Orson Welles was Right!

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” 

Orson Welles

~  Menu  ~

Crunchy Asparagus and Wild Garlic Omelette

Coffee Ice Cream

Too much chocky sauce

Cake croutons

Coffee

Having a few leftover asparagus stalks (no tips) in the fridge together with a bowl of Wild Garlic Butter (you may remember my picking the garlic on May Day) I decided to make an omelette and also to try an idea that was in the back of my mind, very similar indeed to my Toast on Eggs I wrote about ages ago.   

~  I thinly sliced the asparagus stalks and cooked them for a minute or two in a dollop of wild garlic butter. 

~  Once tender I set them aside and sprinkled a handful of panko crumbs over the butter in the pan before adding two beaten eggs (seasoned of course).

~  I made the omelette as usual, returning the asparagus just before folding and all was well.

Here is a close-up so that I hope you can see the crunchy bits.

Lunch Pudding

Looking through the freezer to see if there was anything for lunch pudding I found a slice of frozen cake and a modicum of homemade coffee ice cream and so lunch pudding was born. 

I also had some Dark Chocolate Caramel Sauce in the fridge which needed warming up to get it out of the jar.  I diced the cake and sautéed it in a little butter till golden then arranged everything tastefully in a bowl ...

Not bad for a sudden dessert! The reason there is too much sauce is because it was not worth keeping the last little bit. Honest!

The recipes for the ice cream and sauce are in my book which, with the sun out at last (well it was yesterday!) I thought I'd tell you a bit more about it.

Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine

~  or much time effort or having to mash the stuff as it freezes  ~

In this  book I give, I promise you, a quick, way to make truly rich, creamy, luxurious dairy ice cream with no ice cream maker, no churning, no eggs (which was just incidental - I wasn't trying to be healthy) and absolutely no hard work such as stirring!  

The book contains over 100 ice cream recipes plus many more for sauces, syrups, inclusions, accompaniments and serving suggestions such as this maple syrup ice cream (so easy!!) with bacon brittle.

Omelette - the Perfect Dish for Miscellaneous Leftovers

~  Menu  ~

Trash Omelette

Bit of Red

Sparkling Pear and Ginger Fizz

When I lived in the British Virgin Islands I sometimes used to have breakfast at De Loose Mongoose which is on the beach just a few watery yards from our boat. 

I don’t know if they still do but they used to serve a Trash Omelette, cunningly making it out of whatever they had leftover from the night before.  

Omelettes ~ a Perfect Way to Use Up Leftovers

I thought of De Loose Mongoose today when I was looked in the fridge and found …

½ red onion

4 thin slices chorizo

1½ cold cooked new potatoes

a smallish piece of red pepper

1 broccoli floret

little broken off corner of Davidstow Cheddar

… that all pretty well needed using up.  So this is what I did:

Why not Pin for Later?

~   Thinly sliced the onion and cooked it till sweet and tender. 

~   Coarsely chopped the chorizo and fried it in a little oil till crispy then set it aside.

~   Diced the cold potatoes in the chorizoey oil in the pan till crisp.  As there wasn’t enough oil I added some from my jar of recently roasted garlic.

~   I added the red pepper, coarsely chopped, and the broccoli broken into tiny florets. 

~   When the veggies were just turning tender I stirred in the cooked onion and the crisp chorizo.

~   I whisked together 2 eggs with salt and pepper and a few drips of hot sauce, poured it over the potato mix and cooked for a few minutes till almost set.

~   When almost cooked I sprinkled the top with the bit of cheese, grated, and slid the omelette under a hot grill just to melt it and set the runny bits of egg.

Halfway through this last stage I had a too late inspiration – I wish I had sprinkled a handful of panko crumbs on top for crunch, but I didn’t.  Maybe next time. 

The other day we had Pear and Ginger Crumble for pudding: I gently cooked the pears in syrup from the Stem Ginger jar which tasted good but produced Far Too Much Juice.  I kept back about 60ml and drank it today topped up with fizzy water.  I’ve done this before with juice leftover from cooking rhubarb and no doubt I will do it again – makes a pleasant change in the drinks department.

An Après Plodge T'ing

~  Menu  ~

“Castillian” Omelette

Spicy Hot V8

This morning we went for a walk and a bit of a plodge along the beach.  The weather is Perfect; hot and sunny but breezy with just a hint of coolness in the air.  It was high tide so at places we had to plodge, which is Geordie for paddle.

Je Plodge - as the French have it!

After the walk we had a Ting at the Mongoose, which may surprise you if you are not familiar with Trellis Bay.  Ting is a refreshing, sparkling grapefruit juice drink from Jamaica.  (T’ing is the West Indian pronunciation of thing and, FYI - to coin an abbreviation - a Good T’ing is generally considered to be a cocktail of Vodka and Ting.)  The Mongoose or, more correctly, De Loose Mongoose is our nearby beach bar - hammock, cold beer, nachos kind of place, informal and easy going, home from home, that sort of thing.

Following the plodge and the Ting our thoughts naturally turned to lunch.  At first I was flummoxed – we had so little food on the boat but then I thought of omelettes.  A bacon and cheddar one for him, and for me …

Caramelised Onion, Potato & Cheddar Omelette

This is otherwise known, in my mind, as Castillian Omelette – maybe because it tastes a bit Spanish Omelettey – and is one of my favourites.  

Per person …

½ onion thinly sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

a medium sized potato (or 5 fingerlings which is all I had available) – thinly sliced

s & p

3 eggs

a little mature Cheddar – grated

~   Toss the onion in the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat, top with a piece of parchment of foil directly on top of the onions, covering completely.  Add the pan lid and cook slowly, stirring occasionally till almost tender.

~   When this stage is reached add a little water, just a tbsp max (and a few grains of veg Oxo if you fancy it), lay the sliced potatoes over the onions, replace the foil and the lid and continue cooking till the onions are starting to caramelise and the potatoes are tender.

~   Make a 3 egg omelette as you usually do!

~   When the egg is almost set top with the cooked onions & potatoes, season (I like to add a few chilli flakes but couldn’t as I don’t seem to have any) and sprinkle with grated cheddar.

~   Fold the omelette in half and sit a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt.