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

Mash hash has become a regular feature of my week. In order to make weekday meals speedier, I bulk cook some things in advance when I have time, like potatoes.

I cook up a batch, I usually boil them, sometimes roast, and then I use them throughout the week. I peel them and cut them in slices before frying them for a speedy hash with eggs. I fry the skins to make crispy potato skins which may become the centre of a dish or a lovely crisp garnish. I make potato cakes, gnocchi, croquettes. All of these things are speedy once your potatoes are already cooked. Recently, I have become a little obsessed with Mash Hash.
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DO Cava and Cava Discovery Week sponsored this post.

I know you don’t need to have an excuse to have a Bubbly Brunch but when you have crisp fluffy smoked salmon waffles beside your gorgeous glass of aged cava, I don’t see how you can resist.

Cava: not just any sparkling wine 

Cava is an excellent wine choice. As with champagne, it is made in the traditional method and it is fermented and aged in bottle leading to some excellent wines.

Cava has a DO (denomination of origin) which means that it can only be made in specific areas, although 95% of cava is made in Penedès in Catalonia. Cava is made primarily with indigenous Spanish grapes, Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel·lo. Other grapes like chardonnay are also added at times.

Cava can be white or rosé and as part of the traditional method cava has two fermentations, the second being in bottle where it can also be aged. Reserva, Gran Reserva and Cava de Paraje wines are all aged high quality cava wines which you can enjoy in some terrific Spanish tapas bars and restaurants across the UK this week. 

Cava Discovery Week: 18-24 November

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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

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Jump straight to the recipe – Beef and Chorizo Meatballs, Egg, Basil – Your Perfect Brunch for One

Cooking for one should not be sad or viewed as such. It is the ultimate in self care. Quiet time as the day begins, and something gorgeous to eat at the end. You are looking after yourself and making yourself something good to eat, how can anyone view that as sad? Food is not just social, it is nourishing, and that is what we should focus on. Nourishing ourselves, mind, body and soul.

Cooking for One is a Joy and the Ultimate in Self Care 

Of course, I love to cook for others too but I live in a small London flat with a small kitchen and no communal dining table. Typical (I think!) for many of us urban dwellers. When I see my friends we eat elsewhere. (I look forward to a time in my life when I can gather them around my kitchen table and serve big platters of food designed for sharing). For now, I cook often for one, and sometimes when my flatmate is around, for two. Mostly for one though.

I cook for myself mostly it in an efficient way. I will prepare something that will work in different ways in different meals. This beef and chorizo meatball mix was also a patty, it could be a kebab. It can be a dumpling in soup (by adding more breadcrumbs), it can be filling in a dumpling (leave the breadcrumbs out, add loads of shredded cabbage). Versatility is key, I don’t want to eat the same thing every day. 

Brunch for One – Beef and Chorizo Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with a Gorgeous Egg

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Jump straight to the leftover Dal Pancake recipe

I was looking after my friends cat last week in Dublin. The sweetest little cat. I kept her well fed, but it won’t surprise you to hear that I love to feed people even more. When my friend was on her way back from the airport I asked her if she would like some dal pancakes. She replied: I have never had them, sounds good! My reply: well you won’t have, I am just making them from leftover dal, but they are very good! Dal pancakes are sheer joy. Fluffy like an American pancake, and shaped just so too. But made of leftover dal and tasting gently of it, with coconut milk, an egg, self raising flour and salt, and just that. 

Cooking for comfort

After weeks of travelling and lots of eating out, I craved simplicity once I had a kitchen again. Not my kitchen, but my friends kitchen in Dublin, and so I kept it simpler again. I wanted dal, dumplings, I wanted an excellent steak. Pasta loomed large on my culinary horizon. I went overboard on my first day in the local shop. The second day too. Then as I wandered, as I do, I discovered a Chinese shop and an Indian shop. I stocked up on spices and dumpling wrappers and sauces. I went too far, I always do and I arrived at my sisters house after Dublin with a collection of herb plants and half a pantry.  Continue reading

Brunch is never just brunch, even when it is just for myself, which it mostly is. In the morning I wake up gently as I cook, I really enjoy it, and it is one huge perk of working from home. This crab omelette (with favourite things bacon and tomato) is one in a series of lovely things that I make daily and always share on social media. Not all warrant a recipe and to be shared here but this one does. You need to make it. 

I say brunch not breakfast as brunch is such a forgiving thing. It can be anything and it can be all day. I also don’t like to eat when I first get up, unless I have to leave the house. I start gently with a coffee and start work. A couple of hours later I turn my attention to the garden, the fridge and the stove. A wander outside to gather herbs, greens and whatever else is of interest starts the process. To these I add whatever might be in the fridge. I often have an idea of what I might like but this might change swiftly once I start.

A 10 Minute Crab, Bacon and Tomato Omelette

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Sausage, Mushroom & Spinach Flatbread with Dairy Free Lemon Hollandaise Recipe 

My local farmer’s market is a joy. Compact and varied, I do most of my weekly food shop there. I know the farmers and producers well by now, and I have a few favourites that I never miss. I know that when I get home to London there will be pumpkins and squash aplenty. I also look forward to visiting my local farmer and seeing what he has got. The meat and the cuts vary week on week based on what comes from the farm. Sometimes he has pork cheek, the whole jowl, and I love to roast those or stick them on the BBQ. He always has veal, minced and escalope, brisket, steaks, and sublime minced beef. I know that whatever he has, it will be delicious, it always is.

I bought these spiral sausages from him before I left for Australia and their twistiness made me think of nothing else but round bread. I wanted to embed those sausages in a flatbread and make a meal of it. Brunch, of course. Making bread is easy when you have a mixer with a dough hook, it literally makes itself, and so I make batches of dough reasonably often. The same batch of dough can become many things: pita, pizza, lahmucun, bread rolls. This time, it became a sausage flatbread. Continue reading

Go straight to the recipe for your new twist on Brunch Eggs – Courgette, Carrot and Sesame Egg Menamen

You know how it goes. You are cooking brunch. It is the weekend. A sleepy start, slower than normal. Hatching plans. Just what will be the perfect soldier to dip in to your runny egg yolk? I take great care with my eggs to avoid any potential problems. The yolk is the very best bit and I need it to be runny and perfect, I also need my white to be set. This, I figured out years ago. The trick is simple, just add a lid and cook it just long enough.

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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

Jump straight to the Tomato and Paprika Braised Sausages with Charred Lettuce recipe

Let’s talk more about simple things and speedy suppers. Now in this time of glut when markets and gardens are full of wonderful things to eat we can be indulgent, but why would we be when letting perfect and simple ingredients shine is often the best way? In summer I like to eat lighter and simpler. I feel that way generally these days. 

Summer Sunshine Captured on a Rainy Day

I eat tomatoes more than anything all through the year, but especially in summer. My kitchen garden is packed and the tomatoes are flying but I have only a few tomatoes nearing red (and over 25 tomato plants growing, so exciting!). My counter is still stacked with tomatoes of all colours shapes and sizes from my local farmers market though. Rough and tumble beef hearts, wobbly and one sided. Bright round enormous yellow tomatoes, perfectly smooth and sweet as a mango. Small pops of colour and joy in every shade, green and tiger striped, reds approaching pink and gorgeous cherry tomatoes, plump and bulging from red to yellow to purple.

Tomatoes growing in my kitchen garden

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Socca is a wonderful thing. So easy to make, and very delicious. Using chickpea flour it is also gluten free. This recipe whisks me back to Nice, to a summer there when I was 19. It was only my second summer away from Ireland, my first trip abroad ever I had spent on a farm outside an idyllic looking English village outside Canterbury picking apples. I say summer, it was 3 weeks and a brief trip to London after, but it allowed me to peek at the possibilities available to me and dream of a travel filled future. The following year, after 1 year in university, I headed to Nice for the summer. 

Nice was a whole different thing. I lived in a small studio apartment not far off the Promenade des Anglais (a boulevard bridging the city and the bright blue sea). I worked in a market in the evening, wandering during the days, loitering in bookshops and anywhere I found interesting. I read biology texts in French to try and develop my language skills (I was studying for my degree in Biology at the time). I read and I walked and I swam in the salty Mediterranean Sea. I burned my feet on the stones on the beach and I jumped from one stone to another to reach the sea before discovering that I would be spectacularly out of my depth after a couple of feet. I worked from 5 until midnight every day, every week, and then I went for pizza most days with friends that I had made there after we finished. I discovered jugs of rosé, pizza with thin gorgeous ham and bottles of chilli oil hiding sprigs of rosemary and dried chillies.   Continue reading

Eggs for brunch! Maybe 75% of my brunches have eggs, isn’t that the way it should be?

I was caught on the hop today while scheduling work for next week when I was informed that it is a bank holiday again. Again?! When I worked in an office I would of course know this ages in advance and I would be plotting and planning, but working at home for myself where my only colleagues are inanimate (and gorgeous fragrant) tulips and the occasional neighbourhood cat, I often miss the memo these days. The days pass and follow and now it is almost May. How did that happen? Regardless, it did, and now summer is almost here.

Tulips from Amsterdam! Truly, I picked them on an organic tulip farm earlier in the week and brought them home. Gorgeous.

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Isn’t everything better with an egg? Most things, anyway. An egg is an instant easy sauce. That rich yolk, which must be runny, and a variety of things to go with it, some of which must be crisp and dippable. And a runny egg yolk is the perfect thing to have with some lovely saltimbocca.

One of the farmers at my local farmers market sells terrific meat. The prices are excellent, the minced meats have plenty of fat (and therefore lots of flavour and moisture) and there are always interesting cuts. He also always has veal, minced and in thin escalopes. Saltimbocca alla Romana had been on my mind, and when reminded of it via an instagram post from the wonderful Rachel Roddy, I decided that it had to be done. Continue reading

 Foraging in general is a joy. Free food, incredibly fresh, often difficult to source otherwise. I was at home last week and used it as an opportunity to stock up on gorgeous wild garlic.

My trip home was last minute. I was invited to speak at Facebook in Dublin for International Women’s Day and I jumped at the chance to immerse myself in company and to spend a little time at home. I was quite curious about facebook, too. I wanted to plug in and opt out, just for a little bit. It was a wonderful day in the end, I left inspired and hopeful, and reminded that community is so important, and that this is difficult for someone who spends lots of time working at home alone. 

Speaking at Facebook on International Women’s Day

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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

It has just started snowing in London. Snow! I am hiding inside under my duvet while I work, with the heating on. I need carbs and spice and a perfect egg with a runny yolk. 

Masala fries are in my mind a lot recently, not just because they are delicious and so satisfying, but also because my corner shop has started stocking them in their freezer. I see them every time I walk out of the shop. They are so easy to make at home, and as with most things, all the better for it. Today was the day that I would make them.  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

This post is a collaboration with Tabasco. Who doesn’t love Tabasco? Tabasco asked me to come up with some recipes to ease you through the mornings after of your festive season, and as it is a bit of a specialist subject of mine, I agreed with much enthusiasm — you can follow the action on social media by checking out the hashtag #tabascosquadgoals.

Who doesn’t love steak and beer and cheese? They sound like a curious combination for a hangover, but trust me, this is the one. This will fix things and make everything ok.

Christmas hangovers. That regular cretin that comes creeping to the end of your bed just as the sun rises to torture and tease you for much of the day. The first is ok, even the second, but then they pile one on top of the other until eventually you can’t cope. In Ireland we call this The Fear, your very own Ghost of Christmas Present. The Fear is debilitating. It makes you question everything you are doing and everything you have ever done. That is when you will see me hiding in my bed or under my duvet on the sofa. The only redemption is something good to eat, and a drink (but not too much). You see, when you are at this stage, the only way out is THROUGH.

Chipotle Cheese Steaks and a Bloody Maria

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