The ‘Perfect’ Omelette

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I always raise my eyebrows to recipes that say – the perfect this or the best that. You are already setting yourself up for disappointment – because invariably they aren’t perfect or the best.

And what does perfect mean? Is it the author’s perfect omelette? Perfect to me means flipped on both sides rather than folded – and with cheese and chilli. For the author I imagine it means this is the perfectly balanced and healthy omelette to have for breakfast to start the day given that this omelette comes courtesy of Honestly Healthy for Life.

It’s very simple and very very tasty.

We’re usually very lax at breakfast time and either don’t bother having any – or grab a slice of toast at work. But we’ve noticed we don’t feel great when we snack on bread so we thought we’d try this instead.

It’s not obvious from the picture – but this is a two egg omelette which had quite a bit of parsley chopped into the egg. While it is frying in the pan you add some chopped tomato and mushroom (which you’ve previously cooked for a few minutes). You put the filling on one side of the omelette then top with fresh spinach and red chilli (if you want), then fold, cook for a short while and then flip.

You think the spinach won’t fit inside the omelette – and it doesn’t to start with – but it soon wilts – and when you fold it it all fits in nicely.

I thought my perfect omelette was a three egg, mint, pea and feta omelette – but this one really does come close. It was fantastic. And it is clearly more healthy than the one I usually make!

Beetroot, Sweet Potato and Carrot Salad

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

I wish I could remember where I found this recipe. It was incredible easy apart from the bloodbath that is peeling and dicing beetroots.

Once they are diced, you boil them in very little water, and when they are half done you add the sweet potato. Once cooked, drain and allow to cool. Then you simply toss them together with some grated carrot, coriander and mint.

What I did love about this salad was the way the beetroot juice bled into the sweet potatoes; it gave them an interesting colouring.

When I remember where I found this recipe I’ll re-edit the post – just thought I’d put it out there!

Buffalo Mozzarella with Peperonata and Rosemary Ciabatta Croutons

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Now here’s a yummy salad.

Also taken from ‘Friends Round the Table’ by Acland Geddes and Pedro da Silva, this was pulled from the Times Eat supplement.

The peperonata takes some time to make so it you think this salad is going to be ready in 20 minutes, it isn’t. I think it took me nearly 45 minutes to make this. That said it was worth it. The peppers were nice and sweet and went really well with the rosemary ciabatta (not in the photo).

Peperonata is basically julienned peppers, diced tomatoes, red onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar and salt. This one also had capers.

Once the peperonata is ready you let it cool and serve it on a bed of rocket with some basil and torn mozzarella. The addition of toasted pinenuts and a drizzle of olive oil really finished it off well.

We had a bit of a nightmare with the ciabatta. Not only did Ocado substitute the ciabatta for a rustic artisan stick, turns out that it wasn’t even in the delivery so we had no bread at all ! We stole some stale bread from Freya’s parents while they were away – and revived it in the halogen oven. It kind of worked but it was a bit crunchy.

This was a perfect light meal – and I’ll certainly be making it again.

Roast Potatoes with mint, garlic and preserved lemon

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Roast potatoes are essentially just roasted potatoes.

We don’t usually eat a lot of potatoes – as they are too carby and we are trying to lose weight – but we’ve been working hard on the boat so we deserved it.

This recipe is supposed to be made with baby potatoes but I didn’t have any – so I just used up some bigger ones – chopped them up into bite sized pieces and left the skin on. Roasted potatoes are so much tastier with the skin on.

This dish crazy simple. Just roast the potatoes in olive oil and while they are roasting, toast some garlic, tear some mint and slice some preserved lemon. When the potatoes are ready, mix in the other three ingredients and serve.

This side was part of the three course Easter Lunch featured in the Telegraph’s Stella Magazine. It caught my eye because it was provided by Diana Henry of A Change of Appetite fame.

Crunchy Fennel Salad with Pomegranate, Mango and Walnuts

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Another ‘no-cook’ recipe – unless you count toasting some walnuts for a few minutes, this salad is very nice indeed – very refreshing and pretty simple to make.

One thing that always puts me off salads with mango is I am rubbish at breaking down a mango. I always make a mess and end up gnawing on the stone like a dog with a bone – just because I don’t like wasting any of it. Mangoes are a very inconsiderate fruit. I mean why put such a large stone in a fruit that big. Once you’ve removed all the flesh, julienning it seems to be just one step too far. Although on this occasion I seem to have done quite a good job.

Pomegranates are another one of those fruits that makes you just want to buy a pot of the seeds. That said the seeds are never as juicy as buying a fresh pomegranate, cutting it in half and whacking the back of it with a heavy spoon (or my preference the pestle from my glass pestle and mortar). All I’d say is whack them into a separate bowl rather than over the fennel like I did – as the juice splashes everywhere and makes the fennel look like it took part in a horror movie.

That’s as hard as the prep gets though. Just add the mango and pomegranate to some sliced fennel, sliced red onion, red chilli and the toasted walnuts. Toss it all together with some lime juice, coriander and lemon thyme.

This is a wonderful salad and can be found in ‘Friends Around the Table’ by Acland Geddes and Pedro da Silva. This was again taken from a pullout from the Times Eat Magazine.

Orange Salad with Dates, Chillies and Preserved Lemons

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This dish had potential but it failed for one simple reason. You need sweet ripe oranges. Mine weren’t sweet enough. They were actually pretty bland as oranges go.

I’ll probably give it another go as the concept was good. Sliced oranges, sliced dates, sliced preserved lemons and a red chilli – it should have worked. But I think the addition of orange blossom water made it a little bit too floral – and with the oranges not being sweet Freya felt it was a bit ‘soapy’!

This did take next to no time to make. Just slice up all the ingredients and serve it.

The recipe came from ‘Flavours of the Middle East’ by Ghillie Basan. I don’t own the book – I’ve got way too many already. This book was featured in ‘Eat’ – The Times Magazine recipe section.

Herby Omelette Thingies

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Funny name for this granted – its kind of an omelette, kind of a frittata.

I knocked this up on Monday when Freya said she was hungry and it was way too late to eat. The cupboards were pretty bare but I knew I had the ingredients for this and it was very quick and easy to make.

I’m not convinced the recipe in the book is the smartest way to make this. Basically, you fry some herbs in butter/oil and after a short while you pour a batter of eggs, flour and baking powder over the top and cook on low for 10 mins until the eggs set.

The problem with this is the herbs will burn. They get trapped under the eggs – get all the direct heat and lose all their flavour and don’t look at all appetising. The herbs lost a lot of their flavour too.

The picture I’ve taken with this was my take on the same dish. I can’t see the point of frying fresh herbs – so I make the recipe differently as follows:

Crack 3 eggs into a Magimix
Chop a bunch of mint into a Magimix
Add a cup of frozen peas into a Magimix
Add 10ml Plain flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder to a Magimix
Season
Turn on the Magimix for 5 seconds
Pour the omelette mixture into a medium heated pan
Cook on a low heat for 10 mins
Either flip it and cook for a couple of minutes more – or slide under a grill
Serve

That was a much better solution as the herbs retained their flavour and nothing looked burnt.

For added awesomeness – add cubes feta cheese – that really does make an awesome snack.

Ful Medames

Posted on April 10, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Phew – the fava beans were fine! Not burned after all. It’s not like me to leave cooking food unattended!

I seem to have gotten into the habit of photographing my food as if it was meant to be a screensaver. Maybe I should plate more food – but then I’d need nicer plates. White ones don’t always cut it! Hmm – it’s my birthday soon – who knows!

Ful Medames are essentially cooked fava beans mixed with chickpeas and tahini, garlic, lemon juice, cumin and parsley. When you think about it – it’s not far off being a deconstructed houmous – all the constituent ingredients are there.

One thing we aren’t really sure about is the fava beans have quite tough skins. Even after 24 hours of soaking and 2 hours of simmering. Maybe I’ll try this again with shelled fava beans (I have some) – I don’t think it’ll look as pretty though as the end product will all be the same colour – houmous coloured! They might go mushy too! Like houmous!

I like salads with this sort of texture. But I’m not sure I’d make this again. It’s bit of a faff. Fava beans aren’t readily available in a regular shop. That said – neither are mung beans and I’d make the mung bean casserole any day.

We’re off to the boat tomorrow – hopefully this day off work will produce some sun and we can be a little more productive. This salad will keep us going for sure. Along with the leftover egg stuffed tomatoes!

Cheese-Baked Egg-Stuffed Tomatoes

Posted on April 10, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This very simple recipe takes very little preparation at all – as long as your tomatoes are ripe. Hollowing out unripe tomatoes isn’t the best of fun – especially those really big ones that you need for this dish.

It’s a shame I invested the time in making these. I made these over the road at my mother-in-laws to keep her company and completely forgot that I’d left half a kilo of Fava Beans simmering in a pan in our cottage. Suffice to say they got a bit burnt once the water had all boiled away! Oh well! They look ok – maybe they’ll be ok – we shall see!

Anyway – back to the tomatoes. Once your tomatoes are hollowed you chop the contents of the tomato and add to some cooked onions. After spooning a little of this mixture back in the tomato you crack in an egg and top with grated cheese. The remaining mixture is spooned over some toasted pita breads – put the egg filled tomatoes on top and cook in the oven until the egg is firm.

This isn’t the most elegant of dishes and if I’m honest I’d probably change a few things. There needs to be more flavour somewhere – maybe with some fresh thyme or basil in the tomato mix, not sure yet. Also I’d drain off as much of the juice from the tomato filling as it was a bit too wet when you cut into it. Or you could reduce the liquid from the tomato juice to make the flavours more intense.

That said it was ok – and easy. Having the tomato on a bed of pita bread made the dish more complete. It would probably look quite fancy alongside some sausage and bacon in an all day breakfast! If you ate meat that was!

Maybe I’ve just gotten used to making something slightly more zingy and tasty and different. There are better dishes than this in Veggiestan. There are worse too – remember the fried eggs and dates!

Afghan Leek Pies

Posted on April 9, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

I don’t usually make this sort of thing as I’m not a big fan of shallow frying things in lots of oil. They just can’t be healthy. That said they caught my eye so I thought I’d give them a go.

These are pretty simple to prepare – but take quite some time to fry. I think the proportions are all off in the recipe too as I have over half the filling left over after using up all the pastry!

This is basically a flour, salt and water dough – cut into thin circles (I used a cocktail shaker which had a handy 9cm diameter !) and filled with a mixture of mashed potato, leeks and spices.

The recipe says you’ll make 20 but I made nearly 40!

They are quite nice and we tried them with an assortment of dips from Creme Fraiche to Ketchup to Garlic Jam (from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm). I think keeping it simple with something like yoghurt or creme fraiche is best. Ketchup overpowered them even though they were quite spicy.

There is clearly a lot you could change here – any filling would probably work as long as it was quite solid.

It wasn’t the best choice of dinner as these are really better placed in a buffet or in the middle of the table in a meeting at work (that’s where the 30 left over ones are going). Eating five each was enough – and we usually eat much lighter food than this.

That said – if these were in front of you and you were distracted with a good film – or like we were with the first episode of Season 4 of Game of Thrones – then you might just munch your way through all of them without realising it.

I had another one of these before going to bed (just like Nigella might) and they weren’t as crisp as they were when they were freshly fried – but the recipe does say they keep well – so we’ll see tomorrow.