How to make Bircher muesli with toasted almonds and blueberries

When I'm on holidays and happen to be staying at a fancy hotel I always get the Bircher muesli at the breakfast buffet.  Obviously alongside about ten other things like pancakes and pastries, but the Bircher muesli is always there.  I love Bircher muesli but had never made it at home because I have always been deterred by the requirement to prepare it the night before.  I'm never that organised when it comes to breakfast.  But it turns out Bircher muesli is actually really easy to make and you can even cheat and just get started on it one hour before you want to eat it.  That's enough time to have a coffee and read the papers before tucking into your home made Bircher muesli.

No need to wait for hotel Bircher muesli

How to make Shakshuka

Last Saturday when it was lashing with rain and MTV and I ducked into a little cafe in Richmond.  We were sick of the house hunting we had spent all morning doing and wanted to get a late brunch while escaping the weather.  I ordered the Shakshuka, a dish I knew would warm me up from the tips of my toes to the top of my rather bedraggled and wet head.

Shakshuka (serving for one) 

How to make smashed eggs with avocado

You know how pregnant ladies have cravings for particular foods?  I have that all the time.  Except I'm not pregnant.  There was my obsession with dulce de leche, my infatuation with chorizo and now the object of my current fixation is avocados.  Luckily it seems the rest of Australia is currently craving avocado as well and it is difficult to find a cafe that does not feature the humble avo on its brunch menu.

Smashing the eggs

How to make potato rostis with smoked salmon

I've been feeling sorry for myself this weekend as I have a cold so I have cancelled all social activities and bunkered down at home. This has meant that I have been cooking elaborate meals in the hope of reviving my flagging appetite. What could be more self indulgent than a breakfast of smoked salmon? I decided that the perfect accompaniment would be my own recipe for potato rostis. These take a little bit of effort but are well worth the time. The trick is to make sure that the potato mixture is dry so that it sticks together and to ensure that you don't make the rostis too large so that they are difficult to turn in the pan. Other than that, the potato rostis are really quite straight forward and were just the thing to cheer me up. If these taste good to me with a cold, imagine how much better they will taste to you.

Ingredients

2 large potatoes (300g in total) - I only had small potatoes which take a bit more work to peel

30g butter, melted

30ml olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

100g smoked salmon.

Flat leaf parsley

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Grating the potatoes

1. Peel and grate the potatoes and pat with paper towel to try and get the mixture as dry as possible. Mix in a bowl with the butter, salt and pepper.

The potato mixture

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.

3. Spoon 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into the pan and form into a round, flat shape. Turn the rosti once you can see the pan side browning and cook until the rosti is golden on both sides. Drain on paper towel.

4. Repeat step 3 with the remaining mixture you should be able to make 4 to 5 rostis. If you cook the rostis together be careful not to over crowd the pan.

5. Serve by putting two of the rostis on each plate and topping with smoked salmon.

6. Mix the mustard, lemon juice and white wine vinegar together and drizzle over the top. Garnish with the parsley.

Serves 2.

Note: If you are wondering why the salmon in the picture looks a little anemic that is because I got it from Daylesford Organic who apparently feed their salmon prawn shells amongst other things which gives it the pale pink colour.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in another great breakfast recipe for banana and ricotta hotcakes. If you would prefer someone else to cook your brunch try The Albion.

How to make coconut pancakes (Cooking course in Sri Lanka)

My tan is already starting to fade but luckily on my honeymoon in Sri Lanka I did a cooking course so I do have a type of memento in the form of some great Sri Lankan recipes. The course was with the lovely Karuna at Sonja's Health Food Restaurant at Unawatuna which is 10 minutes outside of Galle. Sonja herself moved on quite a few years ago and Karuna now uses the restaurant exclusively for cooking classes which involve a tour of the Galle markets to buy provisions and then an afternoon spent whipping up curries. The course is not super organised (there are no written recipes and I had to scribble them down myself) and the restaurant itself is quite ramshackle but Karuna is a great teacher with an infectious laugh. Another bonus is that you get to do everything yourself, rather than just watching Karuna, although she does lend a helping hand particularly when you feel like your arm is about to fall off from grating so much coconut.

Galle market tour with Karuna

The curries that we made were some of the best I had during my time in Sri Lanka, but first to start the day we made some coconut pancakes to snack on. We made the pancakes using fresh coconut which is sometimes hard to get your hands on (and even harder to crack open) so I have adapted Karuna's recipe below and included substitutions for dessicated coconut.

Grating the fresh coconut

Ingredients

1 coconut or 250g dessicated coconut

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp tumeric powder

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup treacle

1/2 tsp coconut oil (use vegetable oil if no coconut oil available)

2 limes

Cooking the coconut and treacle mix

1. Half the coconut and grate the coconut flesh (you will need one of these, grate the coconut by turning the handle and pressing the flesh into the grinder) or use dessicated coconut instead.

2. Add 1 cup of water and the treacle to a frying pan on high heat and then mix in the coconut and then stir to reduce the mixture until all the moisture has been removed. This will take around 10 minutes. Set aside once cooked.

3. Mix the flour, salt, tumeric and 1/2 a cup of water until smooth to form the pancake mix.

Cooking the pancake mix

4. Add the coconut oil to a small frying pan and once sizzling pour in a thin coating of pancake mix to form one pancake. Once the pancake starts to bubble and moves easily in the pan, flip the pancake so that it is cooked on both sides.

5. Remove the pancake from the pan and place a large spoonful of the coconut mix at one side of the pancake, squeeze some fresh lime on top and then roll the pancake up, tucking in the ends like a burrito.

Pancake prior to rolling

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining pancake mix taking care to clean the pan between pancakes.

7. Serve the coconut pancakes with fresh lime wedges to squeeze on top.

Details

Essentials: Karuna's cooking course, Sonjas Health Food Restaurant, Beach road, Unawatatuna, Sri Lanka (Ph +91 77 961 5310)

Damage: 3000 Rs (roughly £17) which includes a market tour and all your ingredients.

Tips for travellers

We stayed in nearby Galle (15 minutes away in a tuk-tuk) at the stunning Galle Fort Hotel which is a boutique hotel in a lovingly restored old merchants home. Each room is filled with antique and huge beds with beautiful white linen. The rooms face onto a central courtyard which has a terrace for a restaurant and a swimming pool. Rooms from USD$140 a night.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in reading about other cooking courses you can do on your travels like La Maison Arabe school in Morocco or Cook'n with Class in Paris.

French toast with balsamic strawberries

A while ago Good Natured Fruit sent me (and lot of other food sites) some punnets of their strawberries along with some cream and Pimms to try.  The strawberries were so delicious that I just ate them straight away.  Interestingly the strawberries are not actually organic but instead are grown without the use of pesticides.  Instead they use bugs, such as ladybirds, to get rid of any pests so you get amazing flavour without any nasties and at a cheaper price than organic.  Yet another producer showing how organic is not always best.  

In proof that sometimes it is worth sending stuff to me even if it takes me a month or so to post about it (really!), I have actually taken to buying these Good Natured strawberries whenever I can.  The other day I bought some and rather than just eating them (which really is not a very exciting post) I soaked them in balsamic vinegar and served them with French toast.  If this is not one of the most delicious and decadent brunch options I don't know what is.  

Ingredients

4 slices of bread

4 eggs

6 tsp caster sugar

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

100g strawberries

1.  Hull the strawberries and cut them in half.  

2.  Mix the balsamic vinegar and two teaspoons of sugar together and then soak the strawberries for one hour.

3.  Whisk the eggs and combine with the remaining sugar.  Soak the bread in the egg mixture ensuring that there is enough time for the bread to absorb the egg like a sponge and that all of the bread is covered in egg.  

4.  Fry the bread in a frying pan on both sides until it is a golden brown colour.  Top with the balsamic strawberries to serve.

Links

If you are looking for brunch options try this recipe for ricotta banana hot cakes or read this post on some of my favourite London breakfast spots.  

Gourmet Chick was invited to try the strawberries by Good Natured fruit free of charge.  

Banana and Ricotta Hot Cakes

Yesterday was Australia day. Its hard to define Australian food unlike say Indian food or Italian food. For me Australian food means an emphasis on seafood, fresh, light ingredients and often an Asian influence given Australia's location and immigrant population. Putting all of this aside, when thinking of something to cook for Australia day the first thing that came to mind was some fabulous banana and ricotta hot cakes that I had for a lazy Sunday brunch one morning at Bill Granger's sunny cafe in Sydney. I couldn't find Bill's recipe so this is my own tried and tested version. The hot cakes are light and fluffy and the inclusion of banana makes them feel almost virtuous. Try it on one of these cold grey winter mornings and I hope it brings a little Australian sunshine into your day.

Ingredients
250g ricotta
125ml milk
2 large eggs separated
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Salt to season
Splash of olive oil
2 bananas - mash one and slice the other for serving
Maple syrup to serve

1. Put the ricotta, milk, mashed banana and egg yolks into a bowl and mix to combine. Next stir in the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.

2. Whisk the egg whites in separate bowl by hand until they become fluffy and then fold into the rest of the hot cake mixture.

3. Spoon the mixture into a frying pan over medium heat. I like to make my hot cakes a little larger than a saucer in size. Cook until golden. A good way of telling that a pancake is ready to flip is when small bubbles start to appear in the surface of the pancake.

4. Serve topped with chopped banana and maple syrup.

If you were inspired by this why don't you try: this recipe for home made crunchy muesli or my tips for top breakfast spots in London.

Crunchy muesli

Nothing is guaranteed to make you feel as smug and virtuous as making your own muesli. Plus this muesli tastes delicious. I have played around with a few different combinations and I think this one is the best.

Ingredients
60g whole unskinned almonds
40g brazil nuts
40g cashew nuts
600g whole rolled oats
60g pumpkin seeds
100g dried apricots chopped
60g dried cranberries
60g sultanas

Syrup
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 140degrees, chop all the nuts and mix the oats, seed and nuts in a bowl.

2. Mix all the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Place over a low heat and stir while the syrup warms gently. Pour over the oats, seeds and nuts and stir.

3. Line a large baking tray with baking paper and spread the muesli over it evenly. Bake for 40 mins, turning and mixing the muesli mixture a few times. When ready it has a lovely golden colour. It will still be a bit soft, but will harden up once taken from the oven. While the muesli is still warm, but not hot, stir in the fruit. Leave to cool on the tray and then transfer to an airtight jar.