Lockdown marches on and takes us along with it. I hope you are doing ok and it is not proving too difficult and that Covid has not impacted your life directly. If it has, I hope you are doing ok. I have been fairly silent here, which was not my intention. But, I am back now and I have lots to share with you. Lots of this will be recipes too. 

It won’t surprise you to hear that the publication of my book, Bacon, has been impacted by Covid. The latest in a litany of hurdles but the last one. My printer was affected by the Italian lockdown but things are moving again and I will keep you updated as to when Bacon will be on sale. I am also planning on publishing an updated version of Comfort & Spice after that with a fresh design and a light rethink. But Bacon first, and I can’t wait to share it. Continue reading

Today is Pancake Tuesday / Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras. What a happy eating day! Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, the day to clear your cupboards before 40 days of Lenten fast. Every day can be pancake day but Pancake Tuesday is the one. I have gathered my favourite pancake recipes for you. Get stuck in.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Let’s start with the classic fluffy pancake stack done American style. Always with bacon and maple syrup for me.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

These dal pancakes were originally made with leftover dal but you should absolutely cook up a batch to make them. They are a cracker and enlivened with the gorgeous aromas from the crisped curry leaves and the punch of bright chilli oil.

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

Socca (Chickpea Pancake) with Tomato & Aubergine

Continue reading

Jump straight to Seaweed Cornmeal Soda Farls recipe

I love soda farls. Speedy Irish soda bread cut into triangles and fried, quicker than the time it would take to go to the shop for bread. And SO fresh. As the name implies, the bread is raised with soda (bicarbonate of) as opposed to yeast, the bicarbonate triggered by the acidity of buttermilk.  I have played around with the recipe many times in the past, making black pudding soda farls, bacon soda farls, and farls with spring onions and herbs. These new versions are my current favourite. 

Buttermilk can be difficult to source here, real buttermilk at least. In Ireland it is sold in the milk fridge in most shops, even small ones, in litre cartons the same size as milk. Here in the UK, it is more likely to be sold in a small cream carton, if you can find it. No need to worry though, it is easy to replicate it by souring some milk with yogurt, or a squeeze of lemon. Dairy free? No problem either. In fact these farls are dairy free as I am currently on a medical exclusion diet (the details of which are too boring for here). I used coconut milk with a generous squeeze of lemon. The coconut milk replicates the texture of the buttermilk perfectly when diluted down a little with the lemon, and the farls don’t taste remotely coconut-y. Perfect. You can also substitute a good almond milk, or any other dairy free milk of your choice.  Just don’t forget the lemon.  Continue reading

It is waffle season in my kitchen again. Often in colder days, waffle season is strictly dictated only by my mood and my desire to have waffles. It is a season because my waffle maker lives on top of my fridge, and my fridge is in my hallway for my kitchen is TINY (lets write that big), and my only permanent kitchen counter kit is my mixer and my food processor. Everything else lives in the hall and comes in briefly when needed. (Yes, far from a perfect system, but it almost works, for now). 

My waffle maker, like my toasted sandwich maker, only comes in occasionally. This is because when I start to make them I start a flurry of obsession where I will eat little else for a bit until I realise that this-must-stop and I retire them to their hiding place, away from my obsessive waffle desires.  Continue reading

Some mornings need a slice of joy, many recently. For me, that is almost always related to an egg, and frequently some spice. All eggs require something to dip in their glorious yolk and disrupt it. Is there any better sauce than a runny egg? And any simpler one? 

I love Korean flavours and I always have kimchi in my fridge. Usually homemade but sometimes shop bought (you can buy it in any Asian food store and most delis). Many experimental ones. Kimchi is kimchi is kimchi. Kimchi is glorious. (For those of you yet to discover it, it is chilli fermented cabbage with a variety of things, usually garlic, ginger , spring onions, something sweet like Asian pear or carrot, and lots of wonderful Korean red pepper, gochugaru).  Continue reading

I have been on a porcini kick since I was in France last month, specifically since I had a cep fondue (cep and porcini are one and the same thing). I prefer the word porcini, so let’s use that.

Porcini are a magical little thing. They confer a depth of flavour to any dish. Something of the woods and something rich, which when combined with soy sauce reaches a throaty gorgeous rumble. Throw a homemade chicken stock in the mix and you have something wonderful. I fancied trying the combination in that Eastern wonder dish, congee. Continue reading

Courgette flowers were a key reason for my fierce desire to plant a kitchen garden. They were always so unavailable and expensive, when I found them they would never last very long. Many times I would trundle home from the farmers market with a tiny expensive clutch of them, only to discover them wilted and sad the next day when I went to cook with them.  Continue reading

When I was in Dublin last week I cooked with Lily Ramirez-Foran. I have known Lily for years online and met her at Electric Picnic, an Irish music festival with a fun food stage, the Theatre of Food. Lily is Mexican, from Monterrey, but based in Ireland with her Irish husband whom she met in Japan. Ireland is very lucky to have her and her gorgeous Mexican shop and kitchen Picado, in Portabello in Dublin. It is a joyful place where Lily serves the best Mexican produce (food and other bits like handmade Mexican pinatas!). She also has supper clubs and cooking classes there on a weekly basis.  Continue reading

I try with bananas. I buy them and then I leave them there and next thing I know they are brown. Very brown. Almost oozing out of the skin. Collapsing with sweetness. Bananas in the supermarket are never ripe, so you have to wait and then, kabam, too late they are gone! No longer great for eating but nectar sweet and perfect for pancakes and baking. Continue reading

Yes, I know. Now, lets sit right back down and get on with business. You need to make these.

Crispy parmesan eggs are a joy and they are so easy. Can-make-with-a-hangover easy. Will bring a rainbow to your breakfast table joyful. Rich deep crisp parmesan, and an egg on top. Now, finish that with some wild garlic pesto and take it to the next level. Have a seat and congratulate yourself before you inevitably make another one.

Wild garlic pesto is a perfect fridge ingredient. So versatile, have it with pasta, on toast, your morning eggs. Spoon some on some tomatoes and add more parmesan before you roast them. Drizzle some on top of potatoes, or put a little in between layers of potato dauphinoise. If you are lucky you will have a free source which no doubt you keep secret. I managed to find some in Cardiff on the weekend near a friends house. Gorgeous tufts of wild garlic huddled in tight beside a stream. It is early in the season there and so most of the flowers had yet to breach their husky cocoon and the leaves were small and tender.

With wild garlic pesto, you can look to the traditional ligurian pesto and make a version similar to that. Parmesan, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil and wild garlic. I like to make some changes. This time, I used hazelnuts instead of pine nuts, I love the flavour but almonds work very well here too. Instead of extra virgin olive oil, I use a cold pressed rapeseed oil. It feels more appropriate and works very well. Taste and adapt yours if you need to, some patches of wild garlic are more pungent than others. I don’t blanch the leaves as I want the full blind force of the wild garlic.

The parmesan eggs are very straight forward, you just need to make sure you are using a non stick pan or a well seasoned cast iron one. I like to start mine in bacon or guanciale fat, why stop with parmesan underneath, but you can use an oil of your choice too. Extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed or groundnut are what I generally use.

Enjoy!

I like to cook in batches. Even though I am generally cooking for just one or two. Some stuff just makes sense that way: big pots of stock, beans, a roast hunk of meat that can become 4 dishes in the day after, pizza. One big bowl of dough will keep well if you let it rise gently overnight in the fridge. And you can eat it for every meal that day. And you really can, you know? Or you can have a pizza party. 

This morning as I looked at the bowl of dough that I had just retrieved from the fridge I was thinking, oh yes, egg & lardo pizza. Because you know those are two of my very favourite things. I quite like to cover my egg yolks with lardo anyway. And I have lardo in the fridge. (Lardo? Cured gorgeous pork fat, mouth melting and divine. Not lard. Which is also great but for different reasons). But I have something even better too. Guanciale! Roman cheek bacon, the very best bacon there is. I consider myself an expert after all the testing that I did for my next book Project Bacon (which is in the final stages, and I know I have said that before but it really is). 

I didn’t have a meat slicer (and oh how I want one!), and what I really wanted was a thin sheet of guanciale, rich with fat and weak with a quiver of pink meat. It would protect and coat the egg as it roasted in the most gorgeous way possible. It drives me crazy when an egg on a pizza hardens and blisters as it roasts. I tried my food processor and it did well enough. All systems go, pizza for breakfast was going to be a thing. 

I am lucky, I have gorgeous Roman tomatoes, bursting with ripeness. If they could speak they would be exuberant and you might not want to sit next to them, but as a tomato they are a perfect thing. Chopped into large enough dice so that they still had personality and texture and shape, they were the first layer on my breakfast pizza. Thrown cautiously over a carefully teased piece of dough, shaped into a careless circle with my fingers. On top, a little chopped fresh rosemary. I cracked an egg into the centre where there was enough of a lack of tomatoes to hold an egg, with a wall of tomatoes around it. On top, three carefully placed slices of guanciale joy. 

Into the oven at its highest setting, and about 6 minutes later there it was. My perfect breakfast pizza, bacon and egg at its most joyful. You must make it. I promise it is worth making the dough. Have a breakfast pizza party!

Congee is one of the best expressions of enthusiasm food can muster. A pot of rice dancing and bubbling and then bursting with joy. A hug in a bowl, when we eat it, the calm and the joy infuses us. Sweet comfort, congee layered with anything you want, salty soy, hot bright ginger, peanuts, spring onions, whatever you want.

Overcook is a word that is tainted with failure and distress. But sometimes overcooking is a joyful thing with wonderful results. Congee is a shining example. Congee is simply rice that is cooked to the point of bursting, like a star, like a galaxy of them in your pot. I have been on a bit of a congee rush for the last few weeks. It is one of my favourite breakfasts when I am in Asia, and it is so simple, and so frugal, it just requires a little rice, salt and a lot of water, and time. You can flourish it as much as you want after that.

I usually top my congee with ginger, peanuts, coriander and soy. Sometimes with chicken. When in Asia, I often order pork and century egg congee. Although I struggle wiyth the translucent wobbly grey whites presented, but I suffer them for the yolks. For years I never made my own, I thought that it must be complex, otherwise it would be everywhere, right? If congee weren’t complex, why aren’t we all eating it, all the time? I guess, we never grew rice here, and so it isn’t in our culture.

soy cured egg yolks

For this one, I made a rich congee with chicken brother, but you can make it with just water too and a little salt and it will still be great. I eat a lot of chicken broth, especially in the winter. It is everything I want and easy to make. I use either raw carcasses or chicken wings. I will use leftover carcasses too if I have those lying around. If using chicken wings you can take the meat off and save it for a later use or add it to your congee. I have tried many different types of rice, from short grain brown rice to long grain white. I didn’t have a favourite in the end, they all have their own charm and I would encourage you to play around. One thing I did learn is that congee likes to form a feisty crust, and so I added a tablespoon of rice to it before boiling to prevent this. (Do you like the crust? I found it made the congee a little more high maintenance too).

This will make enough congee for 4 people and it will keep in the fridge for 3 days. Enjoy! I would love to know how you adapt yours! Do let me know.

Recipe: Chicken Broth Congee with Soy Cured Egg Yolk

Ingredients

1 litre chicken broth (fresh is best – you can buy it or make it 1kg chicken wings or 2 carcasses, 6 carrots, 6 sticks celery, 4 onions, 1 tsp pepper corns, 4 cloves garlic and 2 bay leaves covered with water in a large pot and brought to the boil, scum removed if any, and boiled for a couple of hours)
100g long grain white rice
a kettle of boiled water, just in case!

4 egg yolks
200ml soy sauce

2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp peanuts (as you like them, I like them skinless and roasted)
a mild chilli, shredded or chilli oil
1 inch ginger, cut into fine julienne (small matchsticks)
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
4 tsp soy sauce

Method

The night before or at least 2 hours before, put the egg yolks (gently!) in a small bowl or lunchbox and cover them with the soy sauce. 8 hours is optimal but 2 hours will do. This firms up the egg yolk nicely, but keeps it runny, and cures it a bit.

The rice grows exponentially, so in a decent sized pan, put the rice and one tablespoon of oil in pan and stir it through ensuring all the rice is coated. Add the stock and bring it to the boil. Reduce to a simmer. Stir the rice occasionally and if you feel it needs more liquid (it should be soupy but not runny) top it up with water from the kettle. It will take approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes (maybe less maybe more). Check for salt (it should be fine if your stock was seasoned) and season if necessary.

When the congee is ready, pour into 4 bowls (or 1 or 2 or 3 saving the leftovers in the fridge) and gently place te cured egg yolk in the centre, sprinkling spring onion, chilli, coriander, ginger and nuts and 1 tsp soy sauce on top.

Eat immediately and enjoy!