Brie, bacon and spinach omelette

I've spent much of last week looking after my two small nephews. The eldest is three and the younger is 18 months so I'm sure you can imagine that I was rather rushed off my feet. We had a lovely time but I was glad to have help on hand for some of the time. My mother came for a couple of nights and on one of the days cooked me this rather delicious omelette for lunch.

In fact this is more fritatta than omelette in that it is made with potatoes. Not only potatoes though, it also contains lovely melty brie, bits of bacon and a handful of spinach. Served alongside some salad it made for an extremely tasty lunch. I thought it was perfect hot with the brie melting into the other ingredients, but I can imagine it would work well cold too for a picnic or a filling lunch to take to work.

Her recipe came from one of those supermarket recipe cards. I think it was from Sainsburys - apparently it is also good if you switch the spinach for cooked green beans.

Brie, bacon and spinach omelette

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

3 large free range eggs
2 rashers of bacon, chopped (or use lardons)
5 spring onions, chopped
100g baby spinach leaves
100g cooked new potatoes, sliced
Approx 130g Brie

1. Cook the bacon in a non-stick frying pan until just golden then add the spring onions and cook gently for a further 3 minutes. The bacon should give off enough fat of its own accord, but if not, add a little olive oil. Meanwhile, cook the spinach in a little water and then squeeze dry.

2. Add the potatoes and spinach and heat through.

3. Slice the brie and lay the slices on top of the vegetable and bacon mixture. Pre-heat the grill.

4. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat together with a fork. Season well with salt and pepper. Cook in the pan for a few minutes until the egg has started to set on the bottom. Place pan under the pre-heated grill to cook and brown the top. When just firm, remove from oven and slice to serve. Accompany with sliced tomatoes and a green salad.

Smoked trout and leek fritatta

Another busy week over. I've barely set foot in my kitchen and when I have, I've been pretty exhausted and cooked virtually nothing of note. Pasta. Sausages. Jacket potatoes. I've been away travelling with work again this week (Liverpool, Harrogate and Dorchester) and am hugely relived to find that I finally have a weekend at home in London with very few plans. No plans might sound dull but, at the moment, to me it sounds like heaven.

At lunchtime I finally got into the kitchen to make something a little more interesting than the convenient comfort food I've been indulging in all week. A while back I saw a recipe for a smoked trout and leek frittata in a magazine which stuck in my mind. I can't quite remember what else went into the recipe, but my version today seemed to work pretty well. I ate it hot with a peppery salad but think it would pack well to take to work for a cold lunch during the week too. Great for picnics too once the weather warms up!

Smoked trout and leek frittata
Serves 2-3

Ingredients

3 large eggs (preferably free-range, organic)
2 heaped tbsp half-fat creme fraiche
1 teaspoon horseradish cream/sauce
125g hot smoked trout
2 medium leeks
small handful baby potatoes
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Knob of butter

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender (around 15 minutes). Cut into halves or quarters depending on size.

2. While the potatoes are boiling, finely slice the leeks and steam for around 5 minutes. Rinse under cold water and squeeze to get rid of excess water.

3. Crack eggs into a bowl and lightly beat or whisk together with the creme fraiche, horseradish and chives. Flake in the smoked trout, add the leeks and season with a little salt and plenty of pepper.

4. Pre-heat the grill to high. Take a smallish-medium non-stick saucepan and melt a knob of butter. Add the potatoes and then pour oven the eggy mixture. Cook on a medium heat for around ten minutes, until the frittata is starting to firm up nicely.

5. Place pan under the hot grill and cook for another ten minutes, until the top is evenly brown and the frittata is just set. Remove from oven and turn out onto a serving dish. Alternatively, wait until cold and wrap in foil.

In the Bag: Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?

I hope everyone enjoyed the Summer. You were away last week? Oh. What a shame! You missed it.

I knew I shouldn't have dusted off the barbecue. No sooner had I donned my summer dress and unearthed the flip-flops than the sun disappears behind a dull and damp-looking cloud. Today, I even considered popping the heating back on for a moment but I thought better of it and just donned another layer.

I'm cheering myself up with the very best of British Spring produce: asparagus, Jersey Royals, watercress, peas and salad leaves fresh from the garden. Deliciously fresh flavours to brighten up the dullest of days.

Asparagus is perhaps the vegetable I look forward to most. It has such a short season and tastes so disappointingly bland when imported from warmer climes at other times of the year. It really is a treat worth waiting for and savouring. I find that many people are quite precious and particular about the way they like to prepare these flavoursome green spears. Perhaps because the season is so short, they want every asparagus moment to be a perfect one.

Essentially, I like mine pretty plain. Steamed (or occasionally roasted) and served with melted butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. Please note that when I say melted butter, I do not mean a slice of butter popped atop the warm asparagus. Oh no. I mean a blob of butter that has been purposefully melted in a pan and is then served from a warmed jug. The plate must then be propped up with a fork, or knife so that it is on a tilt and all the butter runs to one end. The asparagus can then (and only then) be savoured, dipped in that lovely butter... Did I mention that I am particular about how I like my asparagus?

Occasionally I divert from this course of action, substituting butter for really good extra virgin olive oil and some shavings of Parmesan. If I'm offered it, I won't say no to a splodge of hollandaise sauce either. It would be churlish to refuse, after all.

How do you like to eat yours?



When Scott from Real Epicurean announced the ingredients for this month's 'In the Bag...' event, I was ahead of the game! Just that day, I had enjoyed a divine lunch of asparagus with quail's eggs and Parmesan (see above photo). As the ingredients were asparagus, Parmesan and eggs, I thought I had the event 'in the bag' so to speak (-sorry, couldn't help myself).

After a bit more thought though, I decided that I should be a little more imaginative. I decided to incorporate asparagus into one of my favourite speedy lunchtime dishes: frittata. With Jersey Royals, spring onions, asparagus and peas, this certainly put a 'spring' in my step. (Don't know what's with the puns today. I can only apologise).

Springtime Frittata
Serves 2 hungry people



Ingredients

4 large free-range eggs (preferably organic)
bunch of asparagus (around 10 stems)
5 spring onions
5 baby Jersey Royal potatoes (or other potatoes)
ramekin full of peas (fresh or frozen)
Small handful of fresh herbs (I used parsley and chives)
Parmesan

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Drizzle olive oil into a roasting tin and pop in oven to heat up. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until just soft (you need to slice them up so don't let them get too soft).

2. Bend asparagus stems until they snap so that you are left with the tender part and not the woody stem. Pop them into the oven to roast. This could take from 5-15 minutes, depending on whether you have the fat stuff or the thin stuff. I had the medium stuff and it took about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, chop the spring onions and herbs. Heat some olive oil in a small non-stick pan and add the onions. Soften on a gentle heat.

4. Once the potatoes are ready, drain them and then slice roughly. Add to pan with onions and throw over the peas. Up the heat a touch.

5. Remove asparagus from oven. Take three stems and chop them into small disks - add them to the pan. Sit the other spears on top in a pretty pattern, with the tips meeting in the middle.


6. Pre-heat the grill to high. Crack the eggs and beat slightly with a fork. Add the chopped herbs and salt and pepper. Pour eggs over the ingredients in the pan and cook gently until most of the egg is set. At this point, remove from heat and grate Parmesan all over the top.

7. Pop the pan under the grill to cook the top and brown the cheese. Keep an eye on it - I left mine a touch too long.



8. Cut into slices and enjoy with some salad on the side, perhaps.



Notes: Other things that might be fun to add are courgettes, broad beans and (unless, like me you think it is the devils' work) mint.

Do take a look at Scott's blog for the details of the 'In the Bay' food blogging event and have a think about entering your own favourite asparagus dish!

Blood Orange Curd

I was very excited on Friday to receive my first organic fruit and vegetable box from Abel and Cole. For £9 a week, I get a good seasonal selection of produce delivered by a very friendly driver on a day that is convenient. Abel and Cole tell you what to expect in your box each week and you can specify if there are particular items that you do not like (fennel, in my case, which last week was changed for alfalfa sprouts). My first box looked like this...

Nothing too unusual, although the Arran Victory potatoes have purple skins, but a good selection. Citrus fruits were to the fore, unsurprisingly, and the box contained both mandarins and blood oranges. Such gorgeous fruits these - so surprising. The orange exterior gives little away - except for a touch of rosy pink on one of them. But cut into them and you are in for a glorious surprise - just look at these beauties...

You'd almost be forgiven for mistaking these for ruby grapefruit. The flavour is an interesting one and, I think, goes to show how eating is a process involving all the senses. You are seeing a deep red colour in the glass and yet... it tastes of orange. It is somehow... unexpected. Rather than eat these as they were, I decided I'd like to use their juice to make something delicious. I toyed with the idea of a jelly to start with, but eventually settled on making this delicious blood orange curd. I just adore lemon curd - all eggy and buttery and tangy - spread liberally on white toast (never brown - all wrong), crumpets, pancakes or sandwiching together a lemony cake. I figured that orange curd would be pretty good too.

Making jams, jellies, chutneys and curds gives me a great sense of domestic bliss and achievement. I urge anyone who has never done so to start with making an orange or lemon curd. It is just so simple and yet so satisfying. And what is more, they make lovely gifts - just think how thrilled someone will be when you go round for dinner and take a homemade gift as well as the requisite bottle of wine.

Sterilising jars may sound like a whole lot of faff, but really it isn't in the slightest. All you do is fill the sink with very hot, soapy water and throw empty jam jars and lids in to soak. The labels will eventually float off with a little help. Give them a bit of a scrub and then rinse under hot water. Place them on a shelf in a low oven to dry out until you are ready to use them. Hardly any trouble in that, is there?

But what about all those funnels and preserving pans and wax disks? Don't you need a lot of equipment? Not really. If you are making jam on a big scale, then yes, some of this equipment will help. But not for a simple curd. I would suggest investing in pack of wax disks - these usually come from any cook shop in a packet along with celophane disks and tiny plastic bands. These just keep everything nice and hygenic and clean.

I based my recipe very loosely on Delia's recipe for lemon curd.Obviously oranges are a lot sweeter than lemons, so I used less sugar and added quite a bit of lemon juice to balance things out a little. The result is much sweeter than lemon curd (next time, I'd use even less sugar, I think) but is absolutely delicious and such a pretty colour. I could eat it straight from the jar... Actually, if the truth be known, I have been doing exactly that as I am out of both crumpets and white bread (...did I mention that curds simply HAVE to be eaten with white, not brown bread, in my book. You can slather them on brown bread if you really must, but do so at your own peril!). If you are short of ideas for using up your curd, may I suggest using it to sandwich together an orange-flavoured Victoria sponge or meringues or even stirring it through some plain yoghurt?

Blood Orange Curd
Fills four regular jam jars

3 blood oranges

1 large, juicy lemon

4 large eggs

10 oz golden caster sugar

8 oz unsalted butter at room temperature

1 dessertspoon cornflour

1. Finely zest two of the oranges and then squeeze the juice from all three oranges and the lemon.

2. Crack the eggs into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk the eggs a little.

3. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the saucepan with all the other ingredients and place over a medium heat. Whisk with a balloon whisk for around 9 minutes, until thickened. Do not worry if it looks very unattractive during this stage. Mine looked as though the butter would never fully melt (I made the mistake of adding it rather cold) and meld with the rest, but it did. Just look how horrible it looked for a while...

4. Once the mixture has thickened, turn the heat down and simmer for a couple of minutes, continuing to whisk. Remove from heat.

5. Remove jam jars from the oven and place on a tea towel. Pour the curd into the jars whilst they are still hot. Any spills will be caught by the tea towel. Top each jar with a wax disk and seal jars whilst still hot.

6. Once the jars are cool, label and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Notes - don't panic if the curd looks a little too liquidy in the jar. Once it has been in the fridge, it will firm up a little more.

A Birthday Buffet (and a leek, bacon and mustard quiche)

The past couple of days have been entirely filled with my favourite activity. What is my favourite activity, I hear you ask. Cooking, of course! I decided to throw a lunchtime buffet party for friends to celebrate my birthday. Twenty-five or so people descended on my small London flat and I thanked him upstairs for the dry weather. Once the first eight guests were installed in the garden with a glass of fizz in hand, I decided that the garden was full and that perhaps inviting so many people was a mistake. Bit to late to decide that.

Fortunately no one seemed to mind the squash and it was extremely good fun. Modesty aside, I think I laid on a pretty impressive feast. I cooked my first ever ham (by candlelight, the night before - the kitchen light bulb blew at precisely the worst moment and I didn't have a spare), made quiches, chicken liver paté (I've forgotten how to do those accents again...), smoked trout paté, Kate's special broccoli salad, cucumber salad, other salads. And not to mention puddings. The divine Green and Black's Chocolate Mousse Cake (the first recipe I posted on this blog) and a delicious crunchy raspberry ripple semi-freddo. Recipes will all be posted over the next week, but first up is the quiche. It may not sound exciting. Anyone can cook a quiche. But I have had more comments on this quiche than on almost anything else I have ever cooked...



I am unable to comprehend the enthusiasm for this quiche. Don't get me wrong, I think it is absolutely delicious. A very good quiche with a lovely combination of flavours. But it is just a quiche. There are more exciting things in life, surely. Such is the demand for the quiche that several attendees refused to come unless I promised to produce the quiche. One person even confessed to having a dream about the quiche the night before (the dream also apparently involved a former Russian President). I made two enormous specimens but still had someone complaining that I hadn't made a third!

I feel duty bound to reproduce the recipe here (I personally think the secret of its success lies in the large quantity of double cream and the mustard spread over the base). It is no great secret as it comes from one of my favourite culinary resources - Leith's Cookery Bible. The recipe serves four, but is easily doubled or tripled.

A note on pastry now. Whilst I am capable (and often willing) to make my own pastry, I am not proud. Call me a heathen, but I am only too happy to use ready-made pastry when time restricts. With so many things to cook, I was happy to embrace this time-saving device. No doubt, people will tell me that I am creating a vastly inferior quiche this way, but let me let you into another secret. More than one person complimented me on the quality of said pastry. How I would have loved to bask a little in the glory but I'm too honest.

'How do make the pastry so good?'
'...(slight pause from me)...umm...I buy it in the supermarket'.

To be fair, nothing beats really good homemade shortcrust pastry, but there is certainly no shame in a few shortcuts!

Leek, Bacon and Mustard Quiche

Ingredients (serves four)

170g shortcrust pastry

15g butter
3 large or 5 small leeks - white part finely chopped
55g rindless bacon - I prefer smoked
2 egg yolks
140ml double cream
Grainy mustard - good quality, enough to cover base
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1. Pre-heat oven to 190C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface. Line a loose-bottomed flan tin (20cm/8in). Pop in fridge to relax for half an hour. This prevents shrinkage.

2. Bake the pastry case blind to prevent soggy pastry (line case with foil, pour in baking beans or dried pasta/rice, bake for approx 15 minutes, remove beans and continue to dry out the pastry). Lower oven to 170C when you remove from oven. (Get on with making the filling whilst base is in the oven - step 5).


3. Spread the base of the pastry case with a generous quantity of mustard.

4. Melt butter in a frying pan and cook the leeks until fairly soft. Fry bacon until brown in separate pan in its own fat. Drain well.

5. Mix egg yolks and cream together and the add the leeks and bacon. Mix and season well. Pour into the pastry case.

6. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake at 170C for 30 minutes or until filling is just set and the top nicely bronzed.

Wine Notes - This would be perfect with a dry white such as a Pinot Blanc from Alsace. Alternatively, a slightly oaked Chardonnay would marry well with both the rich creaminess of the filling and the slight smoke from the bacon - Burgundy is a safe bet. A restrained New Zealand Chardonnay might be good too.