We love Samphire…. and eggs

So excited this week when samphire appeared at Aylsham farmer’s market…. at not 1 but 2 stalls. We are so lucky here with how much samphire costs…. i’ve seen it on sale in London for 7 pounds per lb. We bought a huge bunch for 2 pounds!
Simple is best with samphire… we soaked it a couple of times to clean out the sand and make it a little less salty. Then boil it for 5 mins. If you are going to put butter on it, make sure it is unsalted!
We dipped ours in soft-boiled eggs…… fantastic! Abbie tried it for the first time and it was more like than love. She preferred to be given the tips rather than suck it off herself. We just didn’t make a fuss…. we’ll no doubt be having it again this summer.

In eager anticipation of her new TV show…. Thomasina Miers’ ‘Mexican scrambled eggs with chorizo’ – a surefire family hit!

Have to admit that not I, but my wonderful husband, Jon, made these for us all for lunch – I am a lucky woman! Jon loves cooking from ‘Mexican Food made Simple’ by Thomasina Miers and we are both really excited about her new TV show starting this summer! We are trying to introduce Abbie to some Mexican food (as we love it) and try to give her something that is familiar (scrambled eggs/chorizo) whilst also introducing new flavours like chilli. As you can see, we didn’t have any problems in convincing her of the merits of these dishes!

A happy burrito muncher!

It really was incredibly tasty and a geat adaptation to our usual ‘Huevos Rancheros’.

Mexican Scrambled Eggs with chorizo Serves 2 adults and 1 child
5 corn tortillas
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
100g uncooked chorizo sausage
1 deseeded and diced red jalapeno pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 plum tomatoes, quartered
6 eggs, lightly beaten
25ml milk
50g Pecorino cheese, grated
salt and pepper
chopped, fresh corriander

• Heat olive oil in large frying pan and when hot, add onion, chorizo and chilli.  Cook for 5 mins and then add garlic. Stir fry for about 10 mins until onion is translucent and chorizo has released fat into the pan
• Scoop out seeds from tomato and add to pan – cook for a few mins to warm through
• Whisk eggs, milk and cheese together, season with s&p and stir in half of the corriander. Add egg mixture to the sizzling chorizo, turn heat right up and cook as you like your eggs; runny or set – be aware that they carry on cooking after you have turned the heat off.
• Serve scatter with other bit of corriander, in warm corn tortillas

Scrambletastic with warm corn tortillas

Omelette in a bag! A new way to cook eggs for Sunday evening – inspired by Food Revolution

Saw on twitter that Food Revolution are having an omelet/omelette (depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on!) cook off so Abbie and I had to throw our hats into the ring! If you haven’t seen it yet, Jamie’s Food Revolution is must-see TV! I couldn’t believe the s**t that they were serving up in LA schools. We used to have a caterers at my school in Houston, when I worked in the US, which I thought was pretty awful (Italian/American fare) loaded with fat, but at least you saw a vegatable!! And the children could order side salads! Would you give your child a brownie for breakfast?? No choice if you live in one of LA’s school districts…… outrageous! To tune in Tues C4 10pm – I have it series linked!

Anyway to my ‘Revolution-ary Omelette’! All you need, per omelette is 2 free range large eggs, a tablespoon of grated cheese, and a tablespoon of your choice of additional ingredients – we used some lovely asparagus that we bought from Aylsham Farmer’s Market. Oh and a quart size Ziploc type bag. This is taken from a book I picked up whilst visiting the lovely Jude, in Charlotte, NC, at a wonderful restaurant called ‘The Flying Biscuit’!

We write our names on the bags as it makes it easier to sort out when they're cooked

Abbie's bag

Then comes the fun bit – crack your eggs straight into the bag and add the cheese and other ingredients. Then ‘burp’ the air out, seal it and smoosh to your heart’s delight!

Smooshing

Then pop into a pan of boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.

13 minutes - not more, not less

Take care when taking the bags out, opening and serving as they will be hot – I use tongs. The omelette will be cooked perfectly, a little soft and gooey in the middle!

Perfect!

YUM!

Have a go and let me know if you love these as much as we do!

Dippy eggs and asparagus…. all from round the corner! So lucky to live here!

Came home from work on Saturday to find a joyous husband dying to relate his latest culinary find!! ‘You know the woman we usually get our eggs from (down our road)……. well today I went to get some eggs and…. (all these pauses for effect!) she was selling asparagus for 1.50!’ I immediately thought ‘Probably weedy, thin, woody stalks’, but NO! fat juicy spears and a big bundle! We have regularly counted our blessings to live here this year (after 5 years of wishing to be back in Houston!) and today was another reminder of the brilliance of living in North Norfolk!

Now, if you have read my recent posts about asparagus, you may have read about my surprise at Abbie not liking it, after she couldn’t get enough of it last year. Well I have to say, I don’t do Annabel Karmel and hide it in her food, or turn it into a rocket/smily face/balloon animal! I just keep serving it up!! Research says that it only takes 10-12 tastes of a food that you don’t like before you can at least tolerate it….. I’ve served it up 4 times in the last fortnight and tonight was the first time Abbie gave it a thumbs up. Now we are off to get some more this morning – prepare for asparagus dishes aplenty!!

Look at that.... my idea of a perfect supper!

Success - 'mmmmm I like asparagus' was the quote!

A spring fritatta for the first day of the holidays….

Today is the first official day of our holiday and as the sun was shining in the garden, we made full use of the great weather.  Abbie and I planted garlic, shallots, peas and nasturtiums….. jumped on the trampoline, fixed up Abbie’s bike and ran around on the grass.  I then went to cook frittata and ‘horror’ no eggs in the fridge – it is times like this that you are grateful for the number of chicken owners within 1km of us! 

It is odd that Abbie is a bit funny about asparagus at the moment – she loved it last year, but obviously has forgotten this fact in just under a year – now it looks like a ‘new’ vegetable.  I will persevere; she ate more today than Saturday… I have another bundle in the fridge! Hope we get there before the ‘pop-up’ asparagus stalls start appearing at the end of our road!

Spring Fritatta – Feeds 2 adults, 2 children

Bundle of asparagus

4-6 large, cooked and cold new potatoes (could be leftover from previous day’s dinner), sliced

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 log soft goat’s cheese

• Preheat your grill
• Cut asparagus spears into 4 cm sections (approx) and cook over a medium heat in a frying pan for about 5 mins – I put a little water in the bottom with a bit of oil and then the water evaporates as the asparagus cooks
• When all water has evaporated and the asparagus starts to sizzle, add in the sliced potatoes and spread everything around so that you have an even coverage of both vegetables
• Add in beaten egg and swirl around so that again you have even coverage and then crumble the goat’s cheese over the whole lot – cook for 3-4 minutes on the hob, finishing it off under the grill until bubbling and golden on the top

Serve with salad leaves and cherry tomatoes, all dressed with a little rapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

cook until bubbling and golden..

Tucking in!

Happy Mother’s Day! A delicious breakfast, thousands of daffodils and a roast chicken on the timer!

What a lovely way to wake up……  my daughter pulling me out of bed, she more desperate than me for the present and cards to be opened!  Jon made us all my favourite breaskfast (smoked salmon and scrambled eggs). We all had ours the way we like them: Abbie; simply just with buttered bread, Jon; in warm tortilla (no salmon) with salsa and Me; with a hot cross bun, buttered and spread marmalade. A great start to our busy day!



My beautiful breakfast and my beautiful card

We had to make an early exit as Jon was helping out at Langley School’s ‘Daffodil Day’ (a huge school fete) in the best way he

knows; he was on the mic for 3 hours; interviewing, announcing and generally keeping up the patter…. how a career in radio has passed him by astounds me!  We had a fantastic day; bouncy castle, bouncy slide (never again!), petting the ponies, great children’s games, a treasure hunt, watching dancing and ‘Quidditch’; but the highlight for me had to be watching Abbie and a ‘new friend’ on the motorised go-carts – Abbie managed to take out the sides of the circuit many times, drove into the central reservation and her final flourish…. crashing full speed into the remainding parked carts!  A great day was had by all, accompanied by the compulsory lunch of bbq and ice cream with sprinkles (even if it was organic and artisanal – Abbie’s choice).Bouncy castle (after the bouncy slide – I was still shaking!)”] 

The compulsory sausage in a roll

On the daffodil walk...

I knew I wouldn’t have much time to cook (or the energy) so I prepared a chicken for roasting later. 

To prepare…  inside your chicken, few cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, few pinches of herbs de provence, and a much stabbed lemon – tie up the legs

I delayed the cooking on the timer – I add 10 minutes to cooking time to let the oven heat up and cooked mine at 180C/375F for 20mins per 500g and an extra 30 mins (only 20mins needed if putting into a hot oven).  I served this with mash, stuffing, sprouting broc and real gravy which can all then be knocked up in under half an hour… delicious and little effort – we had yeasterday’s jelly for pudding (more of that hilarious episode later!)

From this.....

..........to this!

Easter-time breakfast – it may be raining outside but we’re feeling springy inside!

Abbie made herself an interesting combination of hot cross buns topped with smoked salmon!

‘Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one-a-penny, two-a-penny, hot cross buns!’ This was the song on repeat in our house this morning, sung beautifully by Abbie.  I have resisted buying these so far, but tiredness got the better of me last night and I bought 2 packs!  We’ll have a go at making them again this year during the Easter holidays…. watch this space… but just felt that I ‘needed’ their curranty comfort for breakfast. Jon added the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon to the mix, much to Abbie’s delight.  If you haven’t tried smoked salmon with your children, I really encourage you to…. it has to be one of the favourite treats in our house! I asked Abbie, ‘Which do you like best… chocolate or smoked salmon?’ She replied, ‘Chocolate AND smoked salmon!’ – a future Masterchef combination perhaps!