Rocket Salad, Poached Egg, Toasted Pearled Barley, Grilled Seville Orange and Bacon

So

I saw a recipe online for spinach salad, feta, toasted farro, grilled onions and calabrian chillies and I wanted it. Even with a title as long and ridiculous as that, I thought it sounded seriously edible and properly substantial even for a wet night in February. I think it was the idea of toasting the farro presumably to make it rich in flavour and to give some overall warmth to balance the slightly bitter metallic flavour of the spinach. And, you know I don't use feta enough and I am totally thoroughly in love with blackened onions, hot or cold but best of all just below warm.

But

I didn't have any farro, and the lovely posh Italian shop at Mercato Metropolitano only had it as a mix for soup. Didn't have feta either or, for that matter, any spinach. The salad bowl was looking potentially bleak.

However

I did have some pearled barley, and half a bag of wild rocket that needed using, eggs because I always have eggs and an airtight tub of toasted pumpkin seeds. Plus there were a couple of pointy peppers that might add a sweet note and a fab flash of colour. To counterbalance the peppers I decided to grill slices of seville orange for a bitter caramel note. And I  thought of bacon - because everything tastes better with bacon.

And

Of course I had no onions but the shop round the corner had bright bunches of spring onions. It was far too cold/dark/bleak/generallyFebruary to cook outside so I dragged the ridged cast iron pan from the bottom of the drawer and thereby set about making an entirely different dinner.

Barley, Rocket and Grilled Orange Salad

Serves 2 for dinner with enough over for lunches next day

250g pearled barley
1 bay leaf
2 pointy red peppers
1 Seville orange
6 spring onions
3 rashers of bacon
A couple of generous handfuls of rocket
A tablespoon of toasted pumpkin seeds
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 eggs

Spread the barley out across a flat oven tray and toast in the oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for about ten minutes till the grain colours lightly and smells a bit toasty. I have to say I'm not convinced it had any noticeable contribution to the flavour of the barley so feel free to skip this step if it seems like a faff.

Tip the (toasted or not) barley into a saucepan, add water to cover by a couple of inches, drop in the bayleaf and cook over a medium heat until it comes to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the barely until fairly tender but still with a bit of resistance. This will take about 30 minutes - add a generous teaspoon of salt halfway through. Drain and set aside.

While the barley cooks, roast the peppers whole in the oven at 200C/400F/Gas 5 for 20 minutes or so, turning occasionally, until the skins are blackened and blistered. Put them into a small bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm. The steam will loosen the skins further making them easy to peel. When they are cool enough to handle, strip the skin away and discard it along with the seeds. Cut the flesh into finger sized strips and tip into a large salad bowl.

Heat the grill pan over a high flame. Cut slices across the orange, about the thickness of a thick pound coin, including the skin saving as much of the juice as you can in a small bowl. Discard the many seeds. Brush each slice with olive oil and lay them out in the hot pan to sear, turning them after a couple of minutes to caramelise the other side. Put the cooked slices into the salad bowl till they're cool enough to handle, then cut them into 1 centimetre squares and return to the bowl with the peppers.

Cut the base and scraggy tops off the spring onions and cut each one in half from top to bottom, brush the cut sides with olive oil and put them into the hot pan. Griddle till they start to blacken, turn

them over and cook the other side. Drop them into the bowl with  the peppers and orange.

Next cook the bacon rashers in the hot griddle pan till they crisp as much as you like. Leave them to cool in the salad bowl, then cut into 1 centimetre strips and return to the bowl.

Add the cooked, drained barley and the rocket to the salad bowl. Whisk the olive oil and sherry vinegar into the orange juice you saved earlier (you did remember that, didn't you 😌) and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss the salad with the dressing - taste and adjust the

seasoning if necessary.

Poach the eggs till the whites are just set and the yolk remains runny. Serve the salad into 2 bowls and top each with a poached egg and a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds.

Dinner is done.

If you go for leftovers for lunch next day - and I would recommend it - it's very good topped with a sliced boiled egg.

Chard Bacon & Mushroom Salad

Click to  make full screen and see how easily this salad goes together

Have developed a real passion for chard but I must admit I don't actually know how to pronounce  the word. Is it chard like a splinter of glass or chard like a bit burnt round the edges? What's even weirder  is which ever way I say it it sounds wrong, so I try the other version and - same problem.

What I am certain of is that it is a great veg shredded and cooked down with lashings of butter for a side dish, stirred into lentils and stews for lots of added minerals and the fibre that gives it its wonderful texture, stirred into noodle soups and stir fries or eaten raw in salads like this one. The lovely Gwynnie and the clean eating brigade like it juiced - and I concur, it's a great addiction in small quantities.

Chard is also a town in Somerset with its own museum, but remains unrelated to the leafy vegetable.

I had a bag of it from my veg delivery last week - another thing in its favour is it lives happily in the fridge for a week without turning to slime - and knew salad was the way to go as joy oh joy the sun was shining. Proper balmy days. I had some mushrooms too, as well as radish I bought mostly to add a kick to my morning juice. No beetroot but this is a template, you really can use what you have so long as there's something that can be sliced and cooked and added hot to wilt the leaves a little. The hot stuff I went at with enthusiasm, because bacon is great with mushrooms and with eggs and a poached egg makes it a more substantial meal. Add crusty bread and that's dinner.

Chard Mushroom & Bacon Salad

This is such an easy recipe to adapt, use chorizo instead of bacon or leave out the  bacon altogether and cook the mushrooms in oil, use different nuts and salad vegetables, turn the bread into garlic croutons, it all works.

For 2

200g chard leaves
1 tablespoon basil oil or olive oil
100g smoked bacon, cut into small cubes
150g mushrooms, wiped  clean and sliced
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Handful of radish, washed and quartered
Handful of walnuts, roughly broken into largish pieces
2 eggs
Bread and butter to serve

Tear the soft leaves from the thick stems of chard and wash thoroughly. Shred the leaves and put them into a large salad bowl then add the oil and a large pinch of salt and massage that into the leaves. Leave it for 20 minutes or so and the leaves will soften slightly.

In a dry pan fry the bacon over a gentle heat till the fat rends and turns crisply gold. Add the sliced mushrooms and stir to coat in the bacon fat then cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes or so until the mushrooms have softened and given up some of their juice. Tip the hot bacon and mushrooms into the chard, keeping back as much of the liquid as possible and put the pan back on the heat. Deglaze with the balsamic vinegar and tip the hot mixture over the salad. Toss well then add the raw radish and walnuts and toss again.

Heat a small pan of water and poach the eggs till the whites are set and the yolk still runny.

Divide the salad between two bowls, top each with a poached egg and have crusty bread on the side.

Enjoy!

Torta Pasqualina

Easter Egg Pie

Easter is all about celebrating spring and new life and the return of light and colour to the world after the bleakness and chill of a long dark winter. With four days off it's celebrated in a proper way, with time to make plans and do stuff and eat well. And eggs, of course. Easter is definitely about the eggs.

I had been vaguely thinking of roasting some lamb for the weekend, gently spiced perhaps with lots of roasted veg with plenty of meat leftover to add to butter bean mash and roasted peppers all the better to stuff wraps for easy eating. Not very eggy, tis true but definitely spring like. Then I read about this Italian Easter Pie and it stirred a vague memory of wanting to try it once and never getting round to it. I am a big fan of eggs whichever way you serve them and I was really taken with the idea of  the richish leafy cheese base studded with whole eggs before baking. I have signed up for a weekly veg box and this week there was spinach and spring onions amongst the treasure as well as radish and carrots for a crunchy salad. Perhaps the time had come.

In its original form it is a slightly complex construction with a lot of recipes assuming you will make the filo pastry. Seriously! They sell it ready made - rolled, boxed, frozen - in all good supermarkets and specialist food shops. For the true afficionado there should be 33 sheets of it, one for each year of Christ's life, plus a dozen eggs inserted, one for each of the apostles. I decided to simplify that bit of it too, but I definitely kept to the spirit of the pie and I'm glad to say it turned out beautifully.

In Italy it is made and served at the Easter Monday picnic - love the assumption that of course you will picnic on your day off. With all the eggs and greens and herby freshness this is a good dish for the whole of spring, I think, not just an Easter treat.

Torta Pasqualina

I used tarragon in the mix because I had some that needed using and it worked a treat though most recipes suggest marjoram and/or parsley,

25g dried mushrooms
1kg fresh spinach, big stalks discarded
50 butter
1 bunch spring onions, green and white parts chopped into small rings
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon - or marjoram or parsley
250g fresh ricotta
100g Parmesan, finely grated
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
8 eggs
Generous quantities of salt and pepper
250g packet filo pastry
2 tablespoons olive oil

Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water for 20 minutes or so until they have softened. Drain and discard the soaking water.

Wash the spinach in plenty of cold water numerous times until all the dirt is gone. Melt half the butter in a large pan and add the still wet spinach, cover with a lid and turn the heat down. After a couple of minutes give it a stir to help it wilt and collapse then drain in a colander and allow to cool. Working with one small handful at a time, squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach then chop roughly. Put all the chopped spinach into a big bowl.

Melt the rest of the butter in the pan and add the mushrooms, frying for a few minutes till they take on the richness of the butter. Allow to cool a bit then chop the mushrooms finely and add them to the chopped spinach along with the spring onions, tarragon, ricotta, two thirds of the grated Parmesan, the nutmeg and 2 eggs and mix the lot into a rich green creamy slurry. Season generously.

Grease a 30cm spring form cake tin with a little olive oil then start to layer with a couple of sheets of filo, brushing each sheet with olive oil as you go. After 4 layers of pastry spoon in the spinach mixture then make six deep indentations with the back of a spoon. Carefully crack an egg and drop it into the first hole without breaking the yolk then do it five more times with the rest of the eggs till all the indentations are filled. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan over the yolks.

Gently cover the pie with the next sheet of filo, brush it with oil and continue till all the pastry is used, brushing the top with a good quantity of oil so that the pie will crisp up while it cooks.

Heat the oven to 180C and cook the pie for about an hour, till the filling is richly fragrant and the pastry is golden. Take it out of the oven and put it onto a wire rack, then carefully undo the catch on the spring form and take the outer circle off. Let the pie cool a bit - or completely - and serve with salad.

This Week I Wanted, I Bought, I Made

Feel I did okay on the starting to use stuff whilst actually still having some new and interesting food last week, though many things didn't quite materialise. Undeterred I have a plan for the week, actually using some of the leftover plan from last week!

Friday night I think cold collation with little olive choux buns. Ha! How about cold collation with fresh crusty bread from the market? Was good but the bread was much better as toast next morning.

Saturday the man is working so will continue the freezer theme and have pheasant braised with celery and mash for a tasty end to his day. Really good dinner, the pheasant sauce is finished with cream - from the freezer - and egg yolk for a sumptuous sauce. 

Potatoes are heritage ones from Oval market, and purply blue all the way through. Looked *interesting* tasted great. Sunday I really fancy lasagne - I have a tub of white sauce, a block of Pecorino and some beef mince in the freezer and tomatoes and pasta in the cupboard. Served with a big green salad, think it will be lovely for lunches too.

Thoroughly yum.

Monday I fancy soup, probably broccoli and sesame which I've been wondering about for a little while. This is where it started to fall apart - managed to develop a full on head cold that somehow is not going anywhere. So, luckily, there was lasagne already made, and a fine tea it was.




Tuesday omelette and salad, went for the blackeye bean salsa - so glad I did, it was really good - with roasted onion and green bean salad and some tasty Ginger Pig sausages.

Wednesday I'll use the tub of spiced lamb stock from the freezer to make curry with rice and spinach raita. Met up with the lovely niece of the man for a fine dinner at A Wong - go there if you can. Thursday I'm out so the man can have more curry, it's a good one to eat again. Still feeling bleeeuuugh! so soup it is, rocket and potato from a lovely recipe by Anna del Conte.

Went to Borough with a reasonably short list of things to buy. Only needed eggs from Ginger Pig, at £1.50 it's the least I have ever spent there! Milk @ £1.55 from Neals Yard, another lowest spend I think. Gastronomica has reorganised the layout - sort of easier to find lovely things - so bought Napoli salami and it was simply wonderful, when the man and I first met we used to have Napoli sandwiches on Saturday for lunch and the first mouthful reminded me so much of that happy time. Also bought some coppa, and a big slice of a cow/goat/sheep milk mix from a large round, made by the same producers who make the gorgeous rocchetta and La Tur. Cost £13 all together. Then to find bread - there is a newish baker that is actually based in the market and they sell from a stall Thursday - Saturday. Bought a big white tin loaf that was slightly disappointing fresh but seriously good toasted. £3, not a bad price. Went to the parma ham and mozzarella shop and they now sell a couple of other hams as well so had 100g of a cooked ham with fresh herbs, lovely in a sandwich for lunch £4. Finished the shop with rocket, sugarsnaps and celery from the fruit stall at the front that is neither Chegworths or Ted's Veg but is very good, and supplied by Tony Booth, a recommendation, surely. Was £3 though wish it was more versatile.

Great packaging, no?

Through the week bought more milk and needed onions and garlic, sausages for Tuesday night, green beans and veg to juice.

Cheese and Shallot Quiche

My best piecrust ever!

We had some of the man's family to stay over Easter, so I'd taken myself to Borough on Thursday in order to be well on top of planning. As a concept it worked a treat, except that I discovered when I got home that I'd managed to leave behind the eggs I'd bought from Lizzie - and what's Easter without eggs?! I picked up some more elsewhere but then popped back in to the market Saturday to show the visitors and reclaimed my eggs, ending up with far too many for the week. Made a rich chocolate mousse for suppper Saturday and still had lots of eggs. Had to be quiche....

I was interested to try using lard to make the pastry - specifiically some I'd bought at Brindisa a while ago that is made from the fat of acorn fed Iberico pigs and mixed with a little pimenton to give a gloriously rich sunset red jar of silky fat. It is fabulous stuff, mostly used till now on hot toast thick sliced and topped, sometimes, with an egg. I'd done a bit of a google and the consensus seems to be that the best balance for shortcrust pastry is half lard/half butter mixed into double that weight of plain flour, then enough cold water to bind. The finished dough was a fairly vibrant orange and after a bit of blind baking it came out of the oven looking like a perfect summer. Crisp and short and wonderfully rich, it was possibly the best pastry I've ever made.

 The filling was easy - had a handful of banana shallots that I cooked down very slowly to a soft winey mass, then lifted it with a tiny splash of balsamic for added ooomph. Our visitors were from Cornwall and had kindly brought us some yarg,  a semi hard Cornish cheese made from grass rich milk and wrapped in stinging nettles. To keep the Cornish theme running I used a tub of clotted cream that was in the freezer to whip with the eggs, and the whole lot baked beautifully.

 Served with a herbed white bean salad and a crunchy mix of fennel, carrot and celery it was a seriously good meal for early spring - now we just need the weather to match!

Cheese & Shallot Quiche

This takes a little while to make as the pastry needs to rest before being blind baked but there is very little actual work involved for this lovely supper. It's such a beautiful colour, you can even pretend it's spring!

Serves 4 - or 2 warm dinners and 2 lovely lunches next day

For the pastry
200g plain flour
Generous pinch of salt
50g lard - iberico if you can get it
50g unsalted butter
About 100ml ice cold water
1 egg white, beaten

For the filling
400g banana shallots, peeled and roughly diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
200g yarg or other semi hard cows milk cheese, grated
4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
100ml of cream, rich as you like
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Make the pastry first - sift the flour into a bowl with the salt and cut the lard and butter into it in small lumps. Using just your fingertips, mix the fats into the flour as fast as you can - you want to keep everything cold as possible for the lightest result. When it looks like breadcrumbs add half the cold water and mix in with a knife. Keep adding the water gradually till the pastry comes together in a ball. Push it all together in a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or for a day or two if you're planning ahead).

While the pastry is in the fridge, heat the butter and oil in a skillet over a very low heat and add the shallots and garlic. Cook, covered, for about 30  minutes until you have a soft oniony mess. Take off the heat and leave to cool

Sprinkle some plain flour onto your worktop and rub a little into your rolling pin. Take the pastry from the fridge and roll it out into a circle that is big enough to fit your pie dish - I used a 23cm loose bottom dish but use what you have. If you keep turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll it out you end up with a reasonably good approximation of a circle. When it's big enough, drape it over the rolling pin then gently fit it into your greased pie dish. Use a little ball of pastry to push the edges into the base of the dish so it all fits snugly. Trim the overhanging pastry and put it to one side. Prick it all over the base with a fork then put the pastry back in the fridge for another 30 minutes or so. You can freeze it at this point for use another day if you want to.

Heat the oven to 180C. After the pastry has rested for half an hour line it with baking parchment and fill it with baking beans - I re use about 500g of butter beans that are now almost as hard as ceramic but cost pennies not pounds. Bake the piecrust for 30 minutes, then remove the beans and parchment, repair any little holes with the pastry you saved from trimming the edges and seal it with a little beaten egg white. Bake for another 5 minutes, brush the whole base with beaten egg white and bake for a further 4-5 minutes.


 Take the piecrust from the oven and allow it to cool slightly for 15 minutes or so. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and cream together until lightly foamy and season with salt and  pepper. Spread the soft cooked shallots across the base of the pie then sprinkle most of the grated cheese on top. Pour the eggs over the top, then sprinkle over the remaining cheese.

I'm a scaredy cat through bitter experience of having more than one quiche leaked onto the bottom of the oven so I always put the quiche onto a larger flat tray to bake - it's way easier to clean! Bake the quiche for about 25 minutes till it's gloriously golden on top and still a bit wibbly in the middle.

Let it sit for a couple of minutes before serving out big slices to go with some fresh salads.

One way or another I will make spring come!

Potato, Pea & Watercress Soup

This post is mostly for Judith, a woman I've known for ages. We met via email through Food Chain, she is a quite inspired rota co-ordinator, and she eased me into volunteering across a couple of south London kitchens. One of her defining characteristics is that she is a very seriously north London person. She is instantly lost upon crossing the Thames, yet take her back over the river and she is mistress of all she surveys. She liked a recipe a while ago that required Nigella seeds - her inablility to come south to Tooting to buy her own had me sending them to her by post. Talk about geographical determination! We did meet once in, whisper it, south London but someone else was driving I believe.

We have instead an almost entirely digital relationship - we exchange emails occasionally about this and that and the state of things and she also follows this blog. A while ago I wrote about a Potato Council campaign to get people eating more of them and, as well as a lovely recipe for salmon with potatoes and pickled cucumber I added photos of other dishes made that morning. Same day I got an email from Judith, amsued at my hobnobbing with James Martin and mentioning that though the salmon dish sounded good she really loved the look of this beautiful soup. I  promised to find her the recipe.

I am embarassed at how long it has taken me to honour that promise but, hey, good things come to those who wait!

Potato, Pea and Watercress Soup

Serves 4 as a lunch dish or dinner for 2 if you add bread and cheese

1 litre vegetable stock
salt
500g fresh or frozen peas
300g fresh watercress
300g smooth potatoes such as Desiree
100g flat leaf parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper
20g butter
1 chopped shallot
1 clove garlic
150ml double cream

4 medium free range eggs
30ml white wine vinegar

Peashoots or cress leaves to decorate

Peel and cut the potatoes into 1cm cubes. Place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 4-5 minutes till just tender, then drtain and place to one side.

Next bring water tothe boil in a large pan and add a big pinch of salt. Blanch the parsley and three quarters of the watercress and remove straight away.

Sauté the shallots and garlic in the butter, then add the peas and stock. Cook for 2-3 minutes,until the peas are just tender and bright green, then add the cream. Remove from the heat, add the parsley and watercress and blend for 5 minutes to make it really smooth.

While blending bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the vinegar and a pinch of salt. Set a bowl of iced water alongside. Carefully add the eggs to the water, and boil for exactly 5 ½ minutes, then remove them from the pan and chill in the iced water. 

Place a pile of the cooked potato in the middle of each soup plate, half each egg and place on top. Spoon the soup around the edge, garnish with watercress and drizzle with olive oil.

A really lovely dish to ease yourself into autumn, the eggs can be poached rather than soft boiled if you prefer.

The message of the original post bears repeating too - eat lots of potatoes! Lots more recipes here to feed you well.

Ostrich Dinner

Is size important?



See that ostrich egg? It was my prize in a great thing to do with eggs competition. I am a huge fan of all eggs but I've never tried one of these enormous beauties. Though they often catch my eye at Borough on the Gamston Wood stall and I start to wonder... Was more thrilled than perhaps I should have been when my name came up. Unbelievable when it finally arrived, up close it's not just huge but HEAVY. We're talking an egg you weigh by the kilo.


At which point I suddenly realised I had no idea at all what to do with this exotic monster. It is a rare instance when google offers little by way of practical instruction - I was a touch flummoxed. The Clarence Court box it came in cheerfully informed me it contained the equivalent of 24 hen's eggs and suggested boiling 50 minutes for soft - 90 for hard - or scramble for a family size omelette. Hmmmm. We are but two.

I put it aside for a few days, thought about it, looked at recipes for eggs. It had to be special - slowly but surely the challenge was beginning to delight me. I found a recipe in Christine Manfield's Spice for kangaroo fillet atop a nori omelette and decided to adapt it. Out went kangaroo and hen's eggs, in came ostrich egg and ostrich steak to make a sort of mother and son ostrich delight.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The ostrich egg is a thing of simple beauty and I wanted, if possible, to keep the shell when the rest was but memory.

First? Drain your egg. Definitely needed the man's help. The shell is thick and strong so we used a metal skewer and a hammer to make a hole in one end and repeated the same thing at the other. Takes no time at all to realise these dinky holes will never let the yolk out whole so back to the skewer. Insert it far as you can into one hole and swizzle it round to break up the yolk - you will encounter some resistance to start. This is a bit icky but it gets no worse. Take the skewer out and reinsert it in the other end and repeat.

Place the egg on top of a large jug - I ended up with just over a litre of liquid - and let it drain. Patience is required - it takes about 45 minutes to empty out.

The man - though usually more patient than me - tried to help it along by blowing. Mostly it just made him go red...

While he helped in his own special way, I set about making the nori omelette - chosen in part because it uses 10 eggs. Ten! I loved the idea of this omelette - you make lots of little thin ones then roll them into a big fat one for an egg lovers treat.



Sesame Ostrich Fillet with nori omelette, ginger pikelet and chive cream

Serves 4

Though there are lots of elements, this is really very simple to make and very elegant to serve

1/2 tspn white sesame seeds
1 nori seaweed sheet
100ml olive oil
1 tspn mirin
1/4 tspn fresh ground white pepper
1/2 tspn dried bonito flakes
250g ostrich steak
4 tspns of sour cream mixed with 2 tspns chopped chives

Pikelet mixture
350g maris piper potatoes, peeled
1 large egg (or 50g ostrich egg)
1 tbspn plain flour
2 tspns chopped chives
1 tspn finely grated ginger
1 tspn salt
1/2 tspn fresh ground black pepper
50ml double cream

Nori omelettes
2 nori seaweed sheets
10 large eggs - or 500g ostrich egg
pinch of salt
1/2 tspn fresh ground black pepper
1 tspn sesame oil
1 tspn fish sauce vegetable oil

Dry roast sesame seeds over gentle heat until just coloured. Toast nori sheet by running it over a direct flame for a few seconds, then chop it finely. Combine sesame seeds, toasted nori, oils, mirin, pepper and bonito, then add meat and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

To make the pikelet mixture, cut the potatoes into 2 cm dice. Put them into the blender with the rest of the ingredients except the cream and blend briefly. Add the cream and pulse until just incorporated. Pour mixture into a plastic jug, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the nori omelettes, toast the nori sheets over a direct flame - use a match or candle if you don't have gas hob - then cut into strips. Lightly whisk eggs (don't aerate them) then season with salt, pepper, sesame oil and fish sauce and stir in nori strips.

Heat a small 20cm non stick pan and brush it lightly with oil. Ladle in just enough egg mixture to cover the base of the pan, spreading it very thinly. Cook until just set over moderate heat, then turn out onto a clean tea towel. Continue process with remaining mixture, stacking omelettes on top of each other as you go.

Roll omelette stack into a roulade, then wrap firmly in plastic film and secure ends. Allow to cool for 30 minutes.

To cook the ostrich steak, heat a heavy based chargrill pan until extremely hot, then remove the steak from the marinade and sear quickly on all sides to just seal - this should take 2 minutes all up. Transfer meat to a plate to rest for a few minutes before slicing.

To cook the pikelets, heat a large non stick skillet and oil lightly, then pour pikelet mixture into 4 oiled egg rings. Cook over moderate heat until bubbles start to appear in batter, then flip them over and cook the other side, removing the egg rings as you do so.

To assemble this amazing dish, cut the omelette roll into 2cm thick slices. Place a hot pikelet in the middle of each plate and top with an omelette round. Finely slice the ostrich steak and carefully arrange 4 or 5 slices on top of the omelette, then season with a little black pepper, add a dollop of chive cream and scatter the rest of the chives.

Serve immediately.

This was as fabulous to eat as the egg that inspired it!




Obviously I still had a vast amount of egg to use - next day I made a decadently rich quiche and an even more decadent baked chocolate mud cake that kept us in treats for days.

Big thanks to James Ramsden for running that competition!

Scotch Quail's Eggs

Figuring resistance to the World Cup is futile I started planning dinners in front of the tele for England matches as I know that's where the man will be. Finger food but more substantial than nuts. Plenty of napkins.

In my mind's eye I laid out a fabulous feast for Saturday night, eclectic, interesting with guaranteed delight in every bite. In much the same way that England went in expecting a win and ended grateful for a draw I fumbled the final result and created a meal that was less than the sum of its parts. More miscellaneous mishmash than desirable diversity.

Desperate for more summer rolls but this time with prawns and using vietnamese basil from a plant in the garden. Variations on this theme are becoming a motif for the summer. Had to have asparagus because the season is too short to waste a single opportunity, but decided I would make aioli with some spring garlic rather than hollandaise. These two dishes are not natural companions but I didn't really think of that. I also really really wanted to make some mini scotch eggs using quail's eggs which, when they existed only in my mind's eye, were tiny things that were no more than a single mouthful of lightly spiced pork encasing the egg with a warm runny yolk. How hard could it be? Figuring they could also be dipped into the aioli, thereby tying all the elements together, all would be well.

The rice paper rolls were lovely and prawny but the dipping sauce - a mix of soy, chilli and sesame sauces lacked the delicacy to match them. The asparagus was fabulous and the aioli, though strong, was really good. But it belonged to a different meal to the rolls.

The quails eggs were way too difficult to peel with runny centres, the smallest pressure had yolk squirting everywhere. Four of them ended so empty there was no point taking it further. I was determined to have them, so I rolled the rest in pork and crumbs and, as you can see, they ended up the size of tennis balls not golf balls. They were not really runny in the centre and they were a little underseasoned. Balls! Slathered with aioli they were pretty yummy. Did they make a good match with the rest of dinner? No. But on the basis that things won't be perfect on the first attempt I will definitely make them again.

Scotch Eggs

The recipe comes from Heston Blumenthal, is easy to follow and should make a dozen scotch eggs, barring disaster.

12 quail eggs
A couple of cocktail sticks
480g best-quality pork sausage meat
Salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper, to taste
150g Japanese breadcrumbs or white home-made ones
3 medium eggs, beaten
Plain flour for coating
1.5 litres groundnut or corn oil, for deep-frying

Heat a pan of water to boiling point, prick the tops of the quail eggs with a cocktail stick and cook the eggs — one minute if you want a softer set, or 2 minutes and 15 seconds exactly if you prefer them hard. As soon as your timer goes off, remove the eggs from the boiling water and plunge them into a bowl of iced water as quickly as possible.

While the eggs are cooling, season the sausage meat with salt, a small pinch of cayenne pepper and black pepper, then check the seasoning either by frying a little in a pan or microwaving for 20-30 seconds and tasting. The meat will need to be well seasoned.

Shell the eggs under water in a small bowl and wrap each one in 40g (a golf ball) of sausage meat. The easiest way to do this is by first making a ball of sausage meat, then flattening into a shape big enough to go around the egg. Press the edges together to seal, taking care not to squash the egg inside.

Put the plain flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs into three separate bowls. If using Japanese breadcrumbs (try Mount Fuji; www.mountfuji.co.uk), break them up slightly with your fingers to make it easier to coat the sausage meat.

Roll the scotch eggs in the flour, gently tap off any excess, then roll them in the beaten egg and, finally, the breadcrumbs.

Put them in the freezer for 5 minutes to harden the breadcrumb coating, then dip again into the egg and breadcrumbs.

Deep-fry — you can use an ordinary wide frying pan, but make sure the oil covers the eggs — for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, then finish in a hot oven for a further 2-3 minutes.

Cold next day for breakfast they were crunchy and lovely. There will be more!

Steamed Savoury Eggs

This is fast becoming a regular weeknight supper and it is fabulous. Simplicity itself, it requires nothing much more than fresh eggs and a well flavoured stock, with a little sesame oil and chopped spring onion for garnish. It's a Chinese staple, a dish of comfort, that is exquisitely delicate in texture with a flavour that matches. You can make many variations, adding shrimp or pork, I'm sure crab would be brilliant, but this most basic version is simply a joy.

Steamed Savoury Eggs
4 eggs
300 ml pork or chicken stock
1 tbspn lard or vegetable oil
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 tspn sesame oil

Whisk the eggs in a heatproof dish till light and foamy.

Warm two thirds of the stock to boiling point. Take it off the heat and add the rest of the stock to cool it down a bit, then whisk it into the eggs with the oil or lard.

Steam in the bowl for 10 minutes.

Garnish with the spring onion and a drizzle of sesame oil.

We've had this a few times in the last month with some cabbage steamed with a little spicy paste and boiled rice. It makes for a lovely pale bowl of food that has all the flavour and texture you need for a quite delightful dinner. And it's great cold next day for lunch.

Slow cooked ham & eggs

This simple and lovely supper was a delight. I wanted to steam whole eggs, not a custard, like the traditional en cocotte but not baked - obviously. And they had to be runny yolks if at all possible. I am gaining in confidence with the steam oven and fancied seeing if I could make this work.

Perused various bits of the web and discovered that egg yolks set at 65C and yolks at 63C and the alchemist chefs like Joel Rubuchon cook them at these kind of temperatures for 20-30 minutes, or more. I'm loving this idea - slow cooked egg. I'd been out and bought some parma ham at lunch time, thinking it would make a good lining for the ramekins. I had a little cream left from making the leek pudding and could see how that would be good. But it needed something to make it meld in my imagination. Checked the fridge and spied a block of Parmesan. The man cut me some curls using the vegetable peeler and I was good to go.

The Miele steam oven can be set at different temperatures, in increments of 5C. So I started with 65C - hoping it would err on the side of 63C - and set the clock for 15 minutes. The buzzer went and, oooh, not good. Warm but still an entirely liquid egg. Another 12 minutes, same temperature. The buzzer went and, oooh, still not good. Still warm but still liquid. So, with a decisive stroke, the temperature went up to 100C and the clock to a mere 2 minutes. Voila! Creamy whites, liquid gold yolks. Utterly perfect.

Slow cooked ham & eggs

4 slices parma ham

4 teaspoons thick cream

the leaves from a sprig of thyme

4 curls of Parmesan

4 fresh eggs

Black pepper

Set out 4 ramekins. Line each one with a thin slice parma ham, top it with a spoon of cream. sprinkle that with the thyme leaves, add a curl of Parmesan and a grind of pepper and then break an egg into each dish. Cover each ramekin with a sheet of clingfilm to stop the tops going rubbery.

Heat the steam oven to 65C, cook the ramekins for 25 minutes. Increase the heat to 100C and cook for 2 more minutes.

Eat with a teaspoon!

We had 2 each, with a simple fennel salad and crusty bread on the side and it was perfect. Would also make a great lunch for ladies!

Scotch Egg

I love scotch eggs. Never heard of them, let alone tried one before coming to London and now I am happy to publicly declare love. Obviously, like all objects of affection they vary from the utterly disgusting to the thoroughly sublime. The former can be illustrated by those sold in most supermarkets - especially the 'mini' variety and most definitely the bizarre 'egg roll' version where some unspecified ground bits from a pig encase 'egg' that is simply one long tube of yellow inside another tube of white to create a metre length roll encased in crumb to be bought by the slice. Wrong.

Then there are the ones I buy sometimes from Ginger Pig with a proper tasty egg in the centre of well spiced minced pork in a lovely crispy crumby coating. Sliced into quarters it makes for an intensely savoury snack after shopping at Borough Market. They remained my favourite until an evening spent courtesy of the Sherry Institute of Spain where I learned a lot about sherry and the pairing was done by the incomparable Heston Blumenthal. He served up quail's eggs wrapped in pork mince to go with, I think, amontillado, and they came out warm with the yolk still runny and they stayed in my mind as a truly lovely thing to eat.

Last night I progressed further on my journey of the scotch egg. Qype organised a sort of masterclass in the finer arts of this peculiarly British treat at the Coach & Horses in Clerkenwell, led by their talented and charming young chef, Henry Herbert. With sixteen of us gathered in a back room of this charming pub he gave an intro to the egg - and the generally accepted anecdote that the first scotch egg was made by Fortnum & Mason for one of their clients looking for a handheld snack to sup on as they travelled. They were presented with an egg wrapped in haggis before crumbing and deep frying, hence the 'scotch' connection. There are other stories, that they are from a Scottish breakfast, or that 'scotch' is meant as a verb in relation to the egg, the hiding of it being I guess like the use of scotch in relation to rumour. Who knows.

Moving swiftly on Henry demonstrated his mix. Pork shoulder and belly minced together for optimum flavour is the base. Add, in quantities that seem right, mace - preferably freshly ground, cayenne - the hotter the better, chopped sage because pork and sage are lovely together, caremalised shallots because the only thing nicer than pork and sage is pork with sage and onion, some Colemans mustard because this is an English dish, a generous grinding of black pepper and lastly a serious quantity of salt.

Henry posited the theory that the key to well cooked food is simply the addition of the appropriate amount of salt, it is what will make the dish work, and that it is simply fallacy to add none or not much on the basis that salt can be added after serving and it will achieve the same effect. Makes a lot of sense to me.

After that lot was thoroughly mixed we got to join in the fun. We peeled hardboiled eggs and got ourselves a lump of mince mix - approximately 50g each - while Henry went round and gave each of us a sheet of clingfilm. This is chef secret time. In the middle of the sheet of film flatten the meat into a vague circle/oval and put the egg in the middle of that. Using the clingfilm a bit like a sushi mat guide the meat around the outside of the egg till it is fully encased (scotched perhaps!).

Then for the coating. Try to remember to use both hands but only one at a time keeping one dry and using the other for dipping in milky egg ( a process that is harder than it sounds!). With what will be the dry hand first roll your egg in seasoned flour. Take it out with your other hand - soon to be the wet one - and dip it in a bowl of milk and eggs whisked together. Still using the wet hand, take the egg from that bowl and put it into a bowl of finely ground breadcrumbs. Swap hands (!) and roll the egg round till its coated in crumbs with the dry hand. Take the egg from the bowl with the wet hand and put it into the beaten egg again. Roll it round till it is once again covered in a film of liquid take it out - still the wet hand - and drop it into a bowl of coarse breadcrumbs. With the dry hand make sure the egg is thoroughly covered. Use whichever hand you have spare to remove the crumbed egg - unless you're making more than one, in which case keep repeating the process till you're done.

At this point all the eggs, an interesting collection of shapes and sizes, were collected up on a tray and whisked away to the kitchen to be deep fried in groundnut oil at 180C for about 5 minutes, then finished in the oven for about 7 minutes.

They reappeared crisp, golden and hot. The perfect ones had a slightly runny yolk when cut open. Eat immediately with fingers licked at the end.

Brilliant. My new equal favourite.

Leek & Stilton Quiche

Christmas is over, dragged off somewhere into the past and yet, somehow, I still had a small piece of Stilton in the fridge like the remains of christmas past. This time of year I believe stilton to be seasonal - xmas just isn't xmas without a chunk of colsten basset from Neals Yard. There was also though a large hunk of pecorino from Gastronomica and a brique du juissac from Comptoir Gascon. Along with the mass of other food we had I guess it's not entirely surprising there is a little left a couple of weeks afer the event.

I cannot throw it away - no! no! it says to me in it's little stilton voice - even past its best it is far too fabulous for that.

We had dinner with Jaey and Marie recently and we ended with another big block of stilton that they paired with home made chocolate truffles - the match of rich dairy salted and rich dairy sweet was just brilliant. So I wondered about pairing the cheese with the sweetness of winter leeks, which really are in season! - all bound together with eggs and cream in a pastry case to make quiche. Because I am very fond of quiche.

It was a quite splendid result.

Leek & Stilton Quiche

Prepared shortcrust pastry (I had some in the freezer from my last quiche)

About 100g stilton, grated

500g leeks, cut in to 1cm slices

1 large onion, finely diced

Clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Leaves picked from a bushy sprig of thyme

50g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 eggs

284ml tub of double cream

Salt and pepper

In a large pan melt the butter into the olive oil then add the leeks and onions and thyme and garlic. Stir to coat thoroughly with the buttery oil and cook gently for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, till all is softly fragrant and melded. Season.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Meanwhile, butter and flour a (loose bottomed if you have one) pie dish about 18cm across. Roll out the pastry to about 5mm thickness and line the pie dish. Cover with greaseproof and fill with baking beans and cook for about 12 minutes. This is baking blind.

Take the case from the oven, remove the paper and beans and allow the shell to cool.

When the leeks are soft turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit till they are warm.

In a bowl beat the eggs and cream and season. Add to the leeks.

Sprinkle the grated cheese over the pastry base then top with the eggs/leeks mixture.

Cook in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes till the custard is set and the top is richly golden.

Definite result. Nice warm, possibly even better cold next day.

Also very cheap - had the cheese and pastry already so the cost was about £4. To buy the cheese would add about £1.80. Easily serves 6 with bread and salad - or in our case, a coupel of dinners and a couple of lunches, all of them a pleasure.

Quiche

This is a serious throwback to another time in my life. When I was about 14 I was given a french cookbook for christmas - a wonderfully exotic and foreign thing in small town seventies' Australia. I pored over the pages, unsure to an extent even how to pronounce the names, let alone decode the photos.

I think the first thing I made was beef bourguignon - and it came out a rich beef stew that was different dish to the kind of thing my mother made at the time. New and exciting - I was smitten. Next I decided on quiche lorraine, but with a little trepidation. The recipe called for green bacon and gruyere cheese. I had no idea what either thing was - bacon was bacon and cheese was generally cheddar or else processed slices to melt on toast. My mother suggested I try asking at the new delicatessan at the bottom of the hill. Because I had really no idea what I was looking for I remember being hugely embarrassed to be asking. I started off by skulking around the shelves and chiller cabinets desperately hoping that I could find on my own the ingredients I wanted clearly labelled on a prominent shelf. No such luck.

Eventually I asked the woman behind the counter who was delighted to help. She explained that green bacon was simply unsmoked bacon and she sliced me the required amount. She also knew of gruyere though had none in stock. She told me it was a pale coloured Swiss cheese that had a nutty flavour and tiny holes. I must admit I was confused by this description but was too timid to say. She suggested Emmental as a substitute as it would also melt well to combine with the rest of the filling.

I took her advice, went home and set out to make my first quiche, which also involved making my first ever batch of pastry. With the kindness of hindsight I am sure it was perfect but that may well be the blurring of memory. I know I made a lot of them for a while because I was really taken with the way the cheese, bacon and pastry melded in to the most extraordinary shell for the cooked egg - rich, silky, subtly flavoured. I just loved them.

Then I left home and stopped making them - though I have bought quite a few, most recently from Paul. Then the other day, the sun was shining and we were looking to have a simple supper. I had a flick through Larousse Gastronomique and got me a recipe. Obviously, as it is a slightly more authoritative source than my book from all those years ago, this quiche lorraine had no cheese. Cheese is not an ingredient of the original Lorraine recipe, as Julia Child informed Americans: "The classic quiche Lorraine contains heavy cream, eggs and bacon, no cheese." Though most contemporary quiche recipes include Gruyère cheese, making it a quiche au gruyère or a quiche vosgienne. The addition of onion to quiche Lorraine makes quiche alsacienne.

The first one I made was cheese free. The second one, a week later, had some rocchetta pinched into pieces and mixed with the bacon. I lovd them both, but most of all I loved the second one.

Quiche

For the pastry

250g plain flour

125g butter

A generous pinch of salt

1 egg

3 tbspns of very cold water

Rub the butter into the seasoned flour to make crumbs then add the egg and, gradually, the water, kneading the dough to make a firm ball. Wrap it in clingfilm and chill for a couple of hours.

Split the ball of dough in half, keeping one half out and putting the other half in the freezer for another quiche another day.

Flour the bench and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of 4mm/ 1/4 inch. Carefully roll the pastry around the outside of the rolling pin and then unroll it into a buttered and floured (preferably loose bottomed) tart tin or pie dish, 22cm/9inches in diameter, bringing the edges of the pastry up to extend slightly beyond the tin edge. Prick it all over and line it with baking paper weighted with baking beans if you have them or a handful of dried beans if you don't. Cook in the oven at 200C (400F, gas 6) for 12-14 minutes. Take out the beans and leave to cool.

For the filling

250g unsmoked streaky bacon, cut into 1/2 cm strips

1 tbspn butter

100g cheese - either grated gruyere or a soft sheeps cheese (or whatever you need to use up)

4 eggs - the best you can find

250ml / 1/2 pint double cream

Salt, pepper and fresh grated nutmeg

Blanch the bacon for five minutes in boiling water. Refresh under cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Melt the butter in a small pan over a gentle heat then brown the bacon very lightly.

Spread the bacon and cheese over the cooked pastry base. Beat the eggs with the cream; add salt, pepper and a generous grating of nutmeg, then pour the mixture over the bacon and cheese.

Cook for about 30 minutes in the oven at gas 6. Serve hot with salad, warm with salad or even leftovers cold for breakfast.

.

People say you can never go back and it's probably true. But if not, then I would suggest that this was better than the versions I made in my teens and so is very much the product of moving forward.