Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I got this idea from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie At Home. It was a decent breakfast. Nothing beats bacon fat in the morning.

1. 2 eggs per person
2. 4 fat asparagus per person
3. 3 slices of mild pancetta per person

To soft boil eggs (I was fiddling with the asparagus and overcooked the eggs so the picture isn’t really of a soft boiled egg), cover eggs with cold water and bring to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat down to gentle simmer and boil for 3 minutes.

Trim back the woody ends of the asparagus and wrap the pancetta around the asparagus. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 220′c or until the pancetta is crispy. Serve.

I’m pretty sure I made this for the very first time in Home Ec when I was in Year 8. Before I go on to lament on how Home Economics is seriously undervalued (actually, I won’t because we’d be here all day), I’d better give you the instructions in 10 words:

Heat butter. Add honey. Add sugar. Add oats. Stir. Bake.

Not enough? Ah well. I tried.

For about 10-12 slice-sized biscuits:

1. 3.5 cups of rolled oats
2. 125 g. of unsalted butter
3. 1/3 cup of sugar
4. 4 tbsp of honey

Preheat the oven to 150′C. Place the baking tray in the oven to warm.

Melt the butter on low heat. Add honey and stir until combined. Add sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add all of the oats and stir over low heat for a few minutes until well combined.

Cut a sheet of baking paper to the size of the baking tray. I useLyn’s baking tray which is about 18cm x 25cm. It’s perfect for making the quantity of flapjacks that this recipe produces. This is the reason  she is not getting her baking tray back in hurry.

Take a block of butter and run the butter on the warmed tray. This is the easiest way to grease the tray. I do the same with muffin tins and other baking containers. Add the oat mixture and press it down firmly. Bake for about 30-40 minutes.

Once done, leave to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing into biscuits.

This dish started off in our household as my attempts at okonomiyaki, which worked really well. I even added katsuobushi for the dancing fish effects. Josh, on the other hand, had decided that because I wasn’t around (this came about during my project in Singapore period) he was free to bastardise my okonomiyaki recipe however he damn wished.

I came home to find my recipe horribly butchered so, as a saving grace, I introduced the smoked salmon and sour cream components and it has worked out a treat since.

You will need for 6 rather large pancakes or many littler ones:

Pancake batter

1. 3/4 cup of self-raising flour
2. 1/4 cup of plain flour
3. 2 large eggs
4. 2 cups of cabbage, thinly sliced*
5. 1 large-ish carrot, peeled and grated
6. 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and grated
7. 1 tbsp of chopped fresh mint leaves (optional)
8. 1 tsp of salt
9. 1 tsp of pepper
10. 1 zest of lemon
11. Some milk
12. Some butter

Mix the flours, egg, salt and pepper together. Add the vegetables and loosen with some milk until the right consistency is achieved (sorry we generally don’t measure).

Add some butter to a non-stick frying pan, spoon the pancake batter and fry until both sides are golden brown.

To serve:

1. 1 slice of smoked salmon per large pancake**
2. 1 tbsp of sour cream
3. Fresh parsley, chopped

Spoon some sour cream on top of pancake and drape a slice of smoked salmon across. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley.

* He used purple cabbage in the picture. I prefer green cabbage, it tastes better and the colour doesn’t look so wrong the next day.
** For vegetarian option, leave out the smoked salmon and squeeze in a bit of lemon juice into the batter. Serve with sour cream and parsley (or chive)

I’m really tired and lazy tonight, so I give you one of my breakfast inventions while I was in Singapore:

The Breakfast Bruschetta!

First of all, I have an issue with people correcting my pronunciation. I may not be Italian, but we’re talking about food here. So believe me. I know. And it’s broo-skeh-ta. So please, dear twenty-one-year-old-uni-student-slash-actor-slash-waiter-at-the-pub, do not try to correct me with broo-chet-ta non-sense.

What it is, really, is just toast topped with veggies sauteed in a bit of pasta sauce. I was just trying to make it sound posher than it is

For 4 pieces of toast:

1. 4 pieces of toast, obviously. I recommend GOOD crusty bread.
2. 4 slices of cheese (I just use Colby because it’s always in the fridge)
3. 2 cups of sliced zucchini, red capsicum, eggplant,
4. 1 tablespoon of pinenuts
5. 2 tablespoons of Leggo’s Stir-Through pasta sauce – Tomato, Olive and Chilli

This recipe dates back to my time in Singapore when my then-housemate used had a little toaster oven.  I would toast the bread slices topped with cheese so that the cheese was nice and melted. I haven’t tried to replicate this back in Melbourne where I am toaster ovenless. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.

So toast the pinenuts in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat until browned. Keep moving the nuts, they toast really fast if you’re not careful and the last thing you want in the morning in burnt bits of pine nuts to set off the smoke alarm. Set the toasted pine nuts aside. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and add in the veggies. Keep moving them around the pan until they colour nicely. Add the pasta sauce and stir around for another two minutes or so. Sprinkle in the toasted pinenuts In the pictures, I added some spring onions but this isn’t necessary at all. I think I must have just had them lying around.

Chuck the veggies on the toasts.Gobble. Run for the train. Miss the train. Be late for work. C’est la vie.

(breakfast spaghetti, mushrooms and fried eggs)

Josh disagrees. I mean, the man eats that nasty stuff called Vegemite on toast with cheese for christ’s sake! So what if I eat tinned spaghetti?