EAT AN ODDITY

Recipe: Egg Tomatoni

Time taken: ¾ of an hour

Ingredients: Eggs, cherry tomatoes, Quorn pepperoni slices & mayo

Hi readers,

It’s our last day of 2014! As I write we’re literally on the cusp of a New Year. It’s terrifying! Can you believe it’s been 15 years since we were celebrating the Millenium?? That was 15 years ago! My mind BOGGLES. I strongly recommend just pouring a drink later and trying really hard not to think about the big picture. That’s what I’ll be doing!

And I’ll be pouring a drink… in Newcastle! That’s right… after some stressful travel yesterday I left Sheffield’s snow behind and made it back up north for NYE in The Toon! To celebrate Geordie-style!

Aaaaaand I’m back in the proper ChefBeHere kitchen! Hurray! I’m back to having my own cupboard and using our beat up student kitchenware. And, after some hefty deliveries from Asda and Holland & Barrett, the house is full of food! Whey! In a student house, there is no greater joy.

And I’m back to having my freedom with food! In one way this is because when you’re a student at home, a lot of the time I guess you get looked after and fed up, and generally catered for by mum and dad. For a very brief while you have VIP status in the house and this tends to bring with it, at least in my home, some proper home cooked grub! So you relinquish your freedom over what you eat, and in turn you play no part in the preparation of any meals. It’s lush.

ALSO though, I think everyone has less freedom with food at Christmas. You’re dealing with buffets and restaurants meals throughout the festive season. A cheese board here and there. Some roasted chestnuts. Constant ‘nibbles’. On the big day, obviously, you’re eating a full roast. There’s usually some kind of pudding/fruit cake/gateaux/cheesecake/trifle (maybe all of them) involved. Then you’re eating turkey sandwiches for far too long in the Christmas aftermath. All those chocolates that were under the tree? You’re opening boxes left, right and centre. It’s never ending!

Half the time, I think, there’s a voice in your head that’s like “I JUST WANT AN APPLE… ONE APPLE”. Or, you know, something of the kind. When there’s a constant stream of rich foods and booze on offer it seems silly, but if I could have chosen my food this Christmas I think I’d have picked something much smaller and simpler a lot of the time!  

Now though, on December 31^st, we’re pretty much at the end of it all. And there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! Sure, you might have one more buffet to tackle tonight. Maybe the leftovers tomorrow. But then… you can eat ANYTHING. You’ve got your freedom back. And I encourage you not to be boring. You have power: go crazy! Literally, eat any weird shit you like. Throw things together that you never have before! Get ODD with it. Why not? You’re not feeding this food to a crowd of twenty anymore… just you!

So, this lunchtime, I had so many new foods in and I’m so unused to preparing my own food that I didn’t really know what to do with myself in the kitchen. I had the vague notion I should make something healthy. I wanted something warm as it’s frigging ICY here. I had eggs to use up. And so things got odd. But I prepared, readers, a masterpiece!

I call it the Egg Tomatoni. And here’s how to make yours…

1. Heat the oven to 200˚C and boil the kettle.

2. Place 3 eggs in a saucepan, pour your boiling water over them and leave the pan to heat on a hob.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: FOR CHRIST’S SAKE PUT A LID ON THE PAN. Otherwise, you will anger me. Things boil quicker with a lid on and so you need to have the hob on for less time. As a result, you use less energy. Hence, less global warming. Simples.

3. Leave your eggs to boil for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop 6 cherry tomatoes in half. Dance around.

4. After 10 minutes, remove your pan from the heat and drain away the water. With your eggs in a sieve/colander, pour cold water over them to cool them down.

5. Then use your hands to peel away the shells of your eggs. Bin the shells.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: First, tap each egg with a teaspoon in order to create a crack in the shell. Then you can get it off neatly.

6. Chop each of your eggs into quarters and arrange them around the edge of a bowl.

7. Place a cherry tomato-half between each bit of egg.

8. Arrange some Quorn pepperoni slices artistically in the centre of the bowl. I popped an extra cherry tomato in the middle of them, too.

9. Safely transport your bowl into the oven to warm for 20 minutes.

10. After 20 minutes, carefully remove your bowl from the oven and drizzle the contents with some mayo/salad cream/dressing. Serve up your lunch. Bon appétit!

I created this beauty!

Isn’t it odd? So odd! I was thinking this while it cooked. What a weeeeird bowlful of food. But, somehow, good. I liked this! I like eggs; I like tomatoes; I like Quorn. I’ve never had Quorn pepperoni slices before, but basically they just taste like spicy Quorn. Similar to all other Quorn. I’m going to put them on pizza soon. But, also, they worked in this lunch! It was a weird coming together of flavours. But it was a good one. Plus, it looks funky. And it’s not altogether unhealthy. Win!

So, to edit this recipe… I think the eggs are fundamental. But you could switch the tomatoes for maybe… olives? Button mushrooms? Little squares of pepper? And your Quorn pepperoni slices; they could be subbed with… any other kind of Quorn? (It all tastes the same!) Some halloumi cheese? A very mini quiche? Literally, anything that springs to mind that doesn’t sound undeniably awful.

And there you have it! Fancy a rather odd lunch? Definitely give this one a try. It’s up there with the oddest. And let me know what you think! Did you enjoy this? Would you ever eat it again? Fill me in! And I want to hear any suggestions you may have for equally odd meals I could try. I’m embracing all mealtime oddities this January. And I hope you do, too.

This will be us

On that note… all the best for 2015, amigos!

Party safely,

Hayley

MAKE IT, FAKE IT, PANCAKE IT!

Recipe: Fruit Pancakes

Time taken: No time at all

Ingredients: 100g flour, 2 eggs, 300ml milk, a little oil, some honey & loadsa FRUIT

Allo allo readers,

How are you?? Are you well? Are you feeling tip top? Fabulous? Sublime? I certainly hope you are! Readers, I’m a little ill. Somewhat under the weather. I have to say, having had a big week out this last week of uni term, filled with Christmas drinking and dancing and frosty late nights, it’s not shocking I’m ill. I 100% deserve it. I brought this up on myself. I was the leader of all doom. I drank LOTS and I wore LITTLE and it’s been BLOODY ARCTIC in the north-east. But still, I’m feeling sorry for myself. And I’m sorry that I haven’t been blogging! All of those nights out and a broken laptop have meant I’ve had to take a break from ChefBeHere. 

Sad face

But I’m back!! And this time it’s personal. BOOM. I’m back home readers, down in sunny Sheffield (still freezing, to clarify). I’ve revived our old-as-time PC. Sort of. It’s working for now. And I’m shakily blogging! Shaking it ChefBeHere style. A Christmas comeback!

So readers, today I’m living up to the student tradition of the First Day Home and I’ve been having a good rummage around the kitchen cupboards. What do we have in? What are these foods that I’ve been missing for months? How has branded packaging changed since summer? Have any special treats been bought for my homecoming? 

And it’s delightful! Of course treats have been bought! There’s Quorn in the house! Pink lady apples! Galaxy chocolate! AND CADBURY’S TOO! It truly is a joyous time of year. I can’t wait to get stuck in and throw together some luxury meals. But first readers, while I’m still a novelty and I’m being oh so slightly cared for by my beautiful mum , doing some wining and reclining, I want to blog about my last meal in Newcastle yesterday! 

Yesterday, hungover (again) having been to a cracking Temples gig with my friend Woody the night before (go see temples if you get the chance!), I finally sacked it off with my attempts to eat up all the food in my cupboard. Was my hangover craving wholemeal pitta breads? No. No, it wasn’t. Peanut butter on those? Hell no. 

I suffered for Temples… so worth it

So we went to the caff on the road! My treat place to go! Delicious Decadence. This café, kids, is literally the Shangri-La for any hungover student within a mile radius of my road. It’s ON MY ROAD. Whatever state you’re in, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you can claw your way along the pavement to get to the caff. And you just have to really, for the good of your health. The place has healing powers. 

Our caff

Me and Woody hit Delicious Decadence like Santa hitting the brandy on Boxing Day. And our caff did not disappoint! Woody opted for a fry-up in a sandwich. A graphically awful looking creation. Not his first nor his last. And I decided to order smiley-face pancakes! Hadn’t had these before, hadn’t seen them ordered. I thought it meant they’d draw smileys on in sauce, BUT IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER! They print the pancakes with smiles! I don’t know how, I just don’t know, but it’s so much fun! They have all different smiles and some of them wink at you, and they’re fluffy and lovely and OH MY GOD.

Smiley face pancakes

It was a love at first pancake. Howeverrrrr, I have to say, these guys were awesome and big up to my pancake bros in the sky, buttttt… they just came with syrup. A little bowl of syrup. Like, only syrup. Like whattttt? Such a waste! There are so many things you can DO with pancakes. You can give them faces, for god’s sake! So it seemed a bit of a waste to serve them just with syrup. A little lacking in magic.

How do you make pancakes magic, you ask?? WITH FRUIT! Readers, my favourite pancakes are by far the ones that are fruitylicious! They have the fruit factor! Tooty fruity yummy in ma tummy sorta healthy pancakes, all up in the fruit scene!

I know, as a Northerner, pancakes with gravy is a thing. I’m a vegetarian yes, so your savoury pancakes with cheese n veg , they’re a menu staple. I’m a four-year-old-at-heart so jam pancakes live on. There will always be a place in my heart for the classic lemon and sugar. Yes, as a chocaholic, it doesn’t hurt to get out the Nutella. Indeed, these are all ways you CAN eat pancakes. But increasingly, readers, I don’t think you SHOULD. 

I advocate fruuuuuit! There are 2 ways to go about rustling up some fruity pancakes…

(1)    FAKE IT

1.       Buy some scotch pancakes or some crepes. These come ready-made and packaged from the supermarket. You can pick different types, like I like the scotch pancakes with raisins in em.

2.       Chop up loads n loads of fruit. Then more. Add a little more. Any dried fruit in the cupboard? Get that out, too.

ChefBeHereTopTip: You can never have too much fruit and I don’t think there are any fruits which don’t work on pancakes.

3.       Either toast your scotch pancakes or heat your crepes in the microwave.

4.       Pile them in a bowl or on a plate.

5.       Drizzle with honey.

6.       Pile with fruit!

7.       Tuck in. :)

Like this! Mmmmm

 (2) MAKE IT

1. Heat your oven to a low heat. Something like 100°C maybe.

2. Chop up loads n loads of fruit. Then more. Add a little more. Any dried fruit in the cupboard? Get that out, too.

3. Measure 100g plain flour into a bowl along with a pinch of salt.

4. Make a well in the middle of your flour and crack 2 eggs into the well. Pour your milk over the top.

5. Take a fork or a whisk and mix this all up! 

ChefBeHere Top Tip: You need some serious arm action to make a smooth batter out of your ingredients. No lumps, readers!

6. If you have any patience (I don’t) set the batter aside to rest for half an hour. But you don’t have to. It just helps somehow.

7. Wipe a small frying pan with some oiled kitchen towel and put it on a hob over a medium heat.

8. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of batter into the pan. Tip your pan around so the batter spreads out and let it cook for a minute or two!

9. Try and flip your pancake over so that the other side can cook. If you’re feeling like a pro, you can toss the pancake in the air. Good luck to you.

10. Spoon your pancake onto a plate and put it in the oven to keep warm.

11. Repeat the last steps again to make another pancake.

12. Keep going until all your batter is gone and your plate is piled high with pancakes!

13. Drizzle your pancakes with honey.

14. Pile with fruit.

15. Tuck in. :)

Like this!

What do you think, readers?? How do you rate your pancakes with fruit? Whether you decided to make em or fake em, do you like your pancakes?? Which fruits did you use? Are these pancakes any competition for your usual ones? What do you normally top your pancakes with?? So many questions!

I have so much love for pancakes with fruit readers. Especially when I’m home and luxury fruits like strawberries are on offer. Also, pancakes are a warm dish. Which is what everyone wants with the weather being the way it is right now. A winter warmer.

Plus, you know, just because it’s winter and you can’t go an hour without encountering some kind of luxury food advert, doesn’t mean we should turn our backs on good old fruit. And our waste-lines and our skin might just thank us for a little vitamin-hit now and again this December. I read a quote recently which said “Love yourself enough to live a healthy lifestyle”. And I wholly agree.

I wish you all warmth, tastiness and goodness. So… give my pancakes a try? 

Get your fruit on safely,

Hayley