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Spooning with Rosie
Food, Friendship & Kitchen Loving
Rosie Lovell
To Raf – the harshest critic and the hungriest companion
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
INTRODUCTION
DAWN CHORUS
Muesli
Pancetta & Quail’s Egg Tart
Cinnamon Toast
Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam
Mum’s Seedy Soda Bread
Soda Bread with Tomato & Oregano
Rupert’s New York Eggy Bread with Bacon & Maple Syrup
Omelette with Potatoes, Peperoncino, Tomatoes & Cheese
Fried Bread with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Mum’s Piping Popovers
Australian Marmalade Muffins
Porridge with Golden Currants & Muscovado Sugar
Gazpacho for a Barcelona Morning
Raspberry Risen Pancakes with Clotted Cream
Colombian Scrambled Eggs with Frills
Buckwheat & Banana Pancakes with Runny Honey
The Ultimate Sausage Sandwich
Economical Oeufs en Cocotte
LOVESOME TONIGHT
Risotto Milanese with Morcilla & Rocket & Asparagus Salad
Tomato & Pont I’Evêque Proposal Tart
Garlic Fried King Prawns, Hot Spanish Squid & Balsamic Onion Tortilla
Vietnamese Salad with Steak
Pyrenean Duck with Champ
A Ceviche Fish-off with Corona & Guacamole & Tomato Salsa
Frozen Berries & Grapes
Sweet Pastry Swirls
Affogato
Lemon Tart
Bunty’s Brandy & Oranges
FEASTING FIESTAS
Esme’s Hot Wings, Daddy’s Jamaican Ackee & Saltfish, Fried Plantain & Coconut Coleslaw
Moroccan Honey Chicken, Pomegranate Couscous & Chickpea Purée
Lots of Houmous, Halloumi with Red Onion, Stav’s Babaghanoush, Daddy’s Meatballs & Carrot Purée
Roasted Salmon & Fennel Pâté & Puff Pastry Pie
Chicken Pieces Two Ways, Potato Gratin, Carrot & Celeriac
Hot Chips & Tips
Rice Cubes, Tofu with Mangetouts, Mango, Cucumber & Mint Salad, Sweetcorn & Carrot Fritters
Apricot-stuffed Belly of Pork, Spring Cabbage with Caraway Seeds, Spinach in White Sauce
Indian Stuffed Squid, Jeera Rice, Turmeric Cabbage
Ice Cream with Chocolate & Honey Sauce
Yoghurt, Saffron & Cinnamon Sorbet
Carrageen with Nutmeg, Cream & Maple Syrup
Poached Pumpkin with Crème Fraîche
Barbara Fitzgerald’s Clafoutis
Marmalade Queen of Puddings
Rice Pudding, Indian-style
Sweet Little Coconut Cakes
JAMMING SUPPERS
Pulpo on Toast
Sardine Pâté on Baguette
Smoked Mackerel Pâté on Toast
Baguette with Boquerones
Pan con Tomate
Fontal & Grated Braeburn on Toast
Bruschetta with Cucumber, Basil & Chilli
Bruschetta with Spinach & Sultanas
Crispy Chicken Pieces, Polenta & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Squid Ink Spaghetti with Prawns, Chilli & Bacon & Roasted Fennel Salad
Fillet of Pork with Mustard & Honey Sauce, Lemon Smashed New Potatoes
A Little Roasted Chicken with Lemons & Penne, Tzatziki-style
Smoked Mackerel & Chard Bake with a Crunchy Top
Smoked Haddock & Watercress Risotto with Griddled Courgettes
Moules Marinière with Spaghettini
Pumpkin & Gorgonzola Lasagne
Herby Homemade Pasta Sheets with a Perfect Yellow Tomato Salad
Homely Saffron Chicken
Pearl Barley Risotto with Tomato & Ricotta
My Lasagne, with Chestnut, Pancetta & Cabbage
Super Easy Mushroom & Chicken Korma with Raita
Coconut & Cardamom Custard
Biddy’s Microwave Steamed Pudding
Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Cups
Sweet Yellow Lentil Dhal
Baked Amaretti & Goat’s Cheesecake
Really Easy Brandy & Almond Tiramisù
Golden Brown Tarte Tatin
Mallika’s Baked Yoghurts Two Ways
SOULFUL GRUB
Stav B’s Pumpkin & Red Lentil Soup
Raf’s Lettuce Soup
Gascon Soup made with Wild Mushrooms, Tomatoes & Sherry Vinegar
Onion & Butter Bean Soup
Courgette, Chickpea & Mint Soup
Spiced Carrot Soup
Beetroot & Pear Soup
Warming Orecchiette with Sausage & Sage
Raf Daddy’s Groundnut Curry
Polenta & Vegetable Bake for Dani
Ebi Chilli Men for Tom & Olly
Doctor Helen’s Signature Butternut Squash Pasta with Chilli Flakes & Chorizo
Korean Beef Salad
Broccoli & Cauliflower Cheese
Simplest Red Spaghetti with Thyme, Straight From Urbisaglia
Alice’s Cottage Pie
Sweet Laksa with Udon Noodles
Cabbage & Sausage Hotpot
Penne with Creamy Tomato & Tuna
Lamb & Aubergine Pilaf
Tuscan Bean Stew with Riso Pasta
BALMY BITES
Pea & Mint Dip
Aubergine & Salami Stacks
Pat’s Green Beans with Goat’s Cheese
White Alubias with Anchovies & Herbs
Sonar Lentil Salad
Herby Spare Ribs, Porchetta-style
Moroccan Salsa
Dom’s Marital Potato Salad
Mum’s Lemon Garden Vegetables
Summer of Love Salad
Nutty Brown Rice & Bean Salad
Mr Dan’s Bulgar Wheat Salad
Radicchio & Pancetta Salad
Gillie’s Chicory & Orange Salad with Two Different Dressings
Rosemary-roasted Sweet Potatoes
Fruit Brûlée
Apple Purée with Syllabub
Orange Blossom Custards
Semolina & Syrup Cakes
Far Out Eton Mess
Rhubarb & Whiskey Fool
Essentials
COFFEE, TEA OR ME?
Drop Scones, Mum’s Way
Yoghurt Cake
Simplest Orange & Almond Cake
Edna’s Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies
Classic Cricket Tea: Victoria Sponge with Strawberries & Cream
My Spiced Apple Cake with Buckwheat
Orange Shortbread
Baby Banana Cakes
Doctor Helen’s Mascarpone Mojito Cheesecake
Honey Flapjacks
My Favourite Places to Eat, Drink & Shop
Index
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
Another late night in Soho at the New Evaristo Club. Now, as usual, my alarm is pounding at me, calling me to the deli. Showered and squeezed into trusty jeans, I dash out of the door of my damp 1930s flat. Round on the main road I pass Simon, one of the more amenable local down-and-outs. ‘All right, Ma’am.’ He’ll be in later for his hot chocolate with five sugars. I nip into the Portuguese deli to pick up fresh rocket for the shop, and then into the Iraqi supermarket to buy free-range eggs for the scrambling rush later. Electric Avenue is particularly alive at this time of the morning, with sex workers, red snappers, pig’s tails and pulsing beats coming from every crevice. The fishmongers holler at me and, laden with my shopping, I nod my good-mornings to market traders and road sweeps.
Arriving at the deli, I fling the door wide open, turn the fans on and get The View playing, to beat out my tired head. Pastry out of the fridge for rolling, cakes onto the stands, tables and chairs outside, oven on, flick lights. The daily cheese and bread deliveries arrive – Sardinian Pecorino, Taleggio, Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, Hereford Hop, sourdough, rye, ciabatta – just as I’m making myself a double-shot cappuccino to drink in the last bit of peace on my doorstep.
Brixtonians rush past on their way to the tube, with cheery waves. My moment is broken by the first telephone call of the morning – Alice. ‘What shall I cook for my date tonight?’ (She’s excited, so I’m thinking risotto with black pudding and ice cream drowned in espresso.) By this point I’m juggling, squeezing lemons for the daily batch of houmous with the phone wedged between my shoulder and cheek. My first early customers, the loyal Bharat and superwoman Kylie Morris, arrive, armed with newspapers and requesting their morning soya lattes.
As I steam their milk, I’m mulling over what salad to make this morning. Vietnamese carrot and peanuts, nutty brown rice with seeds, or couscous with mint and feta? And as they eat their toast with mackerel pâté, I’m wondering what will soothe my weariness tonight. Baked polenta, beans on toast or boquerones? Mum is calling. Have I got time to pick up the phone before the next customers descend? ‘Oh darling, you’ll never guess what we had for supper last night…’ Asparagus from her garden. The day is truly in swing now. I’m navigating cooking, serving breakfasts and all the usual flurry of telephone calls, Daddy’s usual herbal tea and the ordering, when I drop my ciabatta…a curly-haired boy has just ambled in…And how shall I woo you with my wares?
DAWN CHORUS
Foods for the first wave of a hangover, or just to start the day with a bang, when you need some morning loving or have a dawn appetite. These breakfast recipes hail from the deli, my travels and a frugal upbringing. Favourite morning foods. Starting the day with an egg is surely one of life’s best treats. But sometimes we crave something more wholesome, to kick-start the morning and give sustained energy, like porridge or muesli. I often make a vat of muesli, which keeps me going for a few months and is a good economy drive when I’m a bit stumped for cash.
It all rather depends on who you’re with and how you’re feeling, and what’s actually in the fridge: hangovers usually demand fried foods like Rupert’s eggy bread, but friends for breakfast could prompt some steaming sweet muffins. My mum says breakfast is the best meal of the day, which it certainly is at her big oak table, with her homemade yoghurt, popovers, marmalade and bread and fragrant coffees.
Each country has its own take on breakfast too, often revolving around the glorious egg. I never tire of the magical egg. Egg-fried noodles on the Khao San Road in Bangkok, eggs Benedict in London, oeufs en cocotte in France. An omelette is one of my favourite ways to use up leftover vegetables.
Some of the recipes, however, like soda bread and muesli, require some pre-planning to stand you in good economical stead during the week. Other breakfast recipes will be more for that weekend drawn-out brunch affair, like the ultimate sausage sandwich along with a big cafetière. Many of these recipes are just as good for a last-minute supper or a lovers’ midnight feast. And of course the bread (on page 12) is fantastic as an addition to every meal of the day.
Muesli
Makes about enough for 30 breakfast sittings
Muesli is such a great breakfast hero. You will start the day with health and happiness. It’s wholesome, and I like it with lots of wheat flakes. My mum used to add cream to every cereal we ate, but I’m managing to restrain myself here, in favour of cutting up crunchy apple and sweet banana and spooning tart yoghurt on top. If you make a vat of this, you can keep it jarred up in the cupboard and it works out so much cheaper than buying packets of the stuff. And it can last up to six months – well, that’s if you still have any left after that long.
You will need a really serious piece of Tupperware to store this.
250g coconut flakes
3 tablespoons golden caster sugar
1kg jumbo oats
700g golden currants
1kg wheat flakes
First of all heat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Lay out the coconut flakes on a large baking tray and scatter over the caster sugar. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the flakes are toasty and golden – keep checking them, as they are easily burnt. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, measure out the oats, currants and wheat flakes and pour into your big container. Give them a thorough mix around. This is best done by sealing the container and jiggling it around, like a barman with a cocktail shaker. When the coconut is cool, add it to the muesli and give it another good shake to distribute.
For 1 Bulky Breakfast Sitting
1 cup of your homemade muesli
1 small Braeburn apple
1 banana
1 tablespoon natural yoghurt
1 dessertspoon runny honey
2 tablespoons full-fat milk
Measure out the muesli into a bowl. Core the apple and slice it into 8 pieces, which you then again cut into little bits over the muesli. Then slice over the banana and pile on the yoghurt, honey and milk. I eat this in bed, with mint tea.
Pancetta & Quail’s Egg Tart
Makes 6 squares
I think I snitched this from a magazine, because it looks so beautiful and clever and is actually very simple to make on a Saturday morning in the deli. There are two ways my trusty customers devour this: either they grab a slice on the run, as if from a pizza stand, or they eat a square with a spinach and olive salad, more as a brunch. It’s a versatile tart. I’ve also made it for a light supper, along with a good Sunday night film, because it’s easy-peasy.
The quail’s eggs are just so lovable for their dinkiness. Being made of pancetta and these mini eggs means that the tart needs a little preplanning. Chinese supermarkets sell quail’s eggs, as do good butchers and niche delis. Smoked pancetta is also sold at good delis, preserved along with herbs and peppercorns. So it’s the kind of thing to cook if you know in advance that you are having a sleepover or want to impress a guest. Slice it into squares, if you are all on the run first thing, as I do in the deli. Regarding the puff pastry, I prefer the ready-rolled kind, but the thicker slabs are more widely available. It depends what you can get your hands on.
250g puff pastry (defrosting bought ready-rolled puff pastry will take 11/2 hours)
some plain flour for rolling
10 thin slices of smoked pancetta
6 cherry tomatoes
a little full-fat milk for glazing
6 quail’s eggs
Preheat your oven to 160°C/Gas 2. Ideally, you will have bought ready-rolled pastry. If not, roll out the pastry slab on a floured surface so that it is big enough to cover a baking tray that measures about 20 × 30cm. Spread the pastry out over the baking tray so that it comes right up to the edges. Lay the pancetta on the pastry, leaving a couple of centimetres clear all the way round which you should then incise with a sharp knife so that the pastry can rise around the pancetta to form a crust. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and lay them on top of the pancetta, cut side up. Using your fingers (or a pastry brush if you have one), wipe a little milk around the pastry edge to help it brown. Place the tart in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges are puffing up around the pancetta and browning just a little. (You may need to further incise the pastry to release so that it can puff, after it’s been in the oven for 5 minutes.)
Remove the tart from the oven and carefully crack the quail’s eggs evenly over the pancetta layer (the shells have much more give than our more familiar brittle chicken shells). Return to the oven for just long enough for the eggs to solidify, which will be 4 or 5 minutes. The pancetta should now be getting crisp and dark too. It is a matter of a few minutes, though, so keep a close eye on the oven.
When the tart is ready, slice it into 6 pieces with a sharp knife. It is at its best when the yolks are still soft in the middle, and ooze out over the pancetta in your hands.
Cinnamon Toast
Makes 6 slices
My brother Olly and I loved The Pooh Cook Book when we were little. The wording was great; all about ‘Smackerels, Elevenses and Teas’. I love those weird made-up words. Alice (my beautiful partner in crime) and I use ‘melge’, which really means to mix, and mush and marinade, but it’s our own more onomatopoeic version.
Mum amazingly let us make a mess and get enthusiastic about cooking even at this level. I hope I do the same with my children, as we definitely had a good time beating butter, licking bowls and watching cakes rise through tinted oven glass. This cinnamon toast is a classic. All you need to do is make a flavoured butter and lather it over what you have to hand, bagels, buns, toast, whatever. The butter keeps for ages in the fridge, so if you make a big batch, you have midnight feasts covered too.
150g unsalted butter
100g golden caster sugar
35g ground cinnamon brown bread for toasting
Leave the butter out for a few hours at room temperature, to soften in a large mixing bowl. Then gradually cream in the sugar and cinnamon with a sturdy fork until it is a homogeneous paste. Alternatively, you can whiz it all up by using the pulse mode of a blender, if you have one. Decant the butter into a small pudding basin, toast your toast, and lather on the sweet, flavoured butter.
Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam
For 2
This comes originally from the little deli I first worked in, in Rotherhithe. It was set right by the Thames, and was a dream world of fun with fellow delistress Lulu, fantastic evenings of cooking and dancing. She taught me how to woo in an apron. These creamy eggs were a best-seller there, and are in my shop too. It’s so cherished that on a Saturday morning it’s pretty much all we make. The chilli jam surprises everyone, as the sweet spiciness works just right with the velvety eggs. I use Tracklements, but if pushed, sweet chilli sauce would do. It’s the ultimate hangover cure according to my oldest girlfriend, Doctor Helen, combined with a feisty Fentiman’s ginger beer, a macchiato, and a sparkling water, all consumed in unison by those in the know. Sometimes I make it mid-afternoon for a snack too.
6 medium free-range eggs
200ml single cream a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt
1 ciabatta loaf butter for the ciabatta
4 fine slices of prosciutto
2 tablespoons chilli jam freshly ground black pepper
Crack the eggs into a microwaveable bowl. Lightly beat them with the cream and salt, so that there are still some defined yellow and white bits. Slice the ciabatta and place under a low grill, dough side up, in order to crisp up and lightly brown. Place the eggs in the microwave for 1 minute. With a fork, scrape around the edges of the bowl and break up any firmer bits. Return it to the microwave for another minute and repeat the process. It may need a further 20 seconds. Be careful not to overcook the eggs. They should be creamy and delicious and lightly risen, which, remarkably, the microwave is perfect for. They continue cooking once they are removed from the bowl, so if in doubt, do slightly undercook them.
If you do not own or prefer not to use a microwave, making them old-school style is great too. For this, melt a little extra butter in a medium pan. Beat together the eggs, cream and salt while the butter is slowly warming. Add this to the pan, and continually stir with a flat-ended wooden spoon to keep pulling up the cooked layers of egg that are created at the bottom of the pan. When the eggs are still pretty liquid but forming enticing sunny lumps, remove from the heat to sit for a few minutes. Just as with the microwave method, the eggs will continue cooking even when removed from the heat. And so, by removing them early, this is how to get them perfectly creamy and not overdone.
Once removed from the grill, lather the ciabatta with butter, arrange on two plates with the prosciutto and chilli jam, and divide the eggs between the plates. Scrunch over a hefty dose of ground black pepper for seriously perfect eggs.
Mum’s Seedy Soda Bread
Makes 2 loaves
Soda bread is a wonderful cheat’s bread. It makes for an encouraging initiation into the world of baking, so get cracking. My mother skilfully leavened abundant firm loaves practically daily, decorated with beautiful wheatears and laden with seeds. But for me, it felt like a whole other level of kitchen excellence, slightly out of my reach. By its very nature, soda bread does not require all the leavening and kneading of a normal yeast loaf, so don’t be shy. And once you can see the texture that it needs to be, sloppy but nutty, like a moist porridge, you can be free to throw in whatever you want: poppy seeds, dried herbs, sesame seeds, olives, pumpkin seeds. And you can substitute the sugar here with good honey, for a deeper flavour. Making two loaves, you can put one in the freezer for a rainy day, but if you just want to bake one loaf, divide the quantities below in half.
Of course there’s something deeply impressive about baking your own bread, so I frequently find myself making Mum’s soda bread when I’ve got people over for dinner. It’s so easy: make the bread first (as soon as you get in the door), and while it’s in the oven you’ll have time to prepare some other knick-knacks for dinner. It’s particularly delicious with my favourite salmon and fennel pâté (see page 95) and a crunchy salad. And incidentally, it’s slightly lower in gluten due to the spelt flour.
a small knob of butter
200g wholemeal flour, plus a little more for dusting the bread tins
300g spelt flour
4 tablespoons bran
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
Maldon sea salt
1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
100g linseeds
565ml semi-skimmed milk (milk on the turn is even better)
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Butter two traditional 900g bread tins (about 19 × 11cm) and then lightly flour each one, banging it around so that the base and sides are lightly dusted. Set these aside. Measure out the flours, bran, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, sugar and seeds into a big mixing bowl. With a fork toss around to evenly distribute the flours and seeds. Then measure out the milk and gradually mix it in with the fork. It should look sloppy, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look how you imagine bread dough to be. The reason it is so wet is so that it makes for a really deep flavour, once everything has been dehydrated by the baking process.
Turn this mix out evenly between the two bread tins, which will require you to use a spatula to get all the liquidy cakey mix out. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. It should have risen by this point and be crisp and cracking on the top. Then turn the oven down to 170°C/Gas 3 and continue baking for a further hour and 10 minutes.
Once removed from the oven, turn out the loaves on to a cooling rack for an hour. If they are baked right, they should make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. These loaves are best when they have been cooled for a few hours or overnight. Eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner with unsalted butter.
Soda Bread with Tomato & Oregano
Makes 1 loaf
100g white flour
150g wholemeal flour
11/2 tablespoons bran
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 handfuls of sesame seeds
1 dessertspoon honey
1 tablespoon tomato purée
150ml full-fat milk
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Follow the directions above, adding the tomato purée to the milk to dissolve it. Then mix the milk into all the dry ingredients as normal and bake for an extra 20 minutes to dry out any excess moisture.
Rupert’s New York Eggy Bread with Bacon & Maple Syrup
For 2
In New York for a decadent long weekend, I gorged on those famed diner breakfasts and my good friend Rupert immediately leapt to the forefront of my mind. When we lived together in Edinburgh, he’d emerge from his cupboard-like room at 1 p.m., saunter down to the shop and buy his essential breakfast ingredients, and offer up this fantastic creation to whoever was disclosing their woes at our kitchen table.
This early morning dish has all the abundance of a New York start, with the thick sweetness of syrup and saltiness of bacon. (There’s something really great about sweet things like maple syrup with bacon. Actually almost anything sweet with pork is a winner: honey, apples, plum sauce, a sugar glaze with cloves…) According to heroic food writer Jake Tilson, ‘For a Breakfast lover, visiting New York is like finding the source of the Nile.’ That amazing American abundance: never-ending weak coffee, and sticky jugs of maple syrup at every table. This breakfast combines both Rupert’s loving moniker, and that distinctive New York flavour.
4 large free-range eggs
1 coffee-sized cup of full-fat milk
freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 slices of really soft fresh white bloomer
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
maple syrup
Find a wide flat-bottomed bowl or serving dish, and in it beat together the eggs, milk, pepper and salt. You will need to get two frying pans hot and at the ready. If possible, a bigger one for the bread, and a smaller one for the bacon. Divide the vegetable oil between these pans. Allow 2 of the slices of bread to soak in the egg bowl and drink up a quarter of the beaten egg. When the oil is quivering, begin by frying the rashers in the small pan. Turn the slices of bread over and coat again to absorb a further quarter of the egg mix. Add the 2 slices to the bigger of the pans, and get the other 2 slices of bread soaking in the same way so that all the egg is equally absorbed. Now add these to the larger bread pan. Sizzle each side of the bread slices, while keeping an eye on the bacon. The bacon should be beginning to brown and crisp at the edges. When the bread slices are browned as well, and slightly swollen and risen, remove to a plate and top with the crisp bacon and lots of maple syrup. Have it with strong tea, and a good gas.
Omelette with Potatoes, Peperoncino, Tomatoes & Cheese
For 3 hungry friends or 4 abstemious ones
Mostly because we were never flush, but also because he rightly hates waste, my father had the habit of frying up leftovers. This did lead to some serious disasters along the way. My brother Olly and I still giggle over his duck skin stew! However, leftovers can be a great addition to a morning omelette: a little remaining tomato sauce? Peppers on the turn? Slightly dry Cheddar? Daddy’s old schoolfriend Giles even recently wrote to him about the merits of leftover angelfish curry in an omelette.
Here I use cooked potatoes. They could be little new ones, cold mashed or just boiled from the night before. They would all work. The dried chilli flakes are a great storecupboard essential, and, added here, will really wake you up. I bought a few jars of peperoncino when I was in Italy, but you can get little bags of these chilli flakes in good old-fashioned continental delis too. I most recently made this spiced omelette with Raf for our super-cool adopted DJ son, Toddla T, after a night out at the Grecoroman Sonic Wrestling party. The chilli flakes were our tonic. It hardly needs to be mentioned that an omelette is also an excellent last-minute dinner. When I’m back a little late, it’s what I cook up. You too will be sated in a matter of minutes.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
200g cherry tomatoes or about 3 ripe plum tomatoes
400g cooked potato, either boiled or mashed
1 teaspoon peperoncino (chilli flakes)
6 medium free-range eggs
100g Gouda or any really melty cheese
freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
a healthy handful of rocket or spinach
Find a large heavy-bottomed frying pan and begin warming the olive oil on a low heat. Meanwhile get all the vegetables prepared: peel and finely chop the onion, cut the tomatoes in half, and if need be further slice the potatoes so that they are in about 2cm cubes. Add the onions to the pan and let them sweat until they are turning transparent. Now add the tomatoes and sweat for a further few minutes along with the peperoncino, stirring all the while. When the tomato skins are beginning to split, add the cooked potatoes.
In a bowl, beat the eggs thoroughly and then grate in half the cheese. When the potatoes are hot through, pour in the egg mixture and season well. Tumble the rocket over the top of the omelette, followed by the remaining cheese. Keep heating the omelette on the hob until it is drying out at the edges, which should take a few minutes.
Meanwhile turn the grill on to a low setting. Place the omelette under the grill so that it is just sealed on top, which will take about 2 minutes. You still want some soft creamy egg in the middle. Slice into 3 or 4 pieces and dish up with some Dijon mustard.
Fried Bread with Sweet Chilli Sauce
For 2
When we lived together at university, Anna and I frequently felt…a little tender. We’d set ourselves up good and proper for a day of vegging. Still in our pyjamas, we would go down to the shop to buy bumper amounts of juice, cheap bread and sweet chilli sauce, to accompany an array of high-school movies and a day’s hilarity. Really, we were making our own fun, because we were just too broke to order a takeaway. This became our substitute for sesame prawn toast and those exciting hot tinfoil boxes of Chinese delights. They really hit the spot in a gross and junky way, which is sometimes exactly what we needed to indulge ourselves.
4 slices of corner-shop bread
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
Carefully slice the crusts off the slices of bread. Heat the vegetable oil in a big frying pan on a medium flame. When the oil is rippling, dip a corner of the bread into it to check that it sizzles. Providing it does, add the 4 pieces of trimmed bread and fry until golden and crisp. Turn them over to do the same on the other side. Pour out the sweet chilli sauce into a ramekin and set aside ready for the dipping. When the bread has absorbed the oil and is stiff and golden on both sides, remove from the pan and, on a wooden chopping board, slice each piece into soldiers. Scoop these into the sweet chilli sauce, and munch immediately. There you have our fakery. For best results repeat this dish a few times throughout a long and lazy day.
Mum’s Piping Popovers
Makes 6 to 8 popovers
Popovers are another of my mother’s great brekka additions. She caught her obsession for these sweet Yorkshire puddings at her sister Judith’s house, and has made them ever since. If we found out that they were on the breakfast menu, my brother and I were up early and eager and at the table, armed with knives and forks. The hole in the centre of the popover is filled with a knob of butter and a generous splash of maple syrup. The most exciting bit is when you pull them open, and the unctuous saccharine river oozes out from them.
115g plain flour
a pinch of salt
a little freshly grated nutmeg
2 medium free-range eggs
215ml full-fat milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
butter and maple syrup, to serve
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7 and place a deep muffin tray in the oven to warm right up. If you are using a liquidiser, put the flour, salt, nutmeg, eggs and milk into the bowl or jug, and give it a good whiz, so that it is a smooth batter. If you are using a whisk, start by beating the eggs in a big jug or mixing bowl. Then add a little of the milk before adding the flour, salt and nutmeg. Loosen it again with the rest of the milk.
Take out the piping hot tray, pour a little oil into each hole, and return to really hot up in the oven. This will take about 5 minutes. Then pour the batter into each hole, about halfway up because they will rise. They will sizzle and start to cook the minute they hit the oily hole. Return the tray straight away to the oven, turning the temperature down to 170°C/Gas 3, and bake for 20 minutes, by which time they will look like little Yorkshire puddings. They should be, according to my mum, ‘puffy, crisp and hollow inside’. To serve, place a little knob of butter into each sunken centre, along with a glug of maple syrup.
Australian Marmalade Muffins
Makes 8 muffins
Marmalade and muffins are both time-honoured components of a breakfast, and are happily joined under the same umbrella in this clever recipe. Whilst in Australia I learnt a lot about a decent breakfast: muffins and cupcakes, savoury pastries and delectable coffees. I picked up this winner too. While we are on the subject of Australia, I swear by the Australian Woman’s Weekly books. They are not only reasonably priced magazine-style books, but really comprehensive and much more adventurous than you may think at first. They span national to mood foods, and are never too expensive if you fancy getting your head around a new issue in the kitchen.
These are magnificent breakfast treats packed with marmalade and are best straight out of the oven, first thing. So when I make them in the deli, they don’t last long on the cake-stand. They are particularly good with a well-brewed pot of tea. And the trick with muffins, for that lovely risen and cracking top, is not to over-combine the mixture in the final stages. This means that they are best made, really, in a slapdash fashion, which is lucky.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
125g softened butter
300g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 orange
2 medium free-range eggs
150g caster sugar
2 tablespoons thick-cut marmalade (preferably my mum’s dark one)
125ml full-fat milk
Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 2. Using a pastry brush or some oiled kitchen towel, grease each hole in a muffin tray with a little vegetable oil. Measure the butter, flour and baking powder into a big mixing bowl. Quickly rub them together, as you would when making pastry, lightly with the tips of your fingers. Now grate the zest of the orange into this. Beat the eggs together in a cup, and roughly add to the flour mix with a knife. Then roughly stir in the sugar, marmalade and milk with speed. Do not over-mix, or it will become too homogenised.
Turn the mix out equally into the muffin tray, but do not overload the holes, as they really do rise. Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until just firm and steaming. You can also check them by plunging a toothpick into the middle of one. If the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready, but if there is any liquid or cake mix clinging to it, they need a few more minutes. Remove to a cooling rack by releasing each muffin with a fruit knife, and cool for a few minutes before dishing them up with a big pot of tea.
Porridge with Golden Currants & Muscovado Sugar
For 2
Word has it that oats are a superfood (which means, for me, merely that it keeps the wolf from the door). And porridge is one of those delicious breakfasts that not only keeps your energy up but in winter keeps you warm on the inside too, rather like a hot bath. This is very useful if you start the day at the bus stop in the cold. When customers come into Rosie’s looking a little sorry for themselves, I usually suggest a big bowl of steaming porridge, to ward off the morning misery.
The golden currants are a sweet addition, and the muscovado sugar gives it that treacle-like rich depth. The timing of porridge rather depends on the oats. If you use the coarse nutty kind, it will take longer to homogenise. If you use finer, flourier packaged supermarket oats, it should take a little less time to achieve this comforting and maternal dish.
100g wholegrain rolled oats
500ml full-fat milk
a pinch of table salt
100g golden currants
2 dessertspoons muscovado sugar
Measure out the oats into a small pan along with the milk. Add a pinch of salt and put the pan on the smallest ring on the hob. Rapidly heat for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until it looks deliciously nutty and gluey. Take it off the heat for a moment to settle, before dishing out into bowls and topping with the light currants and dark sugar. You may want to wash the porridge down with a little extra cold milk.
Gazpacho for a Barcelona Morning
Makes a big bowl or about 8 mugs
The first time I tasted gazpacho was at Laurie Castelli’s house. He was one of the first to discover my little deli in Brixton, and so then we were new friends. He now lives in Colombia with his beautiful son and wife, but at the time he lived on crack alley, Rushcroft Road. He lured me over to his stylishly minimal flat to try his brother Gian Castelli’s impeccable cold tomato soup. I left with the offer of a ride on his Moto Guzzi, a cinema date at the ICA, and a delicious taste for this perfect Spanish pick-me-up. As it’s a soup, it’s an unusual choice for breakfast, but trust me, this will wake you up, and cleanse you too. Because the vegetables are all raw, it feels incredibly medicinal.
The next time I came across gazpacho was in Barcelona. My friend Lovely Linda, who was heavily pregnant with Leo at the time, downed a carton of this each morning. And when I tried it too, it made perfect sense. But feel free to drink it at any time of day: in little glasses as a summer starter; in thimbles accompanying a light supper; or as a mid-afternoon reviver. And the trick with Gian’s gazpacho is the use of ground cumin, giving it a Moorish edge. Beware, though, I’ve bust a few blenders masticating this soup. It’s pretty hard to pulverise.
1kg ripe red tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 medium cucumber
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
120ml extra virgin olive oil (for posterity’s sake, Spanish, if you can find it), plus a little more for drizzling over at the end
21/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Find a really big mixing bowl to decant each of the ingredients into once they have been prepared: roughly chop the tomatoes into eighths; deseed the pepper and slice into strips; peel and roughly chop the cucumber, complete with seeds; peel and dice the onion and peel and chop the garlic cloves. Pour the extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar and cumin into the bowl and mix everything up with your hands. If you have a strong hand-held blender, give it a really good purée, but it’s better still if you have a Magimix, which you can decant the lot into and pulse away on.
When it is a smooth thick soup, you are ready for the next stage. Find a large sieve, place it over another large mixing bowl and pour the gazpacho into it (though Raf recently picked me up an amazing mouli-légumes in Barcelona, which is the real deal in blending a perfect gazpacho). With a metal spoon or a spatula work the soup through the sieve so that it becomes ultimately smooth. You will need to scrape the bottom of the sieve from time to time, to remove the thicker bits. By the end, you will be left with just the woody parts of the vegetables and seeds in the sieve, which you can then discard. Now give the silky gazpacho a thorough mix with a whisk, and season according to your taste, with a little sugar to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes, and also pepper and salt. Serve with a few ice cubes in each mug and a drizzle of excellent Spanish extra virgin olive oil.
Raspberry Risen Pancakes with Clotted Cream
Makes 10 pancakes
These should really be cooked on a griddle pan, like my mum has, but I’m still fruitlessly trying to prise it away from her. A griddle pan is one of those entirely flat iron pans that has a handle running up and over and round to the other side, almost looking like one half of a weight and measure. And because I don’t have this wonderful tool, and you probably won’t either, I just cook them in a big flat frying pan. The warm raspberries are absolutely delicious with thick clotted cream, and are reminiscent of a good old-fashioned cream tea. I’d just as easily cook these for pudding, with some delicious vanilla ice cream to serve.
British raspberries are in season during July and August, so this is naturally a summer brekka. If you stumble upon a good supply during these months, buy a fair few punnets and freeze whatever is surplus to your requirements. Raspberries lend themselves very well to freezing, and your conscience will be clear too. At other times of the year, you may choose to vary the topping. In deepest winter, try finely sliced ripe pears as a substitute.
1 medium free-range egg
130g self-raising flour
50g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
150ml full-fat milk
2 tablespoons butter
170g raspberries
a dusting of icing sugar clotted cream
Preheat the oven to 100°C/Gas 1/4. Line an ovenproof serving dish with a clean drying-up cloth, and place in the oven to warm gently. You will decant each batch of pancakes on to this to keep warm. Thoroughly beat the egg in a mixing bowl. I use my lipped batter bowl, but a wide jug would also do. Add half the flour, the sugar, salt and baking powder, beating with a whisk. This will form a thick elastic batter. Then add the milk, making sure there are no lumps but that the batter is now light and smooth. Now add the remaining flour. It may need a little water to loosen it further. The consistency should be thick but creamy and entirely lumpless. Set aside for an hour if you can stand the temptation, as this makes for a better pancake in the end.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter, or some vegetable oil, in a large flat-bottomed frying pan, so that it is silky with fat but not verging into deep-frying territory. Allow the fat to become melted and hot and slippy when the pan is tilted, and then pour out some batter, or add a spoonful of the batter if you are using a bowl, and drop over this 6 or 8 raspberries. The pancakes should be about the diameter of a wine bottle. You will get 2 or 3 in the pan. Allow them to really brown and go golden on the bottom. They are ready to turn when the top side is bubbling and beginning to firm up around the berries. Flip each one over with a heatproof spatula or palette knife, and colour the other side. They should rise a little and firm up, and each side should take just over a minute. Remove to the warm dish before going on to the next batch. They are best after 10 minutes drying out in the warm oven. Finally dust the pancakes generously with some icing sugar if you like. Serve with a smudge of clotted cream on each.
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