A Breakfast Treat for Easter Morning

Easter is on the way, and I’ve been searching high and low for the ideal egg dish to kick off my Sunday morning. Lately I’ve grown rather tired of the high street obsession with the chocolate egg. This tradition originates in the pagan fertility festivals which were present before Christianity’s Easter celebrations replaced them. Even the name ‘Easter’ is supposed to stem from ‘Eostre’, the Old English name for a fertility goddess. While an egg may look hard and dead, new life always lurks within, making them representative of fertility and resurrection and a convenient symbol both for the Christian resurrection myth and pagan springtime celebrations. Nothing says ‘springtime’ quite like a fresh egg, and for me, a chocolate one just doesn’t quite say it loudly enough.

Like many of us, I used to start Easter Sunday with an enormous pile of chocolate eggs. Then I graduated to fresh ones, hard-boiled with onion skins to dye them mottled brown, and finally to the very peak of eggy perfection – the four-and-a-half-minute soft boil, with just a sprinkling of salt in the yolk. But was it true perfection? This year I wanted to find out. Not for me the soft-boiled egg of former years; I’m out for something new. And I think I might have found it.

Known in French as ‘oeufs en cocotte’, or ‘eggs in a pot’ this simple dish is an absolute winner for a luxury breakfast or lunch dish. In its basic form, an oeuf en cocotte is made simply by cracking an egg into a buttered ramekin or similar small dish, popping a knob of butter on top, and cooking it in a bain marie for around 15 minutes in a hot oven. Remove the bain marie from the equation and you’ve got a baked egg – a British version of the French classic.

As usual at PDKTC, I’m fascinated with the number of possible variations on this basic theme. You can replace the butter with milk or cream or even (I’m told) tomato ketchup! You can line the ramekin with anything from slices of ham, bacon or salmon to tomato ragu, pan-fried asparagus or cooked aubergine. The flavour variations are pretty much infinite – any combination of herbs or spices can be blended with the butter, milk or cream to seep their way into the egg as it cooks.

The recipe I’ve given below is an utterly luxurious smoked salmon and cream version which will go down a storm on Easter morning. Like all baked egg recipes, though, at its heart it’s ludicrously simple as well as infallibly impressive. Whether you’re showing off to your parents or getting in some brownie points with your other half, I thoroughly recommend an oeuf en cocotte this Eastertide! As usual, have fun and experiment. Who knows, maybe the chocolate eggs will have to wait until lunchtime this year...

Oeufs en cocotte with smoked salmon and cream

Ingredients

Per ramekin:

Butter

2 slices smoked salmon

1 egg

1 tablespoon double cream

A good sprinkling of parmesan

Salt and pepper

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

Butter the ramekin and line it with a layer of smoked salmon all over. Try to get it round about in line with the edges, but don’t worry too much if it overlaps slightly – the salmon shrinks a bit as it cooks.

Slightly season the salmon, then carefully crack in the egg. Try not to break the yolk, but don’t worry too much if you do!

Spoon over the cream until the egg is pretty much covered – it takes around a tablespoon for my ramekins, but it depends on the size you use. Sprinkle over a good amount of finely grated parmesan, and some more salt and pepper. Go a bit easy on the salt, because there’s a lot in the parmesan already.

Boil a kettle while you set out your ramekins in a high-sided baking tray or large saucepan. Pop it in the oven, and pour in the water until it reaches around halfway up the ramekin. Don’t overfill it, or bizarrely the egg will take a lot longer to cook!

Close up the oven and leave it to cook for 15-18 minutes, depending on how well-done you like your egg. The egg will look a bit wobbly even when it’s fully cooked because of the liquid cream. The cheese on top should be golden-brown and bubbly.

Serve with a slice of hot, buttery toast for breakfast, or some salad and crusty bread for a delicious light lunch.

Enjoy, and have a very, very Happy Easter!

Magical Banana Cake

I say 'magical', because this is the easiest piece of baking I have ever had the pleasure to undertake.


Let me just get on the record here and say that I. Absolutely. Love. Banana. Cake. 


Seriously.


I very rarely get the chance to eat it, because its not something we tend to make at home. The two times I had it before today were once in Scotland after a long day's walking, when I felt like it warmed all my insides up at once; and once at tea with a friend when I'm pretty sure I ate at least half a whole cake. Scrummy. And today, well, I saw four slightly sad-looking bananas sitting on their own in a bowl, ostracised from the big fruit bowl where the oranges and apples and grapes all squatted looking snide (bananas in your fruit bowl make other fruit go bad faster). And I thought, what joy those bananas will bring to the world when I make them into CAKE.


There's something about the texture of a banana cake that just sets it apart. Not for you the slightly crumbly fluffiness of the average sponge. Your cake is heavy and moist - a word which is often reviled but which here means wonderful things. Your cake is solid and satisfying and easy to bake. Your cake quite possibly counts as one of your five fruit and vegetable portions a day.


Enough chatter. On to the recipe. Munch on this one with hot cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon and, as with the cookies, make sure you take your first bite when it's still warm from the oven.


Ingredients
(Makes one loaf-sized cake)

170g each of:  
Caster or demerara sugar 
Self-raising flour 
Butter, cut into small chunks

2 bananas, cut into chunks
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence (NOT extract, as usual)


Method

Behold! The easiest baking method in the history of man. Ladies and gentlemen, if it wasn't for the hot oven and the blades, a five year old could do this standing on its head.


Grease a small cake tin or a standard-sized cake tin. Pre-heat your oven to 160 C. 


Put all ingredients in your blender or food mixer. Mix/blend until totally combined and consistent (takes 5 mins or so). Put in cake tin. Put cake tin in oven. Wait one hour. Take out, cool, munch. 


Boom. Banana cake. Do It Now.

Cookie?

More baking! My brother is going back to school today after his half term. Poor little feller. So I've baked him some cookies to take with him, because that's just the kind of fantastic big sister I am. Being 17, 6'1'', and probably too old for cookies, he's supremely ungrateful, but I've baked them anyway, because I love cookies.


A cookie can come in almost any shape, size or consistency, from those huge American-style ones, still soft and slightly gooey in the middle, to the medium or small English versions which are hard and crumbly all over. To my mind, only the former merits the title - the latter are really just chocolate-chip biscuits, and would probably be better off replaced by some proper shortbread. This recipe is best for American cookies, therefore, but if you must make English ones (*shudder*), just put them on the baking tray in slightly smaller quantities (teaspoon instead of dessert spoon, say) and bake for 10-12 minutes instead of 8-10.


Ingredients
(makes 18-20 big ones)


225g light brown or demerara sugar (or a mixture is fine)
200g caster sugar
250g butter
Few drops vanilla extract (NOT essence, leave it out if you've only got essence)
2 large eggs, whisked
1 tsp baking powder, one tsp bicarbonate of soda
375g plain flour
Salt (just a pinch)
200g good quality dark chocolate


Method


First of all, pre-heat your oven so your cookies actually cook later. 180 degrees, which is around gas mark 4. Line more baking trays than you think you need (about 3) with greaseproof or silicone baking paper.


Now, chop your butter into little bits and cream it with both types of sugar. As I said when we made brownies, this can either be quick and a bit boring in the food processor, or slow but satisfying by hand in a bowl. Either way, when the mixture is very light, creamy and paler than it was, add the whisked eggs and vanilla extract and beat them in, then put the rest of the ingredients bar the choclate through a sieve and fold them in. 


Chop, bash, or (at a pinch) food process your chocolate into uneven chips, flakes and lumps, then mix them evenly through the cookie dough. Plop heaped dessert-spoonfuls onto your baking trays, absolute max 6 per tray. Leave them plenty of room to spread out, remember how big American cookies are! Stick them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the dough has all melted and flattened out into cookies shapes and the tops are just starting to be golden. If The dough looks mushy still don't worry. 

Leave them on the baking trays until they are cool enough to touch, then transfer to wire racks. Eat the first ones while they're still a bit warm!


Other Things To Put In Your Cookies


Most flavourings go in at the same time as or instead of the chocolate chips. Any spices or ground things go in with the flour etc. Liquids go in with the eggs, and not too much of them or the dough will be runny.

• Glace or dried sour cherries
• Dried cranberries
• Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, all berries...
• Milk or white chocolate chips
• Nuts - pecans are great, but also walnuts, peanuts, macademias are fantastic.
• Cinnamon
• Mixed spice (tastes like Christmas)
• Ground ginger
• Raisins or sultanas, dried peel
• Pieces of toffee or fudge
• Small marshmallows (the kind you put in hot chocolate)
• Finely chopped lavender flowers (for a very delicate and sophisticated taste)
• Very fintely grated citrus peel - lemon, lime, orange, etc.
• Chunks of caramelised orange from marmalade
• Cocoa powder and melted chocolate (in with the eggs for the latter) for a brown chocolate cookie
• Banana slices
• A spoonful of golden syrup
• Oats
• Stem ginger
• Chopped nougat
• Chopped chocolate bars - Mars, Snickers, whatever's your favourite.
• A combination of any of the above...experiment!

If anyone thinks of some crazy combinations or just wants to tell everyone how your cookies worked out, post a comment and let us know!


Have fun cookie-ing!

Celebratory Brownies

Lots of things to celebrate this week, hooray. My clever little sister has got herself a job offer, I've got a Stylish Blogger award (last boast I promise) and PDKTC has REACHED 1,000 PAGEVIEWS! This is definitely a case for celebratory brownies, and possibly champagne and strawberries also. I actually made brownies a couple of days ago now, but since I only scoffed the last one this morning I still feel justified in writing about them.

To me, baking is something that's either in your blood, or it isn't. For me, sadly, it's the latter - I'm not one of nature's bakers. My Victoria sponges never rise properly; my pastry is usually too hard; I don't bake my own bread (often). But however nonexistent my skills, I still love to bake. Especially brownies. They are so simple and so satisfactory. That sugary chocolate crust, the way the insides teeter on the ledge between goo and cake, the way the pieces of nut balance out the taste and texture - perfect.

Incidentally, I actually left nuts out of my brownies as the Brother is allergic, but they are traditionally included so I have put them in the recipe below. If you or a loved one are in the same position, don't worry, it works fine without.

Join me now, dear reader, on a baking adventure.

Ingredients
(Makes around 16-20)

200g sugar
100g butter
75g chocolate (as good-quality/dark as you can afford)
Few drops vanilla extract (NOT essence, it's not the same thing)
2 eggs, gently beaten
75g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
100g pecans, walnuts, macadamias or Brazil nuts (or a mixture!), quite finely chopped


Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180, and grease some sort of cake tin/baking tray with butter or vegetable oil. If you've got any, line the tin with greaseproof paper or even silicone baking paper, both of which will greatly increase your chances of prising out any brownies at the end of the process.

Next, melt your chocolate. Don't do this on too high a heat, or it will 'split' - go all weird and hard. You can melt chocolate either in a very low oven in a ceramic bowl, or in the same bowl oven a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bowl doesn't actually touch the water.

If your chocolate should happen to split, take it off the heat and add a dessert spoon, or a little more, of vegetable oil. Keep it warm and stir gently until it looks better. It won't be any good for setting, but you can still use it in your brownies :)

While your chocolate is melting away, cut the butter into small chunks and cream it together with the sugar until pale and creamy-looking. You can either do this in a food processor (easy and quick) or by hand in a mixing bowl (very slow but therapeutic and good for the biceps).

When it's really pale and creamy, which will take longer to achieve than you think (don't rush it...enjoy it), you can gently beat in your eggs, chocolate and vanilla essence until completely mixed. Then sieve in the flour, salt and baking powder, and fold until combined. If you're using nuts, mix them in at this point.

Turn the whole lot out into the baking tin and pop it in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is crusty but the inside still squidgy. If you put it a skewer it doesn't have to come out clean - its not a cake!

While waiting, lick the bowl (disclaimer: licking the bowl is optional. If you get salmonella from the raw eggs, that's not my fault ok?).

Once your brownie is ready, take it out of the oven and either cut it into little brownie squares or leave it as one giant brownie, you greedy sod. Either way, leave it to cool for a bit but definitely eat the first one while they're still warm. Mmm, chocolaty celebration.

Extra brownie things

Some things you can add to your brownie mix to change it up (add when you'd add the nuts):

Cherries, either cocktail ones or sour ones
Dried cranberries or raspberries
Banana, sliced or mashed
Chocolate drops, white or milk
Little chips of toffee
...Anything else you fancy, play around!

Some yummy things to eat (and drink) with your brownies:

Ice cream and chocolate sauce
Ice cream and golden syrup
A nice mug of perfect Hot Chocolate
Strawberries and whipped cream

Forest fruit coulis
Strawberries and champagne

Have yourselves a big brownie celebration, y'all!

Creamy Thyme and Aubergine Bake

A quickie for now, as this wasn't my recipe. It's from Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. I - which, by the way, is a brilliant option if, like me, you have occasional trouble letting such things as vitamins into your life. And for the herbivores out there, I don't think there is a cookery book I could more highly recommend for putting the veggies first.

Plug over. (I don't even get paid for this stuff.)

Firstly, a few notes about aubergines 
(mainly because they're cool)

There are about a million kinds of aubergine, ranging in colour from white through variagated to purple, in size from the tiny ones in Thai Green Curry to absolutely frigging massive, and in shape from long and skinny through round to big and bulbous.  NOT ONLY is it, technically speaking, a berry (thanks Wikipedia), it's also a close relative of tobacco. More importantly, aubergines are used in cooking all over the world, including Thailand, Turkey and the Middle East, France, Italy, and India.


Nigel will tell you all about salting aubergines in his recipe, and I'm pretty sure he knows best. Salting, by the way, is what you're supposed to do to take the bitterness out of vegetables like aubergines and courgettes, stop them from absorbing too much oil when fried, and improve their taste on cooking. You slice them up, stick them in a sieve, and pour over a load of table salt. Then you leave them for half and hour, and rinse it off again. There's a lot of talk recently about it being unnecessary to salt aubergines nowadays, because the types we grow now are much less bitter than the aubergines of yesteryear. My advice would be, if you're using those big purple aubergines they import to places like Tesco's, you're probably ok - they're not supposed to need salting. If you're using another kind, better safe than sorry and it won't do them any harm.

The Bake

Anyway, this bake is a lot of wonderful things all rolled into one, really. Its star player is the aubergine (eggplant to my American readers), one of my all-time favourite vegetables as it is, but here it's dressed up in its best and really made to shine. Aubergine is usually more friendly with tomatoes than with cream, but somehow in this recipe the thyme ties them together, and the parmesan seasons the whole bundle...and honestly I can't think of another vegetable dish I'd be as happy to serve as a main course!


That's another thing. Thyme. I must be about the only person in the world who feels that it's sometimes over-used (it is in my house, anyway...), but here, like the aubergine, it fits perfectly into its place and shows off like nobody's business! I'm sure you could use rosemary or another woody herb in its place, but it just wouldn't be the same.


Sadly, in the interests of avoiding prosecution for plagiarism I can't give you a straightforward recipe. In short, though, you cook off sliced onion, garlic and aubergine in a pan, layer them in a dish with thyme, salt and pepper sprinkled in there too, pour over a lot of cream, top with parmesan, and bake til it's hot through and golden-bubbly on top. God it's good.


This goes fantastically with things like beef and chicken, and last night we actually ate it with some breaded hake - I find hake is a pretty good blank slate for painting with flavours, so the creamy aubergines were definitely the star of the show that was yesterday's dinner. If you don't want it to upstage your main dish, serve it with something robust like maybe a flavoursome beef braise or a big, hearty stew. That said, it can also take centre-stage if you want it to. I for one have been picking at the leftovers from the fridge all day, which includes having it for lunch.

In conclusion:

Aubergines are very cool vegetables, and utterly delicious. You should eat lots of them, starting with the Creamy Bake and working out from there. Have fun with aubergines. Thank you and goodnight.