Eve’s pudding

I’m not a big maker or consumer of desserts, but this one is simple and delicious - and also great for breakfast!

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 cup canola or sunflower oil (not olive oil, the taste is too strong)
• 6 medium Granny Smith apples
• .25 cup currants
• 4 eggs
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp each ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg
• 60g butter, cubed

Method

1. Peel, core and slice apples
2. Place apple slices in a baking tray or casserole dish and toss in brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and currants
3. Evenly distribute contents in the dish, and add butter cubes evenly
4. Preheat oven to 160º C
5. Break eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk. Add oil and whisk again. Then whisk in vanilla, caster sugar. Finally add the flour, salt and baking powder. Combine with whisk until it is a smooth batter.
6. Pour batter over the apple mixture and spread it over evenly.
7. Place in the oven and cook for 50 minutes
8. Serve warm or cold with custard

Spanish omelette

A Spanish omelette is a great breakfast or snack. It keeps well in the fridge and is very good out-on-the-boat food.

This recipe basically follows this one on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JceGMNG7rpU  Tortilla de Patatas by Omar Allibhoy

I use desiree potatoes, washed but not peeled, and I slice both the onion and potatoes using a V-slicer with the “thick slice” attachment, then cut the bigger slices and onion rings in half.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 3 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups olive oil
• Salt, pepper, ground cumin

Method

Heat oil in heavy-based frying pan.

When oil is hot, add onion.

Once onion begins to brown, add potatoes.

Once potatoes begin to brown at the edges remove from heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and potatoes to a bowl. Break eggs into the bowl, add seasoning and stir through the mixture. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Once you’ve let the oil cool, pour off and strain, and keeping for reuse.

Give the pan a wipe with a paper towel. Return enough oil to just cover the pan - not too much as we will be flipping this over and we don’t want to be burned by hot oil.

Once the pan is hot again, pour in the mixture and push evenly to the sides of the pan.

Cook on high for 1 minute, then on low for 2 minutes - I use a cast iron pan, so I actually take it right off the heat.

The way you flip it is to put a wide plate over the pan - the plate needs to extend at least a centimetre beyond the edge. If you don’t have a big enough plate, try a pizza tray. So, placing the plate face down over the pan, and pressing down, turn upside down and lift the pan away. There is your first cooked half. If should be a little dark in places, but mostly golden or brown.

Add a little more oil if necessary, raise heat again, then slide the uncooked side into the pan. Again, 1 minute on high, 2 minutes low.

Remove from pan using the same flip method.

How to poach an egg

Eggsplanation

The trick with eggs - poached, scrambled, boiled, fried or coddled - is to be gentle, especially with the heat.

And eggs are cheap - so you can afford to buy eggs that are gentle on their mothers. A dozen cage free eggs weighing in at 700g cost $3.50. Less than 30 cents an egg.

And a poached egg is a prince at that price.

The way I do it is basically the Heston method with a few changes.

First, I don’t use a thermometer, and second I don’t put my plate in upside down. I found with the plate upside down, the eggs tend to slide off and end up off touching side of the pan, which defeats the purpose.

Most good quality plates have a rim at the bottom, which lifts the surface away from the direct heat, and this combined with removing the saucepan from the heat does the trick.

What you need

• Bread-and-butter plate
• Saucepan just large enough for the plate
• Slotted spoon
• Small bowl
• Spatula

Method

Pour about 6cm of water into the saucepan and bring to boil. Once it’s boiling, remove from heat. Wait 1 minute, then slide in the plate right-side up.

Prepare the egg by breaking it into a slotted spoon over a bowl or paper towel so that the watery yolk is discarded. With the slotted spoon, gently slide the egg into the water - you do this by lowering the spoon into the water, then gently letting the egg slide out onto the plate.

If you are doing more than one egg (and you generally will be) take note of which is first, second and third so that you can remove them in that order. For more than that, you will need a new batch - or two saucepans.

Once the eggs are in, I put the toast on. In three minutes the first egg will be ready. Remove from the water with a spatula - if you want it to be really fancy, you can trim the edges of the egg. But, as you can see, I can’t be bothered doing this - I just want to eat it.

Season with salt and pepper. Also a tomato salsa is nice. I also find tamarind sauce or chutney goes very, very well with egg.

Israeli eggs

Shakshuka is the Israeli variant of a common Mid-Eastern/North African dish, popular as a breakfast, but versatile enough for any meal.

It is basically - eggs poached over a spicy tomato salsa. Simple and tasty, but with something extra that lifts it above the ordinary.

If you’re looking for a main meal version try, as I did, adding a bed of couscous, as well as crumbling in feta and adding sliced mushrooms. Sliced chorizo is nice to add also, but this plays merry hell with its Kosherness! Finely chopped red and yellow capsicum can also be added to the onion and garlic at the beginning. All good!

Recipe - Shakshuka

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups tomato salsa
• 2 tomatoes
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups couscous
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sprigs parsley or coriander to garnish

Method

• Chop garlic and onion and, in a heavy based frying pan, sauté in olive oil over medium heat
• Chop tomatoes
• Once the onion turns transparent and begins to brown, stir in cumin, cayenne and paprika
• Add chopped tomatoes, simmer for 5 minutes. Add tomato salsa and simmer for another 10. Add salt and pepper to taste
• Place couscous in a bowl. Boil the water, and pour over couscous. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes
• Break eggs, evenly spaced, onto the simmering tomato mixture in the pan. Once the eggs are poached the way you like it (you might want to pot them under the griller to finish them off), they are ready to serve
• Serve on a bed of couscous, garnish with parsley or coriander