Breakfast Book

Crumpets These quantities will make about 15 crumpets. 200 g strong plain flour ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1 teaspoon dried yeast 175 ml warm milk 200 ml warm water oil for frying butter for serving Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl; stir in the yeast. Make a well in the centre, pour in the milk and water and mix to a thick batter. Beat for about 5 minutes with a wooden spoon, then cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour. Beat for another two minutes, and turn into a jug. Heat a big non-stick frying pan; brush it with a little oil. Use 4 crumpet rings (or 7.5 cm diameter pastry cutters): oil the insides, place them on the frying- pan surface while it is over the heat and let them, too, become hot (about 2 minutes). Pour batter into each ring to about 1 cm thickness. Let them cook for about 6 minutes, till the surface is set. Then remove the metal rings, turn the crumpets over in the pan and cook for just 1 more minute. Put them on a wire rack while continuing with the rest of the batter, oiling the pan and the rings each time. Then, just before serving, toast the crumpets. Serve hot with the butter. Scrambled Eggs Scrambled egg is not a single recipe but a school or tradition of recipes. The following simple recipe makes scrambled eggs for one. The quantities can be multiplied, in which case cooking will take just a little longer. 2 eggs dash of milk salt and pepper large knob of butter Beat the eggs with the milk and season with the salt and pepper. Melt most of the butter in a heavy pan. When it is foaming but not yet brown add the egg mixture. Cut across it with the flat of a spatula so curds start to form; remove from the heat while still slightly liquid, but creamy. Add the remaining butter and stir gently. Butter some hot toast and pour the eggs on top. It tastes better if the toast is cut into ninths like a noughts and crosses board before topping with the eggs (that, at least, is how Mum used to do it). Those who find scrambled egg slightly bland can of course mix it with a generous blob of tomato ketchup. Kedgeree The origin of kedgeree as a breakfast dish of medieval India, a mixture of rice with beans, is sketched in chapter three. It was perhaps the British who first took to eating fish with it. Kedgeree in England is still the ‘mess of re-cooked fish’ with rice that Henry Yule and Andrew Burnell so enticingly described in their nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian dictionary Hobson-Jobson – and is all the better for it. 450 g smoked haddock thick slice of butter 175 g basmati rice 1 tablespoon curry powder 3 hard-boiled eggs salt and pepper small bunch of parsley, chopped handful of sultanas (optional) chutneys such as mango chutney, brinjal pickle, lime pickle Poach the haddock in water, then skin and set aside, reserving the liquid. Melt the butter in a heavy pan and cook the rice and curry powder in it until the grains start to turn translucent. Add nearly double the quantity of water (including the poaching liquid) to rice to the pan, cover tightly and leave on a low heat for 8 minutes. After this time add the fish, breaking it up gently, and two roughly chopped eggs. Season with pepper and a little salt, re-cover and leave for a further 3 to 4 minutes before fluffing the rice with a fork while carefully mixing it with the fish and eggs. Serve on a warm platter garnished with the parsley, the sultanas if you wish, the third egg (quartered) and your choice of pickles. Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast at the Joads’ in 1930s Oklahoma, as described in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, consisted quite largely of biscuits and gravy. It is not as outlandish as it sounds to a British reader. Some may even want to try it. For those who do, here are your instructions. First the biscuits, as follows: 225 g self-raising flour pinch of salt 50 g butter or lard 150 ml milk 2-3 rashers bacon Sift the flour and salt together and rub in the butter or lard. Combine the milk with this to make the dough, and knead lightly for half a minute. Roll out to 2 cm thickness (or slightly less); cut into rounds of perhaps 5 cm diameter with a biscuit cutter. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 220°C. Meanwhile, fry your bacon, and make gravy as follows: 2 to 3 tablespoons bacon dripping 2 tablespoons flour 140 ml milk salt and pepper As if you were making white sauce, make a roux with the dripping and flour, then slowly add the milk. The gravy is ready when it is thick. Serve the bacon and biscuits and pour the gravy over them. Nasi Goreng Those who spend time in Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia are likely to breakfast (perhaps once or twice, perhaps almost daily) on nasi goreng or one of its variations. Since this recipe uses ingredients that are mostly already cooked it is very quick to prepare – an important qualification for a breakfast dish. While following the rest of this instruction don’t forget to fry your egg: 2 cloves garlic 3 shallots 2 green chillies 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or sliced 1 carrot, grated 450 g cold cooked rice 2 tablespoons soy sauce or fish sauce (kecap manis) 1 fried egg 3 spring onions, chopped Finely chop the garlic, shallots and chillies and fry for 2 to 3 minutes in the vegetable oil. Add the chicken and carrot, then the rice. Stir fry and then add the soy sauce. Garnish with a fried egg and the spring onions. .

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