Quick Brunch - Sujouk and Eggs

Nothing beats Arabic style eggs...  It's amazing how few ingredients can come together and make such an amazing dish. I had forgotten that there was a piece of sujouk in my freezer and of course eggs in the fridge, radishes in the crisper and wild arugula in my garden (It sprouted in my front garden and I transplanted it to the back herb container and now it's completely taken over!) Chives too from out back.

It's as easy as 1 2 3 and makes for a perfect breakfast, brunch, lunch or even dinner. I had a couple of toasted pine nuts in my fridge from garnished a recipe I made over a week ago of Lebanese stuffed zucchini so I sprinkled them over top and voila!

Egyptian bread is always found in my freezer, that's the best place for it, goes straight into the freezer once it arrives from the store and stays perfectly fresh and all it needs is a quick warm up in the microwave of my new favourite way is to cut it in half and pop it into the toaster!

Yumyum!

Sujouk with Eggs 

- Chopped sujouk (Arabic spiced sausage) 

- Eggs

- Olive oil

In a small non stick pan sautee your sausage in the oil until the edges are crispy and it's browned nicely. Crack the eggs into the pan and let cook to desired doneness. Add a sprinkling of salt and black pepper and serve with sweet black tea and a plate of fresh herbs, olives and crusty fresh bread.  

Delicious treats we had earlier this week and mulberries from my backyard!

Grilled Cheddar Sandwich

With the Red Leicester CheddarI purchased from the SLM on friday  .. I made a grilled cheese this morning :)

To make 2 sandwiches

4 slices of Rye or Marble Rye bread (pumpernickel works too or any bread you like!) 

4 slices of cheddar (using Leicester Cheddar here, check out that COLOUR!) 

2 small knobs of butter (butter the outsides of each sandwich, both sides) 

1 frying pan set on medium heat, add a drop of oil if you're worried about the butter burning. 

Assemble sandwiches and place in the pan until browned on one side.  Flip over to the other side and brown, at this point the cheese should melt inside. 

Slice and serve with celery! 

Enjoy! 

Ricotta Pancakes with Warm Blueberry Syrup

Ricotta Pancakes with warm spiced Blueberry Sauce

Yields 3-4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup ricotta

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 large egg

2 large egg whites

1/2 cup milk or buttermilk (yogurt mixed with water or milk with a squeeze of lemon juice)

Vanilla

For the blueberry sauce:

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons sugar

Dash of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F and a nonstick griddle to 350 degrees F.

To make the blueberry sauce, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the blueberries, sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Stir in the lemon juice and cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Keep warm; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the ricotta, butter, egg, egg whites, milk and vanilla.

Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.

Lightly coat a griddle or nonstick skillet with oil. Heat over medium heat and scoop 1/3 cup batter for each pancake. Cook until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the pancakes on the other side, about 1-2 minutes longer; keep warm in oven.

Serve immediately with blueberry sauce.

Quick breakfast

Easiest breakfast that got whipped up out of nothing. I love days like this!

I was going to do a fried egg, but then I saw a tomato from the corner of my eye and I had some homemade pizza sauce in the fridge so I added about 2-3 tbsp of tomato sauce in the pan and began washing the tomato and draining it in the strainer. One of my biggest pet peeves in this world is tomato peel, or maybe it's a phobia because no matter how tiny it is ground up I am pretty sure I'll choke on it.

My kettle just finished boiling so I poured the water over the tomato in the strainer and then began peeling it, peel came off so easily! No blanching necessary.

It was a super ripe tomato so I chopped it up and added it to the skillet.

I couldn't stop there, what about some green pepper!

A few slices of green pepper went in. Cut off a chunk of red onion and thinly sliced that.

Crushed a large garlic clove and threw it in. Sliced up a thick chunk of ginger and nestled it between the tomatoes (can be removed later)

At this point I thought why not spice it up?

A dash of cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, ground coriander, cumin, paprika, crushed chilli.

Once this simmered and almost dried up I created a nest in the middle of the skillet by pushing the vegetables to the side and then cracked some eggs in the middle. Covered and cook to desired doneness.

Season with salt and a little sprinkling of pepper on the eggs and good to go!
Serve with flat bread and some fresh cilantro (I love cilantro!) and a nice big cup of moroccan mint tea.

Dates with Eggs تمر بالبيض

Have you ever had maple syrup with your eggs?  Well I know this looks and probably sounds unsual but it's really good and quite the same, the molasses-y taste of the dates goes beautifully with the eggs and makes a nice breakfast, brunch or light dinner eaten with bread, it popular in many parts of the middle east.   I

This is a simple recipe, it's really just two ingredients and you can alter it to your taste but here's how I do it: 

- 4 eggs

- 1 loose cup of whole dried dates chopped into small pieces (you cold leave them whole or buy already chopped pieces)

- Salt
- Olive oil or butter

Chop dates, set aside.

Heat pan, add some olive oil and sautee the dates on medium low, they are sugary so they can burn, keep an eye on them and this point here is just to soften them up a bit, I add a bit of water from the kettle (remove from heat, cool down and then pour water as not to burn yourself)  
Let them soften a bit until all the water evaporated and then remove and set aside. If you like that sweet/salty thing in your desserts and snacks then add a tiny sprinkling of salt to your dates like I do.

In another pan or the same one rinsed and wiped dry add some more olive oil or butter and scramble eggs very gently on medium low, seasoning with salt, just a sprinkling and adding the dates in towards the end of cooking (if you add them too early they can turn your eggs very grey - will taste fine- but this is why I use this method to keep the dish looking pretty)

Serve warm with fresh arabic style flat bread as a breakfast, brunch of part of a delicious middle eastern spread.  

This dish has that bread pudding eggy sweet souffle flavour and dates are super healthy so I think you'll like it ;-) 

 

Enjoy! 

Eggnog french toast

3-4 eggs

A big splash of eggnog

A splash of vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Mix it up.

6 thick slices of your favourite bread.

A knob of butter for frying.

Heat pan, add some butter..

Dip the bread in the mixture, let it soak a few seconds then fry them up until golden on both sides flipping half way.

Enjoy with maple syrup or your favourite topping.

Banana Caramel French Toast

French toast

Serves 2

2 thick slices of stale(ish) bread

Beat and strain the following and add to a shallow dish:

4 eggs

3-4 tbsp milk

1-2 tsp sugar (Brown sugar is ok)

pinch salt

Vanilla

For frying:

2 tbsp butter

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in pan and if it browns a bit it's ok, it's just more flavour.

Soak your bread flipping so both sides absorb and fry them on medium high flipping, just a few minutes and they're done!

Set french toast aside.

Banana Caramel Sauce:

2 tbsp butter

3-4 tbsp brown sugar

2 bananas sliced in thick slices

pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Wipe out your pan with a paper towel and add the butter and brown sugar on medium high, let it melt then add the banana in a thin layer. Allow to bubble a bit then flip the banana slices over one at a time.

Once the bananas look good pour the sauce over your french toast.

Garnish with whipped cream, optional.

Black Forest Cherry stuffed French Toast

Dutch Baby!

Dutch Baby with Orange Sugar

adapted from Gourmet April 2009

Print this recipe!

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes (run then under warm water if you’re in a hurry)
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature ( I used 2% and was happy)
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put skillet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).

Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.

Serve immediately, topped with orange sugar.

Much thanks to Joy the baker for the recipe

... And a million hugs for my sister N, who whipped up this lovely breakfast for us all!! The animals and I watched her attentively as she put it all together.