big breakfast with chilli jam

For most of my life I’ve considered myself to be a bit of a change junkie. I’ve always identified more with exploring the new than going back to the old. The possibilities of new horizons have usually been more alluring to me. But over the last year or so I’ve begun to develop an appreciation for the familiar.

It feels a tiny bit weird to be saying this but I am actually enjoying the introduction of a little routine. I’ve realized that sometimes it can be just as rewarding to revisit old favourites over again. Allowing little tweaks in the search for perfection but not trying to reinvent the wheel at every meal.

To be honest I can’t take the credit for the evolution of Sunday breakfast in our house. You see Glen is, by nature, one of those people who thinks that when you’re on a good thing you should stick to it. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t willing to experiment. Far from it.

The first meal Glen ever cooked for me was a Sunday breakfast. I remember it well. Sure I was a little nervous about letting someone else loose in my kitchen but I decided that staying out of things was the best course of action. I showered, had a leisurely read of the papers and tried not to worry.

The results were delicious and well past my expectations. Sublime scrambled eggs a la Gordon Ramsay were up there with the best eggs I had ever eaten. Crispy bacon and pure pork sausages provided a meaty oomph. Milky Irish breakfast tea. But the biggest revelation to me was the bread toasted only on one side. Warm with that lovely flavour that only good toast can have. Butter melting just so. Soft underneath so it wasn’t too hard and you could bight through easily. This was the business, a deal maker so to say. And the chef was pretty cute too.

After that first breakfast I knew that there were going to be many more and I also realized that I needed to get used to sharing my kitchen. At first it was little things. I offered to make salad and set the table. And while the idea of salad with breakfast was treated with controversy from the Irish contingent, it’s now become a regular fixture.

Over time I’ve refined my breakfast salad. It started out as being wild rocket with a balsamic and olive oil dressing but that didn’t go down well with someone wearing braces. So I experimented and ended up with a mixed leaf salad with a dressing of caramelized red wine vinegar, seeded mustard and exra virgin olive oil. It’s funny but I didn’t realize until now but the only time I make that dressing is at breakfast. A place for everything.

The salad isn’t the only thing that has evolved. Eggs have gone from scrambled to poached to a brief stint of baking them in ramekins to our current favourite - the classic fried egg. I grew up with fried eggs and I guess hadn’t ever thought of them as being all that special. But these days they are our big breakfast egg of choice (that is except for when we’re having a breakfast frittata). Quick and easy and good looking. Not to mention the lovely crispy egg whites from around the edges. Yum.

Bacon has been a constant but the cooking method has varied over time. It started out with the classic pan frying technique before Glen started experimenting with the grill (broiler). If you’re only cooking for a couple of people the grill is the way to go. Glen recommends a medium low heat so the rind gets lovely and crispy and the flesh takes on a golden colour.

The other thing that has really helped our bacon is the discovery of a butcher who slices it to order. After playing around with a few different thicknesses we’ve settled on 4mm (0.16in) as ideal. You have to love the boys at Hudsons.

Our breakfast banger actually sparked some debate in the early days. Glen was always a supporter of the traditional pure pork but I secretly thought that they were boring compared to their chunky Italian style brothers. All it took was a tasting when we pitted both sausages against each other.  I was happy to admit that at breakfast, the delicate melt in the mouth texture of the plain pork was much more enticing that the chunky garlicy Italian. Although I still maintain that on pizza it’s a whole different story.

Speaking of stories, if you missed the evolution of our perfect sausage cooking technique from a few weeks ago you can read it here. I say ‘our’ but really it was all Glen with a little help from his mate Heston.

The importance of pork products in a big breakfast should not be under estimated. We seem to have settled on bacon and bangers but please don’t think that this will always be the case. With an Irishman at the helm there of course has been many an excursion into the world of the ‘pudding’. I’m a big fan of both the black and white versions but they are incredibly rich and a little bit goes a long way. Add to that the fact that they’re difficult to source and you can see why they’re more of your extra special occasion item.

I love my mushrooms and the fact that they’re so easy to cook means that they’re often on the breakfast menu. My current favourites are medium sized portabellos. Just give them a brush to get rid of any dirt then pop them in an ovenproof dish with the stalk side up. Dot with a few knobs of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. Add a healthy dose of salt and pepper, a few sprigs of thyme and a few cloves of garlic still in their jackets if you’re in the mood. Then into the oven at 200C (400F) for about 25minutes and they’ll be all soft and juicy and lovely about the same time that your bangers are ready.

Apart from the salad and the mushies, there aren’t usually many other items from the vegetable kingdom hanging around our breakfast table. Although to be fair, avocado makes an appearance occasionally as do tomatoes either whole roasted if small or chunkily sliced and well seasoned and drizzled with your primo olive oil if they’re at their best.

Which brings me to the condiments. Basically the only thing that has lasted the distance has been chilli jam. At first it was from the good people at Hank’s Jam of which I’m a big fan. But inevitably I decided that I was going to have a crack at making my own.

The first port of call in my research was the ingredient list on Hank’s jar. To be honest I was a little disappointed that the main ingredient was sultanas and that chilli came way down the list. So I decided to go with red capsicum for colour, long red chillis to give warmth but not too much and sultanas for sweetening.

The first time we ate my version was the morning after I had made it. To say it was hot is a serious understatement. I was very much wishing I hadn’t been lazy and had actually bothered to deseed those last few chillis. I wasn’t sure how we were ever going to eat it all.

So I did the only thing sensible and pushed it to the back of the fridge and forgot about it for a while. A month or so later I spied the chilli jam skulking behind the yoghurt and I reluctantly pulled it out for another whirl. Taking tiny tiny samples we did the dance of the once-chilli-bitten. But as luck would have it the jam had mellowed during it’s time in exile. Sure it still packed a punch but gone was the super intense fireyness. It was delicious. The final piece in our breakfast puzzle, that is until it evolves once again.

the GB-JC big breakfast of choice
fried eggs
roast portabello mushrooms with butter and thyme
plain pork sausages
breakfast chilli jam
crispy bacon
green salad
mr potato bread toast
kerrygold Irish butter
milky Irish tea (Barry’s brand)

breakfast chilli jam
makes about 5 medium sized jars

While we love it as a breakfast condiment, its usefulness doesn’t stop there. It makes a lovely addition to bangers and mash instead of onion gravy and is also a great way to spice up a sausage sandwich,

3 large red capsicum (bell peppers)
2kg (4lb) long red chillis
1/2C olive oil
6 red onions, peeled & finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1/2t ground cumin
1/2t ground allspice
1t smoky paprika
300g (11oz) sultanas, well chopped
100g (3 1/2oz) brown sugar

Preheat oven to 200C (400F).

Divide chillli and red capsicum between two baking trays and drizzle each with a little oil, reserving the rest to cook the onions. Bake for about an hour, turning every 20minutes or so until vegetables are soft and browned. Remove from the oven and cover and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, to sterilize your jars pop them in the dishwasher and give them a spin on the hottest cycle. Or place them in a large saucepan and cover with water and bring to a simmer then drain and allow to dry in a low oven.

In your largest saucepan or a stock pot, warm oil over a medium low heat. Add onion and cook stirring occasionally until onion is soft but not brown. Add garlic and cook for another few minutes before adding spices. If your chilli isn’t yet ready remove the onion from the heat while you attend to the chilli.

When the chilli and capsicum are cool enough to handle, I thoroughly recommend you put on some rubber gloves. Peel and deseed the capsicum and chilli, reserving any water that has accumulated. If you’d prefer it a little hotter leave some of the chillis with the seeds in (I left about 10 with their seeds in and was glad I hadn’t left any more). Roughly chop the chilli and capsicum flesh and add to the onion pan along with the reserved water.

Bring to a simmer and add sultanas and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 - 2 hours or until the jam has thickened into a chunky jammy paste. Immediately divide between the sterilized jars and seal while still hot.

Allow to stand for at least a week but preferably 2 before enjoying with your breakfast of choice.

Will keep in the cupboard for a few months but once opened, refrigerate the jar.

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ps. I know the eggs in the photo about look a little bit too yellow
to be true but they are 100% natural free range from my uncle’s
farm.

tiny chocolate cakes

The Easter weekend ended up being a bit of a busy one for stonesoup. I finally got around to updating a few things that have been on my to do list for a while now. I hope you’ll notice the few subtle changes to the appearance. Small things like removing the boarder from the header and getting rid of the blue in the colour scheme. But the bulk of the work went into a reorganization of the recipe index - complete with photos and links to my flickr. All very exciting.

The other change has been that I’ve finally updated my ‘about the author’ page. Long overdue but the thing I really wanted to share with you this week was that I had a bit of a revelation about myself.

It all started when I was writing about my current job - designing chocolate biscuits. Something I’ve been doing for over a year now so not exactly new news. But I was thinking about that, and along with the whole Easter egg thing and I dawned on me. Over the last six months or so I’ve actually become a chocolate lover.

I say ‘lover’ because I don’t exactly feel like I’m up to the chocoholic stage just yet. If I look at myself now compared with this time last year, my knowledge of and appreciation for the humble cocoa bean and its products has increased exponentially. And with it has my devotion.

While I’ve never been as extreme as my lovely sister Naomi, who used to hide her Easter eggs under her bed because she just didn’t (and still doesn’t) like chocolate, I was never a massive chocolate fan. When I was little I’d always take a caramel milk shake over a chocolate one. The white and pink icecream in the Nepolitana pack always took my fancy well ahead of the brown. Sure the chocolate options were OK - just not my first choice.

Over the last month, Glen and I have implemented alcohol free Mondays. As a reward after dinner we’ve been having a couple of squares of good quality dark chocolate with our lemongrass and ginger tea. The amazing thing is that I’ve found myself really looking forward to Mondays and not really minding going without the vino if it means we can have the chocolate guilt free. I know. I’m a changed girl.

I’m blaming my job. You see I’ve been lucky enough to attend a couple of courses with different chocolatiers in the name of work. I’ve been involved in in-house ‘market basket’ studies where we buy different chocolate products and taste them in an effort to understand the choices that consumers are exposed to. I’ve been in charge of organizing a monthly team afternoon tea excursion to various chocolate shops. I’ve even been working on a project to improve the quality of the chocolate that we make for our biscuits. Which has meant that I’ve actually been making chocolate from scratch - well at least cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, sugar and some milk powder.

All of this has added up to me slowly falling in love. I know all of you out there who have had more of an at-first-sight relationship with your chocolate will be wondering why it took me so long. And all I can say is ‘better late than never’.

It’s been a while since I wrote about something sweet. With Easter weekend here and my new self awareness, it just had to be time for something rich and fudgey and over-the-top-chocolate. A big thankyou to the talented Emma Knowles from Australian Gourmet Traveller for this weeks inspiration. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about chocolate, it’s that a little bit of exceptional quality goes a long way. And these tiny chocolate cakes play the part to perfection. Just remember to stop at one (or two or ???).

tiny chocolate cakes
makes 22-24

Adapted from a recipe by the lovely Emma Knowles in this months Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Emma notes not to be tempted to halve this recipe as the quantities are already so small. And she’s right. There were no problems in our house getting rid of these delicious little morsels. They will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to a week. Just remember to allow them to come to room temperature before eating. There’s a massive increase in flavor perception in warmer chocolate than from when it comes straight from the fridge.

Like brownies, one of the secrets to these cakes is to not overcook them. It’s important to keep them nice and moist - although to be honest the lovely ganache on top does balance things out if you do keep them in the oven a little past ideal.

If you don’t have any papers to line your tin, don’t make my mistake. With my first batch I just thought I’d grease the tins extra well and all would be fine. Unfortunately I ended up with cakes that were well and truly stuck to the bottom. When I tried to loosen them with a knife all I ended up with was crumbs - tasty but not exactly photogenic.

60g unsalted butter
65g caster sugar
1/4C Frangelico
100g dark chocolate (approx 70% cocoa solids), chopped
1 egg yolk
55g self raising flour
20g alkalized (Dutch processed) cocoa powder
for the ganache:
300g dark chocolate (approx 70% cocoa solids)
1/2C pouring cream

For the cakes. Preheat oven to 160C (320F). Line a 24 hole mini muffin or cup cake tray with papers.

Combine butter, sugar and Frangelico in a medium saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add chocolate. Allow to sit for a few minutes and then stir until chocolate is melted, putting the saucepan back on the heat every now and then if you need extra heat.

Stir through egg yolk. Sift together flour and cocoa powder and then fold the mixture through your chocolate base. Divide between prepared mini muffin tins - you’ll only have a teaspoonful or so for each cake.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until the tops feel firm to the touch. Cool in the tins for at least 10 minutes and then remove. Cool completely before adding the ganache.

For the ganache. Place cream and chocolate in a medium saucepan. Place on a very low heat and gently stir until the chocolate looks like it’s starting to melt. Remove from the heat and continue to stir until the chocolate has melted. If needed you can periodically pop the saucepan back on the heat for a few seconds at a time.

Cover the surface with cling film and allow to cool completely.

To finish, place ganache in a piping bag or plastic bag. Cut off one corner of the bag to leave a hole about 5mm diameter. Pipe ganache on top of each cake in a spiral patter.

note. Apologies to any readers who use imperial measurements. I haven’t had a chance to convert and test this recipe in non-metric but will hopefully get it sorted out in the next few days (any excuse to make another batch) so please tune back in.

hearty red lentil & preserved lemon soup

Have you ever had a song lyric stuck in your mind? It seems to happen to me all the time. Sometimes it’s great fun to have a favourite tune bouncing around, keeping me company. Then there are other times when I feel like my brain is playing nasty tricks. So where is she going with this? You well may ask.

Remember the David Bowie song ‘Heros’? The one with the chorus ‘we can be heros - just for one day’. Well, last week that was on high rotation in my internal jukebox but with a few variations to the original. In my world it went something like ‘We can be vegos - just for one week’.

You see, last week Glen and I decided to be vegetarians for seven days. The idea was born over a long boozy lunch in sunny Palm Cove a few weekends before. We were there to celebrate the 40th Birthday of our good mate Keir and had taken to the task of relaxing and enjoying the facilities of the tropical resort like ducks to water.

After a weekend of much decadence, especially in the food and wine department, we were both feeling the need for a little break from the booze. A mini detox, of sorts. At first I was thinking we should go all out and go vegan and alcohol free like I did last year. But then I remembered just how hard that had been and that there was a very good reason why I hadn’t had a detox week since then. So we came up with a better plan. Why not have a theme for each week with the first week being alcohol free? Done. And surprisingly easy compared with trying to be vegan at the same time.

With the boys from downstairs, our vegetarian neighbours, already invited for dinner during the second week, it seemed like the direction for that weeks theme was an easy choice. Things got off to a slightly rocky start when Glen went out to buy things for brunch on our first vegetarian day and came home with chorizo and ham instead of ricotta and basil. But a quick menu change to a parmesan and chive omelette overcame that hiccup.

I’ve detailed the blow-by-blow account of my week of being a vegetarian below but the star of the show was the red lentil and preserved lemon soup I pulled together Sunday afternoon. Thick and hearty with that lovely earthiness that lentil bring with them given a refreshing kick from the preserved lemon. It seriously is the goods and makes for a great weekday work lunch.

Overall it was fun putting on a vego hat for a week and seeing how it feels. Like being an actor trying on a different persona for a little while. But I think Glen and I were very happy to be heading back to our favourite butcher on Sunday. I can safely say that the boys at Hudson’s were happy to see us as always and even happier when we told them about the theme for this week. You guessed it ‘meat week’.

vegetarian week for jules & glen

sunday
brunch:     open omelette with parmesan & chives
toast with Irish butter
dinner:      red lentil & preserved lemon soup
a few squares of dark chocolate

monday
breakfast: muesli with yoghurt
lunch:       red lentil & preserved lemon soup
dinner:      roast pumpkin (squash) risotto with pinenuts & sage butter

tuesday
breakfast: muesli with yoghurt
lunch:       red lentil & preserved lemon soup
dinner:      Vietnamese in Marrickville

wednesday
breakfast: muesli with yoghurt
lunch:       leftover pumpkin risotto
dinner:      Lebanese in Surry Hills (go the hummous & felafel)

thursday
breakfast: muesli with yoghurt
lunch:       pasta with broad beans and chilli oil
dinner:      cheese on toast with green salad
vanilla icecream

friday
breakfast: muesli with yoghurt
lunch:       leftover risotto with tabouleh
dinner:      cheese & olives
roast pumpkin (squash) & parmesan tarts
warm salad of pearl barley, spinach & ricotta
rolled chocolate sponge with chestnut cream
(courtesy of this month’s Gourmet Traveller)

saturday
breakfast: toast with white peach & raspberry jam
lunch:       roast veg toasted sandwich with rocket & gruyere
(courtesy of this month’s Gourmet Traveller)
dinner:      warm pumpkin salad with chickpeas & tahini dressing
wilted baby spinach with pinenuts & preserved lemon
rolled chocolate sponge with chestnut cream
hearty red lentil & preserved lemon soup
serves 6

I can’t believe that it’s been three years since I first wrote about preserved lemons. For details on how to preserve your own and a few more recipe ideas click HERE (and please excuse the dodgy photo - very early days for me and my camera).

Don’t be put off by the preserved lemon. If you haven’t ever tried making it yourself this soup is the perfect excuse. You will have to wait a few weeks before your lemons are ready but trust me, the feeling of satisfaction you’ll have will be well worth it.

If I haven’t convinced you to preserve your own, there is always the commercially produced option - usually available in fancy delis. Or you could always substitute in the zest of three lemons and use a lot of salt to season. It won’t have the same tangy exotic flavour but it will be a lovely lentil soup none the less.

If you must feed a die hard carnivore you could always fry up a sliced chorizo or two in a separate pan and stir through at the end but this soup can stand on it’s own when it comes to heartiness and doesn’t really need any more beefing up.

3T olive oil
3 brown onions
5 cloves garlic,
2T grated ginger
1T cumin seeds, ground
1T fennel seeds
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1t chilli flakes, or to taste
2 carrots, finely diced
3 sticks celery, finely diced
1 desiree potato, scrubbed & finely diced
3 x 400g cans tomatoes
3C water
300g red lentils
4 quarters preserved lemon, rind only, finely chopped
natural yoghurt, to serve
coriander leaves, to serve

Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion, cover and cook stirring occasionally until the onion is soft. Add garlic, ginger and spices and cook for a couple of minutes. Then pop in the remaining ingredients except the yoghurt and coriander and bring to a simmer.

Cook gently, uncovered for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding more water if it starts to look too dry and thick. When the carrot and potato are tender and the lentils have broken down you’re good to go. Taste and season remembering that there will be a lot of salt from the preserved lemon.

If you prefer a smoother soup you could puree it a little with a stick blender but I like to keep it nice and rustic.

Serve hot with a dollup of yoghurt and a few sprigs of coriander.

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Having a technical glitch with the comments function - am looking into it but apologies if you’ve attempted to leave a comment and have been unsuccessful. All fixed now - please feel free to comment away - would love to hear your thoughts.

juicy bangers & mash with onion gravy

Sausages, mashed potatoes and onions - not exactly cutting edge cuisine. I know. Not even something that is new to the pages of stonesoup. But it is a classic dish and given how things are with world finances I figured it wouldn’t hurt to revisit an inexpensive family favourite. Read the rest of this entry »

warm fig, prosciutto & buffalo mozzerella salad

Braces.

It’s been a lot longer than I’d care to admit since my mouth was emblazoned with train tracks. Let’s just say that it was long enough for me to take for granted the fact that my teeth are straight when I look in the mirror. Long enough to have forgotten that uncomfortable and sometimes down right painful feeling of having your smile behind bars. And definitely long enough to have forgotten how it felt to be wishing for the day when you could just chomp into a crisp fresh apple or nibble hot buttery corn straight from the cob. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first decided to start blogging I’d just moved back to Sydney and had decided to give the world of winemaking a break. A job where your feet weren’t wet all the time and where there was no need to lift heavy things was all I was after really. Read the rest of this entry »

raspberry gelato

When it comes to desserts it’s no secret around here that I have a serious weakness for icecream, well all frozen treats, really. I don’t discriminate. Gelato, sorbet, granita, semi-freddo - I love them all.  A browse through the icecream & sorbet photoset on my flickr will attest to my love as will a quick scan through the dessert section of the mess has become the stonesoup recipe index. But in more recent times I know I’ve been writing about my icecream adventures less and less. Read the rest of this entry »

crispy flatbread & zucchini salad with tuna

Have you ever had one of those days where it feels like nothing is going your way? A day where it feels like the cards are well and truly stacked against you? A day that goes on and on like it’s actually lasting for a week? Well last Wednesday was just one of those days for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes the midnight oil. Have been burning a bit too much of it lately so I’ll be brief this week. But please don’t take that to mean that I’ve skimped on this weeks recipe. No my friends, I have a real winner for you, something that’s recently become a firm favourite in our house. A quick, simple pasta based on a secret ingredient, chilli oil. Read the rest of this entry »

banana bread with chocolate & hazelnuts

I hate to complain, especially about the weather. I mean I love the seasons, each and every one of them. I love that every three months there is a different feel in the air and a new abundance of fruit and veg to explore and embrace. I love that each season brings a chance to wear different clothes. But really… what happened to our Summer? Global warming? Where are you?

Read the rest of this entry »