the pan with the precious yolks enveloped in the whites, you can take it out gently.
Note: you should cook eggs one at a time.

While the eggs are poaching, cut a generous slice of fresh bread and toast it. You can also butter your toast and fry it on a pan, but otherwise serve eggs on the toasted bread and top with freshly cracked black pepper. Bon appetite!




Banana pancakes with whipped cream


Brunch is a big thing in Melbourne. But what if you could recreate those delicious brunch dishes at a fraction of the price and in the comfort of your own home?

Ingredients:
1.5 ripe bananas, sliced
self raising flour, 1 cup
corn flour, 1 cup
Whole milk, 1.5 cup
25g butter melted
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons sugar

Method:
Combine ingredients and beat together until thoroughly combined, heat some oil/butter in a cooking pan to medium heat and using a soup ladle, dispense one ladle of batter and let it spread out. This helps to scoop just the right amount of mixture so you can flip it without breaking the pancake in half. Mixture can be left covered in the fridge for one day in the unlikely event you can't finish using it but be sure to use it up the next day.

Flip when brown to cook on the other side. Serve with homemade whipped cream and honey or nutella is J's absolute fav. Homemade whipped cream is as buying whipping cream and whipping it. I kid you not! Hope you have fun trying it out.