Jose Pizarro’s roast asparagus with fried duck eggs and serrano ham
My parents kept ducks and chickens, and as a child I was always the first to go searching the ducks’ nests for eggs to eat. Duck eggs are bigger and richer tasting than hen eggs. Of course, you can substitute hen eggs in this recipe – just make sure that they are free-range and organic. I also love this dish with romesco sauce.
Serves 4
asparagus spears 16
olive oil 2 tbsp
sea salt and pepper
duck eggs 4
extra virgin olive oil for frying
serrano ham 160g, thinly sliced
Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.
Snap any woody stems off the asparagus spears before coating them in the olive oil. Pouring a little into your hands and rolling them between your fingers is an easy way to do this.
Lay the spears in a row on a baking tray, season with salt and roast in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Turn them over halfway through cooking. How long you roast them for is dependent on the thickness of the spears, but the leafy tips should have turned a bit crispy.
While the asparagus spears are cooking, fry the duck eggs. In Spain, fried eggs are called huevos con puntilla – eggs with a frilly lace hem, or crispy edges. Use a small frying pan, about 4cm deep, and fill it to a depth of about 1cm with oil. Heat the oil until it just starts to smoke, add the egg and deep-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Arrange the ham slices on four plates, then place the asparagus spears on top, followed by a fried egg. Grind on some black pepper if you like, then drizzle over a little olive oil to finish. Eat immediately.
From Pizarro: Seasonal Spanish Food by José Pizarro (Kyle Books, £15.99)
Michael Zee’s chicken and biscuits
I’ve asked a lot of people the same question: “What one food could you not face eating first thing in the morning?”
The top three, surprisingly, are chilli, chocolate and chicken (not all together, of course). For me, the best way to approach chicken first thing in the morning is to deep fry it.
My favourite is Southern style. No gimmicky cornflake or Rice Krispie coating in sight, but I’ve decided to deviate from tradition and soak my chicken in yogurt rather than buttermilk, purely because buttermilk can be a pain to get hold of.
I also use Aromat in this recipe. It’s a great all-round seasoning mix, but some flavour purists might call it cheating as it contains MSG. Good thing this isn’t the Olympics. Feel free to leave it out, but I am firmly leaving it in.
American-style biscuits require the most delicate hand. Barely touching the dough gives you a light, moist crumb. Again, you could substitute yogurt for the buttermilk, but these are really worth the effort so go for the buttermilk if you can.
Serves 2 fatties, 4 thinnies
For the fried chicken
chicken 8 pieces with skin on (I like a mix of thigh and leg)
plain yogurt 500g
plain flour 350g
rice flour or cornflour 50g
salt 3 tsp
mixed spice 1 tsp
sweet paprika 1 tsp
cayenne pepper 1 tsp
hot chilli powder 1 tsp
ground black pepper 1 tsp
Knorr Aromat 1 tsp
oil 2 litres, for frying
For the buttermilk biscuits
plain flour 300g
baking powder 2 tsp
salt 1 tsp
sugar 1 tsp
cold butter 7 tbsp (roughly 100g)
buttermilk 185ml, plus 2 tbsp for brushing
In a large bowl, place the chicken and 450g of the yogurt and mix so that every piece is well covered. Leave covered (purely for hygiene reasons) in the fridge, ideally overnight but for at least 1 hour.
Mix all the dry ingredients in another bowl and add the remaining 50g yogurt. It should be a very dry coating with large, shaggy clumps. Shaggy clumps means crunch.
Heat your oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. You want it nice and hot. Preheat your oven to 200C/gas mark 6.
Take one yogurt-drenched piece of chicken at a time and dump it into the flour mix. I suggest you even press the flour into each piece for maximum effect.
Fry the chicken in batches in the hot oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan, so do 2-3 pieces at a time for about 10 minutes, then remove and drain on kitchen paper. Once your last batch is done, transfer the chicken to a roasting tray, put in the oven and continue cooking for another 10-12 minutes to make sure each piece is fully cooked.
To make the biscuits, put all your dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Cut the butter into cubes and, using your fingers and thumbs, massage the lot together until you have a loose crumb.
Add the buttermilk and, with a gentle hand, mix until you have a dough. Don’t knead it at all, and stop once it’s combined. Preheat your oven to 200C/gas mark 6, and prepare a tray with some baking parchment.
Dust a clean work surface with flour and tip out the dough. Roll it into a circle about 2.5cm thick. If you are using a cookie cutter, then dip it in some flour first and again after each cut. You could also cut it like a pizza into 8 wedges, giving you zero waste.
Put the biscuits on the prepared tray, brush the top of each one with buttermilk (careful none goes down the sides) and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for a minute, then serve with the fried chicken.
From Symmetry Breakfast: Cook Love Share by Michael Zee (Bantam Press, £14.99)
Meera Sodha’s egg hoppers with onion sambol
This is Sri Lanka’s favourite breakfast: lacy rice crepes fashioned into bowls, with an egg nestling in the middle, topped with sweet spicy onion sambol and zingy lime juice. Traditionally, in Sri Lanka, hoppers are made by fermenting rice overnight, but I’ve created a variation based on an old Charmaine Solomon recipe in which you just need to rest the batter for an hour. The bowl shape comes from a special “hopper pan”, but a small non-stick omelette pan with a lid will work well in its place.
Makes 8 hoppers (enough for 4 people)
For the egg hoppers
yeast 2 tsp
sugar 1½ tsp
self-raising flour 110g
rice flour 170g
salt 1 tsp
hand-hot water 380ml
rapeseed oil for frying
eggs 8 medium
lime 1, cut into 8 wedges
fresh coriander leaves a handful
For the onion sambol
cardamom pods 4
rapeseed oil 4 tbsp
cloves 4, whole
cinnamon stick 4cm
red onions 500g, finely sliced
salt 1 tsp
chilli powder 1½ tsp
sugar 2 tsp
To make the hoppers, place the yeast, sugar, flours and salt in a large bowl and whisk together to combine. Add the water and whisk well until you have a smooth consistency. Place the bowl in a warm spot (like an airing cupboard, or slightly warm oven) for 15 minutes, or until the mixture is full of bubbles. It’s then ready to go.
Next, make the onion sambol. Bash the cardamom pods with a pestle and mortar until cracked. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and, when hot, add the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon stick. When you can smell the spices, add the red onions, salt and chilli powder and cook over a low to medium heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the onions don’t burn. At the end, stir in the sugar and cook until dissolved. Check the seasoning and take off the heat.
To cook the hoppers, take either a hopper pan or a small lidded non-stick frying pan and rub the inside with some oil-dipped kitchen paper. Put it over a low to medium heat. When hot, whisk the bubbly batter and pour a ladleful into the pan. Holding the pan by the handle(s), quickly twist it so the batter coats the bottom and all the way around the sides. Cook for a minute until the batter has set, then crack an egg into the middle and cover with the lid. Cook for a further 3 to 4 minutes, until the whites of the egg are set and the hopper batter has left the sides of the pan, then slide or gently lever on to a plate. The hopper should be crisp, and golden on the outside, and the egg yolk runny in the middle. Repeat, adjusting your timings if need be.
Top the hopper with a spoonful of onion sambol (remove any spices you don’t want to bite into), a wedge of lime and some coriander, and eat straight away.
From Fresh India: 130 Quick, Easy and Delicious Recipes for Every Day by Meera Sodha (Penguin, £20)
Mitch Tonks’s scrambled eggs with fresh crab and garlic
Serves 2
butter 25g
garlic ½ clove, crushed
eggs 4
white crab meat 100g
salt and white pepper to taste
toast to serve
sriracha chilli sauce to serve (optional)
fresh coriander to serve
Melt 15g butter in a pan and add the garlic. Lightly beat the eggs then add them to the pan. Over a low heat keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the egg starts to scramble – I like it loose and creamy. Add the crab meat and take off the heat. Stir, allowing the heat of the eggs to warm the crab, then stir in the remaining butter and season with salt and white pepper. Serve with toast, sriracha and coriander leaves.
Mitch Tonks is a chef and restaurateur whose restaurants include The Seahorse and Rockfish in Dartmouth
Nigel Slater’s potato pancakes with herb and yogurt sauce
Small, waxy potatoes fry well, crisping up in the hot butter and oil. These are fine as they are, with a salad, but I sometimes make them as an accompaniment for grilled lamb steaks or cutlets.
Makes 6, enough for 2
potatoes 250g
carrot 1 medium-sized
feta 200g
dill 2 heaped tbsp
eggs 2
olive oil a little
For the herb sauce
natural yogurt 6 heaped tbsp
mint and parsley 2 heaped tbsp, chopped
Scrub the potatoes and the carrot then grate them coarsely. This is best done in a food processor. Squeeze any moisture from the shredded potatoes with your fists – there will be quite a bit – then season with black pepper. Crumble the feta over the potatoes and add the dill. Beat the eggs just enough to mix them, then stir them into the potatoes.
Warm a shallow layer of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan. Remove a large spoonful of the potato mixture, squash it gently into a patty and lower it into the hot oil. Repeat this with as many as you can get in, leaving space to flip them. Do not attempt to move the patties until they have formed a crust on the underside. Carefully flip each patty with a palette knife or fish slice. They may collapse a little, but just push them back to shape. When both sides are golden, lift and drain briefly on kitchen paper then serve.
For the herb sauce, mix together the yogurt, mint and parsley. Season with a little salt and serve with the pancakes.
