Some of the recipes, however, like soda bread and muesli, require some pre-planning to stand you in good economical stead during the week. Other breakfast recipes will be more for that weekend drawn-out brunch affair, like the ultimate sausage sandwich along with a big cafetière. Many of these recipes are just as good for a last-minute supper or a lovers’ midnight feast. And of course the bread (on page 12) is fantastic as an addition to every meal of the day.
Makes about enough for 30 breakfast sittings
Muesli is such a great breakfast hero. You will start the day with health and happiness. It’s wholesome, and I like it with lots of wheat flakes. My mum used to add cream to every cereal we ate, but I’m managing to restrain myself here, in favour of cutting up crunchy apple and sweet banana and spooning tart yoghurt on top. If you make a vat of this, you can keep it jarred up in the cupboard and it works out so much cheaper than buying packets of the stuff. And it can last up to six months – well, that’s if you still have any left after that long.
You will need a really serious piece of Tupperware to store this.
250g coconut flakes
3 tablespoons golden caster sugar
1kg jumbo oats
700g golden currants
1kg wheat flakes
First of all heat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Lay out the coconut flakes on a large baking tray and scatter over the caster sugar. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the flakes are toasty and golden – keep checking them, as they are easily burnt. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, measure out the oats, currants and wheat flakes and pour into your big container. Give them a thorough mix around. This is best done by sealing the container and jiggling it around, like a barman with a cocktail shaker. When the coconut is cool, add it to the muesli and give it another good shake to distribute.
For 1 Bulky Breakfast Sitting
1 cup of your homemade muesli
1 small Braeburn apple
1 banana
1 tablespoon natural yoghurt
1 dessertspoon runny honey
2 tablespoons full-fat milk
Measure out the muesli into a bowl. Core the apple and slice it into 8 pieces, which you then again cut into little bits over the muesli. Then slice over the banana and pile on the yoghurt, honey and milk. I eat this in bed, with mint tea.
Makes 6 squares
I think I snitched this from a magazine, because it looks so beautiful and clever and is actually very simple to make on a Saturday morning in the deli. There are two ways my trusty customers devour this: either they grab a slice on the run, as if from a pizza stand, or they eat a square with a spinach and olive salad, more as a brunch. It’s a versatile tart. I’ve also made it for a light supper, along with a good Sunday night film, because it’s easy-peasy.
The quail’s eggs are just so lovable for their dinkiness. Being made of pancetta and these mini eggs means that the tart needs a little preplanning. Chinese supermarkets sell quail’s eggs, as do good butchers and niche delis. Smoked pancetta is also sold at good delis, preserved along with herbs and peppercorns. So it’s the kind of thing to cook if you know in advance that you are having a sleepover or want to impress a guest. Slice it into squares, if you are all on the run first thing, as I do in the deli. Regarding the puff pastry, I prefer the ready-rolled kind, but the thicker slabs are more widely available. It depends what you can get your hands on.
250g puff pastry (defrosting bought ready-rolled puff pastry will take 11/2 hours)
some plain flour for rolling
10 thin slices of smoked pancetta
6 cherry tomatoes
a little full-fat milk for glazing
6 quail’s eggs
Preheat your oven to 160°C/Gas 2. Ideally, you will have bought ready-rolled pastry. If not, roll out the pastry slab on a floured surface so that it is big enough to cover a baking tray that measures about 20 × 30cm. Spread the pastry out over the baking tray so that it comes right up to the edges. Lay the pancetta on the pastry, leaving a couple of centimetres clear all the way round which you should then incise with a sharp knife so that the pastry can rise around the pancetta to form a crust. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and lay them on top of the pancetta, cut side up. Using your fingers (or a pastry brush if you have one), wipe a little milk around the pastry edge to help it brown. Place the tart in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges are puffing up around the pancetta and browning just a little. (You may need to further incise the pastry to release so that it can puff, after it’s been in the oven for 5 minutes.)
Remove the tart from the oven and carefully crack the quail’s eggs evenly over the pancetta layer (the shells have much more give than our more familiar brittle chicken shells). Return to the oven for just long enough for the eggs to solidify, which will be 4 or 5 minutes. The pancetta should now be getting crisp and dark too. It is a matter of a few minutes, though, so keep a close eye on the oven.
When the tart is ready, slice it into 6 pieces with a sharp knife. It is at its best when the yolks are still soft in the middle, and ooze out over the pancetta in your hands.
Makes 6 slices
My brother Olly and I loved The Pooh Cook Book when we were little. The wording was great; all about ‘Smackerels, Elevenses and Teas’. I love those weird made-up words. Alice (my beautiful partner in crime) and I use ‘melge’, which really means to mix, and mush and marinade, but it’s our own more onomatopoeic version.
Mum amazingly let us make a mess and get enthusiastic about cooking even at this level. I hope I do the same with my children, as we definitely had a good time beating butter, licking bowls and watching cakes rise through tinted oven glass. This cinnamon toast is a classic. All you need to do is make a flavoured butter and lather it over what you have to hand, bagels, buns, toast, whatever. The butter keeps for ages in the fridge, so if you make a big batch, you have midnight feasts covered too.
150g unsalted butter
100g golden caster sugar
35g ground cinnamon brown bread for toasting
Leave the butter out for a few hours at room temperature, to soften in a large mixing bowl. Then gradually cream in the sugar and cinnamon with a sturdy fork until it is a homogeneous paste. Alternatively, you can whiz it all up by using the pulse mode of a blender, if you have one. Decant the butter into a small pudding basin, toast your toast, and lather on the sweet, flavoured butter.
Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam